Book recommendations for 12 year old girl, not fantasy, horror or crime

[motherofonegirl]

My 12 year old daughter is an avid reader but has run out of books to read! She doesn't like fantasy, horror or crime. She enjoys books about people. Has read lots of war setting/survival/success against the odds type books. She has read all Jacqueline Wilson, Judy Bloom, Heart stoppers, Enid Blyton, Sufiya Ahmed, David Baddiel, A M Dassu, Benjamin Zapheniah, Malorie Blackman, Onjali Q Rauf, Katherine Russell, Michelle Magorian. Her reading age is 15+ but she isn't keen on young adult themes yet. Any ideas please?

Another vote for Eva Ibbotson - Journey to the River Sea and the Crown of Kazan are great and sit at the younger end of things; Song for Summer, The Morning Gift and The Secret Countess are YA, but gentle in content and beautifully written.

My other go-to is Hilary McKay. The Casson Family novels are great - really loveable characters. The Binny series and Skylarks War are also very good.

At her age, I loved I Capture the Castle and Jane Eyre, too.

The Tiger Who Sleeps Under My Chair ny Hannah Foley is excellent.

Can't see it mentioned but Nina Bawden (Carrie's War particularly but there are others - warning the one about the pig is brutal though!) Also, the Trebizon school series was great.
Can't remember if you or anyone said Judy Blume?

Doh JB is in the OP - sorry!

My sister lives in the US and has written 2 books which have been marketed at the "middle grade" age group - I think it's called junior fiction in the uk. I believe it's aimed for ages 9-13 years so that might be a good way to search for suitable reading material. It might not challenge her reading level but there are some wonderful stories. The books that my sister has written would definitely suit your daughter's reading interests

www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Yvette-Clark/author/B08L8DLVKR?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Looking at the list of books/authors she's enjoyed so far I would suggest The Girl Who Stole an Elephant and other books in the series

I was going to recommend the My Story books, I loved those growing up.

The Girls in the Velvet Frame by Adele Geras might be a nice one. It's about a family of sisters in Israel in 1913, trying to get in touch with their brother who emigrated to America. It's fiction, but the photograph that inspired it is a real one of the author's mother and aunts.

I read a lot of children's classics at that age too — The Swiss Family Robinson, Anne of Green Gables etc.

I also starting pinching my DM's Agatha Christies and Jeffrey Archers at around that age.

She's a perfect age to get stuck into Jane Austen, starting with "Pride and Prejudice".
Definitely "The Swish of the Curtain", as mentioned.
Could she start on the Cazalet series by Elizabeth Jane Howard? There are some mildly adult themes, but much of it is from the point of view of the teenagers - I would have loved this at 15.
Agatha Christie and PG Wodehouse are both fab, for lighter reading.

I don't know if she would count this as fantasy, but there are some nice re-written fairy tales. Ella Enchanted is the one I'd recommend, but there are lots of different ones.

I haven’t read the whole thread so apologies for any repeats. Have a look at the Booktrust website - they have a ‘what to read after XYZ’ section with suggestions by theme which might lead you down a rabbit hole!

Some authors she might enjoy:

David Almond
Piers Torday
Helen Peters
Frank Cottrell Boyce
Cath Howe
Louis Sachar
Hilary McKay
Kate Saunders
Kirsty Applebaum
Rebecca Stead
Louie Stowell
Eva Ibbotson
Elle McNicoll
Phil Earle
Tom Easton
Lucy Strange
Marcus Sedgwick

Still enjoying this thread and bookmarking. Astrid Lindgren’s novels are lovely. Seacrow Island is about an idyllic summer on a Swedish island where a family learns to love nature.