Noel, Ryan and I were talking tonight about the fact that while a few middle/high school girls read, almost no middle/high school boys read.
My dad died almost 15 years ago. He enjoyed Zane Grey and Tarzan. There was a time the John Carter of Mars books were popular. Also the Hardy Boys. Sherlock Holmes. I read a lot sports as a kid. Times have changed.
Boys today read manga and comics, if they read at all. A few read Poe and Tolkien. When in college, Sci-fi and action/military books may find an audience.
So what is out there, contemporary and classic, that we could suggest or assign to middle/high school boys? (Not Christians in an advanced environment. Just regular boys.)
The Internet Monk Archives 
A high school friend just posted this on Facebook as a blog that he follows regarding getting boys to read: http://www.gettingboystoread.com/
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For non-fiction, there’s the “Horrible History” series (all the bits they don’t tell you about in school left in!)
A very humorous, basically accurate, romp through history from the Stone Age up to the Second World War.
Very Euro-centric – of course! – written by an Englishman, so all to do with British history. Still, disgusting tales of the plague, torture, and executions should be very appealing to boys. My nephews loved them (and to be fair, I laughed my backside off as well).
http://www5.scholastic.co.uk/zone/book_horr-histories.htm
I have no idea if they’re available in America, or if they are, and you use them in school, if you’ll be fired from your job afterwards.
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My oldest son is 17 doesn’t read much except sports magazines and gaming magazines. My youngest son is 14 and reads voraciously. His short list includes:
Harry Potter
The Redwall series
Artemis Fowl
Alex Rider (sort of a spy, action series)
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I wish Terry Brooks and R. A. Salvatore would have been around when I was young, I think they are easier to read than Tolkien. I just googled and found this link to a series called Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators: http://www.thrillingdetective.com/3invest.html I remembered reading every one I could get my hands on, the guys had a club house hidden in the middle of a junkyard. I read every Louis L’Amour, the Sackett stories are really good, and could draw them in to wanting more. Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift were good. Harry Potter is good. Heinlein was good.
I don’t know how to get them to read unless they start very young. I remember reading a slim version of Robinson Crusoe with some photos when I was maybe 8 or 9, I never read the whole unabridged version until I was an adult. I remember reading a book called The Discoverers, a non-fiction historical work by Daniel Boorstin, it was very readable. (I just googled it to find the author, and it looks like there’s a trilogy, I read it when it was fairly new, ’86 or so, wow, I’m old.
Nicholas Kristoff at the NYT put out this list of “the best Kids Books ever”: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/opinion/05kristof.html
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I wasn’t much of a fiction guy, but I remember enjoying:
Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
The Giver (I forget)
Hatchet (Gary Paulsen)
Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
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My junior high son reads:
the Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling),
the Eragon series (Christopher Paolini)
the Redwall series (Brian Jacques)
He also will read non-fiction if it’s simply written, biographical (or autobiographical), and reasonably short (less than 250-300 pp). He’s read stuff about sports figures, a history of the Apollo program, and books on science and engineering (how to make things, how they are made, how they work) that are aimed at high school students.
My take on this is he’s looking for both adventure and concrete experiences of real people in his reading.
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Spider Robinson!
The Flashman bboks are indeed bawdy, but it’s all in good fun. An older teen should be able to handle that–swashbuckling and babes at its literate best. Good history, too.
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Definitely Heinlein, filtering his later novels for age/sexual content. I also second Just Bill on Alvin Maker as well. That has the advantage of being very infused with Christianity (Card is a strong Mormon, but the Christian themes apply nonetheless). David Eddings’ Belgariad is good boy reading too.
When I was about 16 I discovered George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman books and laughed my butt off while learning more history than I could ever have gotten in school. They’re pretty bawdy, but humorous rather than smutty. Certainly not beyond the capacity of a teenager to handle.
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I never said I recommended Left Behind or any of the books I listed. I just read them. I generally hated reading Steinbeck, Dickens and London though London’s “The Iron Heel” is one of my all time favorite books (I have a fondness for dystopian fiction).
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I greatly enjoyed Heinlein’s juvenile work as a tween/teen. I have not been able to find them in the local used bookstores. I need to check Amazon
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Charles Williams, along with Lewis and Tolkien, is a character in James Owen’s series (Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica.)
