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!

I recently reread some Joyce Strangers- a short series about a young vet. They weren't very great literature, but readable enough. I think the first I read was from the school library.

I remember those, they weren't her best...Tiny?

Yes. Tim Yorke or something.

Oh i loved this too! And had forgotten all about it. Thank you for the reminder ☺

Absolutely loved these too! In fact i recently read her very last book, which her daughter completed after she died.

YY to Anne of Green Gables but also the Emily trilogy by the same author - first one is Emily of New Moon, IIRC.

I also loved The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

LM Montgomery also wrote Jane of Lantern Hill, which I think is a stand-alone book. My copy's quite battered (but slso older than i am.)

I loved Flowers in the attic at that age. Also Judy Blume and Sweet valley high.

At thirteen I was hugely into James Herriot and Gerald Durrell.

I read Northanger Abbey at 13. It is absolute proof that teenage girls have been the same for at least 200 years. I identified so hard with Catherine and the way her overactive imagination was influenced by her books.

Back Home - Michelle Magorian. She’s more well known for Goodnight Mr Tom which I also loved but Back Home was my all time favourite. It’s about a girl who was evacuated to the USA age 7 at the start of WW2, but now the war is over and she’s come home. But obviously she’s changed a lot between 7 and 12, and life for everyone at home has been indescribable. She’s trying to fit back in. I can also now see it from her mum’s point of view which makes it even more poignant.

I loved ghostly books. Can't even remember the name of most of them. Stephen King obviously. The Exorcist! I know I was a bit young. I loved Pride and Prejudice too. I would read anything back thing.