gift for a 12 year old girl

>>8380668
Lolita. It might help her understand your relationship better.

Finnegans Wake.

here we go...

>>8380668
The Iliad, don't mind the sex it's an important part of the book.

>>8380668
Engineering Thermodynamics

>>8380668
Lord of the Flies, if she's angry. The Bell Jar, if she's depressed.

If a child is neither angry nor depressed, then I don't know what to recommend.

>>8380668
that novelization of mulan

As far as children's authors go I really like Claudia Mills. That might be for folks a little younger though. What's the girl's reading level? What else does she like?

>>8380668
Wheel of Time
Orion

Anything John Green

>>8380792
last thing I heard her talk about was harry potter

>>8380799
Ugh. Everybody loves Harry Potter. Just give her A Wrinkle In Time and hope she gets into LeGuin and Vonnegut from there. Then Dick and Borges. And you'll have a true patrician on your hands in no time.

The Secret Garden

Roald Dahl

The 13 and a half Lives of Captain Bluebear

Alice in Wonderland

Chronicles of Narnia

My Side of the Mountain

>>8380839
These, also
the thief lord
a little princess
books by shuan tan

>>8380820
Oh, shit forgot about Madeleine L'Engle. Every lonely, smart boy and girl should have a copy of A Wrinkle in Time.

Mervyn Peake (especially his Gormenghast stuff)
Diana Wynne Jones (pretty much anything, especially Howl's moving castle)
Neil Gaiman (most of his stuff, especially the Graveyard Book and the Ocean at the End of the Lane)
Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials trilogy, Sally Lockhart)
the Edge Chronicles
the Bartimaeus Sequence
the Dark Reflections trylogy
Stay away from crappy young adult paranormal romance, John Green and things she has probably already read/will consider too childish.

>>8380668
Alice in wonderland
Grimm fairy tales
Pinocchio
Chronicles of Narnia
Sabriel

>>8381274
He also said no sex and Green is famous for his dick sucking done by 13 year old girls.

Sophies World, seriously.

>>8381296
Is mother-son celestial incest okay?
I completely forgot about the Dark Reflections having it.
It's just a wordbuilding thing that's done by gods in a very classical fashion and is barely mentioned.

>>8381468
I guess the real question is, what would the girls mother think if she just so happened to open the page it was on?

>>8381479
In the book they basically say "It's okay because his father is Satan, don't worry about it.".
I'd let it slide, there are no graphic descriptions or anything.

>>8380668
Horrible Histories series by Terry Deary
Honestly the most underrated British kids knowledge series I have read

>>8380668
Does she actually like reading? I'd say White Noise because it seems readable enough for a teenager and isn't explicitly or overtly sexual.

Anything Terry Pratchett

>>8380668

Sophie's World. Maybe save it for when she's 13 or 14 depending on how bright she is.

>>8381566
This.

>>8380668
animal farm but don't clue her in until she's done

>>8380668
The Ego and His Own. Good for her to learn the truth early

>>8380668
Gravity's Jest

>>8380668
Sappho's poetry

>>8380668
A Room of One's Own
Turn that bitch into a feminazi anon

>>8380668
Coraline, Harry Potter, Redwall, Spiderwick

>>8380839
Walter Moers is rad

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Trust me on this. She'll be hooked.

>>8381455
Very good idea. Read the book as a twelve year old and I'm very happy I did.

Also OP, if she's 12 then a bit of sexual tones is just going to fuel her interest In reading

The Velveteen Rabbit
The Secret Garden
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Grimm's [Complete] Fairy Tales
Alice in Wonderland

Jane Austen novels are also good.

If you actually love this 12-year-old girl as a family member/daughter/niece/whatever she is to you, get her Just Enough, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. Or a few Calvin and Hobbes books. To be honest, I don't actually know what a child looks for in literature. I'm just naming what I was reading (and happily, at that) at 12.

>>8383116
Something I forgot to mention--I'd steer clear of Hemingway, Dickens, and other authors who require a bit more patience to read. Oh, and it just came to mind, but Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and perhaps Dracula would also be appropriate.

I have no idea what this girl likes, since you told us nothing about her, but I figured if you're book shopping for her then she'll appreciate a good book.

The Phantom Tollbooth is fun, but m-m-maybe aimed at a younger audience. I enjoyed it when I was 14 though.
DON'T get her something Harry Potter-like. If she's reading that, that niche has been filled, go for a different one. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is great.
And call me crazy, but Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman is fucking hilarious and a 12 year old might really get a kick out of it.
>>8381530
>>8380754
These are good too, Lord of the Flies in particular.

The City of Dreaming Books by Moers
It's GOAT

>>8380668
>Being the uncle that gives books every year for her birthday. Buy her a fucking dragon dildo or something.

>>8384193

This, goddammit. Every person I know who's read Walter Moers fell in love with his stuff immediately. Dreaming Books was my favorite, but A Wild Ride through the Night is also fun; the story is based on twelve accompanying Gustave Doré engravings, so she might like that if she's into art

>>8380678
Underrated

>>8380668
The untranslated works of Catullus.

>>8381530
Horrible Histories is horrible at history.

That said, I read them all.

It depends a lot on their character. Remember; it's much better to highball it than to lowball it -- if in doubt, get her something she might be too young for. Just like it's better to gift clothes that might be to big than too small -- she'll grow into it, at least.

Other than that, a generic answer would be something like a collection of Borges short stories. I fucking loved them as a kid, and they're written clearly enough that even a dumb twelve year old can understand the literary aspects.

Le Guin or Wolfe or other good ""genre fiction"" authors might be a good idea, too. Depends on what she likes.

All of these are terrible suggestions. Get her Beowulf.

Without internal order:

1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
2. The ABC Murders or some other Agatha Christie book.
3. Sophie's World, but only if she's smart.
4. I, Robot.
5. Dark Materials and Bartimaeus are good, as far as I can remember.
6. Lord of the Flies.
7. Some cool intro to a mythology of your choice, presumably Greek.
8. Over the Nightingale Floor. The series sucks balls once you develop critical skills, but at 12, she should enjoy it immensely. There is a slight risk of her turning into a weeaboo here, exercise caution.
9. If she has expressed any interest in languages whatsoever, now is the time to give her a book about a new language. I can't remember this, but apparently I once asked my mother for a book on hieroglyphs when I was 7 or 8, and almost 20 years later she still feels like shit for saying no.
10. In a similar vein, if there are any good books about math in your language, get her one of those. Not a math book, but a book that shows where she's headed if she applies herself a little. The main reason for hating math is not having a teacher that can explain why the fuck you should learn it. A good book that can explain it is worth more than I can express.
11. The Hobbit or some other LOTR stuff, but not the actual trilogy.

And like someone said, no Harry Potter.

Dickens or Philip Pullman's Golden Compass trilogy or just the first one.

>>8385165
>Golden Compass trilogy

>>8381455
This

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>>8380668
She's gotta start somewhere, OP.

>>8385165
What's good about this is the Pullman novels if I remember right are about a 12 year old girl (or about that) going on a daring adventure

>>8385171
>The Swann's Way heptology

>>8385201
Nah, if you're reading Marx, you've really gotta start with Hegel. Get her PoS, OP!

>>8385201
This is a good idea. My brother gave me the manifesto when I was 10 and I've never done hard drugs.

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>>8385041
come on anon, they provide alternate interpretations of historical events for kids! What's not to like?