tammyw Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 My daughter has always been a big reader. It's sad that she's getting older! I'm always careful to make sure the books she reads are age appropriate (I'll be waiting until 13 for her to read The Hunger Games). I'm wondering if there are any great books that she wouldn't have been ready for before, but would now. She's a mature 12 year old, but I definitely don't want any books with sex in them at all. Just wanting to make sure we don't miss anything great. She loves a good variety of books including historical fiction. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Some good ones I remember from middle school: The Bronze Bow The Hiding Place The Giver (dystopia but no se#ual innuendo) Hinds Feet on High Places The Yearling The Hobbit Patricia St. John books Tom Sawyer and Mark Twain Watership Down Island of the Blue Dolphins and other Scott O'Dell books Anne of Green Gables The Newberry Award list has some books that are great for his age as well. I think one of my ds, who read through the list, was finishing the list up in 6th grade. Unfortunately, the newer titles tend to have heavier themes. There are some good books from Lamplighter Publishing that my dd enjoyed as well. Lisa 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge. L 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge. L :001_wub: :001_wub: :001_wub: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Check out the 1000 Good Books list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 What about The Outsiders? My dd read it this year and was utterly blown away - it became her favorite book. Definitely not something I'd have wanted her to read before 12. She also read Holes, The Wednesday Wars, and Okay for Now which were suggestions from Farar from a "What to read if you loved The Outsiders" thread. Other slightly more mature books she's read recently include Steelheart and Firefight by Brandon Sanderson and The House of the Scorpion and The Lord of Opium by Nancy Farmer. And The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. She's also enjoyed Agatha Christie books this year, plus The Maltese Falcon, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Friendly Persuasion, and Shane. Just yesterday she inhaled the first David Eddings Belgariad book, Pawn of Prophecy. She loved it so much she immediately read it again and is impatiently waiting for the rest of the series to come from the library. It was also a good year to read and discuss slightly darker lit, like Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man, and Macbeth. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 I'm not going to try to sort out "books that are okay for 12 year olds that might not be okay for 10 year olds", so it's possible, nay, probable that she's encountered some of these before. However, they are all, I can attest, *interesting* to 12 year olds, even those who have already read The Hunger Games :) Historical fiction off-the-top-of-my-head options: When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit One Crazy Summer Dragonwings The Pickpocket's Tale Back Home (mentions of skinnydipping at a "free school" - this must have been common at those schools, because other books I've read set in those schools have almost the same exact line about other people complaining and the students retorting that they shouldn't look if they don't like it!) Out of Many Waters The War That Saved My Life (serious child abuse bookends the story) The Great Brain Al Capone Does My Shirts When My Name Was Keoko (this one can be intense) The Mighty Miss Malone Dave at Night Celeste's Harlem Renaissance The Sky is Falling Esperanza Rising Fantasy/sci-fi works that spring instantly to mind: Earthsea The Dalemark Quartet Vodnik A Face Like Glass Cuckoo Song Fly By Night Un Lun Dun Dangerous Book of a Thousand Days Princess Academy (ignore the stupid title) Nine Pound Hammer Monster Blood Tattoo (very dense!) The Peculiar Cinder (you might want to pre-read) The Floating Islands Mirror of Fire and Dreaming (the second book is better) Fall of a Kingdom (first book is a bit slow, mostly set-up, but it pays off) The Search For WondLa So You Want to Be a Wizard Hammer of Witches Breadcrumbs Akata Witch Zahrah the Windseeker Under the Root The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Anne of Green Gables Oliver Twist The Giver Little Women The Hobbit Bambi A Wrinkle in Time The Light Princess and Other Stories, Phantastes or others by George MacDonald The City of Ember (and the rest of the series) Heidi Gene Stratton-Porter's books - DD loved Laddie: A True Blue Story, but Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost are good, too. Rumer Godden has some good stuff, maybe An Episode of Sparrows or Gypsy Girl