The American Library Association (ALA) offers lists of banned and challenged books... those books which individuals and/or groups have sought to have removed from school curricula and/or from collections at public libraries.

Wikipedia has a summary article with a List of most commonly challenged books in the United States and links to ALA resources from which much of the article was derived.

Gifted children may be interested in the thought-provoking content of some of these books; Parents may wish to pre-screen.

One title of interest may be The Giver as the memories, "seeing beyond", and deep understanding developed by the character Jonas may in some ways parallel the gifted experience... and the resultant social rift between the gifted and typical age-mates, who simply do not share the knowledge base and therefore may be unable to relate to certain experiences and/or viewpoints.

Captain Underpants was the #1 most-challenged library book in 2012? And it was banned in some schools? I mean, okay, those books aren't exactly War and Peace, but...they never claimed to be.

Some people really, truly, have too few real problems to deal with.

If you liked Guns, Germs and Steel (and I agree it is absolutely fascinating) you may also like Collapse (same author) and Why nations fail (Acemoglu and Robinson). Ever since reading Collapse, I have had a morbid fascination with the Norse of Greenland and the collapse of their colonies...
No idea whether they're available as audiobooks, though. Carry on.

Before signing off, though, it occurs to me that 13 and up is the age for the classics! Old enough to understand love, and fear, and war, in ways that even gifted preteens cannot, not having the emotional range yet for desire, or hate, in ways that really lets you understand these books.

"A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History" by Nicholas Wade (2014) has a different explanation of why countries succeed or fail than these books. It is on my list of books to read.

Thanks, B!

I will be adding that to my baggage for a trip I need to take next week. I applaud the author's courage for daring not to allow questions like these to be swept under the rug given the wealth of scientific evidence that recent genetic research has yielded.

I think Under the Never Sky would work for mature twelve year olds, but it's really better for teens. It used to be one of my favorites.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1159...rom_search=true

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/under-the-never-sky

Another one, which I just read today, is Death Note Volume One: Boredom. It's a manga, the first in a series, and I'd recommend it fully! If you like that style/format, that is.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Note

Jon, Flora, and the Odd-eyed Cat might be hard to find, but if you can get a copy, I'd recommend it. It might even work for mature eleven or twelve year olds, but I was kind of confused with the magical realism when I read it at that age, so I feel like it's slightly better for teens.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1269...rom_search=true

Paperboy by Vince Vawter is getting a lot of attention in my family.

The Witch and Wizard series is good...for the first few books. After a certain point, they were just unnecessary, but the original, especially, is enjoyable.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_%26_Wizard