Suitable books for quite an innocent 12yo girl whose a very good reader

[MirkleMe]

My 12yo DD is capable of reading adult books but obviously the topics are not suitable, especially as she's quite niave.

She's in yr 7.

Any suggestions

I started reading classics at that age - Brontes, Austen, Dickens

Fell in love with the Brontes in Primary 7 and the love has never left me.

Has she read any Percy Jackson books? All based around the Greek god, myths & legends. Loads of books in the series & follow on series as well.

Start with Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief.

Watership Down

The Binny books by Hilary McKay
The Time of Green Magic by Hilary McKay

I loved the Drina books by Jean Estoril, if they’re available.

Anything by Antonia Forest, but the school stories have probably aged best.
Autumn Term
End of Term
The Cricket Term etc

Farthing wood series by Colin Dan
Judy Blume
Narnia

I loved Pratchett (long before Tiffany Aching), Heyer, Austen and Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy (I don't think there was anything racy in it). Also Elizabeth Peters, though later books have mild references to sex. Maybe no1 ladies detective agency? If she likes Pratchett she might also like Neil Gaiman. My mum at a similar age loves Eagle of the Ninth.

Not meaning to derail but this brings back memories of when my lovely late nan accidentally bought an erotic novel ( it wasn't very hard core luckily) for my dd when she was about 13/14 and into everything twilight and vampire related. I think she got confused and headed into the adult fiction section....

Chrestomanci series by Wynne Jones

A Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley is wonderful. George Elliot and Jane Austin might be doable but Charlotte Bronte definitely. Lord of the Rings is a foot trapper and has some difficult vocabulary but doesn't have any challenging themes (until you read it as an adult and realise how little he understood women and what condescending bullies some of the main characters are. But that went over my head as a young teenager!) Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books were good as a teenager too, especially if read in conjunction with Jane Eyre.

Pride and Prejudice - never too early to get them onto Austen!
Diary of Anne Frank
North and South
How about some poetry? Stevie Smith, W H Auden, T S Eliot. My dad bought me a copy of Christopher Smart's Rejoice in the Lamb - very religious but.....

I really enjoyed The Wool-Pack by Cynthia Harnett. A charming historical tale that really sweeps you in and captures the imagination. She did write others but they are less well known.

I was into horses at that age so any horsey books were great. Look for Girls Gone By publishers they re-issue a lot of school/horsey books.

@AnotherEmma they just kiss - really? I obviously projected a whole load more then

To the poster who said Austen might be doable but definitely Charlotte Bronte: I really struggled with Jane Eyre (to the extent that I had to leave it till I was all grown up) but didn't have any problem with Austen (except that S&S took me three attempts and I have no idea why). I read Persuasion first, I think: our music teacher (tenuous link) read us the letter and I thought "I simply have to read this". That was when I was 12.

they just kiss - really? I obviously projected a whole load more then

I’d imagine the vast majority of readers of The Amber Spyglass assumed the same. There seemed to be a degree of back-pedalling in The Secret Commonwealth.

To add to OP’s list
John Buchan - The Richard Hannay stories are brilliantly entertaining and skim over pretty much everything.
Mervyn Peake - the Gormenghast trilogy is unspeakably wonderful
P G Wodehouse may have been mentioned already.
All the female writers of Golden Age Crime - Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Dorothy L Sayers, Josephine Tey - each stupendous. Brilliant on historical detail, early/mid century manners and mores.

Came here to suggest Pratchett - although DO NOT START WITH THE COLOUR OF MAGIC - it's not as polished as the later stuff and put me off for years - it's not like there's really an order anyway, except occasionally for individual characters.

I read a lot of Sci-fi at that age - Asimov, Dune, Frederick Pohl, Orson Scott-Card (Ender's game has children as the main characters for instance) - basically whatever the library had that I went past on the way home from School..

Oh god yes, don't give the poor kid The Colour of Magic to start her off in Discworld, it has no discernable plot and would really put her off!!

I adore the discworld, but agree about the colour of magic! Hogfather is a good starting point, though a little out of season at this time of year! (Unless she still believes in Father Christmas, in which case, avoid!)

Precious Bane by Mary Webb; beautiful book.
Alison Uttley is a lovely lovely writer too, anything by her really. The Traveller in Time or The Country Child are my favourites.

Try to find Walter Macken's series of books set in Ireland. 'the scorching wind' is one of the titles.

Sally Lockhart trilogy by Philip Pullman

Breadwinner series by Deborah Ellis about a girl growing up in Afghanistan

Wilkie Collins - woman in white
Jane Eyre?

www.goodandbeautiful.com/book-list/ This book list is quite good. There are others online, it’s American so some of the books are a little harder to find but our library has lots and I’ve been able to get some from world of books too. My dd is 11 and is on the level 6&7 type books.

Hilda41 I wouldn’t have thought Sally Lockhart or Woman in White suitable for an innocent 12 year old? Breadwinner might need a bit of discussion too.

Wizard of Earthsea? Amazing writing but not adult themes.

Ones I remember enjoying at that sort of age:
TH White - Mistress Mashams Repose and The Once and Future King
Noel Streatfield - A Vicarage Family (her autobiography, and one of my all time favorite books)
Nancy Mitford - The Pursuit of Love and Live in a Cold Climate

Pratchett (oddly ds11 didn't like the ones aimed at kids that are similar to other books he likes, but loved Tiffany and then all the Rincewind and City Watch ones).
James Herriot and Gerald Durrell - animals
Antonia Forest's school stories - more grownup than say Blyton. Or the Chalet School (written 1928 to the late 60s)

Little House on the Prairie series

Magical: Diana Wynne Jones (the few for adults are very hard to get hold of so any with modern covers will be good), Barbara Sleigh's Carbonel books, Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow

Classics - The Borrowers, Five Children and It, Bedknob and Broomstick, the Hobbit. I've found tellind ds 'some people love this book and others hate it' works quite well.

Agatha Christie's short stories then novels, PG Wodehouse, Sherlock Holmes. I later went on to PD James but they are more adult.

Science fiction - Asimov, Children of Morrow, Chocky and Chocky's Children, collections of short stories.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Eva Ibbotson. Her books like Magic Flute, Dragonfly pool and Journey to the River sea are perfect for an innocent 12 year old.

Percy Jackson and the Heros of Olympus series that followed were also great favourites in our house.

I agree that some of the YA books, including Hunger games, are more suitable for an older age group. They are after all called young Adult books, not older children books.