ideas for nearly 13 year old girl please.

[goingtobefree]

She has finished Shelter,seconds away by Harlan Coben. I have bought her gunslinger by Stpehen King,what next?
Any suggestions?

farenheit 451 just googled it

My sister was very keen on 'Catch 22' at that age and 'Catcher in the Rye' and 'Mill on the floss' and 'Passage to India' and 'Heat and Dust' and 'October Sky' and as someone upthread implied 13 is a transition age so all the E Nesbit/ LM Alcott/Hodgson Burnett stuff might still apply.
I think someone needs to write a really good 21st century set of books for teenagers- Anthony Horowitz is popular but a little too unbelievable.

I'm a bit fed up with the book publishers current notion that anything good for teenagers these days has to include some kind of abusive childhood. I think there is a big difference between coming through tough times and all that child abuse stuff by that awful woman who became laureate I forget her name she is so bad but the 'tulip touch' was a dreadful book by her.

Anne Fine. Avoid.

I loved louise Lawrence at that age, children of the dust, warriors of taan etc.

I was also v much into Stephen King, j Herbert etc. I think it was also the age I got into the jean auel prehistoric saga. I basically read anything I could find at the library adult section-bar the granny books. You get quite an eclectic reading history in a small town.

My soon to be 13 year old loved The Breadwinner series by Deborah Ellis

www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_15?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+breadwinner+deborah+ellis&sprefix=the+breadwinner%2Cstripbooks%2C241

They are like a teenage version of A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Set in Afghanistan, Parvana's father is arrested and taken away by the Taliban soldiers. Under Taliban law, women and girls are not allowed to leave the house on their own. Parvana, her mother, and sisters must stay inside.

Four days later, the food runs out. They face starvation.

So Parvana must pretend to be a boy to save her family. It is a dangerous plan, but their only chance.

Great story, very gritty, a real page turner.

I capture the castle!

I quite often go through phases of reading YA novels despite my DD being only 4. I would always recommend The Hunger Games for being a cut above usual YA fare. I've just read and loved 2 books in a series, Partials and Fragments. Future dystopia, but set only 11 years after the events that lead to the "end of the world" which makes it rather different to other such books. In a similar vein Enclave and Outpost are very good post-apocalyptic YA books.

For a different genre in YA books, I'd recommend The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. I read the first when I was 15 (the age of the girls in the book) and loved them; still read them today for some nostalgia.

Just realised the link to "The Strangeling's Tale" was the Smashwords link.
Here is the Amazon link.

I second 'I Capture the Castle'; how about 'Lorna Doone", 'Frenchman's Creek" and the Georgette Heyers if she is a romantic?
The Jeeves and Wooster books are great fun too.

Second 'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Green, my daughter made me read it and I can see why it's so popular with teenagers. He has also written about five other books and she's read the lot!

Also Agatha Christie went down well and she's started on Kathy Reichs, Virals first which I think is for teenagers but has now tried a couple of her adult novels although she took a bit longer to get into them.

Noughts and Crosses series is often popular with that age.

Also Moorchild (Eloise McGraw) - seems straightforward but has a lot of themes that an older teen can pick up on

books by Geraldine MacCaughrean

Tender Morsels (Margo Lanagan) - some very heavy stuff (some explicit, some not, as I remember; mostly implied I think?) but also some very deep themes; a sort of modern/sci fi retelling of SnowWhite and RoseRed

actually, the more I think about it, I think Tender Morsels is really more for 16 and up. So might be helpful for anyone else visiting this thread to look for recommendations, but for somewhat older than 13.

But Lois Lowry - The Giver is also good for that age, another fantasty/dystopian sort of book, in addition to the others I mentioned above that are on that kind of theme

13 Reasons Why is a tear jerker of a book but my teenage cousin has read it. It's about this girl who commits suicide but before she does, records 13 cassette tapes and each tells a story about the 13 reason/ people that she thinks caused her to commit and she sent them to the people and each person is responsible for passing it onto the next person on the list. It's really interesting and my cousin read it for English class. It's recommended by me in my opinion:)

I also think that The Hunger Games is not to be missed, a beautiful book about District 12 in the future. It's beautiful but sad. I think it's age appropriate for her age group though, more age appropriate than 13 Reasons Why I suppose.

While older books can be good, I would give more thought to pursuing books outside of the Western Canons, there are a lot of points of view and perspectives to be heard that are often ignored by it. As young teens, they are at a perfect age for a lot of good books from far broader range of views. Adichie gave a wonderful speech on the issues of the single story of Western cannon (and her books are quite good as well).

