Book recommendations for 13-year-old DD

[Mondaynightblues]

Am looking for some books to go in DD's Christmas stocking. DD likes books with a good story and which have girls of a similar age to herself as key characters. She is not particularly into sci-fi/fantasy type stuff. She definitely does not like the kind of formulaic romance books where you can pretty much predict the plot and the ending from the blurb (ie initially shy teenage girl ends up getting her dream guy after a couple of token pitfalls to fill up enough pages to make a novel). A year or two ago she read some Sophie Mackenzie books and really liked those. Before that she loved the Casson family books by Hilary Mackay.

Any ideas welcome!

Has she read Ballet Shoes or what about the Chalet School series?

Sammy Keyes series by Wendelin Van Draaen great series about a girl "detective" who gets herself into sticky situations and solves "mysteries". Not formulaic at all and the endings are never predictable. Good fun!

Try Looking at the Stars by Jo Cotterell, about two girls living in a refugee camp. Real-life non-romance novels aimed at this age group are pretty thin on the ground, though, IME.

Thinking back to when I posted a similar request a year or so back, other recommendations included Code Name Verity and "She is not Invisible", by Marcus Sedgewick

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn- American classic about a poor girl growing up and coming of age in Brooklyn 100 years ago. A wonderful book, which I loved when I was 13.

Thank you for the recommendations. We already have Ballet Shoes and She is not Invisible. I'll take a look at the others.

How about historical like Elizabeth Wein - Rose under Fire, etc or Lydia Syson?