A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
I Capture the Castle
LM Montgomery’s non-Anne of Green Gables work, especially The Blue Castle, A Tangled Web, and Jane of Lantern Hill
9th grade was my Jane Eyre year as well.

Anonymous wrote:Romeo and Juliet? I remember reading that in 8th grade.

Catcher in the Rye is perfect for this age.

The Hobbit.

For pure fun, Cheaper By the Dozen. Not literature, but I remember really enjoying this book at that age. Has some good US cultural history. You could look up the real people the book is about as part of reading/studying it.

I read this about that age, too, and thought it was so great.

The Bluest Eye
Diary of Anne Frank
Dracula
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Sometimes you can get a good sense by looking at schools summer reading lists.

This is old - but a starting point. The summer reading list from NCS for rising 8th graders a bunch of years ago:
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Ernest J. Gaines
The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
The Bread Givers, Anzia Yezierska
Cold Sassy Tree, Olive Ann Burns
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
The Great Train Robbery, Michael Crichton
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
The Once and Future King, T.H. White
The Price of a Child, Lorraine Cary
Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
Red Scarf Girl, Ji Li Jiang

Lots of good suggestions.
I’ll add:
Animal farm
The old man and the sea
The grapes of wrath
Mayor of casterbridge
Wuthering heights
Julius Caesar
Joan of Arc (GB Shaw)

Anonymous wrote:Dickens would probably be tough for a 14 year old. I read my first as a HS Senior and even then found it hard work.

Agree on the Jane Austen. Start with P and P

I read these so long ago as a teen but they might work

Alexander Dumas - 3 Musketeers
Victor Hugo - Hunchback if ND
LM Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables
F Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby

I read A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations in freshman and sophomore years of high school, ages 14-15. Those are both routinely taught in early high school years and sometimes even at the middle school level.

Some people argue strenuously for introducing Dickens early, some argue for waiting until later years of age. It depends on each individual kid’s maturity and especially reading comprehension skills - Dickens is very dense, but very very richly rewarding. Any student who can appreciate Dickens should be a strong reader going into adulthood.

I think it is definitely worth offering Dickens at 14, especially to an excellent student. And there are so many wonderful film and TV adaptations that can be used as incentive to read. I would recommend David Copperfield, Oliver Twist or Great Expectations.

Daughter of Time. And all the others recommended here.

To kill a mockingbird
Catcher in the rye
Great gatsby
A separate peace

Goodreads is a pretty good site for recommendations. Here is what they recommend as classic books for teens

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2225.Best_Classic_Books_for_Teens

I’ve read all of them except The Giver. I think they’re all fine for a 14 year old strong reader.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Little Women
Anne of Green Gables
Jacob Have I Loved
Bridge to Terabithia
The Girl Who Drank the Moon

To Kill a Mockingbird

Don’t they read most of these books during middle school English? That’s what my daughter had to do!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my gosh, once again we have people who can grasp the age of the reader or the “weak academics” part. OP, so not give this kid Dumas, Dickens, or Hugo. I love Jane Austen, but the language will be off putting for a kid who is a little behind.

Try…
Anne of Green Gables
Chronicles of Narnia
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Lord of the Rings

Start there. The language isn’t intimidating in these.

OP said her kid is excellent, it’s the current school that’s weak.

Maybe you should have spent more time reading and less time berating.

And what did the parent write about themselves?

Going off of

Witch of Blackbird Pond (great pull)
I remember also reading

Julie of the Wolves
The Steppe
Island of the blue dolphins
The Keeping Days

Will try to think of others. They may be neweberry award winners and not classics

The Outsiders