Here are some that fit around what you've said is liked:

Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising Trilogies by Kelley Armstrong, great YA. Quite dystopian, more fantasy than sci-fi though both come into play. If enjoyed, the author has a wealth of books that fit into the categories you've mentioned (the trilogies fit into the Women of the Otherworld series, which is 13 novels plus additional novellas, they include the same types of things but the adult stories tend to go into more details about things of an adult nature so it would depend on your teens sensitivity).

The Night Wanderer by Drew Hayden Taylor (Native Gothic).

Where the Mountains Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (Fantasy meets Folklore meets Journey story)

Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhones (Ghosts story involving Hurricane Katrina, so quite dystopian)

The Bella Balistica series by Adam Guillain - high action adventure

Almost anything by Malorie Blackman (current Children's Laureate) particularly her Noughts and Crosses series and Cloud Busting.

The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis (b

Anita and Me bu Meera Syal (Story set in 1970s England)

Nevada by Imogen Binnie (Dark comedy)

The absolutely true diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie

A word of warning - esp for Funny and marzapanned - Amazon & Jaqueline Wilson - some JW books are aimed at older teenagers - content and concept wise ..you need to be careful with them - I too thought she only wrote for younger readers ...
My DD was 8 she read one of them ...'Girls under Pressure' - flipping through it afterwards I realised there was a scene in it where 'Magda the Slagda' thinks she is going to be raped...not sure if that is a suitable book even for a 13 yo but maybe I'm old fashioned...
Writing style/vocab wise - probably same level as Stephen King...actually I might try DD on Stephen King because she enjoyed the Goosebump books about 5 years ago before she became so entrenched in 'girly' books......

Going to bookmark thread and I will look through for more ideas (and at the Casson series OP)

Saw The Endless Step mentioned - I loved that book ...and 'I am David'...have both on the shelf ...

if she's reading pretty much anything and everything which mine were at that age just street her away from the lovely bones.

outs another child rape/ murder one and the harrowingbut right at the start so you kind of can't not read it Iswim

That's interesting unlucky. I definitely wouldn't want an 8 yo reading about rape (how did your DD react?) but I wouldn't mind a 13 yo. I mean - it's not pleasant subject matter at all, but I think most 13 yo's are aware or starting to become so about these kinds of things, and reading about these topics in books can encourage good discussions.

Goosebumps I used to love - for an in between Goosebumps & SK stage, there are the Point Horror books (are these still around? I think I read them aged 9 or 10 for the first time, but enjoyed re-reading into teenage years) They're fluff but I think it's good for kids to have a mix of that and the more challenging stuff.

marzipanned - she didn't say anything - not sure if it went over her head but she is very good at looking a dictionary for words she doesn't understand! (I didn't mention it - thinking that if she hadn't quite understood it was probably better to leave it like that - did hide it away though for a few years)...
I have (at 12) let her read the other books in that series and they do deal with a lot of issues teenagers come up against ...I think they are useful for them to read - but not under 10-11 yo...
My DD also writes that kind of story ... I'm not allowed to read them (but have sneakily flicked though) - they are pretty innocent (with the odd comment about the handsome boy have a nice bum
The Life of Riley ones I mentioned - she has read bits and I was thinking of sneaking them out the way for a few years - but she says she doesn't like them as (even though she has the first book in the series) it doesn't introduce characters - you have to guess who they are...but not sure if she is just too uncomfortable reading them ...
Just picked up another Catherine McPhail - and she has read the back and says she doesn't want tot read it

Oh, bless her unlucky. I can still remember the first time I wrote about someone I had a crush on in my diary - I felt sooo naughty putting the words on paper.
Sounds like she is very wise and I think you're right that kids often steer clear of subject matter that makes them uncomfortable anyway.

I'm not sure from your posts OP whether your dd likes fantasy? Some things dd has enjoyed recently (several courtesy of Mme Hooch who posts on here):

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
Insignia by S J Kincaid (more sci-fi than fantasy I think)
the Temeraire series (these I've read too, they're rather fun, kind of Georgette Heyer meets Anne McCaffrey - IMO the first book is much better than the sequels, but dd liked all of them)

Wonder by R Palacio
A Parcel of Parcels, Fireweed, Dolphin crossing YA books by Jill Paton Walsh
Secert diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 and 3/4 - Sue Townsend
The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Classics: Pride and Prejudice, jane Eyre, Animal Farm, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

I read Jacqueline Wilson books at hat age when her books were less geared towards the mainstream market. This is my favourite and I still have my copy of Nobody's Perfect
There are cheaper copies in Amazon Market Place