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!

Ooh and 'the outsiders' by SE Hinton

Black Beauty
Pollyanna

I loved horse and pony books, but my favourite ones were the Jinny and Shantih at Finmory ones.

Still love them now!

I wanted an Arab mare to have fantastic adventures with (the mystical ones were my favourites) and to gallop about in the Highlands all day with.

Crikey. I'm a voracious reader. Eng lit degree. Love Ulysses. Got through Lincoln in the Bardo. Will read pretty much anything. Keep trying Crime and Punishment and still can't hack it. It's one of those books I start, put down, and just don't pick up again. Certainly wouldn't have enjoyed it at 13.

Or on second thoughts, maybe you have to be 13 to have the right mindset.

I read C&P in my 20s and enjoyed it. I think that poster was on a wind-up though.

(Also eng lit 1st degree & also a Ulysses fan - I read the whole thing aloud when pregnant with my 1st.)

Yes, Anna Karenina is one of my favourites but if I give it to my 13 year old she will never read one of my recommendations again!

I feel the same about Austen though; I thought about Northanger Abbey as a good start but I think I'll let her discover those in her own time.

Some great suggestions here though. She's read lots of them but many more she hasn't and I forgot about! Thanks.

We had to do Northanger Abbey and pride and prejudice at school and it put me off Austen permanently. I think it's really difficult to enjoy a book if you've been forced to read it line by line in a room full of grumpy reluctant teenagers.

Thanks for inspiring such a great thread@Mardyface Will go through it with my daughter this eve and see which ones she has/hasn't read.

Lovely to see Sheri Tepper get a mention. Her books I always enjoyed, but a little variable in quality. Great feminist writer.

Robert Westall is still one of my favourite writers and Diane Wynne Jones.

I'm trying to think what I was reading when I was 13. I recall a paperback copy of The Rats by James Herbert, that was passed round the school year, maybe not that.

The Weird Stone of Brisingamen, in fact all of the books by Alan Garner.

@IcakethereforeIam
My favourite is The Gate to Women’s Country

Oh and tHe Dark is Rising is definitely still in print, DS10 and I have read them all in the past year.

The Gate to Women's Country is excellent, I need to reread it, it's been a while. I loved all the Truegame stuff, imagining what powers you would have (shifter), as a standalone I have always had a soft spot for The Enigma Score.

Yes loved Christopher pike!
Also remember loving Tamora Pierce Lioness series, was great to have a proper female heroine at that age.

Adrian Mole

I was in to the classics then- Sense and Sensibility being the stand out favourite but I worked my way through the penguin classics as my mum had them all.
Plus the whole Little Women series. They were her old volumes from the early 50’s. I still have those, they are precious. I was named after a character in it.

Tuppence to cross the Mersey series as mentioned already. I basically read all my mum’s books.

My friend Flicka was also a big favourite around that age too although it is desperately bloody sad. I can’t do it now it makes me sob. I was (still am) a horsey kid.

All creatures series and Anne of GG too.

I devoured books. I wish I had the time to read now, best I get is audiobooks on the commute. Too tired to actually read often now.

DD1 (14) says the word on booktok is to start with Emma so suspect that might be her first Austen. I'd have thought P&P (or as @Mardyface says Northanger Abbey) would be more accessible.

A Town called Alice by Neville Shute is a book I remember having a massive impact on me at that age. Also Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury.

I think I read Memoires of a geisha at that age and found it incredible

All the stories of genteel ladies of standard classics never appealed to me.
I absolutely loved The Willard Price books about the adventures of Hal and Roger, two teenage boys, who travelled the world working for their father’s wildlife business. They are dated now because we know more about animal conservation (they were written in the 50s) but they were thrilling to read because of the adventure and danger and there was always a villain in the plot.

I don't even know if these are still in print, but my granny had a selection of hardback cloth covered books which I loved at that age. My favourites were The Bond Maid (Pearl S Buck), Joy and Josephine and The Story of Esther Costello. All full of tragedy! I wouldn't necessarily recommend for your 13 year old, but I remember loving them! I think I also read Jane Eyre for the first time about then and loved it.

At thirteen I was reading Jane Austen novels. I think I started with Emma as my English teacher recommended it.

I also liked A Little Princess and The Secret Garden.

I really wouldn't recommend this to a 13-yr-old girl (or indeed to anyone!)
It was written by an American man who totally fictionalised and lied about the women in it, and was sued for defamation by the woman he based the main character on
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/memoirs-of-a-geisha-scorned-284089.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoirs_of_a_Geisha#Lawsuit
mai-ko.com/travel/culture-in-japan/geisha/the-memoirs-of-geisha-and-mineko-iwasakis-story/

I read everything (we didn't have a TV.)

As well as KM Peyton's Flambards series, she's written tons of others, including the Pennington series, Ruth Hollis (Fly by Night) and Jonathan Meredith (Prove Yourself a Hero) - they all overlap. But there are other horse and sailing stories which are one-offs.

I was keen on John Christopher at that point - Tripods, which was adapted by the BBC not long after I first read it, and I was allowed to go to a friend's for tea so I could see it. Also the Death of Grass and the Sword of the Spirits series.

Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451.

Rumer Godden (especially the Greengage Summer.)
Margaret Mahy (especially the Changeover.)
Diana Wynne Jones

Various classes including Hardy, Austen, Dickens, to Kill a Mocking Bird.

Also Lace, Flower in the Attic, Judy Blume's Forever.

And I was rereading Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and all sorts.

It's a great age - homework not yet unmanageable, no exams yet, no part-time jobs, just lots of time for reading in between school and swimming club and violin practice.

@BloodAndFire
Ohh I had no idea! Thanks for flagging that, yikes.

I was really into James Herriot and Gerald Durrell books at that age (animal lover).

Me too!

Yup, also liked the Hal and Roger Hunt books, they have dated. The Black Stallion and its sequels. There was a writer, Joyce Stranger, who wrote a lot of animal themed books. The caravan site where we holidayed always seemed to have her new titles in, so she was always my holiday reading.