Older Teen Novels – Recommendations from Fran.

A while ago I asked some friends who have girls of similar ages to Fran and Maddy for some book recommendations. They all make reasonable use of the school library but I was pretty depressed a while ago at sight of another school library where the teen section was mostly stuff with books like “A Boy Called It”. There has to be more to life than that. The friends in question came up with some excellent suggestions and Fran and Maddy got a pile of books (real, paper ones) at Christmas. Here are some of the ones Fran has read since Xmas (and one from further back since I met the author the other week). She’s dictated quick, not very spoiler-ish remarks on them for me, just as a record of what she thought. I’m going to try and encourage her to keep me up to date this year. I do find that I’m very out of the loop these days; I don’t get time to read everything and books for teens are NOT like they were when I was 16.

5 Books read between the ages of 13 and 15.

The Book Thief –  It’s about a girl who has to stay with foster parents in Nazi Germany; it’s the story of how she learns to read, stealing books to satisfy an obsession she develops after a tragedy. The story is told by an unexpected narrator and it made me cry! Just really well written and interesting.

Linked – Story of a girl who gets weird hallucinations for a reason she doesn’t understand. She meets a twin sister and the story follows them through a alternative reality where twins are in great danger.

Ways to Live Forever – is about a boy with leukemia and a diary he keeps about things he wants to do before he dies. It’s a bittersweet look at fatal illness for children and ways of coping.

The Fault in Our Stars – about a girl who has cancer and gets really depressed. She meets a boy at a support group and their love story. Despite the storyline it’s a really funny book!

I’d Tell You I love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You – about a girl in a private school which is actually a spy school and the web she has to spin to keep her real school life a secret.

Other suggestions from my friends included:

Gone. (quite Horror-ish apparently).

The Mortal Instruments.

Divergent.

Chaos Walking.

Long Earth.

I’m also taking inspiration from Jax at LiveOtherwise who does lots of book blogging. I happen to have one of her recents on my Kindle for next The Midnight Rose and I also have my eye on the Flaxfield series.

Last year I had a year totally off’ actual reading’ (though I listened to masses of books; more on that soon) and this year Max and I have pledged not to watch mindless TV and read or ‘do’ in the evenings. I’ve set myself a 50 book challenge for the year (6 achieved so far) and decided not to be too high brow or prescriptive. I’m happy to read, listen, reread, wallow in chick lit and enjoy old favourites. It’s preparation for doing some writing soon, I hope. I just want to get back to modelling sitting down with a good book and I’m hoping to encourage all the kids to do more of the same. Maddy’s recent read list to follow shortly.

Any suggestions of things a mid-teen should add to her reading list?