To help my dd (13)engage in literature

[PartTimePartyPooper]

So, I don’t mean heavy literature… but my dd (age 13) wants to read a more heavy-going book alongside me - I suggested Animal Farm but she read it in Y6 and disliked it. She wants to read Lord of the Flies but I feel it’s too much.

She has enjoyed lighter books recently like Adrian Mole and she still prefers easy reads like Alex Rider. But she wants to get a bit better at Eng lit at school as she is struggling with it and we thought reading something together might be a good plan.

She had a try at Anne Frank but found it so unbearably sad she couldn’t force herself to finish it.

So I’m looking for something with drama/mild violence but not something to lose sleep over! Any ideas welcome

I think I answered my own question… To Kill A Mockingbird. My dd would love it!

The Outsiders by S.E.Hinton or Face by Benjamin Zephaniah

Agree re the outsiders.

I loved little woman at that age and also the Emily of New Moon series by LM Montgomery (teen angst in the 1900s)

Also 'I capture the castle'

I also started liking Vonnegut at that age - quiirky but classic

But I also think lord of the flies, if she is interested in it, is a good place to start ? rather than pushing things that are less bloody but less appealing

If you're after classics, what about things like Gulliver's travels or Little Women?
Or something like Goodnight mister tom?
My daughter is 12 and loves anything by Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackman author. They aren't classics as such but cover an awful lot of mythology...

Suggestions:

Falling Leaves, by Adeline Yen Mah
Anna of Byzantium, by Tracy Barrett
The Midwife's Apprentice, by Karen Cushman
The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse
Persepolis books by Marjane Satrapi
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, by Mark Haddon
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, by Annie Barrows

The Hunger Games? Although that's pretty violent...
His Dark Materials would fit the brief I reckon.

Jane Austen?

I have two teenage daughter. I adored To Kill a Mockingbird at that age but neither of them will ever read to any of my suggestions! Also loved Oranges are not the Only Fruit but again, no interest in reading my suggestions. Would be a good one at that age though, classic coming of age novel that a lot of schools study. Other coming of age novels my daughters have refused to read that I think might go down well with teenagers: The Color Purple, Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, Persepolis, Fun Home by Alison Bechdal (last two both graphic novels but wonderful).

Overall greek myths are incredibly popular, my 14yo still adores Rick Riordan and listens to a podcast all about myths. Both have read and enjoyed Madeline Miller (Song of Achilles and Circe), personally I found Song slightly YA but still a good intro to more literary novels.

Dark Academia is popular, there has been talk of reading The Secret History but that hasn't happened yet. When we Were Villians was a massive hit though, I've not read it but get the impression it's YA rather than literary. The Picture of Dorian Grey was a random hit as well.

Thank you for all these suggestions. Love love love some of these!

I’m making a list… some of these I’ve never heard of so will be looking them up, and a handful are on my shelf, and some are things I read as a teen and loved.

It will depend a bit what I can find in AbeBooks 🤭

I suppose I’m not after “classic classics” - Austen or Little Women as she’s not what I’d call a reader 😆and would probably go over my dd’s head (“boring”). But something with a strong/‘different’ voice. She quite likes being shocked (hence blood and violence) but I want to give her a book that grabs her in a different way. Or gives her a belly laugh. And some of these books on the list would absolutely tick those boxes.

They have been reading some weird choices at school so that’s giving me no clues at all and their list of “good things to read in Y8” is “a bit meh” as my dd put it. I want her to branch out into things she doesn’t recognise from Netflix!

I have yet to find a book she says is better than the film version. Sometimes I question whether she is just saying this to provoke me. These 21st century kids are strange creatures😆

You want something funny, quirky, edgy and gripping, something that will hook her into reading. Once she’s got the bug, she’ll never look back. Roald Dahl is wonderful for young readers. There is something about his style. I wasn’t much of a reader at her age, but Dahl totally hooked me. His autobiography, Boy, is aimed at younger readers and is wonderful. Some of his Tales of the Unexpected are also great (though you should probably vet them first). Kipling’s Just So stories are beautiful, as is The Wind in the Willows. They will give her a feel for the beauty of language. So will P G Wodehouse.

Also, short stories by great writers would be a good place to start. Thomas Hardy, D. H. Lawrence, Dickens, Joseph Conrad, Kipling, Tolstoy, etc, all wrote short stories. A book like Classic Short Stories, or The World’s Greatest Short Stories would be perfect. My mother used to work with troubled teens and once had them spellbound when she read them Hardy’s short story ‘The Withered Arm’. And these were kids who’d probably nicked a car the night before!

A few short, simple, but great books I’d recommend for the young:

Philip Pullman: His Dark Materials
George Orwell: Down and Out in Paris and London
George Orwell: Animal Farm
Willa Cather: My Antonia
George Eliot: Silas Marner