Book recommendations for a clever 13 year old

Book recommendations for a clever 13 year old

I am currently tutoring a 13 year old in English, and her reading and writing levels are far advanced beyond her age bracket, on a par with a literate adult. I'd like (preferably contemporary) some books to challenge her, but that don't feature much in the way of graphic sex/violence/drug use, in case her parents read it too and fire me. In addition, whilst she's well-read, I doubt she has the life experiences to really appreciate stories of addiction or obsession or what have you.

I've already given her a lot of Victorian lit but I'd prefer some more recent options too.

pic related as something that would be inappropriate to suggest

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>nabokov
>>>/plebbit/

>on a par with a literate adult
I'd suggest to start with the Greeks. Alternatively The Birth of Tragedy, then start with the Greeks.

>on a par with a literate adult
This means she's more advanced than most of the fags here. I'd suggest to avoid further questions and start with the Greeks.

Some of Tolstoy's short fiction might do. Bartleby the Scrivener is also to my knowledge totally tame. If you fed her some of Whitman at this point I'm sure the more sexual nuances would fly right over her head. Keats would also be good. Some of Calvino's stuff might be good as well if you're looking for something more in that vein, maybe selections from Cosmicomics.

Otherwise, the novella I remember reading around that age was Ethan Frome. I think introducing more mature literature comes largely with introducing more adult themes. You can finagle around it but only to a degree.

Try Calvino's The Nonexistent Knight.

lost horizon by james hilton.
I think shangri-la and ideas pertaining to it is something every avid reason should be familiar with.

Thanks - I'll look into some Calvino to start with

reader*

START WITH THE ANGLOS

Starting a 13 year old girl on the Greeks is as useful as starting a 13 year old boy on Edith Wharton.

In situations like this the Veeky Forums starter guide is actually useful, minus American Psycho

Dude literally get off this board.

>Giving a 13 year old girl Lolita

It's almost like you didn't read what he asked for.

I actually have daughters and actually read, you fucking pleb. Reading Arrian or Plutarch with your daughter doesnt work, you have to engage.

Lord of the Flies, of Mice and Men, Slaughterhouse Five, and To Kill a Mockingbird are totally appropriate works.

OP, also get a Norton Anthology of British Poetry

Also Jack London, Black Beauty, and Hatchet were huge successes in my house

>>I am currently tutoring a 13 year old in English, and her reading and writing levels are far advanced beyond her age bracket, on a par with a literate adult.
why is she getting tutored?

to extend her - she's currently bored as fuck at school so I'm teaching her maths, English, sciences and French to higher levels

When I was 13 my favorite book was Animal Farm. I think it's perfect for that age bracket because it's simple and written in clear English, while still being allegorical and leaving room for interpretation. It's good to spark the interest in reading beyond the surface of a text, that is creatively interpreting it, and it's also baby's first ''big thimk''.

And I'm surprised that this thread didn't degenerate into pedoshit yet.

good suggestion but I've already given it to her - I think 1984 might be okay too though, and at least it'd keep her occupied for a bit longer, but she gets through a book every couple of days so I need a lot

I am also glad that this didn't descend into paedoshit

You honestly sound creepy as fuck. Stop spending your free time thinking what great works of literature to recommend to a CHILD to further ingratiate yourself to her. How would her parents feel if they knew you were talking about their little girl on a pornographic web forum? Do your job, tutor her, whatever, but when you're not there don't think about her, don't obsess over what books she might enjoy. Do your job, get paid and go on with your life. I got seriously skeeved out reading this thread.

D O R I A N

Hamsun and Ibsen.

I gave Borges to my sister. She said that she liked it.
I know that she didn't understand it.

Ignore this cuck

I remember being thirteen and having nobody encourage me to read. Or 15. Or 17. Or now.
>When you haven't changed for 8 years.
A mature 13 year-old isn't actually too young for "anything".

Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus
Gargantua and Pantagruel
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Either/Ur by Shawn Sturgeon
The Female Quixote
Don Quixote
A Folio Anthology of Poetry
Don Juan
Charles Dickens
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
>Middlemarch . . .

kys

ROBINSON CRUSOE

are you a girl? There’s nothing sinister in what OP is doing.

>but that don't feature much in the way of graphic sex/violence/drug use
OH
>in case her parents read it too and fire me
Oh. Phew! They'll surely not read anything I listed, as they are tomes. And they aren't ""graphic"".

Why doesn't she have toes?

have you ever heard of Fanny Hill? My daughter loved it!

