Vanity - Book/Author Suggestions for a 12/13 y/o Girl

highimpact | 11/31/09 | highimpact

[highimpact]

I'm seeking help finding a new author and/or book suggestions for my daughter for Christmas. She is 12 going on 13, and very smart (gifted student, genius IQ, home-schooled.) She is moving beyond her pre-teen books.

I'm looking for books/authors that are early adult, without graphic sexual/horror situations. She enjoys mystery, history (fiction or non-fiction), adventure, and romantic comedy. She is a big fan of Brian Jacques and Gail Carson Levine.

[highimpact]

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

My early reading tended more to Fantasy and Sci-fi, so that is what I am going to recommend.

Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is great for a bright kid at that age or maybe Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Stephen Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle is a retelling of the Authurian legends with a strong historical feel threaded through it and might be something she would enjoy.

[Gapplega]

I think a great book (probably not for the holidays though, given the subject matter) would be the Diary of Anne Frank. I read it when I was that age. It was deeply moving.

The Hobbitt Series was a fun read.

[netmilsmom]

My nine year old is reading “The Hound of the Baskervilles” and loving it. She hated “Little Women” and dragged through it.

For fun, she was reading the Beacon Street Girls. They are written for Tweens. They are very much candyfloss, but they were cute and not objectionable.

I would suggest what my 12-year-old is reading, but I’m not sure how much your daughter likes Glenn Beck or Ann Coulter.
“Arguing with Idiots” is hilarious.

[Huntress]

Fiction: Watership Down by Richard Adams

Non-fiction: Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
The Corpse Had a Familar Face by Edna Buchanan

I especially recommend Edna Buchanan’s books. She used to be the crime reporter for the Miami Herald before she quit to write novels. She writes some of the best prose I’ve ever read, and says more in a few paragraphs than most writers say in a dozen pages.

[highimpact]

The Hobbitt/LOR series is a great suggestion. It never crossed my mind. I read it as well around that age. I don’t know about the Diary of Anne Frank. I’ve never read it. Would you recommend that book for a child who occasionally has nightmares (2-3 times a year)?

[Huntress]

Also: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

[6323cd]

“The Velvet Room” by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. It’s a wonderful story and extremely well-written.

[highimpact]

“I especially recommend Edna Buchanan’s books. She used to be the crime reporter for the Miami Herald before she quit to write novels. She writes some of the best prose I’ve ever read, and says more in a few paragraphs than most writers say in a dozen pages.”

Sounds like I might like her myself. I love true crime stories, and I hate flowery prose. What book would you suggest to start with?

[highimpact]

I will check it out. Thanks.

[Ronin]

The Once and Future King
T.S. White

Captains Courageous, Kim, The Light that Died
Rudyard Kipling (In fact, anything by Kipling)

The Honor Harrington series (Horatio Hornblower IN SPAAACE!!!!) Honor, duty, courage in a Royal Navy in the far future with good hard science mixed in. The Hero (heroine?) is female, and a great positive role model.
David Weber

The Hyperion series (Lots of philosophical insights but may be too advanced.)
Dan Simmons

[highimpact]

“Also: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.”

Good one. I read it 20 years ago. Thanks.

[highimpact]

What do you all think of the Isaac Asimov “Foundation” Trilogy? Too early for a 12 year old? She has never explored Sci-Fi before. I remember really enjoying those books when I was a teen.

[highimpact]

I appreciate the suggestions. Thanks.

[heartwood]

True Grit by Charles Portis
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
The Golden Ocean by Patrick O’Brien
Beowulf trans. by Seamus Heaney
Podkayne of Mars by Robert Heinlein
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
some stories by Tolstoy

[G Larry]

“Prude” by Carol Platt Liebau.
‘How the Sex-Obsessed Culture Damages Girls’

You read it first!
Then decide how long you can afford to wait to have her read it.

[6323cd]

Here's a good synopsis/review.

[Huntress]

Start with The Corpse Had a Familar Face. It’s a collection of essays from her career as a reporter. There’s also a second collection of essays, but I don’t recall the title. Her novels are pretty good too. Most of them center on the Britt Montero character, who is, naturally a crime reporter in Miami.

[highimpact]

“I would suggest what my 12-year-old is reading, but I’m not sure how much your daughter likes Glenn Beck or Ann Coulter.
“Arguing with Idiots” is hilarious.”

I have all the Ann Coulter books except that one. I enjoy them, but my daughter’s a bit young to start with the deeply political material. We watch Glenn Beck, and the kids disappear. They’re a couple years away from understanding the bigger picture he’s talking about. I appreciate your suggestions, though. Especially “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” I had completely forgotten about that book.

[inpajamas]

Here is a book I released not many weeks ago. However, she would really need to be up on current events to follow the story. I have a daughter that age also, but probably her, and most others at that age would need a few more years and an interest in religion and politics to keep up with it.

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