What classic book did you live when you were 13?

[Mardyface]

Hello!

Our family does a thing where we recommend a book we think someone else would like and then we rate it. It's my turn to recommend for my 13 yr old.

I'm trying to remember what I read and loved at 13. There are loads of brilliant YA books around but I think it should be one she wouldn't have come across or thought of for this exercise, and not necessarily a book aimed at children.

I've thought of Little Women and Anne of Green Gables but I know there must be loads more suitable ones!

Thanks in advance!

Brilliant book, it has stuck with me forever.

Did you read Candy Floss and Impunity Jane? Or the one about the family of dolls where the mum burned 😥?

Mine was Anne of Green Gables too. And The Secret Garden.

Depending on the 13 year old, by then I was devouring ‘adult’ books, so yes to Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, Bill Bryson, PG Wodehouse and Terry Pratchett. I’d have been a bit offended by being given Anne of Green Gables (although I love it again now I was touchy about such things at 13).

Yes that's definitely a consideration @DelurkingAJ . I might have missed the Anne Shirley window. Maybe if I just leave it lying around she might read it, I know my mum used to do that sort of thing.

Twopence to Cross the Mersey by Helen Forrester

Oh no!! @BloodAndFire re JG! Really? Back to drawing board for me re books.

Goodnight Mr Tom and there were some other books by the same author that I also loved.

I also read all the tuppence to cross the Mersey series and loved them in my early teens.

Rebecca, Wuthering Heights and Watership Down were all life savers for me at that age. Apart from those I didn't know how to find post - childhood books even though I was in the library every day. I ended up reading a lot of James Herriot and Miss Read. I'm not sure if any 13 year old would be interested in those now.

The book I remember reading at that age is The Far Pavilions. I read an awful lot as a child/ teenager so this is one of many. I was at boarding school and we passed books around so there was a wide range of subjects including some unsavoury ones!

I read a lot of Thomas Hardy at that age. Also the All Creatures Great and Small books, my Mum’s Agatha Christies, Watership Down, and anything I found in the house that looked interesting. Will scour my bookshelves now for things I might have missed.

I definitely read Flowers in the Attic around then

Me too, and Lace as well. I know I loved To Kill a Mockingbird at that kind of age, which is more obviously classic. I read a few Agatha Christies at that age. But I still read children's novels as well (Swallows and Amazons, Anne Shirley, Little House on the Prairie, The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, when Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, etc) and only moved completely to adult books about 17. Oh, I loved Paul Zindel The Pigman as a teenager, that would definitely be considered a YA classic these days, not sure if it's in print in the UK though.

Little Women and Heidi.

Great suggestions already. I loved Edgar Allen Poe and loads of creepy stuff around that age. I was also sneakily reading Jilly Cooper and Jackie Collins… the books would fall straight open to the rude bits!

I was younger than 13 for Anne, Laura Ingalls et Al.
13 I was into Science Fantasy. Lord of the Rings was first.
John Christopher as well as John Wyndham.
Marion Zimmer Bradley
David and Leigh Eddings (not sure if it’s politically correct to recommend now!)
Terry Pratchett
Sheri S Tepper
Lots of dystopian fiction, but written pre 1990 I’m old!

Thought of some more. I went a bit feminist so Margaret Atwood and Fay Weldon.

At that age I loved the Anne books, Swallows and Amazon books, The Treasure Seekers, Robinson Crusoe, the Katy books

Thé Greengage Summer, Rumer Godden
I also loved Lynne Reid Banks, particularly The L Shaped Room
Thé Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Discworld series. Mort was the first I read

A Vicarage Family by Noel Stretfeild but then I was from a vicarage family. Not helpful, sorry.

I loved animals at that age. The all creatures great and small series is great. I also read watershed down in a couple of days on a holiday, and I remember feeling lost when I finished it, i was so immersed in the books world.

Not classical but I devoured anything by Anne Mccaffrey in my teens, her books are fantasy/scfi. Loved all the Dragons of Pern books but also the Ship that sang universe and the crystal Singer.

Watership Down for me too. Must consider this for my own DD12

Anne of Green Gables (of course) and all things Judy Blume.

Asimov and other sci if books
Kurt Vonnegut
Wyndham

I had older siblings so got into sci fi early

I read so many of the books already mentioned. It really brings back memories. I :don’t think I can add anything else except to say I loved most of those upthread.