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

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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?

Not sure if anyone has mentioned Daphne Du Maurier yet? Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, Frenchmans Creek, any of her stuff really. Mix of romance and dark/supernatural.

What about A S Byatt - start her on the short stories (actually a good idea for many authors) then onto the novels.

TBH, I think reading would be a help with depression rather than otherwise - it would offer another persective and she would see that she is not alone/weird for havig these issues. I think isolation must be a big prob if you suffer from depression as a teen, and novels addressing these issues would help that.

Penguin used to have a teenage list published as Peacock books - some of those recommended were Peacocks, I'm trying to remember what else there was - I'll see if I can find an old one with suggestions in the back (Anne of Green Gables was a Peacock, also I Capture the Castle)

CAGED bird sings - not sweet bird. Sorry, senior moment!

How about The water Babies by Kingsley? Also the What Katy did books by Susan coolidge were among my faves as a child, not sure about the exact age but they are great classics.

Dorothy L Sayers, Rosamund Lehman for starters. Dorothy Dunnett for historical stuff.

Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck
Chehkov plays
Don Quixote, Cervantes
Vanity Fair, fab book

There's a good Fay Weldon book called Letters to Alice about reading Jane Austen

I assumed she'd already been through What Katy Did, but if you can lay your hands on the two sequels 'What Katy Did at School' and 'What Katy Did Next' they are well worth slinging her way.

I like Victorian 'youth' fiction (see also all the Louisa M Alcotts, Anne Of Green Gables, Laura Ingalls Wilder etc) as a counetrbalance to the gritty-realism stuff.

Yes, the Laura Ingalls Wilder set of books are great too. Read them with my kids last year and they were abit young as some of it was hard for them to understand probably from an american historical point of view so 13 would be a more apropriate age.

How about Homer - the Odyssey. I studied Greek Literature at school and this is just a great story - Odysseus's 20 year journey home from the Trojan wars, his love for his wife & homeland etc.

Also i remember decouring Neville Shute at that age, trustee from the toolroom, On the Beach, A town like Alice etc

Oh god I loved A Town Like Alice at that age! How could I forget?!

Great idea to get into AS Byatt via short stories

Thanks again everyone

This is such a fab thread, I have recently had a major clear out of books to make way for DC no 2 and was feeling a bit bereft of good reading matter the other day. Am going to print this list off as inspiration for next time I go to the library - there's loads on here that either I last read as a teenager or have always meant to read, and I need something to do during the long sleepless nights!!

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For light reading what about Georgette Heyer? Heyer and Jean Plaidy were standard reading for me and my friends at that age - learned all our history from them.
As regards Jane Austen - I think Sense and Sensibility is the most teen-friendly one - Marianne is very easy to identify with at that age.

I think that these have already been suggested but here are further votes for:
Dodie Smith - I Capture the Castle
George Orwell - Animal Farm & 1984
Stella Gibbons - Cold Comfort Farm
Nancy Mitford - The Pursuit of Love
Jane Austen - Emma
Muriel Spark - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Maxim Gorky - My Childhood
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Charles Dickens - David Copperfield
I have to admit that I have never enjoyed Jane Eyre (oops) but prefer it to Wuthering Heights. I think the world is divided into pro-Brontes and anti-Brontes (and further into those who prefer Charlotte to Emily).

I know lots of mentions for Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle, but how about '101 Dalmations' for a bit of humour. Barbara Pym for gentle social comedy. Wilkie Collins' 'The Woman in White'. Pat Barker's earlier novels. Barbara Kingsolver (I particularly liked 'The Beantrees') What about Tolstoy and Flaubert?

Another Barbara Trapido fan here also - I saw her speak at a local literary festival, and came away with the opinion that 'Frankie and Stankie' was purely self indugence - many writers go back to their childhood at some point after writing several books. I am eagerly awaiting the next instalment of the Goldman saga.....

Great stuff everyone. Am going to compile her a fab list from all this.

Late to the thread - maybe too late - and haven't time to read all - has anyone recommended "Prodigal Summer" by Barbara Kingsolver?

I keep going back to it because it's a feelgood book, yet it's upfront about about death and about life events generally. Lots of strong women in the book.

I assume Pride and Prejudice has been mentioned? How lovely to be reading P&P for the first time!!

I loved Angela carter's books - Twins and Nights at the Circus are very potent books. I studied Carter first year English lit at uni so they might be a little beyond her.... but still a damn good read.

Chocgirl, I so agree about Angela Carter - I read The Magic Toyshop when I was 12 or 13 and loved it. The Company of Wolves would be good for a young reader too.

angela carter fantastic but weird! i'd say pratchett - discworld series
neil gaiman - neverwhere , stardust etc
jean m auel - clan of the cavebear

Not literature, but friends and I had a huge phase of Agatha Christie at around this age.

So many suggestions to agree with! What about Beryl Bainbridge? I think I would have liked An Awfully Big Adventure at 13.

That's funny molly, that one just came back to me - had just added it to the list when you posted!

sarah waters? my dd has loved her since year 6 - and if parents not too worried about sex etc, won't do any harm to have alternative views. she esp. liked fingersmith