Recommendations for boy just discovering not all YA is equally enthralling.

[BookStop]

My 12 year old son is just beginning to leave the books of his youth behind, but not yet ready to read full on adult novels.

Gone are things like, Artemis Fowl, Gregor the Overlander, and The Edge Chronicles.

He's reading SK's Eyes of the Dragon, Catherine Fisher's Incarceron, and DJ MacHale's Morpheus Road. He has, within the past year, enjoyed the Pendragon series by Wooding, and Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.

These books are generally not on my reading list, except SK of course, but I'd like to suggest to him other books he might like in his genre of choice. (Hunger Games sounds like a winner, maybe.)

Any suggestions? (books for grown ups ok as long as sex is mostly in the form of innuendo please, and not a huge fan of excessive swearing)

 

[Parson]

Can you do better than the Chronicles of Narnia?

 

[Mouse]

Anything by Jonathan Stroud.

 

[BookStop]

He read Narnia and Stroud's Bartemeus Triliogy a couple/few years ago. He's not an easy kid to keep up with, as far as reading goes, and reads roughly 3 books/week.

 

[Mouse]

Oh. Well we're rubbish then! How about Garth Nix?

 

[HareBrain]

Michelle Paver's Wolf Brother series?

But if he's several years past Narnia, he's probably OK for "non-gritty" epic fantasy like Tad Williams etc (I don't remember there being any overt sex in the Memory Sorrow & Thorn series).

Same goes for Robert Redick's Chathrand books.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Garth Nix has written a couple of good ones, but better would be:

Philip Reeve (boys tend to love his books)
Sally Gardner
Pullman's 'His Dark Materials'
Patrick Wood (Viaduct Child)
Herbie Brennan - if he likes mad Faery stuff
and get him all four Nick Gifford books! They're great.

 

[BookStop]

He tried Abhorsen a couple years ago, but didn't care for it for some reason. I don't think he's tried anything else by Garth Nix since though, so maybe he just wasn't old enough and should try again.

I should look up Tad Williams, I know I've read something by him. Might even have something on my bookshelf right now.

Dark Materials he read, and Philip Reeve sounds so familiar, as does Wolf Brother...I think maybe recently on those 2, will have to check.

I've not heard of Robert Redick, Herbie Brennan, Patrick Wood, Nick Gifford, or Sally Gardner. This gives me something to research at the library, just to see if they'd be up his alley.

I was wondering of he'd like Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency(years since I read, so can't remember if appropriate) ... or the Discworld books. They're not his usual, but he might be ready to start trying a few different types of books too.

 

[Mouse]

Abhorsen is the third book in the series, I think. Garth Nix's short stories are pretty good, I didn't like his Mister Monday ones though.

Buried Fire by Jonathan Stroud is okay if he liked his books.

I finished Mortal Engines by Phillip Reeve a couple of weeks ago and it was good, but the end was pretty depressing!

Corbenic by Catherine Fisher. I'm reading that one now and enjoying it.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I know they are junior fiction but has he read Spy Dog ? Anything by John Christopher is good.

More my age group and not fantasy but there are the Hardy Boys.

I'll ask my bestfriend he's a librarian.

 

[Pyan]

Un Lun Dun by China Miéville? Or how about Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series?

 

[murphy]

I'd follow up on The Hunger Games trilogy. Sherwood Smith's Inda quartet is pretty good. He might like The Magic of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. and some of the other Recluce books.

 

[zaltys13]

I would recomend anything by Alan Garner, especialy:

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
The Moon of Gomrath
Elidor
The Owl Service

All written between the mid 60's and early 70's.

Also, The Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper published between 65 and 77.

And last but by no means least, The Driftway by Penelope Lively written in 1972.

I know these are all pretty old books but I loved them as a kid and I'm only 36 now. I suppose it depends on whether your son can get passed children that talk the queens english and a distinct lack of technology

 

[Parson]

Desperate for something to read, I picked up "The Hunger Games" book 1 of the trilogy by Suzanne Collins. It is very good!! It is clearly a YA book, and I am not a YA, but I still can't wait to get back to it.

 

[Culhwch]

I've recently read Leviathan and Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld, and I'd highly recommend them!

 

[BookStop]

Well, picked up a couple recommendations at the library - a Robert Redick book and a Gardner. He is excited to start them, so that's a good thing, although I'm sure he'll be done w/in the week. Our library didn't have a lot of the books we wanted to look for, but we were able to order a Tad Williams' book as well.

I really thought he'd like The Hunger Games, but apparently he read the first one already and didn't care for it. *sigh* He's a tricky kid.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Which Sally Gardner?

btw, the Alan Garner books mentioned above are great too.

 

[BookStop]

The Silver Blade was the one he picked up by Sally Gardner. He is rather antsy to start it, but is just finishing up the Stephen King book

 

[Boneman]

You could try Picus the thief - if he liked Artemis Fowl, he might like that - see the review wot I wrote... And it's part of a series.

 

[CyBeR]

I was wondering of he'd like Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency(years since I read, so can't remember if appropriate) ... or the Discworld books. They're not his usual, but he might be ready to start trying a few different types of books too.

Yes on both accounts, though on the Discworld I'd mainly encourage the Nightwatch series and the Witches. I have a feeling he wouldn't care much for Rincewind or the Wizards' usual shenanigans.

Also, if he's into games and the such, the Infernal City and Lord of Souls by Greg Keyes, the Elder Scrolls novels.