My favorite book is Watership Down. It's a hero tale with rabbits. I lent mine to an advanced reader in 6th grade and she loved it too. It's over 400 pages but not hard to read.

Hard to know what popular teen books she may have read, so I’d choose a beautifully bound classic. Watership Down is a great choice. My twelve year old gd was thrilled with The Hobbit . She’d read all the others, but missed The introductory ’ Hobbit’, which is my fav. So many to suggest but no time.

Anne McCaffery's Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums were some of my absolute favorites about that age. (Some of her other series might be too mature for a 13 year old.)

The Redwall series by Brian Jacques was wonderful as well.

Jane Eyre

Pride and Prejudice

Sense and Sensibility

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

What are her three favorite books so that we can gauge her preferences?

Absolutely the Jane Austen trifecta posted by Porkandham, and I would throw in Emma as well. The scene in which she humiliates a friend in a social setting is an incredible lesson in manners and how easy it is to hurt someone with an ill -timed or ill-considered remark. I never forgot that and it’s a good reminder that not all bullying is modern and online.

Eragon book series.

Harry Potter.

Lord of The Rings.

Percy Jackson.

The Jungle Book.

I would also find out if she prefers contemporary subjects. The Newberry Medal winners are a good place to start. Since they go back decades, she may be more interested in more recent winners.

the Book Thief

Walt Disney's Annette: Sierra Summer by Dorothy Shroeder

This book is a bit silly, but it is still fun to read, especially if she likes fluff. I found it humorous and amusing to read, even as an adult.

I bought it because the picture on the cover looked like a friend of mine in San Francisco.

If she's into Gravity Falls, then The Book of Bill is appropriate.

So hard to know as it so depends on the individual. When I was a young teen, I was reading The Fountainhead and Gone With the Wind and fell in love with James Bond especially The Spy Who Loved Me. I was too young to enjoy Jane Austen or other books with more difficult language...though I was reading Alan Greenspan essays! One of the authors I enjoyed when I was younger was Paul Gallico...especially Love of Seven Dolls.

The House on Mango Street

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Catcher in the Rye

The Kite Runner

The Hunger Games

Twilight series

Anne of Green Gables

A reader most likely has read the classics that are listed above. Mine had but I would ask her mom and go for them if not!!

Lord of the Rings. The Diary of Anne Frank. The Giver. A Wrinkle in Time.

Biographies of women she admires.

Looking back to when I was that age, one book comes to mind: Mrs. Mike, by Benedict and Nancy Freedman. I've read it more than once. Maybe more than twice. I took a look just now at Amazon, and here's just one of many rave reviews:

"I was 13 the 1st time I read this book and I had a hard time getting through the beginning chapters. However, Once I got past those the book was wonderful! The story will make you laugh, cry, And rejoice with people you have never met. By the end, I needed a tissue to finish the book. I love this story and have read it several times since that initial reading... Highly highly recommended!"

(Just to be clear, I did not write that review.)

I read Gone With The Wind when I was 10 (I had found a copy of it in a library collection that my grandmother had inherited), which had special significance to me, since the land where I grew up had been a plantation in the 1850s, established by my GGGF on my father's side in 1944.

As a teenager, I became interested in Thomas Hardy novels and found it easy to identify with his tragic heroines, partly because the settings were rural. One of my nieces had the same experience with Thomas Hardy, but pretty much all of his novels are tragedies. I learned recently that we have ancestors who lived in the part of England where his novels were set.

On another note, I discovered that my sister was reading Fanny Hill when she was 13, but this is not something I recommend. However, I read Tom Jones when I was 13 and loved that novel - another which I had found in my grandmother's inherited collection - and which I was not supposed to be reading.

Years ago, I gave my little sister (us 4 older siblings had all flown the coop) The Lord of the Rings books when she was about 14

She told me years later how she read and re-read them

Then, my daughter drank them up - we read to our kids up till almost teenage years! Then she had the books on tape and went to sleep with them and possibly still does in her late 20s

So that's my recommendation, among all that have gone above, only wish I had kids to buy books for these days, it was very fun!