But, you want contemporary...
>Sabriel (Abhorsen #1)
>Dragonlance Legends
If she like that.
>The Raistlin Chronicles
If she liked this, then anything from Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
>His Dark Materials (I also think it's really weird name)
>The Neverending Story
>The Brothers Lionheart (everything from Astrid Lindgren)
>Howl's Moving Castle
>Some stories in Arabian Nights
>Beren and Lúthien (the one released this year)
>The Last Unicorn

seconding borges, esp labyrinths and aleph. its plenty accessible

She's wearing socks...

can't go wrong if you give her pic related

Or you want more advanced/mature?
>Ficciones
>Death in Venice and Other Tales
>The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings
>A Rose for Emily
>Children of Hurin (maybe, it's not graphic, but it puts ancient tragedies to shame. But she's surely old enough to read about death and loss/tragedy.)
>Sappho: A New Translation
>Tristan: With the Tristran of Thomas
>Everything Shakespeare
>The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
- - -
Some "intellectual"/study books.
>Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds
>ENGLISH PROSE STYLE by Herbert Read (if you are English speakers)
>Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student
>Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction
>Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language
- - -
She needs to learn history!
Maybe not now, but in a year or two, give her the book "From Dawn to Decadence."
>The Encyclopedia of World History
>Memory of the World: The treasures that record our history from 1700 BC to the present day
> History of Beauty. Eco, Umberto
>Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars
>The Gallic War (a great read)
If you/she liked it, and can 'handle' it.
>The First Man in Rome
>Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
>The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean
>The Meaning of Human Existence

>ywn be a qt bright young lass with a lot of future ahead of yourself
>ywn be a young lad again and date such a lass
i dont know what hurts me more

>ywn be a young curious lad with a encouraging mentor helping you
>Instead you were an skinny awkward and curious young lad with zero guidance bullying christians on early youtube and internet forums

you want to be both?

Not trying to split hairs here but Billy Pilgrim lives in a zoo with a porn star in Slaughterhouse Five. And there's a lot of sexual content in Of Mice and Men.

strange you mention The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - I'd just picked that out as well

I never had an 'encouraging mentor' either - why don't you become one for someone else

Oops. Was too occupied with daydreaming and forgot to rec.

She may be abit old for it already, but the Chronicles of Narnia is a wonderful book for deepening a kid's reading.
And if you've given her 1984, BNW would be a step further, but it may be a bit too risque

Also this

It's wonderful that you care so much about this kid. Good luck user.

>dude literally
neck yourself

I mean it's more my job I care about than the child herself, but she is very bright and it'd be a shame to let that go to waste

Not contemporary, but Swiss Family Robinson is a favorite of mine, and it's got good ol' catholic learnin' and fighting tigers and pirates.

I read Anna Karenina at 13. Just break it up into chunks

DO NOT GIVE HER ANY OF THE PRETENTIOUS SNOREFESTS THAT Veeky Forums MAY RECOMMEND

For students with a burgeoning interest in literature, give them strong, short books in plainspeak english- stuff by salinger, fitzgerald, hemmingway, vonnegut, even hesse. For more difficult reads, try shakespeare and euripedes. Poetry is also important and vastly underrated- you can't go wrong with the romantics: wordsworth, keat, blake- all very enjoyable and accessible

Milan Kundera is the best "intermediate" author; fun and profound.

yes kundera is good - I recently read unbearable lightness

My daughter liked this as well.

It's really naughty tho...

I swear to God I've seen an identical (or near identical) post before. Good bait, though.

Why would OP even bring up Lolita in the same post where he tells us he tutors a precocious 13 year old girl?

Hmmm

I promise you I'm actually a tutor, although I don't think it's that unreasonable that there are other tutors in similar positions on this board

You will turn the girl into a dullard if you follow this pleb's advice. Do not avoid these authors by any means, but by no means prescribe only these. While they are good writers, those who idolise these men tend to be bad writers.

Give her Wodehouse, Wells, Swift, Jerome, Alcott, Bronte and Austen for prose

For poetry, give her Keats, Shelley, Betjeman, Dickinson, Whitman and Housman

believe me I've tried - (amongst others) I've given her Woolf, both main brontes, Zadie Smith, Atwood, Ali smith, Eliot, and others to read

I'm trying to shy away from "traditional woman" works, even if they're well written, because I don't think she should be boxed in at this age

you arent reaching her because you arent interesting her. engagement is more important at 13 than stuffing great books down her throat.

