Adventure book recommendations for Y8+ reader (NOT about murder)

[MockCroc]

My daughter is nearly 13 and an avid reader. She loved the 9-12 fiction stage - Emma Carroll, Katherine Rundell etc. She's grown out of it and is now stepping into the world of YA fiction and is finding it difficult to find books for the younger teen age. She's read a whole lot of high school books about murder (One of Us Lying, Sister Missing etc), some of which are a bit disturbing and have quite cruel aspects and she's a bit fed up with them. She's also not into the "dreamy prince" type romantic fantasy books that seem popular in YA.

Can you send me your recommendations of books for this age group that are just a "great read". I am really struggling to remember what I read at that age - before I moved onto the more mid teen reads. Classics or recent - she doesn't mind and will work her way through whatever.

She's just read And Then There Were None, which she enjoyed. But I think what she would really love are books that have a great plot, that aren't delving into any particular type of teen trauma/ crushes and don't involve some sort of bullying / cruelty etc.

Thanks!

A lot of popular mid-market YA does seem to be about getting over adverse childhood events. Even the Brontës, JE and WH are usually go-tos for avid readers of her age, they’ve got their fair share of death and trauma.

Stephen King’s most recent supernatural YA novels belt along and although the plots feel pretty familiar to older readers (polite way of putting it) they’re entertaining. There’s undeniable unpleasantness (I’m not sure how relatable they’d be to ‘real-life’ events unless your DD chats to ghosts or has telekinesis). If death is a no-go, then no.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield and Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome are good, safe reads albeit she’s maybe already read them if she’s avid.

My favourite book at your DD’s age was I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. It’s got some romantic feelings but it’s not your typical modern ‘boy meets girl.’ It’s more about understanding life isn’t all about romance. It’s an also a masterclass in literature while being very easy to read so maybe they’d balance out?

For adventure, John Wyndham? Terry Pratchett? Ursula Le Guin?

Just thought as well - Francis Hardinge? I thought they were well written if a bit earnest but I don’t think I’m the target audience tbh 😂 some have darker themes than others, maybe check them out to see what you reckon.

Fake by Ele Fountain
The cats we meet along the way
The disreputable history of Frankie Landau-Banks

My DD has read very similar books to yours.

Now, she is flipping between the Heartstopper universe (I really enjoyed Radio Silence and Solitaire but there are a lot of depressed teenagers and drug references so you may not like those) and His Dark Materials and adult "issue" books. She loved My Sister's Keeper (Jodi Picoult) and Nine Perfect Strangers (Liane Moriarty), and those authors are pretty available in book swaps.

She's also reading and enjoying Meg Rosoff, back to YA rather than adult books. There was a recent one with a time slip element which packed an emotional punch it took her some time to get over. If that sounds interesting I'll find out what it was called when she's awake.

Thank you everyone for being so helpful. There are some great ideas here. I LOVED I Capture the Castle when I was a teenager so that is a great reminder. I don't know Ursula Le Guin or Francis Hardinge so I have enjoyed looking into those.

My thread also led me to this thread that linked underneath it:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/childrens_books/5065857-book-recommendations-for-12-year-old-girl-not-fantasy-horror-or-crime

So I have just done a great big order (we have 3 children so I periodically buy loads of books and they all eventually get read three times over!):
I Capture the Castle (I am SO going to re-read this)
Tuppence Across the Mersey
One of the older Eva Ibbotson books - I hadn't realised she didn't only write children's books but we loved those
Earthsea
Over Sea Under Stone
Scythe
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking
The Great Godden
Fried Green Tomatoes
And a spy school book in the Gallagher Girls series

We will see how we get on but thank you for the inspiration!! I have a whole further list to look for when these are done.

If she reads and enjoys Swallows and Amazons can I urge you to tell her about the other books in the series (there are 12 in all). To my mind Pigeon Post (see my user name) Winter Holiday, and We Didn't Mean to go to Sea are just as good if not better. They are best read in order and some of them, while not exactly racist, do reflect the times in which they were written. Can you tell I love Arthur Ransome?!

Not sure if these will be on the ever so slightly young side but I love them as an adult reading to my DD.

• Adventures on Trains series by Sam Sedgman and M.G Leonard, we also loved Sam Sedgmans first solo book and looking forward to his next
• Currently reading the Max Einstein series - already on book 3 in less than a month. Weaving in a bit of Einstein, science, ethics of doing good in the world as well as adventure with a strong female lead character who’s 12.

Both book groups are individual whole stories per book however should be read in order as the characters flow through and small references made

I loved the Tamora Pierce books, starting with Alanna the First Adventure at this age.

Also Michelle Magorian books and Ruta Sepetys for some good reads.

Also has she read all the wonderful Michael Morpurgo books - Flamingo Boy, Adolphus Tips etc.?

Wolf Brother (and the rest of the tales of ancient darkness series) by Michelle Paver.

If she liked And Then there Were None, has she tried any other Agatha Christie? She wrote some that were more adventure stories than murder mysteries and featured intrepid young women - Secret Adversary (the first Tommy and Tuppence mystery), The Man in the Brown Suit, The Secret of Chimneys and The Seven Dials Mystery, They Came to Baghdad. And Cat Among the Pigeons, set in a girls' school with a couple of schoolgirls among the leading characters.

Also, Mary Stewart wrote what would be classed as romantic suspense, again with a young woman as the central character. The romance was always secondary to the suspense/adventure element. There was nothing in either the romance or the suspense that would be inappropriate for a 13yo.

With y9 when I was a teacher they loved Curious Incident of the Dog in the night time but you have to be ok with lots of swearing. we also did Lord of the Flies.

I loved Perks of Being a Wallflower as a quick read as a teen - hated the movie though!

some simple adult books that work for teens
Matt Haig - Humans / midnight library
hitchhikers guide to galaxy
life of Pi

take if you’ve done Hunger Games ? All my y7/8s read that.