I would not recommend Charles Williams to a teenager.
I am 47 and must confess that I have never made it through a Charles Williams book myself.
Even Lewis’ Space Trilogy, which I re-read recently, might be too much for my kids, though I read them in high school. Perhaps I am selling my kids short.
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The ones that come to mind that are lying around our house:
Harry Potter (of course)
Holes by Louis Sachar
Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time by Mark Haddon
Heart of a Champion by Carl Deuker
Anything by Lee Strobel
Anything by John Feinstein except the golf stuff
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Williams for a 16 year old (or younger!)? How does that work out?
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The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, and any of the books by Loren Eisley.
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When I was that age, Dungeons and Dragons was popular, so quite a bit of what I read had that influence. There were some very good books I read at that time, however.
The Riftwar Saga by Raymond E Feist (and everything else with his name)
The Tales of Alvin Maker by Orson Scott Card (historical fiction steeped in the traditions of the area)
Clan of the Cave Bear
Most anything by Ray Bradbury
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It just occurred to me to suggest James Michener’s short novel “Caravans,” which is set in Afghanistan.
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Just read, for the first time, The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis which provides some great insight into the internal workings of the male mind and how it deals with the possibilities, both edifying and evil, that come ones way.
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Heinlein’s Juveniles, most definitely:
1. Rocket Ship Galileo, 1947
2. Space Cadet, 1948
3. Red Planet, 1949
4. Farmer in the Sky, 1950
5. Between Planets, 1951
6. The Rolling Stones aka Space Family Stone, 1952
7. Starman Jones, 1953
8. The Star Beast, 1954
9. Tunnel in the Sky, 1955
10. Time for the Stars, 1956
11. Citizen of the Galaxy, 1957
12. Have Space Suit—Will Travel, 1958
His collected stories in _The Past Through Tomorrow.
If you trust your young teen’s judgement and ability to handle a wonderful satire of sex and organized religion, let them read _Stranger in a Strange Land_. I first read it when I was 10, and I turned out normal, for the most part. 🙂
Almost any of the classic Science Fiction novels listed at (http://classics.jameswallaceharris.com/).
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Every Southern boy should read Ferrol Sams’ trilogy:
Run With the Horsemen
The Whisper of the River
When All the World Was Young
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A Single Shard and other books by Linda Sue Park.
There is a series of historical fiction for boys, My Name is America. I don’t know if they are any good my my girls liked the corresponding Dear America series.
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I think Dune is an excellent book and we’ve been toying with the idea of introducing it to our 12 yo son. I’ve held off, though, because I really think that one needs a fairly decent understanding of the major tenets of all three Abrahamic religions in order to fully grasp what Herbert was writing about. He mixes stuff up quite a bit and it’s entertaining, but in order to really get it I think we’re going to hold off til he’s older.
And … you’re right about the sequels. I read many of them and eventually quit because they were so insipid compared to the original. There are only so many times you can be disappointed before you stop. Or rather quit while you’re ahead!
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The Dangerous Book for Boys – also good for 50 somethings looking to reclaim some of the joys of childhood.
R. A. Heinlein’s Pre 1959 Juvenile Sci Fi – Rocketship Galileo through Have Spacesuit Will Travel.
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I did not get all the coments read so don’t know if this has been suggested but…. Louis L’Amour books. While they are western [and very well written] they also contain tidbits of history about the US. I have enjoyed reading them often. They are good for the age you are suggesting.
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KITERUNNER! That book is amazing!!! It’s a great story about friendship, suffering, and redemption.
Also, even though its written by a prominent atheist, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is just one of those great novels that every person with any sense of humor should read.
Oh, and one more book! The Autobiography of Malcolm X was probably the most powerful book I’ve read during high school. Every teenage boy, regardless of race or religion must read this book! It completely shattered the naive, ignorant assumptions I had about race and society as an arrogrant teen growing up in a typical American suburb.
Man, books are amazing!
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William Still’s “The Underground Railroad” is a great read! It’s available on Project Gutenberg and is mainly just filled with the stories of slaves and how they escaped from slavery with letters back home now and again. None of the stories are very long, so though it’s a big book (>600 pages if I recall rightly), it can be broken up into manageable chunks of time. Lots of derring-do and suspense.
