Recommend some books to a 13yo girl who's passionate about literature!

[franch]

This is heaven for me - reliving my discovery of literature through a friend's DD! She's very mature and is reading 'grown up' fiction (White Teeth, Birdsong, etc) - so far I've come up with:

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
J D Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
L P Hartley, The Go Between
Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway
D H Lawrence, Sons and Lovers

Please add to my list - I'm sure I've left off some really obvious ones.

I'd also like to recommend some biography/non fiction to her but wonder if 13's a bit young for A Child Called It, A Piece of Cake etc. I think she's keen to have her eyes opened in the way these books do though - anyone read anything that might be more suitable?

Little Women?

With biography, think Helen Forrester's series of autobiographies made a big impact on me at that age - first one was called something like Ferry Across the Mersey. E Nesbit's one was interesting, as she was an author I knew well. How about Anne Frank?

Hi Franch!

Ooh Edam I remember Helen Forrester - wasn't the first one Tuppence to Cross the Mersy, another one I think was called Liverpool Miss or something but like you they had a huge impact on me and I was quite young when I read them.

So... all the Austens and Brontes!
Has she read through Malorie Blackman? The Checkmate trilogy!
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
Little Women as has been suggested

Will need to sit back and think. So many books.... so little time!

Great suggestions, thanks. Yes, Austen - wasn't sure which one to start with. Personally I'd go for Northanger Abbey but don't think that'd be most people's choice - it'd be P&P, wouldn't it?

Knew you'd jump on this thread Mars, posted it just for you really

lol!

Pride and Prejudice without a doubt. And Emma!

Oh to be discovering those books again....... sigh..............

How you doing angel? And those gorgeous girlies? I think you must be due to email me a photo! Did I send you the one of the Marslets?

My dd read angela's ashes in yr 6 and survived the trauma so that might be a good one.
Deborah Moggach ,Changing Babies and Tulip Fever,my dd loved these.

Jeffrey Eugenides, Virgin Suicides and Middlesex,although my dd read these recently at 15yrs so they may be a bit too adult in their content iyswim.

Thomas Hardy ,Tess of the D'urbevilles or any Hardy imo

Aslo second the Mallorie Blackman trilogy.
DD has also enjoyed Elizabeth Berg's books aswell.

I would add 'The Great Gatsby' by F Scott Fitzgerald and 'The Northern Lights' trilogy by Philip Pullman, though suspect she may have already read those. Also 'The Nation's Favourite Poems' - a fab poetry anthology.

Exactly, I do envy her. That heady cocktail of hormones and literature - nothing like it.

We're great! Yes you did email me that stunning photo. Will find one for you. And we will meet again ....

Oops, sorry, cross posted - that last one was for Mars

A tree grows in Brooklyn
loved it at that age

also read Day in the life of Ivan Denisiovich (sp??) at about that age...really gritty stuff

not 'literature' But I adored Gone with the Wind at that age!

We will indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tulip Fever was fantastic!

Thanks ggirl & abgirl - yes meant to add Great Gatsby and a Hardy - once again my choice would be a bit eccentric, The Return of the Native - but yes, Tess probably the best choice

Will compile a list and feed it to her in bits - don't want to overwhelm her!

also
Forever Amber
Cold Comfort Farm
I Capture The Castle
any Michelle Magorian she hasn't read yet
Anna Karenina (might be a bit weighty)

fwiw I didn't come round to biography or nonfiction till much much later.

Go ASk Alice - by anonymous, teenagers version of A piece of Cake

DD1 (nearly 12) has recently enjoyed:

Muriel Spark: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Esther Freud: Hideous Kinky
Dodie Smith: I capture the Castle
Alexandra Fuller: Don't Let's Go to the dogs tonight (gritty, though)
Jeanette Winterson: Oranges are not the Only fruit (assuming discreet sex scenes are acceptable)
Amy Tan: The Kitchen God's wife
Adeline Yen Mah: Falling Leaves

You could also try Sylvia Plath: The Bell Jar, which I haven't suggested to dd1 yet, but 13 is probably the right age.

And:

Barbara Trapido: Brother of the more famous Jack
John Steinbeck: The Red Pony
Hemingway: For whom the bell tolls
Kafka: Metamorphosis
Joyce: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Maya Angelou
Toni Morrison: Beloved
Jung Chang: WIld Swans

Can you tell Ive been having fun with dd1's reading matter?

FWIW I would bypass the 'My Horror Childhood' genre (Dave Pelzer et al) completely, as I think they're vile, sensationalist and completely without literary merit. I feel similarly about the Goosebumps books for younger boys. Hideous childhoods are a reasonable subject for literature, but there has to be some kind of context which I think is lacking this this whole publishing bandwagon. Alexandra Fuller, Maya Angelou, Roddy Doyle, Adeline Yen Mah etc do gritty childhood, but go far far beyond sensationalism.

Thanks! Some great additions. Nearly put Jeanette Winterson but thought I might get into trouble from the parents!

Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison etc great idea

Good point about the abuse books frogs

Aaah, hold me back from wishing the DDs' childhoods away - can't wait till they get to this stage

Loved Brother of the more famous Jack.

Just updating DD1's list of books. She's devouring everything!

I don't know if it would be considered old-fashioned, but I loved Margaret Drabble's books at that age, especially ones like The Millstone. Completely agree about Maya Angelou vs Dave Pelzer. Alice Hoffman might be worth a try, too, and maybe Anne Tyler?

When you recommend Maya... hand over a large box of tissues!

jane eyre - still my fave book (i have 5 editions!)
Maya Angelou - Blue Eyes
Alice Walker - the colour purple
Alexander Mcall Smith - the no1 ladies detective agency
Anita Shreeve - anything
Ann Tyler - anything
Ruth Prawer Jhavala - heat and dust
I read the female eunuch at 13

Actually, thinking about Maya reminds me that Jessica Mitford would be good as a non-fiction author- Making of a Muckraker, maybe.

Hey Mars! It's rare to find someone else who's read Barbara Trapido. Very underrated I feel. Temples of Delight by the same author is also a lovely book -- light and easy to read but quite a lot of depth. The sex scenes in both that and Brother of the more famous jack are reasonably explicit, though, so only for a child whose parents are upfront about sex and matters physical.

Don't lets go to the dogs tonight is also a fantastic book -- the protagonists are drunken white Rhodies in the 1970s, so inherently hard to like but the author manages to portray them both sympathetically and critically. The followup by the same author is definitely NOT for younger teenagers, though. White Boy Running is also good for Africa lovers, as is Alan Paton (Cry the Beloved Country etc).

If she can get into magic realism, then Italo Calvino appeals to a certain type of teenager. Also Mervyn Peake. 13 is probably not too young for Orwell; the Hemingway I meant was Farewell to Arms, not For Whom the Bell Tolls.