<p>Wuthering Heights - one of my favorites at that age. Lots of interesting movie versions.</p>
<p>Great Expectations - Paltrow/Hawke movie is modern retelling.</p>
<p>What about Amy Tan’s “The Bonesetter’s Daughter”? It’s been several years since I read it and was not thinking about age appropriateness? As I remember their are mother-daughter relationships that could bring about good dialogue.</p>
<p>Before you go for the Sisterhood of the travelling pants, are you willing to talk to your D’s about the girl who gives it over to her soccer coach and then discovers how wrong it was? Actually a good teaching moment, but make sure your girls are “there” in their pants, so to speak.
Also be aware that the Princess Diaries books have much more “high teen” content than the movies. Even in the first one there is a plot line about sexual fetishes - portrayed as “gross” but still there.
Gee, I sound like the Prude Librarian here. I am neither. Just read all the books.</p>
<p>One of my favorite books is The Outsiders. I read it in school in seventh grade. It’s one of the few books that I can pick up at any time, open to any part, and immediately start reading. Middle school was a really awkward time for me, and I felt like the main character in the book was someone like me who understood what it was like to be searching for one’s place in society.</p>
<p>I don’t recommend “The Kite Runner” for young girls. Unless she has a good understanding of life and culture in Afghanistan, it may be too brutal and violent for her. We read that book in our adult book club and some of us found it difficult to read about the violence. </p>
<p>We enjoyed “Life of Pi” - and it was also an optional book for my daughter’s Engl class.</p>
<p>Watership Down.
Bride and Prejudice is great 
I also like Rabbit Proof Fence- didn’t read the book though.
Princess Bride is a classic.
Girl of the limberlost was a movie i think
Also liked I capture the Castle- I <B Bill Nighy</p>
<p>I think with a book group that covers several reading levels- you are better off with books that flow, but have interesting situations for discussion. I would rather aim lower, than to have somebody struggle and giveup</p>
<p>I liked Lovely Bones- but not for 13.
Speak and others in that genre can also be a lot for someone who isn’t ready.</p>
<p>Anne of Green Gables.</p>
<p>OP mentioned in post #7 that there are several reluctant readers in the group, so many of these suggestions would be too difficult or long for those girls. Books like Watership Down and even Little Women and Jane Austen are long and really for readers who read lots of books at a higher level. </p>
<p>Anne of Green Gables would be a good choice. I love that film production.</p>
<p>Both Lovely Bones and Speak should probably wait a year. And I agree about Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Discussed that in my D’s group around 8th grade, and she and I really had a problem with the soccer coach sleeping with a 16-year-old (if I remember correctly) yet everyone else in the group glossed right over that and romanticized it.</p>
<p>We enjoyed Joy Luck Club in our mother daughter book club when the girls were about that age. We also read and loved Secret Life of Bees. Both good for discussions.</p>
<p>I agree with Anne of Green Gables. Great Book! We read it when the girls were about this age. The moms liked it more than the girls, even though it was a re read for most of us.</p>
<p>Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and especially its sequels? Depends on how open the moms and daughters are about talking about sex.</p>
<p>Tuck Everlasting sounds like a great idea. The girls had all read it for school so we didn’t use it for book club.</p>
<p>Not a movie book, but if there are reluctant reader 13 year old girls, try Bat 6. We read that maybe the year before and everyone LOVED it. [Amazon.com:</a> Bat 6: Virginia Euwer Wolff: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Bat-6-Virginia-Euwer-Wolff/dp/0590898000]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Bat-6-Virginia-Euwer-Wolff/dp/0590898000)</p>
<p>As the girls get older and their homework loads get higher, you may find you need to move to shorter books.</p>
<p>What about Twililght? Not great writing, but a fun read and certainly gives you lots of talking points with young girls about relationships.</p>
<p>First of all, I think a mother/daughter book club is a wonderful idea!</p>
<p>My suggestion would be “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult. The lead character is a 13 year old girl and the movie, starring Abigail Breslin, is due out in June. I think the girls could relate and it would foster lots of great discussion. It’s been awhile since I had a 13 year old, so I would have one of the moms read/reread the book first to determine age appropriateness.</p>
<p>I agree Bat 6 is a good book- might be a little young for the group.
