What books did you love when you were age 13/14/15 ?

[Earlybird]

With Christmas holidays looming (and all the free time that brings), I am seeking some book suggestions for dd. I've got lists of recent fiction releases, but wonder about old favourites that may be worth considering. Fiction, historical fiction, and even a bit of light science fiction would suit her.

We're a bit fed up of vampires stealing-your-soul, dark magic, zombie gangs, runaways, coming of age and experimenting with sex, drinking and drugs, etc. that often appear in the current releases for young adults, so I thought we might have more success going back to some of the old classics and not-quite-classics-but-wonderfully-written books.

Thank you for suggestions.

Oooh what about SE Hinton's The Outsiders?

Another votes for Judy Blume.

Anne of Green Gables
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
Jeffrey archer books
Mills and boom!

I found The Great Roxhythe through Wikipedia Commons, and downloaded it.

To be charitable, it was only her second book... it has most of the faults of 1920's sensational historical fiction, and virtually none of its virtues.

I think she really started to find her genre and her voice after the War. I've just finished The Reluctant Widow for about the fourth time (1936) - as comedy it's lovely, but the take on Elinor's worries about what's going on and Lord Carlyon's high handed attitude absolutely stinks to those of us brought up in a more equal world.

I think I was mad into the Hobbit and LOTR at that age, as well as Stephen King and Jane Austen. And Ursula le guin as others have said.

A few more I'm recalling;

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
The Cat Ate My Gymsuit by Paula Danziger (actually still have this, it's signed from my Dad and date the Christmas when i was 11, but I did love it!!)
Anne Frank's Diary

Rivercam if Mills and boom is a typo I truly love it...

Yes that's it Alpaca!

She might like the Otori series by Lian Hearn, starts with Across a Nightingale Floor.
Shardick and Watership Down by Richard Adams are modern classics, as is anything by Alan Garner such as Owl Service or Red Shift.

I might have had a secret love of Catherine Cookson at that age - I used to sneak one into my room when I stayed at my Nans!!!

Never confessed that before

I went from the point horror books at 12/13 to stephen king/dean koontz at 14/15.
I've recently started reading the book thief and it's very good. Also the boy in the striped pyjamas is excellent.
How about the diary of Anne frank?

I completely fell in love with classics such as Jane Eyre/pride and prejudice and wuthering heights at that age.

Apart from the rude bits in various James Herbert/Jilly Cooper novels I was absolutely hooked on Jeffrey Archer at that age- I know he's easy to knock in very many ways but he does write a good Yarn. Cain & Abel was quite brilliant to my 13 year old mind and I suspect has lasted the test of time

Moln- I too had a secret Catherine Cookson addiction......All those ravished housemaids!

Just remembered more (Don't worry I'll go away in a bit)

James Harriot - all of them (well all of them that I read!)

homebythesea ravished housemaids indeed!!!

Young beautiful maiden, someone pregnant and not married (most likely the not a maiden any more) a mean and nasty Master's son and a handsome and lovely farmhand all involved in a terrible love triangle

Marvellous stuff

I think Stephen King and other horror writers would be too much. She is fearless on the most extreme roller coasters, but her overactive imagination would work against her. Might have to wait a few years for those! And at this stage, she is not at all interested in even basic sex scenes. Plenty of time for that later.

Ursula le Guin and Terry Pratchett could be contenders, but many other names/titles to explore. Lots of interesting suggestions here.

Joan Lingard's "Across the Barricades" along with the rest of the Kevin & Sadie series. Also her four "Maggie" books which starts with The Clearance. And One More River by Lynne Reid Banks. I loved them! Also the 4 Little Women books by Louisa May Alcott (although was probably a little younger reading them originally, I reread the first 2 - Little Women and Good Wives a couple of times in my teens.)

The Diary Of Anne Frank seems to be a current set theme in GCSE History, it's fairly likely most of the 13-14 year olds will have read or will be expected to read it at school this academic year.

yy to Jeffrey Archer being a good story teller. However, the man's still a wankerish arsewipe.

Terry Pratchett's discworld books are great at that age.

And did Catherine Cookson ever write a single book that didn't have a ravished housemaid/millgirl/insert Downtrodden Female from Up North of Your Choice as one of the major characters?

Now I haven't read them all Alpaca, but I'm fairly sure the answer to that is no.

The snow spider trilogy by Jenny Nimmo
The borribles trilogy by Michael Larrabeiti

Another vote for Stephen king

If she does find them too much then she can always stop reading

Dd has been going through a bit of an old book phase recently and has read 1984, lord of the flies, to kill a mocking bird, of mice and men, the grapes of wrath and wuthering heights

She's also enjoyed the color purple and catcher in the rye

The treasure seekers by E Nesbit, lovely book

Oh that reminds me, Treasure Island if she hasn't already read it.

I was big into Agatha Christie in my early teens, especially Poirot.

Another vote for To Kill A Mockingbird too.

"Homecoming" and "Dicey's Song" by Cynthia Voight.
When I was fiftenn (and for years after) it was "The story of my life" by Jay McInerney