good books for bright 12/13 year olds

[sphil]

I am about to start a short English intervention programme with a group of Yr 8s who are on the G&T register for reading. Any ideas for a good text? I should avoid novels they're likely to study for GCSE.
TIA

[marriedinwhite]

She says no and was pleased with your feedback - should we get it and report to you?

[PastGrace]

Of Mice and Men always used to be a GCSE text, so might be worth checking. Ditto To Kill a Mockingbird (although I really recommend both!).

I'm rereading Alice in Wonderland at the moment - it's one of my absolute favourites and I think I first fell in love with it around then... I'd read it before but suddenly at about 12 it just clicked.

[marriedinwhite]

Actually, I think I have read "a gathering light". I think it's a book about a girl in America who witnessed a murder on a lake and the background of her home life and ambition to go to university and her analysis of her situation and what took her to up sticks and actually go in spite of all the pressures to keep her at home.

I may be wrong but it's starting to ring bells. If I'm right, I'm not sure it's the sort of book that would appeal to DD.

[blameitonthecaffeine]

marriedinwhite - has your dd tried:

The Inkheart Trilogy (Cornelia Funke)
Tomorrow When the War Began series (John Marsden)
A Company of Swans and Magic Flute (both Eva Ibbotson)
Cuckoo in the Nest and A Spoonful of Jam (both Michelle Magorian)
Wild Swans (Jung Chang)

[marriedinwhite]

The last three yes and enjoyed. Couldn't get either dc into Cornelia Funke - don't know the John Marsden. DD presently reading "my sister's keeper".

DS loved the Michelle Paviour books but dd wasn't interested. Mine were both quite precocious readers but it has been difficult to get ds to actually read for pleasure since he was about 14. He's 17 now and oddly English is one of his highers - he managed an A* for English literature without reading the book .

PS - hope your dd is OK and has survived the week.

[mockingjay]

I'll second John Marsden. I'm from NZ and we read the series at school there (age 15 or so). The first one anyway. They get better as the series goes on too.

[TheScarlettPimpernel]

What about The Riddle of the Sands or The 39 Steps?

[SheHulk]

My DS (10) liked:

• The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (5 books) by Douglas Adams.
  
• Northern Lights (3 books) by Philip Pullman.
  
• Animal Farm by George Orwell.

[mumzy]

Recommend the following : A kestrel for a Knave (Barry Hines), Catcher in the rye, Animal farm, Great expectations, Jane Eyre,The Hobbit

[FranSanDisco]

DN (13 yo) has recommended The Hunger Games by Susanne Collins (?).

[mockingjay]

Hunger Games is a great series Fran! There are three of them and no one can put them down once they start... so maybe a good read for the holidays then!!

[GrimmaTheNome]

Ha - guess what my DD requested for her 13th birthday - The Hunger Games. I'm reassured to see them recommended here, I hadn't heard of them.

And I bought Hitchhikers Guide - couldnt find the copy I'd had for years, just the other 4 of the 'increasingly inaccurate trilogy'.

No prizes for guessing Terry Pratchett... she started with the kids ones, recently started on Discworld. (oh,and Nation).

[sugartongue]

Anything and everything - a bright 12/13 year old should have started/be starting their adult reading.

[senua]

There were two versions of The Curious Incident published simultaneously: an adult and a junior.
Jonathan Cape published the Adult.
David Fickling Books published the Junior ISBN 0385605870

[gramercy]

I have just read The Curious Incident... at long last and I'm struggling to see why it is a children's book. Just because it is told in the first person by a 15-year-old boy using rather spare prose does not automatically afford it a "kids'" stamp.

I enjoyed the book: I thought it unsentimental yet poignant. Ds read this last year when he was 12 and he took it rather at face value. I think as an adult it is easier to understand the other characters' situations and how they are affected by the narrator.

Just my opinion!

[sphil]

I agree with you Gramercy - I feel that even G&T readers dont always have the emotional maturity or life experience to get 'beneath' the text.

[SandyThumb]

DS (12) just read and enjoyed 'Flip' (can't remember the author)
and Dept 19 (WIll Hill?)

[peskyshowandtell]

I am trying to restore my 13yr old (going into year 9 in Sept) daughter's enthusiasm for reading. She virtually stopped reading after she struggled to find anything that wasn't about Vampires. She adored and mopped through David Almond, Malorie Blackman, Eve Ibbotson and Gemma O'Malley, aged 10 thru to 12. I offered Wind Singer and The Hunger Games at Christmas - but not enjoyed. Any updated suggestions - she is 'top set' in all subjects, but I am very concerned her reading has dropped off. Thanks

[Takver]

Maybe post in the children's books section, peskyshowandtell? Its a very active section and generally gets good responses.

My dd is a bit younger, but has just read & really enjoyed A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge (as did I).

I wonder if also your dd might enjoy 'adult' books more now? At that age IIRC we all read lots of trashy stuff (thrillers, those awful Flowers in the Attic books, historical novels), but also things like Daphne du Maurier, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Georgette Heyer.

[NoComet]

I'd second his dark materials, often suggested for bright 10-12y after HP, but actually some really complex ideas especially in the Amber Spy Glass.

I just devoured adult thrillers, dick Francis, Desmond Bagly, jack Higgins (the Eagle has landed is by far the best for a book group, like wise day of the Jackal by FF. the others aren't that meaty).

[NoComet]

Brave new world, my O'level set book, but I don't think it is now.

[booksteensandmagazines]

There is a new Malorie Blackman out - Noble Conflict

I've drawn up reading lists the one for Year 9 is here:

www.booksteensandmagazines.com/blog/reading-list-year-9-13--14-year-olds

the books on the list are quite varied so hopefully there will be one that appeals.

[basildonbond]

Ds, just finished y8, read curious incident last year in English - he really struggled with some of the homework tasks he was set around it as he has aspergers and couldn't work out what problems the narrator might have in dealing with the world .. Of mice and Men and mocking bird will almost certainly be covered in mainstream English sessions between now and GCSE so you want to do something that definitely won't be on an exam syllabus

Have you had a look at the Chaos Walking trilogy? Like many trilogies it suffers from the law of diminishing returns but the first book is brilliant for bright readers of that age

[KingscoteStaff]

At the risk of stating the bleedin' obvious, it's worth finding out which books they are likely to study in Years 9/10 so you can avoid them! I know you said it's a middle school, but if there is a clear destination school then a quick phone call to the Eng dept might be useful. Of Mice and Men is used a lot for pre GCSE and GCSE, so that might be one to leave for later.

[pointythings]

DD1 (12) has just finished His Dark Materials, read all of Gerald Durrell when she was 10 and wants to read Jane Eyre. She thoroughly enjoyed LOTR too. She's going to take The Once and Future King on holiday and is reading Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart series at bedtime now. We've started looking at adult books with her too, and our attitude to swearing in books is very like married's

And I know that she might well be reading To Kill A Mockingbird for GCSE but actually I'd like her to read it for herself before that before the inevitable analysing it to death ruins it for her. For simple entertainment I'm thinking of giving her the Belgariad. We have about 5000 books in our house, so plenty to choose from (though some are obviously not appropriate yet)