Some of the books that my 11yo has recently (well, within the last year or so) read for school/extension activities:
Jack London's Call of the Wild
The Red Badge of Courage,
Pride and Prejudice
Othello* (but be aware that there are sexual elements of this play)
Romeo and Juliet* (ditto on the above)
A Midsummer Night's Dream* (ditto on the above, though less obvious here)
To Kill a Mockingbird
Fahrenheit 451
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Night
* These are available as fantastic "side-by-side" editions with the full unedited text on one page and the modern English equivalent on the facing page. My daughter first read R&J that way when she was about seven-- it helped her follow the play when we saw it that year.
I'd think that To Kill a Mockingbird or Something Wicked This Way Comes would be terrific choices. While the subject of rape is an uncomfortable thing, TKaM is not, by any means graphic in its treatment of that subject. Do be aware that there are racial slurs used in that book. (When DD read that, we talked a long time about the meaning of the word "common" as a choice of genius on the part of Harper Lee.)
One thing that I try to be careful of is to preserve those few novels that are slated for the curriculum as "pristine" where we can. I saved TKaM for DD for this fall because even though she could have read it a year ago, I knew that her 9th grade English class would be reading it. It's hard enough that she generally reads so much more than her classmates-- it just takes the joy out of it if she's read something several times by the time she sees it in school. BTDTGTTS.
We definitely struggle with reading material around here, as well. I haven't been able to completely vet content since DD was about eight; she just reads so darned FAST. My DD loves John Grisham, Dan Brown, and Jodi Piccoult, but wowie-o... I warn her off of stuff that has overt sexual content. She's just not ready for it, so she actually appreciates me telling her "No, it has sexual content."
On the other hand, she is slowly becoming okay with some of that, which is opening up new avenues for her.
Other things she's really enjoyed lately--
Patrick MacManus' books,
Alan Gordon's Fool's Guild historical mysteries,
H.G. Wells
George Orwell
Mark Twain
Dickens
Marley and Me
DonnaJo Napoli's YA novels (these are really very good, even if DD blows through them pretty fast)
FWIW, I think I was about twelve when I first read The Bell Jar. <shudders> Not good.