anything by Elizabeth Enright 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 What about The Outsiders? My dd read it this year and was utterly blown away - it became her favorite book. Definitely not something I'd have wanted her to read before 12. She also read Holes, The Wednesday Wars, and Okay for Now which were suggestions from Farar from a "What to read if you loved The Outsiders" thread. Other slightly more mature books she's read recently include Steelheart and Firefight by Brandon Sanderson and The House of the Scorpion and The Lord of Opium by Nancy Farmer. And The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. She's also enjoyed Agatha Christie books this year, plus The Maltese Falcon, Arsenic and Old Lace, The Friendly Persuasion, and Shane. Just yesterday she inhaled the first David Eddings Belgariad book, Pawn of Prophecy. She loved it so much she immediately read it again and is impatiently waiting for the rest of the series to come from the library. It was also a good year to read and discuss slightly darker lit, like Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, The Invisible Man, and Macbeth. This is the direction we will be going next year with a precocious 11 y.o. Also mystery like Sherlock Holmes and maybe some Poe or short stories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 At age 12, I was a big lover of fantasy and fairytales, and was just beginning to get interested in sci-fi. What does your DD like? :) That's a great age a great time to explore new cultures and beliefs, and to read biographies of real people who did selfless things and served others to encourage an attitude of looking outside of yourself throughout the teen years as well. (And if Christian, to read inspirational works to encourage your faith.) That's also a great beginning age to explore the ideas raised by fantasy and sci-fi. And as a girl growing to womanhood, it's a great time to explore works of what it means to be a woman, or focus on works with female protagonists. And, 12yo is the age of teetering towards growing up, but still a good part of you is a child, so nuture that little girl part of her with warm and wonderful children's classics that you didn't a chance to do before, or re-read some special favorites. Enjoy this special summer of 12yo reading! Warmest regards, Lori D. classics - A Little Princess; The Secret Garden (Burnett) - Rikki Tikki Tavi; Just So Stories (Kipling) - Island of the Blue Dolphins (O'Dell) - Anne of Green Gables; Anne of Avonlea (Montgomery) - Little Women (Alcott) - Christie (Marshall) real life - The Hundred Dresses (Estes) - Plain Girl (Sorensen) - Family Under the Bridge (Carlson) - In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (Lord) - The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Robinson) - The Toothpaste Millionaire (Merrill) adventure - The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Aiken) - Daughter of the Mountains (Rankin) - My Side of the Mountain (George) historical fiction - The Bronze Bow (Speare) - Adam of the Road (Gray) - The Big Wave (Buck) - Indian Captive (Lenski) - Catherine Called Birdy; Midwife's Apprentice (Cushman) - Caddie Woodlawn (Brink) - Calico Bush (Field) - Sounder (Armstrong) - The Great Wheel (Lawson) - Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Taylor) mystery - The Westing Game (Raskin) - From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (Konigsburg) - Chasing Vermeer (Balliett) fantasy - Five Children and It; The Phoenix and the Carpet; The Book of Dragons (Nesbit) - Half Magic; Magic by the Lake, Knight's Castle; Time Garden; Seven Day Magic (Eager) - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll) - The Ordinary Princess (Kaye) - Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis) - Hitty, Her First Hundred Years (Field) - Howl's Moving Castle; House of Many Ways (Jones) - Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Wrede) - The Princess and the Goblins; The Princess and Curdie (MacDonald) - The Hobbit (Tolkien) - The Phantom Tollbooth (Juster) talking animals - One Hundred and One Dalmatians (Smith) - Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (O'Brien) sci-fi / speculative fiction - Below the Root (Snyder) - Tuck Everlasting (Babbitt) - The Green Book (Walsh) - Enchantress from the Stars (Engdahl) - City of Ember; People of Sparks (Du Prau) - Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tammyw Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 Thank you all SO much!! Great suggestions! She's read a bunch but a bunch she hasn't (and a few she tried when she was younger and couldn't get into but would totally be into them now, so thanks for that!) I'm excited! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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