Olychick posted my suggestion…To Kill a Mockingbird.

Many of the books I would recommend have been mentioned above, but to second a few choices:

The Wrinkle in Time trilogy by Madeleine L’Engle (also her Austin series is great for young teens — some touchy subjects treated gently)

Loved the Ann of Green Gables books (and Lucy Maud Montgomery’s other series are also good at that age.)

Yes to Anne Mcaffrey recs.

Harry Potter series.

I agree with Gone With the Wind and Anne of Green Gables.

Speaking of Watership down….Taking a quick left turn to share a greeting card i found years ago in London🤣

This is helpful.

https://k-12readinglist.com/

When I was 13, I asked for books for Christmas, that’s all. Among others, I recall receiving a few Little Women books, which I loved and reread and still own (nice bindings!), and the LOTR trilogy, which I struggled through, Fantasy, it turns out, isn’t my genre. But I love fiction with a historical element and a glimpse into what life is like in different times and places. (oh, and is Harry Potter fantasy? I suppose so, but I so enjoy her use of language, the wordplay, etc., and life in the wizarding world compared to the muggle world.)

Anyway, it’s important to know what she likes, not just in her reading but in life.

I would consult a good independent bookseller or a children's librarian. Hundreds of terrific books have been written for young people since I was, or even my children were, 13 and I'm pretty sure the same applies to most posters here. I remember the valiant efforts of my daughter to look pleased at receiving Jane Austen books from a grandparent as a teenager, while her school librarian aunt was providing up to date, exciting, age appropriate novels. DD read Austen and the classics in due course and took English at university, so she lost nothing by being given up to date, age appropriate material when she was younger.

If she likes/liked Harry Potter, she might enjoy reading the British version. The summer before DD2 was going into JH we went to England and purchased the two published at at that time. My oldest DGD's mother (DIL) was very interested, so I gifted her a full set for Christmas several years ago. They both enjoyed reading them. DGD1 also loves reading Greek mythology. She is only 12yo, but tested college level reading mid-elementary.

I'm enjoying this. I've always been an avid reader and I cannot recall what I read and loved at that age. I recently became aware that I really missed reading some exceptional books, and maybe 10 years ago read Anne of Green Gables which I adored. Somehow that one slipped by me. I know I read and loved GWTW but I think I was older. I am pretty sure I did read Diary of Anne Frank at about that age and was deeply touched by it.

Reading here, I see Watership Down . I guess that's one I'll be sure to read in 2025 .

Thanks for this.

It is said when you read a book it becomes part of who you are and I do believe what we put in our brains and hearts via reading is influential. The classics are referenced in modern life so often and just as often 'modern' stories are just re-dos of the old tales... Why waste her time and your money on the unproven.

I agree with consulting with a librarian or book seller. Most of what is mentioned here are great books but from the dark ages and also easily available. Literature is trendy. I would toss in an antique or two though. 13 is eighth grade. A lot depends on the kid. You could ask for a list from her.

Nancy Farmer is a contemporary YA author who writes a book that you just cannot put down. I recommend "House of the Scorpion" and "The Sea of Trolls."

Diana Wynne Jones is another must-stop-everything-and-read author. For her age I recommend "Dogsbody," "The Homeward Bounders," and "Fire and Hemlock."

We also loved "City of the Plague God," by Sarwat Chadda and the Aru Shah series, starting with "Aru Shah and The End of Time."

If she into dystopia, then "Unwind," by Neil Shusterman.

If she is artistic then I recommend "The Journey is the Destination." These are the photocollage journals of Dan Eldon, a brilliant artist of many adventures who tragically died young. Did I mention that he looked like a member of a boy band?

I thank you all for the comments. I've gotten some great ideas -- not just for Christmas, but for reading all year. I did wonder about some of the books mentioned, but a lot of them, I've not heard of. Again, thanks so very much for taking the time to respond in such thoughful ways.