A few weeks back on BlueSky, John Scalzi complained that if someone asks you for a specfic recommendation for their kid, trotting out the stuff you read as a kid is a wrong move (implicitly “you” are old enough that you’re picking Great Dead Specfic Authors rather than older books by modern masters). And more generally that these books are either too badly written or dated (e.g., sexist, homophobic) to work for a younger reader these days.
I agree that “what did I read when I was 15?” is not a good guide to what a fifteen-year-old today would like to read. My reading included Doc Savage pulps and lots of other 1930s material. Not the standard Classic SF Scalzi references (Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein) but even then, not everyone’s cup of tea.
Then again, I wouldn’t rule them out as being someone’s cup of tea: C.L. Moore’s gloriously weird stories such as Black Thirst and Black God’s Kiss might work for someone in any era. I don’t know if I’d recommend them automatically but I’d certainly loan them out if it was a kid that I knew (and trusted to take care of the books).
A few authors I would recommend comfortably: I’ve reread Diana Wynn Jones fairly recently (i.e. in this century) and I think she holds up well.
Others, probably not: brilliant as Man in the Maze is, the women characters are terrible. At a minimum I’d point this out (“It’s wildly imaginative but…”).
The real thing to know, though, is what the kid in question likes to read already? Or likes to watch? And what are their must-haves/can’t-stands? Someone who’s read Lord of the Rings and liked it suggests different recommendations from if they’re into Harry Potter (I’ve been told the current generation of kids are completely over JK Rowling but I don’t know that for a fact). Do they like sword and sorcery or explorations of exotic alien cultures? Urban fantasy or secondary worlds? Do they want books with a gay/POC protagonist? Stories that pass the Bechdel test? A lot of action and spectacle that’ll distract them for a few hours? Some readers would have no interest in something set in the age of constant smoking and drinking; others might be fine with it.
The best way to give a good recommendation is what I’d do when I worked at the bookstore: ask. Which is good advice for recommendations at any age.
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