Any good books with a 7th grade content level, but high school/college reading level? DD13 says she wants some harder books, but a good amount of the adult section books have bad themes and inappropriate language/situations. Shes really into classics, but also wants some nonfiction books and just normal novels. She just read the Hunchback of Notre Dame with minimal difficulty and really enjoyed it. (I believe her lexile was 1492, but that was at the beginning of the school year, so it might have improved) We are just trying to get a start on a summer reading list.

Has she read Jane Austen yet? Or -- this may be off the wall, but she might like dabbling in something like the Norton Anthology of English Lit. Little snippets from lots of authors, and she could go further with any of them that appealed to her. With anything pre-1960 or so, you shouldn't have to worry about language, though a lot of it might not be all that interesting to her yet.

NCMom had some great ideas! Mine are less classy, I'm afraid...

Hmmm--I wonder if she'd like the Jan Karon or Maeve Binchy books? Not great literature, but not bad either--they're adult books, but not adult books, if you see what I mean! (It has been years since I read any of them, but one of my dear friends is a very conservative pastor's wife, and she likes them, so I think my memory that they are quite innocent must be accurate.)

These are just silly, but fun: any of the PG Wodehouse books, any of the EF Benson "Lucia" books, Laurie King's Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, John Mortimer's Rumpole books, the Josephine Tey mysteries--maybe something there? I was vacuuming up those sorts of books at that age (well, the Laurie King ones are too recent for that, but I read lots of British humour and hundreds and hundreds of mysteries in junior high)--but perhaps she'd rather have something a bit more serious.

Biographies, maybe? Have to be a bit careful with the subject, I suppose, but there ought to be some safe ones!

You might try looking at Judith Wynn Halsted's book "Some of My Best Friends are Books." It has a heavily annotated bibliography of books suited for gifted readers at various age levels, and you might be able to tell from the descriptions whether something is apt to suit her or not.

peace
minnie

How abt young adults books like :-

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan
The Giver by Lois Lowry

If she likes biography, try
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir + Teacher Man by Frank McCourt

Most adult fiction and contemporary literature is said to only be written at around the 7th grade level so looking specifically for fidtion books at a high school or college level will not be very fruitful. At this point it really becomes about content. I'm not a real big fan of lexile levels because they are really only looking at word frequency and sentence length, hardly good measure of the complexity of a book.

I don't screen for content anymore for my son but back when I did, we found success with Agatha Christie novels. The antiquated style of writing, the vocabulary and the smattering of french thrown in kept my son interested and provided a little challenge at the time. I'm not sure though what you would consider 7th grade content level. There are murders but they are mostly bloodless. There is no sex. Some of them can be a bit racist, though, reflecting the times in which they were written. The best thing is that Christie was a prolific writer (about 80 novels) so if you're daughter does get interested there are more than enough to keep her occupied over the summer.

Also HIGHLY recommend James Herriot, if she hasn't discovered his books already. The first is All Creatures Great and Small.

Oh, and from the Norton Anthology -- Jerome K. Jerome (Three Men in a Boat) and P.G. Wodehouse spring to mind. (Well, I'm not sure Wodehouse rates the Norton Anthology, but he is funny. lol)

And I second Agatha Christie!

Had a couple of other ideas overnight:

Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm
Flora Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford

A Euro-based English reading list for 13 year olds?


Take a look at Madeleine L'Engle. Her "A Wrinkle in Time" is very good. Most of her other books are also good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wrinkle_in_Time

"The Scarlet Pimpernel" is another good book in the same milieu as Hugo's books.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scarlet_Pimpernel

I really liked Josephine Tey's "A Daughter of Time."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daughter_of_Time

And this might be also good to finish the summer with. You might be able to find it running in a local stock production.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Man_for_All_Seasons

To Kill a Mockingbird
Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights
The Time Machine
I Robot
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Gulliver's Travels

Thanks, she has already read "The Percy Jackson and the Olympians", "The Giver", "I Robot" (it might have had a different name, but it was by Asimov), "Journey to the.....", a few of the Agatha Christie books, so she already enjoys those, and will next year read "The Scarlet Pimpernel" for school. I might have missed a few, but we'll add those to the list./