Books for a mature 12, year 8 to read.

[hellybelly125]

Hello all,

I am looking for book recommendations for my daughter to read. She is 12 years old, year 8 but a very mature and good reader. School have her on the older section books, but the subject matter in my opinion is too mature in a lot of them. I don't mind a bit of appropriate violence where necessary but there seems to be a lot of sexual content in some of the books she wants to read. She has read and loved the Hunger Games, can anyone recommend anything that will stretch her, and that she might enjoy but without all of the sex. Thank you.

You could try something a bit more old fashioned, such as Cider with Rosie, or Grapes of Wrath?

How about:
Anne of Green Gables
I Capture the Castle
To Kill a Mockingbird
Period Piece
The Night Circus
Life of Pi
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
The Book Thief
Jane Eyre

To kill a Mockingbird

Malorie Blackman 'Noughts and Crosses' series

Lord of the Rings

Watership Down, Shardik

There's some great ones that have come out this year that do that - deeper writing, but without going towards themes that are too old.
Have a look at Running on the Roof of the World - it's beautifully written, nice fast paced plot too.

Letters from the Lighthouse is brilliant, just out. Highly recommend it.

My DD has enjoyed 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, 'Ruby in the Smoke' trilogy (sally Lockhart I think), books by Eva Ibbotson (although some of those do have older themes so will need checking), Frances Hardinge books and Agatha Christie' Miss Marple'.
She is Y9, but read most of these during the last couple of years.

Amulet of Amarkand
Flambards
Some of the shorter Dickens like a Tale of Two Cities
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Black Beauty

My daughter age 12 has been really enjoying the series by Michael Scott called the Secrets of the Immortal Nicolas Flamel. I think the first of the series is called the Alchemyst. We have the same issue that she's a voracious reader but not ready for more mature content. Also Scarlet and Ivy books by Sophie Cleverley. I've also introduced her to Terry Pratchett (first the Tiffany Aching, then Mort, and any with the witches in).

Patrick Ness would be worth a look if she enjoyed the hunger games.

Try the Divergent series. My daughter loves them.

Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier. A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute. Changing Times by Tim Kennemore.

Some of my favourites as a young teen (apart from John Green who I read as an adult but is more young adult /teen )

The hobbit/lord of the rings

His dark materials trilogy

Douglas Adams (all of it)

Pretty much anything by John Green

Harry Potter

The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer

Also Jules Verne and hp lovecraft . Quite advanced reading (with some slightly archaic language) but good stories nonetheless

I also recommend Patrick Ness, I'm currently reading The Knife of Never Letting Go and I would have loved it at as a teenager.

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared

I absolutely loved this book

Would she enjoy the classics - Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre? Thomas Hardy can be quite readable. The Go-between has a little bit of sexual activity glimpsed by the boy, but it's more inferred than described, generally. I used to read Jeffrey Archer as a teenager and from what I remember they were very exciting but not too sexy (hope I'm right about that!).

My mature and very able 11 year old reader has recently read The Night Circus. I read it and thought she would enjoy it so she read it straight after me which was lovely as we got to talk about it.

My 11year old has just finished Ned’s circus of marvels and is on to the second one.
She also loved Moonlocket and cogheart.

At that age I started reading Agatha Christie. Dorothy L. Sayers? Other classic whodunnits? Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories are wonderful.

Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Dickens? To Kill a Mockingbird.

I think I was in first year of secondary when I read When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, which I have re-read as an adult (along with its sequels).

The Silver Sword is a book I think we had to read in class at about that time. Not sure how easy it would be to get hold of, but it was a great book.

John Wyndham - Day of the Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos, half a dozen others. (Sci fi from the 50s/60s, still very well worth a read.)

South Riding by Winifred Holtby. One of my all-time favourites. I was about a year older when I read that. It was being serialised on ITV at the time. I suppose there are adult themes in it but not in a prurient way.