For a specific aspect on British India try Mike Davis' "Late Victorian Holocausts, El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World". A true inter-disciplinary history. My nephew read it at 15 and to the best of my knowledge he isn't some sort of savant so I assume others of his age could read it as well. I remember it being rather easy reading. It's a bit gruesome at times but only you can know your child's level of sensitivity to something like that.
John Thornton