I feel the premise of this all is flawed.
I picked up reading as soon as I was taught to read. My mother says I first asked to be driven to a bookshop when I turned 5 and received birthday money. Growing up and seeing most other people my age shunning reading, I got the impression that you either get into books in elementary school at the latest, or chances are slim that you’ll ever become an avid reader. I don’t think you can force or coax people into becoming interested in the written word. And really, paying your kid to read? They’ll read a number of books, then use the money to buy the equipment to become a video game streamer, ‘cuz the lesson here is you get paid for consuming entertainment, lol. Oh, and of course, your kid will never read another book again unless they get money for it.
If -contrary to my expectation- your kid does get into reading after all, then all I can say is, almost every book is perfectly fine for a preteen to teen. Remember, many great writers started reading at a very young age, and there wasn’t a lot of children literature in the past. Many great writers read books before the age of 10 that kids today aren’t supposed to be exposed to. Even if a kid doesn‘t fully understand a book, that’s not really important. I’ve read books in my teens that I later rediscovered as an adult, and that’s an eye-opening experience. It’s the same with movies, and we all watched movies as kids we really shouldn’t have. Most books are safer than movies, so there’s really no reason your kid shouldn’t read War and Peace but the simple reason that that book‘s size is daunting even for most grownups.
For kids who don’t read a lot, I feel some light-hearted fantasy or some short historical novel is ideal. Short stories of almost any genre are also recommended. Non-fiction is a bit harder - the subject must be interesting to the reader, and the style must be captivating enough.
