teachers of English/ GCSE

[gillybeanz]

Hi, I have a current y9 dd who enjoys English.
She's about average and enjoys comprehension.

We are looking for a book we can all read together over summer holidays that is GCSE level with something to get stuck into.
In the past we studied Lord of the flies and Animal farm, we choose a book each holiday.

Do you recommend looking at a book from the syllabus if they fancy a particular one, or is it best left for school for study.
Currently has her eye on 1984, but I know it's on her syllabus as a school choice.

Any suggestions and/or advice on whether to cover works they will do at school.

Waves to Gilly!
I think you want something really good and interesting, but not too long so she doesn't get put off.
The one that sprang to mind with 1984 was Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, although I can barely remember it now!

Or We by Zamyatin (which i think informed 1984, but may be totally wrong).

Only Ever Yours was quite a good read too. It's dystopian and was described as mean girls mixed with Handmaid's tale. It's teen girls in a boarding school where they are trained to be wives, concubines or teachers/nuns and on graduation they get allocated their section. It tracks some girls in senior year trying to improve their ratings for graduation.

Poisonwood Bible?

I am Legend, different to the film, and Flowers for Algenon was popular with ds at that age.

Another Orwell like The Road to Wigan Pier (non-fiction) or Homage to Catalonia?

Moby Dick?

A poem like Paradise Lost?

The Remains of the Day?

Something more modern like We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves?

Only Ever Yours would be a great choice for Y9.

I think We would be quite hard-going.

Only Ever Yours is a great idea - deals with similar ideas to The Handmaid’s Tale in some ways but very appropriate as a dystopian take on teens and the world they live in now.

I'd think about 'the other Steinbecks' - particularly East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath. Teenagers often love them (I did), and for students who have been force-fed Of Mice and Men at school, the more developed situations and characters can be a revelation.

Gilly, obviously you know your daughter best, but I'd have thought 'studying' would be more like to put off a not so academic child. However, it's great that she is showing an interest.

My suggestions are as follows:

Josephine Tey: The Franchise Affair, Brat Farrar and A Daughter in Time;
John Wyndham: The Chrysalids, The Midwich Cuckoos and The Day of the Triffids, which someone else has already mentioned;
Vera Brittain: Testament of Youth;
Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisted;
Arthur Conan Doyle: any Sherlock Holmes;
Margaret Atwood; Oryx and Crake trilogy;
Philip Pullman: Northern Lights trilogy (if not already read). My ex English teacher sister used to recommend this for reluctant teen readers;

But I would try and find something that reflects her interests. Is this the daughter at music school or another one? If she likes music she might enjoy The Mozart Season by Virginia Euler Wolff.

Brat Farrar would be especially good if she liked horses (or try The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans).

What film/television does she enjoy? Might she enjoy the Poldark books? Has she read The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings? My Family and Other Animals? (one of my favourite books at that age). What period in history has she been studying (and did she enjoy it)?

Has she read any Eva Ibbotson? If not, try The Star of Kazan.
Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses series?
Watership Down by Douglas Adams?
Kes by Barry Hines?
I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith?
Masses of good children's books by Michael Morpurgo that she might enjoy if she hasn't already (try Private Peaceful and War Horse)

If you're going for Classics, I'd start with:

Anne Bronte: The Tenant or Wildfell Hall;
Wilkie Collins: The Woman in White;
Dickens: Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby or Great Expectations;
Eliot: The Mill on the Floss
Hardy: Far From The Madding Crowd, the Mayor of Casterbridge or Tess of the D'Urbevilles.

Have fun. There's so much to enjoy!

Please don’t make her read Great Expectations! Poor DS - who is an absolutely voracious reader - has to study that for GCSE and it is killing him.

Fifth

Thank you and I am aware of your point.
She has spent the year working very hard with academic subjects, and I'm so proud of her efforts, it doesn't come easy and she hardly has any time to do extra work. But do it she has, and whilst small improvement in other subjects (Maths target now level 4/ from 2/3) she wants to improve English, I'm not sure of target yet.
I won't expect any study from her over the holidays, but she does love us all reading and comprehending books, she used to struggle, but now she has some skills and knowledge she seems to be really interested.
She has even spoken about the possibility of opting for A level, but obviously need to see how she goes.
I imagine, that like other years she'll look at other areas of the subject too, which has to be a bonus.
I'm sure the Maths or science books won't be out

Does it have to be a novel?

As well as other suggestions ( and yes - if she is going to be doing 1984 on syllabus then Brave New World - Aldous Huxley would be good reading around re a dystopian novel ) but

How about an anthology of short stories by a good writer

eg
Ernest Hemingway ( try to get one with the Snows of Kilimanjaro in it - that is such a fantastic story )
or Katherine Mansfield - I think she is just brilliant.

