La Belle Sauvage
by Philip Pullman
Young adult · ages 10–18 · grades 5–12 · 950L · 491 pages · 2017
Why we'd hand it over
A prequel that stands alone: Pullman at full craft, with genuine peril, moral complexity, and a 12-year-old protagonist who acts. Younger than *Northern Lights* tonally, but demand the reading stamina of a 13-year-old.