Heinlein and Asimov are pretty good reads.
I second the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators suggestion. Jupiter, Pete and Bob were friends of mine when I was a kid.
Encyclopedia Brown was another favorite, though he skews young, say 3rd or 4rth grade.
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My 11-year-old grandson loves everything by Patrick McManus…but he’s also read a lot of Shakespeare and he loves David MacCauley’s books, too.
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The X-Men comics (and Marvel in general) had some great exposition of moral issues, plus a lot of action. Ok, also occultism and violence if that is a problem, and some of the spinoffs are better than others.
Jim Kjelgaard’s Big Red series and other dog stories, where unlike Old Yeller , Sounder, etc. the dog doesn’t die.
The Ralph Moody Little Britches series. Odd to see a book touted by homeschoolers about a kid who frequently deceives his mother (to ride in rodeos, etc.)
Kipling’s Captains Courageous
Dune (1st 3 books) and Ender’s Game, yes. The Bean books are better than the Speaker for the Dead books.
Star Trek fiction, some better than others.
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I might recomend the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper.
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These are excellent recommendations and include many books I’ve read and enjoyed. I particularly second Zelazny’s Amber series, the Orson Scott Card books, and the Count of Monte Cristo.
I add these books to the list:
The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time – Mark Haddon
The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
Riverworld series – Philip Jose Farmer
Xanth series – Piers Anthony
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer
But the question here is “What MIGHT boys read?†as opposed to “What SHOULD boys read?†Honestly, when I was a teenage boy, I would consider any book with a cover that appealed to my hormone-driven imagination. In high school I read the entire James Bond series and any detective or secret agent book with an enticing cover. The content may have been a bit risque back then, but those books induced this (former) boy to read heavily in his teen years.
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Have to add Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin. One of my favorite books of all time. Might be best for older boys, though.
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I loved ERB’s Tarzan series and John Carter of Mars. Whenever a friend asks for suggestions for boys I immediately suggest these.
Also, the Doc Savage series by Kenneth Robeson is along the same vein as the ERB books. I remember devouring those.
What else… (trying not to repeat)
Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott
The Once and Future King – T.H. White
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series – Fritz Leiber (sword & sorcery type stuff)
Dragonriders of Pern seies – Anne McCaffrey
Blue Adept series – Piers Anthony
From above I’d second Dune, the Dumas books, Wrinkle in Time, Ringworld, Ender’s Game, LOTR, Narnia…. Heck!, there’s just too many good ones.
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I have 3 sons (ages 12 – 16) ranging from light reader to heavy reader.
As a reader, my rule has always been that I would buy them whatever books they want to read, except comic/manga books.
Here are the ones I recall –
Harry Potter at the top of the list.
Tolkien LOTR and Hobbit
Eragon Dragon series
Some game related novels – Halo and Warhammer
None have made it past Lion Witch & Wardrobe in Narnia series.
Roger Lancelyn Green’s re-tellings of various mythologies
Some post apocalyptic stuff – Tales from the Wasteland.
HG Wells and Jules Verne
James Owen’s Here There be Dragons series- Where the main characters are the Inklings – Lewis, Tolkien and Williams.
BTW, if you order a lot of books, check out Amazon Prime.
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The Halo (on which the video game is based) books are popular amongst the teenage boys I work with, none of whom would read otherwise.
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The concept of the space guild navigators was my favorite part of Dune. I love the idea of a person deciding to spend the rest of his life in a tank inhaling spice gas until his body mutates into something resembling a manatee.
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Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff is a quick, fun read about the early years of the American space program.
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I’d also recommend Larry Niven’s “Ringworld” books, and “Lucifer’s Hammer.”
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I just remembered one of my favorite books as a teenager. It completely blew me away: Walker Percy’s Lost in the Cosmos.
I think a lot of adolescents can relate to it.
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Ross,
I agree with you on Dune I think. It’s one of my all-time favorite novels. I re-read it every couple of years. Unfortunately, the sequels get progressively worse. I’ve read them all will never re-read most of them. However, of the Dune universe novels that have been written recently by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are somewhat better. I actually really enjoyed the Prelude to Dune trilogy (Dune: House Atreides, Dune: House Harkonnen, and Dune: House Corrino).