Both have a lucid and on the face of it plain prose style but can be read on many levels. If it is for confidence - that's I think what I would choose , but bear in mind I am not an English teacher. I may have spare copies of the last here I could send you if you would like. PM me if interested & I will check.

Short stories are good - oddly enough, I noticed the anthology I did for O level is still available on Amazon.
Re Josephine Tey - I read Brat Farrar and The Franchise Affair in Y8 and Y9. I would definitely recommend the former - it's a really interesting story with a twist. I remember I liked it so much I got my own copy!

At your daughter's age I loved Little Women; My Brilliant Career (by Miles Franklin); all Rosamund Lehmann's novels; Lynne Reid Banks's books (especially The L-Shaped Room); Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie;, Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbon; I read and reread all Rumer Godden's books, especially her autobiographical books such as Two Under and Indian Sun and The River.

Just sort of butting in here, as my DS (finishing Year 10) has a somewhat similar request. Should I be setting up a new thread, or can I also ask on this one? Possibly a lot of this is relevant (just that he is a boy, so I am not sure if the books are a bit too girly)?
He has always been a reader, but stuck on Percy Jackson type novels, and I have been trying to persuade him that there is more out there than that.
He has been doing An Inspector Calls in his GCSE, and when he first read it last summer, and we went to the play, he was very dismissive, but now, having "got" the politics, he is loving it. And over Easter I was reading "Educated" by Tara Westover, and he picked it up and read it, and absolutely loved it, and asked me to find more like it - but I just have no clue what to offer him! He says the problem is that with "classic" novels the words are old fashioned and too hard. He is struggling with Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for that reason, only understands it because they explain it in school.
Is anything here "modern" or at least modern language with more mature ideas. I thought of the Curious Incident as one option, but other than that I am at a loss ... and then saw this thread with lots of book suggestions and wondered if the posters could expand on the approrpriateness of the suggested books for a slightly different child.

i know it is really predictable but my daughter loved Jane Eyre In Y9 - couldn't put it down and was really annoyed that I was studying it with my Y9 mixed ability whilst her top set (different school) were studying Our Day Out.

Dd (same age as Op dd) and I enjoy reading books together and I second Jane Eyre. I did it for O Level 100 years ago but discovered it anew and it really is a cracking “journey” story (and there are plenty of study notes on it if you are going to look at it in depth).

how about Rebecca? I read that at 14 and subsequently read it about 20 times. Dd read it recently and raved about it.

Also there’s always a summer for a good Agatha Christie. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a good entry point.

In the summer holiday after year 9, DD1 was asked to read Lord of the Flies, Romeo and Juliet and Christmas Carol, so they could hit the ground running in year 10. So you may find that she has plenty of classics to keep her busy. Finding something really gripping that is definitely not the kind of thing they study for GCSE would be cool.

Oliver Twist/ Christmas Carol
Second (third/ fourth!) Of Mice and Men and To Kill A Mockingbird OMAM has six chapters, so it's actually ideal for six weeks)
The Chrysalids
The Colour of Bee Larkham's Murder is good
Curious Incident
The Bone Sparrow
The Lie Tree
The Travelling Cat Chronicles if you are cat lovers (it's a weepie!)
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Circe if you like myths is just about accessible : quite violent but not disturbing. Or read Ovid!

My DS is the same age and has read also Animal Farm (but not LOTF) and Of Mice and Men at school and loved them. He has read most of the books listed above and really enjoyed them
Any John Green is loved by girls

mimtza : The Colour of Bee Larkham's Murder is similar to Curious Incident. Bit if sex in it (suggested not explicit!) but very readable.

He might like Animal Farm or 1984?

One of m year 10 girls - to my surprise- just read Things fall Apart and really liked it.

I agree with PP who mentioned Kes.

The Book Thief - modern
A Tale of Two Cities would be my Dickens choice
Black Beauty
A collection of short stories by Daphne Du Maurier.

@mimtza www.amazon.co.uk/Absolutely-True-Diary-Part-Time-Indian/dp/0316013692?tag=mumsnetforum-21 American but could hook him as a reader.
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne

These are the ones DS1 read and enjoyed before he started to resent me giving him books to read!
Jekyll and Hyde
The invisible Man
Treasure Island
Kidnapped
Tale of two cities (agree that one went down well!)
Huckleberry Finn
Collection of Edgar Allan Poe (probably his favourite)

The Book Thief is a really good choice.

DS2 is impervious to my book recommendations, sadly.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will look at particularly the Book Thief and the Absolutely true diary (that really sounds like what he is looking for, as he loved Educated, which is also American and also a true life growing up story).
Maybe I can persuade him to try To Kill a Mocking Bird.
At various points I tried Treasure island and similar - and he sort of managed Sherlock Holmes (well the short stories at least, but more because of me pushing). He seems to have a bit of a stumbling block with "old fashioned language" - hence the problem with Dr Jekyll