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.

Jane Gardam - Bilgewater and The Queen of the Tambourine

Ilse Koehn - Mischling, second degree - It is out of print but available on Amazon. It is a biography of a girl's young teen years during the 2nd world war in Nazi Germany as a part-jew. www.amazon.co.uk/Mischling-Second-Degree-Childhood-Germany/dp/0688841104

I'm so glad I stumbled into this thread... I've got some wonderful ideas for DTDS stocking fillers from it! Thanks everyone

And they are NOT going to include any Catherine Cookson btw

Ooh Cocolate I loved that book!!! (Jay McInerney).

When I was 14 I loved Catherine Cookson's Mary Anne stories . It was probably a time/place thing.

Posted before RTFT unlike me, I promise. And I see CC has already been mentioned and I started a sentence with 'And'

I still have my original copy of it theprodigalmum and I'm saving up a reread as a treat!!

Wonder how much I'll love it as a 40 year old...

I'd just moved back from New York when I read it

Coram Boy is a brilliant book. I love across the barricades too. And roll of thunder hear my cry. Also the lucy Maude Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott. My dd also read Wilkie Collins, Dickens. How about Daddy Long Legs ? The author of that I take my hat off too , I bought all her subsequent books, Jean Webster, she is a legend. Please google her.

A second vote for Nancy Drew Early I think I was 11 ish for Nancy but a lovely light, innocent read ifyswim if you're trying to keep things that way ...

When I say too I mean to.

At 13 - Dick Francis, Desmond Bagley, Alistair MacClean. Frankly, I'm grateful that dd reads YA novels which may contain sex, violence and underage drinking, but are much less dodgy in their sexual politics and power relations!

By 15 - lots of Women's Press sci-fi, Virago classics that sort of thing (possibly a reaction against the dubious content of the above? )

More practically, if she's at the older end of your age range, I'd very strongly recommend the Le Guin Hainish novels, particularly The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness, and also the short story collection The Birthday of the World.

Also Thorn Birds (twas about the same time as the TV prog) Lace, , Jackie Collins etc etc. In my defence I was at an all girls boarding school at this time.......

The one that stands out for me is The Outsiders. I've still got the same tatty version and last read it about a year ago..and I still love it.

Oh forgot to say one reason I loved it as a teen was because the author was only 17 (i think) - I found it so inspiring that someone only 3 years older than me had written such a brilliant book.

Another Adrian Mole fan here! Also Agatha Christie and Judy Blume. I would love to read the updated 'Are you there God, it's me Margaret" that a PP mentioned.

Judy Blume, Nancy Drew, Catherine Cookson, Kevin and Sadie series, Flowers in The Attic.
Then oved onto Sarah Harrison Flowers In The Field, Stephen King, The Red Dragon.

I loved goosebumps

I remember loving Nancy Drew, but I think I was about 11, also James Herriot vet books as I was a big animal fan.

I did also read 2001: a space odyssy and John Le Carre's books aged about 13 - which led me to list what I wanted to be when asked at school as vet, astronaut and spy.

When Marnie was There - can't remember who it was by, but my DD read it at about 13 and loved it as it has stood the test of time, however it took me three years to track down a second hand copy as out of print.