What ya classics are actually worth reading?

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My dd (14), has started getting into classic books lately. She has read Anne of Green Gables, The Outsiders and a few others. Can anyone recommend anything please?

I think lots of posters missed the YA but if the thread title!

If she’s enjoying Anne of Green Gables and The Outsiders at the moment, don’t suddenly leap up to the Victorian heavyweights. If she’s ready to move on to classic literature that isn’t YA, maybe start with Of Mice and Men, The Woman in Black, The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird.

DS was gripped by Lord of the Flies at that age as well.

But there’s also lots of much older fiction that fits nicely with Anne as others have said - Little Women, the What Katy Did books, My Friend Flicka.

And how about The Little Princess, The Secret Garden, The Little White Horse?

Has she read all the Noel Streatfeild books yet (beginning with Ballet Shoes, obviously!)

Depends on your child but mine read Black beauty etc at around 10 and probably ballet shoes before that. You’d be surprised at the texts covered in schools now in year 3,4,5 and 6 and the OP’s daughter is 14. So I assume going into year 10.

My 8 year old has read Edward Tulane and War Horse in year 3

I agree with Agatha Christie.

I never really liked Rebecca but My Cousin Rachel by DuMaurier was absolutely fantastic. I first read it when I was about 12 and still love it.

Someone above mentioned Song Of Achilles - I think this would work, and also Circe by the same author.

Another good YA is The Girl with All the Gifts. An unusual and thought-provoking message at the end.

And the Hunger Games books are brilliant - such a strong heroine.

Oops, sorry, I see you said Classics specifically!

Lots of good suggestions above - second A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in particular.

Testament of Youth could be another good one and also Wild Swans. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. All quite serious but accessibly written IMO.

In a different vein from the above suggestions - I read a lot of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams at that age. Do these count as classics yet? Also Asimov, Frank Herbert, Ray Bradbury, Tolkien, Ursula leGuin, Anne McCaffrey. Depends if she is into science fiction/fantasy at all.

I have a feeling I read Sherlock Holmes and Dracula about that age. Also Flambards, Agatha Christie, Jean Plaidy, Victoria Holt, Breakfast at Tiffany, North and South (the American one), all the Anne books, Maeve Binchy, Hitchhiker's Guide, and the Angelique books.

1984 by George Orwell

And of course Gone with the Wind. It's not technically a YA book, but who else has enough free time to get through it?

Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier.

I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith.

If she liked the Outsiders, try other SE Hinton books such as That was then, this is now or Rumblefish. Little House on the Prairie series is also a lovely read. Or what about Watership Down or Swallows and Amazons if she wants a non American classic?

There are loads of more modern YA books that will become the classics in future - she is spoilt for choice!

Thank you all for your lovely suggestions. Keep them coming.

What about a bit of Sci Fi/dystopian type stuff? I was obsessed by a book when I was a teen called Futuretrack 5, by Robert Westall, who also wrote the Machine Gunners which was on TV in the eighties. (FT 5 a very different type of thing to the machine gunners though).

Also Hitchhikers' Guide is accessible to teens I think. The scenes with the animal that had been bred to offer up its best cuts to the diners at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe should resonate a lot with teens participating in debates around veganism.

Emily of New Moon - same author as AoGG

I read Dune at 14 too

Homecoming by Cynthia Voight - a really moving book and the first in a series

Homecoming by Cynthia Voight - a really moving book and the first in a series

Oh yes I LOVED those!

Little women (all four, Jo's Boys is my favourite)
Emily of New Moon trilogy (much better than Anne, and it stops at a good point - I don't like the last two Anne books [AHOD and AOI] where she's become a boring, put upon housewife.)
Chalet School series
Malory Towers series
Little House on the Prairie series
Daddy Long Legs and Dear Enemy
Just Patty and When Patty went to College
Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom
Pollyanna and Pollyanna Grows Up
Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess, The Secret Garden
Not classics, but Eva Ibbotson's YA books are lovely.
Non-YA:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Of Mice and Men
All Jane Austen
I also started on old, cosy murder mysteries at that age - Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Georgette Heyer
GH regency romances too.

Anyone else bookmarking this thread for a nostalgic re-read? There’s loads I’d forgotten!

Jeckyll and Hyde could be a good one, it is a novella so doesn't feel too long but thought provoking. I agree with very many of the others mentioned. Yes to Lord of the flies, to kill a mockingbird, . I first read some Thomas Hardy at about 14 so don't rule out that sort of classic. Anne Frank's diary.

The call of the wild. These are possibly old fashioned but some Judy blume books were good at that age. The scarlet pimpernel. Women in black. The moonstone

Yes I liked George Orwell at this age I think, and also Sherlock Holmes (and other Conan Doyle books). Loved PG Wodehouse too.

I was going to suggest this - I remember being glued to it at 14. I wondered if some people might find it racist now - the slave owners are presented as perfectly reasonable people - still I think it’s a great insight into how people thought and felt back then.

Anyone else bookmarking this thread for a nostalgic re-read? There’s loads I’d forgotten!

Me too - I've ordered Homecoming and Dicey's Song for starters. I think September will be the perfect time for a bit of nostalgia.

I’ve ordered Homecoming too for my DC. It was referenced in American Wife which I’ve just finished reading. I’d never heard of it before that.

Thank you all for your suggestions. She just started Little Women and is loving it. She is looking forward to reading the rest.
Thanks again x