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when i was a kid my favorite author was Roald Dahl
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“Oh–and “The Mote in God’s Eye†by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Absolutely fantastic.”
And the sequel is even better.
““Dune†is difficult but good, so more power to them if they can navigate it. (I disagree with the poster who called it anti-Christian, but I suppose he means that Christianity does not exist in that very far future, except perhaps as part of the syncretic “Orange Catholic Bible.â€)”
I liked Dune. It was the sequels I was dissing. Main character turned into a messianic / Oliver Cromwell (the dictator who ran England for a while) type of person. And many young readers thought it was really really deep and pined for a world where he ran things. But as I said, NOT the original of the series.
I was/am also a big fan of Heinlein. But some of his stuff was totally off the rails in terms of religion, incest as normal, etc… But other stuff of his is great. How to you explain to a youth?
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I’m 26 and love reading. When I was in middle/high school, as well as know, I read non-fiction because it interested me, and sci-fi/fantasy to unwind. The first real book I ever read cover to cover was a description of the naval technology and sea battles of the War of 1812.
A few good books that I can think of:
A Wrinkle in Time – L’Engle
Eragon – Paolini
Honor Harrington series – Weber
-Good for kids who enjoy military strategy and Command and Conquer type video games
Brave Men Run – Matthew Wayne Selznick
-Originally a Podiobook on podiobooks.com, now available also in paperback. It’s excellent.
Harry Potter – Rowling
-This is how two of my brother-in-laws started reading, they wanted more than the chapter-per-night that their big sister (now my wife) was reading them, so they started reading ahead and haven’t stopped. Nine years later they are still avid readers, and still re-read the Harry Potter series about once a year.
J.R.R. Tolkien is great, but by all means start the kid on the Hobbit and hold off on LOTR. The Hobbit is fun, fast paced, easy reading. LOTR is excellent, but takes 200 pages to really get moving, that’s enough to discourage most inexperienced readers.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has always been a personal favorite of mine, but the kid has to have the right (slightly unbalanced) sense of humor, or it just seems like a silly book.
The book that stands out to my most from my early reading days was assigned reading in 9th grade. A Separate Peace by John Knowles. It’s a coming-of-age novel set in a boarding school during the very end of World War II. It made such an impact on me that I still re-read it regularly, and 12 years after the assignment I named by first son (now 2 months old) Phineas, in homage to one of the two main characters in the book.
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On the topic of good manga and comics I can’t help throwing out a few titles:
Historical manga/comics
Art Spiegelmann, Maus
Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis
Keiji Nakazawa, Barefoot Gen
Frank Miller, 300
These are all heavy books about a Jewish man surviving a Nazi camp (Maus); a woman coming of age in Iran after the fall of the shah (Persepolis, also adapted into an effective movie recently); and a survivor’s semi-autobiographical account of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (Gen). If boys are going to be reading comics and manga you can at least suggest some comics that deal with important historical events. Miller’s work is breezier and much less historically accurate but I’m pretty sure a bunch of boys have read the comic book already on account of the movie. That’s throwing a bone to a comic I’m sure teenage boys are going to be reading anyway.
Hayao Miyazaki is better known for his films but his manage manga Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind is amazing and it is a good alternative for a teenage boy who would enjoy the philosophy and fantastical world of Dune but may not have the attention span for it. Miyazaki’s manga is a much better, more ambitious, and thought-provoking story than his anime by the same name.
Despite being a terrible movie Alan Moore’s comic book Watchmen has been a classic, if often over-rated comic book. Ditto for Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight, which might explain to at least some parents what might be the overly serious take Christopher Nolan took on Batman. 🙂
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I agree with Jonathan. The classics that are taught should not be taught because they are “classics” but because they are great to read. For example, Mark Twain can be a blast to read. Jonathan’s premise to focus a program around what kids will enjoy reading is something in which I believe strongly as a language teacher. I use manga/graphic novels freely and frequently, because I can expose students to a vast amount of language this way. Manga can also let me keep students keenly interested in critical discussions about plot, characters, etc. English teachers should be much more pleased to have an objective like “Students will leave this class having enjoyed reading…” than “Students will leave this class understanding the greatest novels are…” Also, using enjoyable reading material (even comic books…) will lead kids to write interesting and engaged essays. It really opens up writing to some kids. Anyway, I am a huge believer that the classroom experience must be filled with space for the kids to pursue their own passions in reading and writing, and for enjoyment. (Sorry to be off topic)
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Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe series (English soldier in the era of the Napoleonic Wars)are good reads for high school kids–and pretty good history. He is also writing a Saxon series set in the era of Alfred the Great, whose narrator is a Saxon boy captured by Vikings.
