Book suggestions for gifted 13yo? - Page 2

[elanorh]

She sounds a lot like me at that age.

If she's looking for some sci/fi or fantasy books to read, and hasn't read Anne McCaffrey's Pern series (and then there are the Ship series etc.) then she may enjoy those. If she hasn't read the Pern series, she needs to start with the Dragon books first and then branch out from there. http://mccaffrey.srellim.org/biblioseries.htm (Dragon Quest, Dragon Flight, and The White Dragon are the first three of the books, everything else was added around them).

I agree with the suggestions of classics - I think I read A Tale of Two Cities at that age, and was big into Jane Austen at that time too.

She is at the age where she may start being compelled by actual nonfiction. A great book I read this past spring is Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn (Larry Colton). It's about a high school women's basketball team on the Crow Reservation in Montana in the early 90's. There's no description of sex, but discussion of the fact that it was happening with some of the girls -- I found it a pretty realistic description of high school life. You may want to read it yourself before recommending it, since it does get into issues of poverty, drug and alcohol use, etc.

Has she read the Bartimaeus trilogy? It's fantasy - there would be some words she'd be unfamiliar with in it I suspect, since there is latin etc. in it. It's "YA."

I'd say that talking to the teacher and submitting dictionary words that she's found, instead, might be a good solution. Maybe she can turn in a log of all the other books she's reading for pleasure so the teacher knows the depth and breadth of what she's reading? Otherwise, recognizing that she's using context clues to construct a definition of words she didn't recognize, and submitting those words, might work.

I know my vocabulary in the sixth grade was better than it was in grad school, because I hadn't been teased about it yet. I consciously and then unconsciously 'dumbed it down' after being teased so much for using 'big words.' So I don't doubt that your dd knows the words she's reading. It's frustrating when teachers aren't able/willing to meet a student where they're at.

[AAK]

If you aren't Jewish, reading books with Jewish characters may present new vocabulary. I loved The Chosen and Marjorie Morningstar as a teen. They are both shelved in the adult section and I can't think of anything inappropriate in them. And I agree with a pp that if the word is new or unfamiliar, she can use it even if she was able to understand it.

Amy

[hopefulfaith]

Re: historical fiction, I really enjoyed Margaret George's books:

The Memoirs of Cleopatra
Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles
The Autobiography of Henry VIII
Helen of Troy
Mary, Called Magdalen

She takes historical figures and writes their stories from the first person. They're fun.

[Amaranth]

How about some good non-fiction? Non-fiction about words, even.

Here's one I really liked: Reading the OED, by Ammon Shea. There's not too much sex in there (and what there is isn't too graphic. Note that you do NOT want your dd to read his "Depraved English" book, which made me a little queasy in parts).

Some of the essays in the "Best American Science & Nature Writing" collections have lots of words she may be unfamiliar with.

[Amaranth]

Also - she might like Patrick O'Brian's novels - the first one is "Master and Commander". Very little sex (a little implied), and nothing graphic. Lots of obscure vocabulary.

If those are too advanced for her, there's a YA series that starts out with "Bloody Jack" - by L.A. Meyer - that is a absorbing with lots of vocabulary from early 19th c. England & about ships. There is sex, but nothing worse than Twilight, certainly. Some mention of "whoremongering" and "buggery".

One of the very best fantasy series I've read in the last few years is The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner, and then The Queen of Attolia, followed by The King of Attolia. Nothing inappropriate for your dd's age, and it is set in a culture like ancient Greece, so there is a lots of obscure vocabulary there, too. Parts of temples and swords and stuff.

Finally, Justine Labalastier's "Magic and Madness" trilogy is great YA fantasy, and it's set in Australia. With a glossary of Australian slang in the back.

Has she read "The Willoughbys", by Lois Lowry? Another book with a funny, funny glossary in the back, it's a tongue in cheek spoof on children's lit. There's a list of classics in the back, too.

[notjustmamie]

I would also suggest classics--especially some that are NOT American/British. Or, hey, what about Shakespeare? He used all kinds of words I've never seen anywhere else. Other ideas might be some nonfiction: many biographies or travelogues may well be appropriate age-wise.