I never said that I wasn't reaching here, although I can see how you'd infer that from my posts - I should've been clearer

she tends to enjoy pretty much everything I suggest, I'm just looking for more options

Woolf's stream-of-consciousness can be pretty trying even for adults, which I why I left her name out.

Zadie Smith and Atwood are both highly political authors and I wouldn't recommend giving them to a child. You're at risk of boxing her in ideologically. Children should stick to works that are as apolitical as possible imo.

What if you ask her if she's interested in anything?

Or give her a short thing you like and ask her about it and since you know it intimately that will make it easy for you to pick another book with more of the stuff she liked and less of what she disliked

I feel like it's very very very important that she keeps seeing reading as something that's enjoyable

The very fucking second she starts percieving it as work is when she drops it like a rock, starts hanging out with her friends and learns about partying and other ways of having fun
Then it will be a "remember how promisisng you used to be you were the smartest child in your class, so talented" sort of thing years later and she will hate herself, don't do that to her

you're not wrong - I carefully (I hope) picked from Smith and atwood

if it means anything she really enjoyed to the lighthouse and probably understood it better and gave a better commentary on it than many of my peers could do

I completely agree with you - it's why I don't give her challenging novels (or for that matter, maths problems) that serve no purpose other than difficulty

to add to this - for writing tasks I give her loose-ended options that aren't necessarily in line with curriculum: e.g. yesterday I asked her to write 1000 words with the title 'frustration'

JANE EYRE

Well there was that guy who most definitely really did marry the 13 year old he was tutoring certainly wasn't lying about having a daughter with her and living happily ever after.

Start with the Neanderthals.

>on par with a literate adult
This means very little.

>the ice palace
>alice's adventures in wonderland
>through the looking glass
>the belvedere field
>the female eunuch
>lamb
>confirmation
>100y of solitude
>of love & other demons
>deadly space between
>dream children
>mathilda
>tampa
>self
>sum
>what maisie knew
>tasha's brother
>de profundis
>the immoralist
>berserk
>gulistan of sa'di

If she's an iota intelligent, she'll have more questions than answers for the rest of her life.

I tutored my girl better when I was obsessing over her. This is a fact. There is no case of tutorship that wasn't improved by obsession. Like Rodin and Claudel. Casual tutorship goes nowhere.
As long as OP doesn't go bald and faceless, then this is actually extremely healthy.
There is not a Civilized Nation on the Earth in which One may marry a Lass of Thirteen. Thus, no such Event transpired, until later, past the Age of Thirteen.
Eat my shit brownies you petty, jealous little goblin.

>There is not a Civilized Nation on the Earth in which One may marry a Lass of Thirteen.
Yeah, there's actually quite a few civilized nations on Earth to marry a lass of thirteen. There are a couple places one can marry a six or seven year old, as well, though those places are a-changin'.

In fact, up until the past 10 or 15 years or so, even parts of Canada had 14 as the legal age for sex (not sodomy though), and even now Germany and Japan allow 15 year olds to have sex with and marry someone considerably older, albeit they need the parents'/guardians' permission. It's rightly considered a social fucking mess to see it actually happen though, so it's rare.

They are not Civilized Nations. They are Savage, or Barbarous.
The age of consent in Canada was 14, but marriage was not legal. I am referring to marriage. The minimum age of marriage is 16, and was then too as far as I know, and requires parental consent.
>social mess
Jealous little goblin needs to eat some shit brownies and calm down.

>not civilized nations
Envious furry hobknob ought to diddle itself elsweyr.

How do you mean civilized, oh cum-laude guzzler? Surely you can't mean anything Occidental, like the British (who have, for centuries, allowed their upper class and public figures to fondle, fuck, and marry off children). Or Canada, which did include marriage at 14 with permission, or, alternatively, 11 or 12 in some cases, so long as the parents didn't find it worthwhile to complain in court. Or America, which regularly forgets forged documents, lying, and faked ID's or entire identities are a regular occurrence.

I don't know of an Asian country that wouldn't look the other way in a low-key political marriage, one involving money, or the family honor trope.

Middle Eastern countries allow a lot of shit. Countries like Russia, Ukraine, and Romania have regular bypasses of laws.

South Africa and Australia, natives/Aboriginal peoples excluded, are pretty much the only two with which I don't have any familiarity or otherwise haven't seen something odd.

