Hi friends,
My niece turns 12 next week as has hit a wall with her reading. I want to get her a book to encourage her to get back into it, but I don’t know what to get.
She used to be a voracious reader, I think ahead of her peers. For example, she’s read all the Harry Potter, Hobbit and Maze Runner books as well as a bunch of other fantasy books I’m not as familiar with. She loves fantasy but feels like some of the ones she’s read are too “little kid” for her now.
I don’t know many YA books to recommend for her as I also don’t know if she’s ready for adult level books either more for content than language. I also don’t want to get in trouble from my brother lol.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! TIA
by btherese77
26 Comments
Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. YA but with occasional heavier events.
Warrior Cats, Redwall, Animorphs, Coraline, The Hunger Games. I’ll throw some personal favorites that I can remember reading right around her age: His Dark Materials (starting with The Golden Compass), Jane Eyre, Tristan and Isolde.
At that age my daughter loved: Gregor the Overlander, the war that saved my life, the giver, hunger games.
The Emma Graham series by Martha Grimes.
I loved The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley at that age.
Maybe some of the Madeleine L’Engle books, like A Wrinkle in Time or A Wind In The Door. (Or my favorite of hers, The Young Unicorns.)
I remember especially loving Holes and The Giver at this age. The Giver is pretty mature for its intended audience, and Holes has a very whimsical feel just like Harry Potter. However, they’re not fantasy. The Giver is a dystopian novel and Holes would probably be considered Adventure/coming-of-age/Mystery.
Wings of Fire series! Intense for a middle grade series but very good. Getting her into some of the classics may be good too, like Frankenstein or books by the Bronte sisters. Another option is looking at banned middle grade books, those are practically guaranteed to be excellent.
the hunger games
the night circus maybe?
Anything by Michael Creighton. His books are very kind friendly, no language or sex scenes. My son started reading him at 10.
I think it’s meant for younger kids, but I enjoyed The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. And I am not usually one for YA, but I loved Harry Potter. I know a lot of adults love this book, too.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
My daughter LOVED Eragon when she was a teen. I’ve never read it.
Magnus Chase books by Rick Riordan – that series might be too young for her, but definitely worth looking into.
Have fun picking out books for your little bookworm!
“Wrinkle in Time” series.
“Sophie’s World”
This is a perfect age for Tamora Pierce books. They deal with some heavy topics (war, pandemics, discrimination) in an age appropriate way. I started reading them when I was about her age and I absolutely loved them. There’s two easy starting points: the Song of the Lioness series (girl disguises herself as her twin brother to train to be a knight) and the Circle of Magic series (four traumatized kids end up at the same magic school with some really neat magic). Some of the only books I read as a kid that addressed periods (in a totally normal, non-weird way).
Percy Jackson! İf she likes HP and maze runner
Hunger games could also be a good one since its similar to maze runner in some aspects
Also Divergent is a good YA book too again similar to Maze runner
I red all of these when I was around the same age, I mostly recomend Percy jackson tho i bet she will be obsessed
The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera “There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.
But Petra’s world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.
Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity’s past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether.
Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?”
Nevermoor Series, Artemis Fowl, any Rick Riordan series.
His Dark Materials series. I was a mature reader, and I think I read The Subtle Knife about her age and then later reread the series when I realized it was a series.
Other fantasy books I enjoyed:
The Shannara series. There’s a three book series followed by a three book prequel. I believe there’s also a couple of other spin offs.
I truly read just about everything I could get my hands on.
Other miscellaneous books, I remember:
No way out,
The sisterhood of the traveling pants series,
The Martian,
The Bogart,
Castle in the attic and it’s sequel, the time traveler’s wife,
Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlee, Five little peppers and how they grew,
My sisters keeper,
The Secret Garden,
Little women
I read Wheel of time pretty early on, by Robert Jordan.
The Aurelian Cycle series by Rosaria Munda. It’s the best YA I’ve read in a long time. it’s on the more mature end of YA without being adult or having anything inappropriate.
Not what you asked for, but **Cycle Savvy** by Toni Weschler is the period book we should have all gotten when we were 12. Seriously, she needs this book.
The Pendragon series perhaps?
The Ruby in the Smoke
Sally Lockhart is a marvelous heroine. The first page grabs you and then it’s a rollercoaster of adventure, set in 19th century England.
* [The Thieves of Ostia ](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1100282.The_Thieves_of_Ostia)by Caroline Lawrence
* [The Case of the Deadly Desperados](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9391978-the-case-of-the-deadly-desperados) by Caroline Lawrence
* [The Witch of Blackbird Pond ](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/703292.The_Witch_of_Blackbird_Pond)by Elizabeth George Speare
* [Murder Most Unladylike](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18070753-murder-most-unladylike) by Robin Stevens
* [From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3980.From_the_Mixed_Up_Files_of_Mrs_Basil_E_Frankweiler) by E.L. Konigsburg
* [The Phantom Tollbooth](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/378.The_Phantom_Tollbooth) by Norton Juster
* [The Keeper of the Isis Light ](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1190250.The_Keeper_of_the_Isis_Light)by Monica Hughes
* [The Armourer’s House](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1195105.The_Armourer_s_House) by Rosemary Sutcliff
* [Carrie’s War](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/885349.Carrie_s_War) by Nina Bawden
* [Harriet the Spy](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/232576.Harriet_the_Spy) by Louise Fitzhugh
* *The Hunger Games*
* *Johnny Tremain*
* *Private Owens: A George Owens Novel*
* *Swallows and Amazons*
Percy Jackson