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by Amaranth

One of the very best fantasy series I've read in the last few years is The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner, and then The Queen of Attolia, followed by The King of Attolia. Nothing inappropriate for your dd's age, and it is set in a culture like ancient Greece, so there is a lots of obscure vocabulary there, too. Parts of temples and swords and stuff.

Excellent books! I'm hoping she writes another. It was a long wait for the last one, The King of Attolia.

[Ruthla]

We're Jewish, so "Jewish words" wouldn't be new to us.

Keep the suggestions coming! She's already read less than a quarter of the suggested books!

[dnr3301]

what about tweaking that part where you said she's good at figuring out what words mean from context. If it's a new word to her, even if she can figure out what it means from the context, it's still a new word to her, right? I'm sure she can find 4 words that took a little thinking to find, right?

golly, at her age, my mom was reading something and handing it to me to read next. My mom wasn't super strict about sex scenes (I read a lot of Danielle Steele ), but there was rarely violence involved in it.

I think that's when I started reading more adult books, just because they were so much longer, and the YA books were so short, it barely took me a day to read them.

[Amaranth]

Here's some nonfiction that my 12 y.o. ds just read and enjoyed (and there was a lot of vocab. he didn't know, and he reads a fair amount):

Written in Bone, by Sally Walker - it's all about forensic anthropology and historical archaeology in 17th c. Jamestown.

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by Amaranth

Here's some nonfiction that my 12 y.o. ds just read and enjoyed (and there was a lot of vocab. he didn't know, and he reads a fair amount):

Written in Bone, by Sally Walker - it's all about forensic anthropology and historical archaeology in 17th c. Jamestown.

That reminds me of Bone From a Dry Sea by Peter Dickinson. It's a really fascinating novel set in two different times. In the modern age story, a tween/teen girl is on an archeological dig with a parent (father, IIRC). The other is set in pre-history, and it's about a girl who helps her tribe survive. He incorporates a theory that humans evolved to walk upright by spending large amounts of time standing/fishing/hunting in water. I can't recall the name of the theory - something like the "wet ape" or "water hominids".

Dickinson is married to Robin McKinley, another great author. They both write amazing stories for YA. Dickinson also has some great adult fiction.

[Ruthla]

Thanks for the suggestions. I just reserved Dragonriders of Pern and Reading the OED for her, plus we'll go to the library tomorrow to get stuff for her to read over the holiday weekend. Dragonriders of Pern sounds like her preferred genre (and I love that there are tons more books by the same author if she likes that book) and I think she'll like Reading the OED since there was an excerpt of it in Muse magazine a few months ago- honestly, I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me to take that out of the library right after reading the article.

[Ilovesunshine]

I totally got into Terry Pratchett at that age (I am now 26), I still love his books. I was a precocious reader myself, I can remember reading the encylopeadia and dictionary when I was bored!

I'm not sure if you will be able to get his books over there, but Tom Holt is a british author also with a very offbeat sense of humour. There isn't any explicit sex or violence, that I can remember. Lot's of brit-isms!

If she enjoys Anne McCafferey, then she might also enjoy Katharine Kerr, the Deverry Series, and Mercedes Lackey, the Valdemar books (my favourites are the Mage Wars trilogy). I read both authors for the first time at around her age as well.

Also, a quite obscure book, but I borrowed it for the first time from my tiny local library in South Africa, so you may be lucky! 'Ingathering: The Complete People Stories' by Zenna Henderson. Amazon also has it listed as 'Complete People Collection'. It is a collection of short stories, all about a group of people who have landed here from another planet. They are pacifists, healers, empathic. They are beautiful stories. I think I was 14 when I read it.

Lastly, Tim Winton, he is an iconic Australian author, and his books are used in English Literature classes in high school over there. I really enjoyed his writing, 'Cloudstreet' is probably his most famous adult book. 'Lockie Leonard, Human Torpedo' would be his most famous young adult book. I think they even made a movie out of it.

Hope this helps!

Chantelle