CALL ME PLEB AGAIN SEE WHAT HAPPENS

there's a reason those authors are commonly recommended and read at the highschool level- because they are accessible and enjoyable to even the beginner reader. Why would a 13 year old ever be interested in longwinded doorstoppers like S&S and P&P? Quit being such a pseudo-bohemian and recognise that the popular books are popular for a reason.

this guy gets it, engagement is key- which you won't get from boring ass authors

reddit.com/r/books/comments/3xg9rp/best_books_for_corrupting_the_youth/cy4jltq/


The young person's travel guide to mathematically enlightened singularitarian mad science:

The Emperor's Soul
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Accelerando
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (EDIT: put this here if they can't pick up the others, otherwise put it after GEB; normally I'd put it at the top but I don't know if they'd respond well to "fanfiction")

The introduction. We bring them the idea that minds are run "in hardware" and that the exact platform can vary.

Good Omens (EDIT: added this on suggestion of /u/Retbull)
Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid

Some theory work, as well as making them comfortable with math and weird self-referential consciousness junk and showing them that what they see may not necessarily be what's happening. Plus some laughs. This sets them up for the first major stroke:

Permutation City by Greg Egan.

Now that their mind is open, we break their preconceptions and give them the terrible gifts of moral, ethical, and intellectual freedom and self-determination:

A huge pile of Discworld books. For maximum corruption, start with Small Gods, then the Witches series, then the Guards series, then the Death series.
The Player of Games, followed (depending on capability, though I think we're ignoring that) by either Use of Weapons or Excession and then Look to Windward, Matter, and finally... Surface Detail.
Worm

fin

ur a fgt

come on its a pretty good list

You're still jealous though

This is fucking hilarious, the girl will be more well-read by the time she's 15 than half of this board's population. Keep at it, user, we need more non-plebs in society.

Slate Star Codex pls go back to plebbit and don't come back. Also lmao @ how the guy's real name is now a part of the spam filter.

Pleb

There's nothing wrong with those authors per se, but you're prescribing the same basic as fuck reading list that every other child receives and uses as their blueprint for good literature. If you want to make carbon copy children, go ahead and make them read Fitzgerald and Hemingway exclusively. But if you want to broaden their horizens a little, give them something else to chew over

that reading list is tried and true, fucker, and likely more engaging than any random shit you can come up with on the spot

Everyone starts with the basics in literature- comprehension and analysis- and the popular books have proven to be good at developing those skills. Horizon broadening can come after. I'm not talking about exclusitivity, by any means, but there is a common chronology which is recommended. This chronology is tried and true, and endorsed by professionals as well. Harder, more unconvential books may alienate young readers. Getting started at 13 is a good age, and puts you ahead of the curve anyway. Learning books which you may encounter later in high school also gives you an advantage academically

lol you can tell this post was written by a retarded woman

OP here - there isn't an ulterior motive or anything, the reason that I'm enthusiastic is that it's very rare (read: never) that I get a student who wants to be pushed - generally as a tutor your clients are struggling or working towards a particular exam, but the freedom of someone that is capable and wants to be challenged is a refreshing novelty

>Paradife loft
wow check out this LOSER Milton, he can't even spell right!

>Children of Hurin
I would recommend Kalevala instead; Children of Hurin is based on the story of Kullervo, which, funny enough, is an ancient tragedy.
Also Kalevala is criminally underrated, if the girl is interested in world cultures I'd give it a shot. It's not less graphic than the Bible, a 13 year old should be able to handle it

You could groom the perfect waifu. Brilliant idea, OP.

Anything but this.

Start with American Psycho, for her sake

>not that user but
what is there to be jealous of? someone reading or having a tutor?

"Tried and true, tried and true, myeh myeh myeh"

What about the current state of reading culture suggests that your languid reading list is "true"?

see:

I wish I weren't a retarded ugly man

Would you rather be a retarded ugly dog?

what relevance does this have to teaching English

if she's on par with a fucking adult she doesn't need to be "protected" from the real world

>that capitalization, punctuation and word choice
>thinks people are jelly of his child molestation (what an accomplishment!)
>compares himself to artistic masters for giving private English lessons to a 13yo

You're a very strange man.

>that capitalization, punctuation and word choice
I'm mocking Lolita by using a dull 18th century *nglo prose-style. I also need to let off steam because I would rather deepthroat a toilet brush found in a kebab shop's bathroom than read more of this terrible anthropology.

It's not child molestation.
Our lessons began before she was 13.
I am an artistic master.

At the new york library they have shit spelled like that too, embarassing

Literally the Divine Comedy.