What next for my Y7 avid reader?

[TheBobbinIsWoundUp]

She’s just finished Brave New World, before that she re-read all the Arthur Ransomes, she’s just starting the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency but after that she’s out of books.

She’s finding lockdown quite anxiety provoking, so I don’t want anything likely to make that worse (so not 1984 or any of the teen angst style novels). She’s read all the children’s classics (Little Women etc).

She likes a story but is happy with non fiction as well, if it’s well written (she loved the Usborne books on politics and economics).

Can anyone recommend anything that might work for her?

my dd enjoyed Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, I think she read it in year 7 or 8. She also enjoyed the sequel, Leah on the offbeat, and I think that Is recommended for ages 12+.

My son has loved Mythos and Heroes by Stephen Fry.
How about some Jeeves and Wooster or maybe I Capture The Castle, or maybe some Jane Austen?

DD2 is a year older but in lockdown has enjoyed both Rebecca and Pride and Prejudice. She also enjoyed Life after Life and Never Let Me Go but those are a bit darker so probably not the right mood for now.

I loved Tamora Pierce's books at that age.

Oh, and Chocolat was another recent success.

Lots of good suggestions, thank you! She’s read Jane Austen and Jeeves and Wooster, and she’s also enjoyed Terry Pratchett, so that’s all definitely the right sort of thing.

Maybe some Charles Dickens- A Christmas Carol or Oliver Twist. Wilkie Collins - The Woman in White had me gripped at about that age! Some Sherlock Holmes is always a good choice imo. Then things like Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman, Harry Potter (if she's not read already), Jacqueline Wilson, My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell.

Tarka the Otter
Born Free series by Joy Adamson
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Diary of Adrian Mole
The Da Vinci Code
Agatha Raisin
Catcher in the Rye
To Kill A Mockingbird

The Book Thief
The Shadow of the Wind
The Lie Tree
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
This Thing of Darkness
Pride and Prejudice

Yy- my DD loved My Family And Other Animals at that age.
My children love Sherlock Holmes too, and Hitchhiker's Guide.
My youngest is a huge Pratchett fan- start with the Tiffany Aching books, the Wee Free Men is first.

Patrick Ness, John Green, Rainbow Rowell?

Quite random, I know, but Tim Peake's book about being an astronaut is v accessible and very interesting.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1783446730/ref=cmswwrwaaapiii_NkN4EbFVC5QVP Things A Bright Girl Can Do

I haven't actually read it, but it came highly recommended here on MN. I gave it to dd when she was about 14 IIRC, and she has loved it so much ever since, that she is now using it as her English Lit A-level free choice text.

Thanks again! She’s not keen on Durrell (animals aren’t her thing) and she’s read some of the Sherlock Holmes and all of the Terry Pratchett, but some of the others look brilliant - especially the Tim Peak one as she’s really in to space stuff.

My y7 DD has been into Agatha Christie recently.

What about the Wolf Brother series, or The Edge Chronicles?
I have 4 children and all of them enjoyed those at a similar age.

How about Neil Gaimans Norse mythology book? Ds really enjoyed that, also Mythos as previously mentioned.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy went down well, as have the Robin Hobbs books.
Has she read all the Ann of Green Gables books? Usually very cheap on Kindle
DS enjoyed Jasper Ffordde at 12 - depends on your DDs sense of humour

Second Edge Chronicles.

DS1 (August Y8) has just finished Orlando.

If you have a kindle, introduce her to Project Gutenberg and let her roam freely through the out-of-copyright classics.

Lots and lots of really good suggestions on here.

DD is in daily contact with her very supportive school librarian who has been invaluable because she has suggested books that will feed into the curriculum, expand her knowledge of key topics across subjects and has provided useful talking points for her to consider after each book. She also sends lots of ideas just for fun and pleasure but she is a brilliant, dynamic librarian who is instrumental in nurturing dd's abilities in a way I (an avid reader myself and ex academic librarian) simply couldn't do. For example, dd is reading quite a lot of philosophy and factual research alongside certain historical texts and trying to tease out quite complex ideas about why and how we read. Don't forget other forms of reading too. Poetry in myriad forms, prose, discursive essays, epistolary novels, modern forms (dd has just read a book written in the form of multimedia and electronic communication), plays and so on.

Does your dd have a similar librarian at her school?

Show I know there is a school librarian, but I don’t know whether dd is confident enough to email her (she’s in a funny position, Y7 but only had just under two terms there, so she still feels quite new and unsure of herself) or whether that’s the sort of thing that the librarian does. The teachers do talk about relevant books, and she’s just done an English project which involved all the class doing a presentation on their favourite books - that’s actually what prompted this thread as she’s rejected a lot of what they recommended as not being her sort of thing (they’re getting into YA and teen angst, which is not what she likes to read).

Daphne du Maurier?

From the adult to children's spectrum you've mentioned, OP, has she read Jane Eyre and Robin Steves' Unladylike Murders?

A couple more to add to the list...

The 'What Katy Did' series might appeal if she's enjoyed Little Women.

Agatha Christie - DC has just finished 'Death on the Nile' and is working through some others.

I enjoyed 'Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less' at that age.

Does she have any hobbies/interests - are there any autobiographies that she might enjoy?

This thread is a treasure trove that my DD will love!
She's reading Percy Jackson at the moment. She loved HP and the unladylike murders series.
She also adores Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children. There's now 5 books in the series.