Recommendations for 12 year old

[dollydayscream]

DD12 has complained that she can't find any books that she likes. She says that all the teenager books in Waterstones (sadly, this is our only local bookshop) are either about love or someone dying.
She wants an adventure (preferably about a girl). When she was younger she would usually have read science non fiction, but did adore both the Ottoline and Goth Girl series and more recently was captivated by My Family and Other Animals.
Can anyone recommend some novels please?
Thank you!

Has she read things like The Hunger Games and Maze Runner, and the Percy Jackson series (but that might be too young -- it depends upon what age she's reading)?

Watching with interest. My almost 12 year old dd wants similar. Doesn't like anything overtly scary though.

Kiss The Dust by Elizabeth Laird
Twelve Minutes to Midnight
The House on Hummingbird Island by Sam Angus
Flightsend by Linda Newbery
Why the Whales Came by Michael morpurgo
The Pearl Thief, Rose Under Fire and Codename Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Stargazing for Beginners by Jenny McLachlan
Rose in the Blitz
Esty's Gold by Mary Arrigan
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
The Girl Savage and The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell
Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson

Skullduggery pleasant is a brilliant series of books with a brilliant kick-ass girl and lots of action and humour. I loved them too might get them back out and read again

She needs Frances Hardinge! Especially Fly by Night / Twilight Robbery (the fabulous Mosca Mye) and A Face Like Glass. Zero romance, and no dying teenagers.

DD used to make exactly the same complaint when she was 12 - in fact if I could find it (few years back now - she's 15) I started a thread asking for teen books with a female protagonist and no romance.

They're quite old, but dd did also really enjoy the Anne McCaffrey Harper Hall trilogy - fantasy novels about a girl who wants to be a harper / bard, but comes from a family where girls are expected to marry young and be mothers/wives. The first one in the series is DragonSong.

Zom-B series by Darren Shan
The gender game books are pretty good

My son (11) has just read Ruby Redford (by Lauren child) it's about a 13 year old girl who's a spy, he enjoyed it

My family and other animals is a good call for my DD who is 11. Will. I nick that one.

We have had success with the Katherine Rundell books mentioned below esp The Explorer.

Also Broken Sky - LA Weatherley - which is a YA book so harder but exciting.

Tomorrow when the war began.

There is a bit of romance at the start but it becomes incidental to the plot.

The One Dollar Horse series by Lauren St John. A bit technical (horse-wise) in some places and there's an underlying romance but still pretty good apparently. Equally "The Glory" by LSJ but that is quite romantic.

My dd new favourite book is 'salt to the sea' by ruta sepetys. Its based on a true story and won the Carnegie award this year.

My daughter's favourite books this year were Cogheart and Moonlocket by Peter Bunzl

Tamora Pierce wrote some great female protagonist young teenage novels

Thank you all! Some great suggestions here. I'll have a look on amazon and then maybe try some titles at the library.

The Little White Horse
Murder Most Unladylike
Nobody's Horse

Daphne du Maurier?

dd has started reading biography and autobiography. Malala, Clare Balding and Daisy Godwin's book about Queen Victoria were all loved. She also really enjoyed Hidden Figures and we had some good discussions about it. Also the Divergent trilogy, Diary of a Nobody (she cried with laughter) and Lucy Worsley's historical fiction have all been really popular.

Tamora Pierce's Alannah series must be my favourite books of all time!

Totally agree about Tamora Pierce's 'Song of the Lioness' series - I discovered it when I was about 12, and loved it. The first two books have just been reprinted in a single volume, and I saw it in our local Waterstones the other day (I think under 'Young Adult' rather than 'Fantasy).