Book reccomendations for 13 year old girl

calaflower

Thu, Oct 29 2015, 11:47 pm

Not sure what to do- my dd desperately needs books to read ( on her Kindle not connected to internet...) any books she tells me her "frummer" friends are reading seem totally inappropriate ! Although I don't shelter my kids we do allow them certain movies ( we don't have tv...) but I need Pareve books that don't have too much boy/girl stuff, yet don't have savages killing each other ( like hunger games)
Any reccomendations?
TIA!

amother

Lemon

Fri, Oct 30 2015, 12:05 am

Thsee are things my tween and young teen girls have been enjoying lately:

Fablehaven series
Percy Jackson series
Harry potter series (for the umpteenth time)

They all have mild (imho) boy/girl stuff and some violence but not the awful hunger games type of stuff. The good guys win in the end and good "middos" triumph over bad.
The Percy Jackson series does have references to the Greek Gods but makes them out to be quite silly and imho no different than any other fantasy characters.

amother

Mauve

Fri, Oct 30 2015, 4:54 am

I loved the books by Kit Pearson- The sky is falling, the lights go on again, a handful of time, awake and dreaming. Also books by Jean Little- some I can think of are Mine for Keeps, Spring begins in March, Someone Else's Summer, Stand in the wind. I dont remember exactly how old I was when I read them, but I think around that age...

gp2.0

Fri, Oct 30 2015, 10:33 am

The chronicles of narnia, a series of unfortunate events, Harry Potter, any of Eva ibbotson's children's books (secret of platform 11 etc) books by Edward eager, Roald dahl, e.b. White, a wrinkle in time series, little house in the big woods series, a little princess, the golden compass series, Ella enchanted and other books by Gail Carson Levine, (also look around for other fairy tale adaptations, there are a lot of great ones) Mrs Frisby and the rats of NIMH, Artemis fowl series, little women.

bigsis144

Fri, Oct 30 2015, 10:44 am

gp2.0 wrote:

I'm very open-minded, but I'm glad I didn't read these books until my twenties. And I really, really liked them!

While spiritual (and featuring angels and captial-G God as characters), they're very much against organized religion. The clim@x of the series is a boy and girl re-enacting the Choice of Adam and Eve, with the heroic path being listening to the "serpent" character and "eating from the tree of knowledge".

Maybe as an adult I was able to read more into everything and it would fly over the head of a younger reading, but I'm not sure if I'd recommend these books to an impressionable frum kid.

MagentaYenta

Fri, Oct 30 2015, 10:55 am

Sherlock Holmes, Dumas, Robert Louis Stevenson, Ray Bradbury, Jayne Eyre, Poe, Henry James, Willa Cather, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harriet the Spy, The Giving Tree, The Outsiders. There are so many great classics free online. Many like TKAM have topical subjects that are worth exploring with your child. And don't forget writers like Maxine Hong Kingston (The Woman Warrior) that give your child a view into other lives and cultures.

gp2.0

Fri, Oct 30 2015, 11:22 am

bigsis144 wrote:

Lol I got none of that when I read them as a kid. Time to reread them.

As adults, in general, our reading experience is very different than as children.

sequoia

Fri, Oct 30 2015, 12:06 pm

Does she like L. M. Montgomery? If she already read and enjoyed the Anne of Green Gables series, she could try some of her more adult books like Among the Shadows and The Blue Castle.

spring13

Fri, Oct 30 2015, 5:08 pm

Google "clean YA books", you'll find lots of blogs with lists and recommendations.

Whenever someone posts this question, most of the suggestions are either kids' stuff or classics. Well, most teens aren't going to find those satisfying. But reasonable YA-friendly stuff is out there if you look for it.

Just a few ideas -

Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn
Princess Academy series by Shannon Hale
Daughter of Venice by Donna Jo Napoli (she has other good stuff)

bigblueyes

Sat, Oct 31 2015, 3:55 pm

I second the anne of green gables series, and how about perry mason? Enid blyton- english and really cute(the secret seven,the naughtiest girl) also the mallory towers series, I adored them. The chalet schoolgirls, st.clares girls( all old fashioned boarding school books.....loved!) Also mary stewart books, a little romantic but super subtle and beautifully written. Really cant rememeber how old I was when I started them though.
Also,the family for a while series, cheaper by the dozen, and all the books by the author of little woman- there are lots in the series and I rememeber loving them.

PinkFridge

Sun, Nov 01 2015, 7:43 am

spring13 wrote:

Google "clean YA books", you'll find lots of blogs with lists and recommendations.

What a great idea!
You may also want to check out the secular book list on chinuch.org - I don't know how up to date they are but they list lots of books, and rate them in a way that's very helpful. Hatzlacha!

ahuva06

Sun, Nov 01 2015, 7:56 am

bigblueyes wrote:

I second Enid Blyton books! She is a fabulous writer. I read her books over and over when I was younger!