When my daughter & her friends read Traveling Pants- it was a huge hit- but the way the sexual relationship was portrayed in the book- I think it would have been easy to miss, at least I almost missed it- and when I briefly questioned my D, she didn’t know what I was talking about
I would also suggest Shabanu- about a girl growing up among camel- dealing nomads in modern Pakistan, Shadow Spinner about a young girl who rescues the fabled Shahrazad from the Sultan’s wrath & if they haven’t already read The Giver ( my D listened to the cassette every night for months until she was 6 , that was after the Really Rosie period)
The Giver by Lois Lowry
</p>
<p>Oh- ignore previous recommendations-( until later) what I highly recommend would be Persepolis: The story of a childhood by Marjane Satrapi. My book group read it- as part of * If all of Seattle read the same book* and while I don’t read many graphic novels- ( or even think of them) the story is very appealing- the art brings the story along and is very well done & it brings up many points for discussion. </p>
<p>
<a href=“and.%20a.%20movie.”>url=http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/persepolis/</a></p>
<p>Oh yes–ditto on both Persepolis and the movie! This has made me want to go back and write down all the books we read in my D’s group (7 years worth, including a couple of meetings after they all started college). Those were the good old days!</p>
<p>Twilight by Stephanie Meyer…it is VERY popular with tween girls and their moms!</p>
<p>Persepolis, the movie, covers three or four volumes of the graphic novel, not just the first, and includes such topics as drug and alcohol abuse, sexual initiation, abusive affairs, depression, a bad husband. I am generally OK with 13-year-olds watching and discussing that (and it IS minimalist animation, with nothing horribly graphic), but not everyone is. I only raise this because the first volume of the graphic novel has very little of that stuff (it ends with the protagonist about 15 or 16), but the volumes that cover her late teens and early 20s are much tougher.</p>
<p>I didn’t know that JHS, I haven’t seen the movie yet- , I didn’t realize it covered more than the first book, although I did read the next book.</p>
<p>I think with books, you can sometimes get away with more difficult material, because you can only read as much as you want- or skip, but in a movie it is harder to ignore, however- it’s illustrated not live action, so that probably inhibits reactions- but I agree, there was a change of mood in the later book.</p>
<p>I haven’t read Twilight, my daughter has after the middle school girls she was in charge of last summer kept going on about it. While she did read all of the books, she hasn’t expressed any interest in seeing the movie.</p>
<p>( I did read some of the Anne Rice books, but walked out of Interview with a Vampire- I guess I have a weak stomach)</p>
<p>A friend from book group however, avidly read the books and saw the movie. ( and she kept going on about it) But the way she described it didn’t make me want to read them, and concerns me that it will feed teen girls who lust after * bad boys* Obsessiveness isn’t love, girls.</p>
<p>Cheaper by the Dozen… but I would watch the older, original movie…
The Mouse that Roared (perhaps wait until HS?)
Friday Night Lights… excellent read and compelling movie…
Killer Angels (you can then watch the movie Gettysburg)
And then there were None (Agatha Christie… one of our earlier books, reluctant readers really liked this one, there are several movie iterations, Ten Little Indians is another name for this)
Galileo’s Daughter was a great read…no movie to go along with it…
Girl with a Pearl Earring might be an option eventually…</p>
<p>We have done Mother/Son book group since 7th grade… 5 families, 1 set of twins, and they are all HS seniors now… we have done about 40 books… </p>
<p>There are many wonderful suggestions here…it is very hard to choose a book when you have such a diverse group of readers… we ultimately let whoever was hosting chose the next book…</p>
<p>Enjoy… it is a great experience…</p>
<p>I didn’t know that JHS, I haven’t seen the movie yet- , I didn’t realize it covered more than the first book, although I did read the next book.</p>
<p>I think with books, you can sometimes get away with more difficult material, because you can only read as much as you want- or skip, but in a movie it is harder to ignore, however- it’s illustrated not live action, so that probably inhibits reactions- but I agree, there was a change of mood in the later book.</p>
<p>I haven’t read Twilight, my daughter has after the middle school girls she was in charge of last summer kept going on about it. While she did read all of the books, she hasn’t expressed any interest in seeing the movie.
( I did read a couple Ann Rice books, but walked our of Interview with a Vampire- I guess I have a weak stomach)
A friend from book group however, avidly read the books and saw the movie. But the way she described it didn’t make me want to read them, and concerns me that it will feed teen girls who lust after * bad boys* Obsessiveness isn’t love, girls.</p>