A great book for a 12-year-old, maybe some who are older: ‘My Side of the Mountain’, Jean Craighead George. If they like it, there are two other books in the trilogy:
https://www.amazon.com/Side-Mountain-Jean-Craighead-George/dp/0141312424
We have the trilogy but for some reason my son didn’t care for the book. Unfortunately. I have tried the Hatchet series with him but that was a no-go as well.
As for me, I’m finishing up “My Name is Mahtob”, Mahtob Mahmoody being the little girl from Michigan who was held against her will in Iran by her father (her mother wrote “Not Without My Daughter”). Next on my list is “On the Beach” by Nevil Shute (Australians in a beachside community are waiting for nuclear fallout to reach them in a few days).