can you recommend authors/books?

[hopeandpray]

need books with themes and ideas that are OK for a 7 year old but teenager reading level. Am censoring gore and too much death, crap sexism etc. Running out of ideas, having trouble keeping up with whats she's exposed to, recommendations much appreciated.

Yes - it's fascinating isn't it. I vividly recalled seeing Jurassic Park at the cinema and feeling rather scared at times myself. There were lots of young children there and they were just lapping it up, and apparently not scared by the huge vicious dinosaurs stomping round the place wanting to eat people.

But when the actors were climbing the electric fence that was about to be switched back on, all the kids in the audience were terrified.

What's all that about then?

Anyway back to books Stephen Fry said it's important to read books and be a bit scared, or challenged by an issue or emotion, but to do that in the safety and comfort of your bed/bedroom/home.

no-one's mentioned the Earthsea trilogy by Ursula K Le Guin - my 7 year old's just devoured it (Wizard of Earthsea, Tombs of Atuan & The Farthest Shore) although my 10 year old was a bit sniffy

As far as Phillip Pullman goes, how about I Was a Rat? fairy-tale based, but not at all dark

Sorry, haven't read entire thread throughly yet, has anyone recommended Heidi, or easy Dickens? (Twist, G. Expectations, etc)

Am going to bookmark this thread. I'm sure there have been others similar but seems like loads of good suggestions here and I can see this issue looming on the horizon for my DD who is 5 3/4 now reading Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton - but 7 won't be far off!!

My mother had to hide the Anne of GG series from me as I kept reading them all through then immediately start back at the beginning again! Think I was about 9.

Mimsum - I adored A Wizard of Earthsea as a teenager (I was madly in love with Ged), but have so far shied away from recommending it to ds1 (10). He's read plenty of 'teenage' books, but I want him to wait for this one til he can appreciate it properly.

Did you know she went on and wrote two more in the series very recently, after a gap of 20-30 yrs or something!

roisin - I wish I'd waited a bit before getting ds1 to read it (not enough 'action' for him ) it's just he'd really appreciated lots of other childhood faves of mine

however, ds2 picked it up at school off his own bat (although I was v suprised it was in the free reading box in his Y3 classroom) and loved it so I gave him the other two

I've read the newest ones, although I think they're a bit opaque for a primary school child however advanced their reading

Bink, Tamum & Co - I finally got hold of a copy of Marianne Dreams, and read it: it's beautiful - I loved it.

I'm not sure I'll be able to persuade ds1 to try it though. He tends to be very turned off if the first/main character is not a boy. And just at the moment there seems to be a plethora of "I'm a teenage spy" books around, and he's reading very little other than Charlie Higson, Anthony Horowitz, Robert Muchamore, David Gilman, Mark Walden, etc. It seems to be the genre of the moment for boys.

I love it too, Roisin. But I see what you mean about the first character being a girl thing. I gave a 12 year old boy of my acquaintance The Owl Service for Christmas though and he is really enjoying it. He also liked The Eagle of the Ninth.

I loved Rosemary Sutcliff in general as a child; dd is not so keen. But have a feeling that may be more something for ds.

I would not censor a lot for children- but then we haven't got a lot of the really nasty stuff at home, I never felt horror stories did me any good either. With the good-but-possibly scary stuff, I would say 'I don't think you'll enjoy that' rather than trying to hide the books.

DD (11) and ds (7) usually go down to the local library on their own, so they have to make up their own minds. Though obviously they can't borrow from the adult section on their childrens' card.

As for not letting dd read something because I enjoyed it more when I read it at a later age- well, I am beginning to learn that dd isn't me and it would be very difficult for me to gauge her reactions from what mine were at her age. So usually she self-censors. I know she is quite happy to try a book again after a couple of years if it was too hard/seemed too odd the first time.

I loved Just William even though I am a girl!
All Joan Aiken
All Diana Wynne Jones
Alice in Wonderland and through the looking glass
Antonia Forest's Marlowe books (girls at boarding school)
Philip Pullman books freaked me out and I was 33 when I read them! Very menacing, ditto Lemony Snickett.
Alan Garner's stuff is good
Harry Potter
Famous Five and all the "X of adventure" by Enid Blyton
Wilbur Smith's stuff, adventure stories
Asterix the Gaul