Book suggestions for teen needed

Daughter, who will be turning 13 very soon, has been consuming books at a feverish pace lately.
And while her mother and I agree love this it has presented a bit of a problem in that she’s about done with the series she knows she likes and is looking for a new author to conquer.
Not being a 13-year-old girl now or ever I am looking for suggestions of authors or series.
She’s consumed the Twilight series, Nancy Drew, Phantom Stallion series and Carl Hiaasen books most recently. Dismissed Harry Potter because it was “too scary.”
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Harry Potter is too scary but the Twilight series is okay? How odd.

Has she read any Judy Blume? Or the Narnia books?

Above all, the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis, beginning with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

I’ll be back.

The Bartimaeus Trilogy, by Jonathan Stroud
The Tripods series, by John Christopher
The Lewis Barnavelt books, by John Bellairs, beginning with The House With A Clock in its Walls
The Great Brain books by J.D. Fitzgerald

I’m going to ignore the part about Harry Potter being too scary, because your daughter can have a look at the recommendations and decide whether she wants to read them or not. I don’t know where her limits are.

The Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Pretty lite, but there’s about a jabillion of them. Just daily life of an ordinary girl, and they start when she’s in fifth grade or so.

A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket. I listened to the audio versions with my kids and we all loved them.

Harry Potter too scary?

Huh.

How about some Enchanted Forest Series It’s got dragons and princesses and castles and stuff. Very popular.

Chinaberry is a wonderful jumpoff point for voracious readers. I loves me some chinaberry so very much.

Diana Wynne Jones, beginning with The Ogre Downstairs or Cart and Cwidder or Charmed Life - basically the older the better. She also wrote Howl’s Moving Castle which was recently made into a movie, but it isn’t one of her best. She does mostly fantasy with a little SF. I can’t recommend her enough - she’s not only brilliant but very prolific, and still writing.

E Nesbit - particularly Five Children and It or The Railway Children

Madeline L’Engle. A Wrinkle in Time was made into a crap movie once - the book is much better.

Joy Chant - Red Moon and Black Mountain

Robert Louis Stevenson, unless that’s also vetoes as scary

These are all oldish, but it’s been a while since I was a 13 year old girl :wink:

Not a series, but Lee Weatherly writes good books for teen girls.

Oh! And the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins! Still incomplete, but I’m one of many people waiting anxiously for the next one to come out.

David Eddings Belgariad series is good teen reading, I loved it as a teen msyelf.

Pawn of Prophecy
Queen of Sorcery
Magician’s Gambit
Castle of Wizardry
Enchanter’s End Game

Not series, but good books:

The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Watership Down, by Richard Adams.

Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell. (My favorite book of all time)

I am presently enjoying Sherlock Holmes for myself and found, via Chinaberry, a younger book section devoted to the Baker Street Irregulars. . I’m thinking I have to have them. anything to get my kids interested in Sherlock.

The other books in the series aren’t bad either, although I suspect AWiT will appeal the most, especially with a young girl as the protagonist.

I’d forgotten all about the Great Brain books - they’re an easy read but certainly entertaining.

If she likes the Narnia books she might also like The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander - a bit of swords and sorcery set in Wales.

There’s also the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman and the Mortal Engines tetralogy (quadrilogy?) by Philip Reeve, but they’re both pretty dark and if Harry Potter is considered scary I’d steer clear of those for a few years yet. Both have young female protagonists, although Reeve’s heroine is surprisingly ruthless for a character in young adult fiction.

This is GREAT. Thank you so much for all these suggestions and keep them coming.

I think she tried reading Harry Potter a few years ago, found it scary then and remembers that it was scary, but nothing else about it.
As for Twilight, after going down to the school library every day for two weeks straight to find a book to read in study hall her teacher suggested she start picking out thicker books. Twilight was the thickest one she spotted so she grabbed it without knowing anything else about it.

It’s never too early to start reading Discworld.

My daughter Moon Unit is also 13. She and I have enjoyed the Moon Crash trilogy, as has Mama Zappa. But it’s very heavy stuff.

Moon Unit found a book in our library called Generation Dead. She liked it, and it looks like a fun riff on high school dramas. I haven’t read it yet. Too bad, I’m so close to being a zombie it’s amazing. Oh, I’m sorry! The polite term now is “living impaired”. Or “alternately biotic”. :smiley:

I second Dung Beetle’s Suzanne Collins suggestion.

On a twelve-year-old’s recommendation, I read (and mostly enjoyed) The Hunger Games and its sequel Catching Fire. The third and final book in the series should be out in August.

My daughter at that age loved the Cirque du Freak books. She had a difficult time with many books being boring for her, but those moved fast.

She also loved Sing a Song of Tuna Fish by Esme Raji Codell. I’ve read it a few times myself.

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen or The Moon of Gomrath are both good ones to plow through.

Do girls read the Babysitters Club anymore? Loved that as a teen, myself.

Also all of the Judy Blume books, as mentioned.

I liked the Anastasia books by Lois Lowry.

I got into** Robert Cormier** like crazy but that was when I was in 10th grade.

If she enjoyed Carl Hiassen, she will most likely have fun reading books by Donald E. Westlake.