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I have a book discussion time at Starbucks every Sat. morning for the past two years with my kids (whoever is in town as some are at college now). I was always reading heavy things, like Plato, Augustine plus others. My boys were always reading the classic novels.
One morning I made the comment to son # 4 about son # 3, “I don’t know if I understand Tyler (son # 3)anymore.”
Son # 4 says, “If you want to understand Tyler, you must read The Catcher in the Rye.”
That morning I looked up the top 100 novels (which my sons have read on their own volition).
I started with Catcher, and by my son’s encouragement, I’ve now read about 10 of the top 100 . . . oddly for the first time.
So that’s what my sons read and I am so thankful to them for turning me onto the classics.
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I think that our education system has completely failed both boys and girls when it comes to reading. I loved reading as a kid. I probably read a novel ever week. But I generally despised the books we read in school. Of all the crappy books they made us read in high school, the only ones that I remember with any fondness were “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Candide.” And I didn’t like TKAM until about half way through.
And yes, as a guy, I was very frustrated that we read a bunch of girly books. I remember the pains of reading “Anne of Green Gables” in the fifth grade. And we wonder why boys don’t want to read books. To borrow a line from St Paul: “why didn’t they go the whole way and emasculate us?”
I still love reading. Ironically, my wife was in an advanced literature class in middle school where she read many classics, but the experience turned her very sour on reading. She pretty much hates books now. Of course, grad school didn’t help her either.
What I don’t understand is: why all the focus on the ‘classics’? Why don’t English teachers teach lessons on the books kids are already reading? Yes, some classics should be taught, but let’s face it, 90% of the classics are an acquired taste, and you only acquire the taste if you want to. Most kids don’t want to. Besides what’s more practical: teaching kids to analyze the books they are already reading, or teaching them to analyze the books they will not ever read?
My love of reading has been a great asset, but I am incredibly frustrated that school did very little to nurture it, and a lot to destroy it. (The main thing school did to nurture it was provide libraries with helpful librarians).
Why don’t we build English literature programs around nurturing a love of reading, instead of focusing on the classics?
I’m not knocking the classics. But I think that it would be far easier to tackle the classics after nurturing a love of reading, than before it. I hated Shakespeare in HS, but loved him in college. Why do we expect teenage boys and girls to love Shakespeare? Why not wait until college to teach the classics?
For a lot of boys I’d recommend the Ender’s Game series. It was awesome. Also “The Power of One” by Bryce Courtenay. “The Once and Future King” by TH White is also excellent on many many levels.
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For some adventure:
Red Storm Rising
Ice Station Zebra (book not movie)
Jurassic Park (book not movie)
Andromeda Strain (book not movie)
The Sun Also Rises (for the older boys)
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Canfield Cook’s Lucky Terrell Flying Stories consisted of eight volumes published by Grosset & Dunlap from 1942 through 1946. Volumes #1-7 were issued in white spine dust jackets and volume #8 had a wrap-around illustrated dust jacket. I couldn’t put them down, and read them over and over under the covers with a flashlight.
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I’ll just think back to the books I read in high school that stood out to me most.
9th:
1984 by Orwell
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
Lord of the Flies by Golding
Plato’s Republic (I read about half of this, it was extra credit. I re-read it about a year ago)
10th:
The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas
Jane Eyre
Great Expectations by Dickens
Macbeth
11th:
The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Stowe
The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne
Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
12th:
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
Kokoro by Natsume Soseki
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor
Hamlet (we read this twice!)
These were all assigned except for the O’Conner. I graduated in 2004 and had no trouble recalling these as my favorites. I love to read, and my results might not be indicative of HS boys as a whole! I just loved these books.
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A key point is: who is recommending a book. It has to be someone that the boy looks up to. This may not be a teacher or church person, and certainly not a parent.
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Hey man, I’m only 25 and I grew up on the hardy boys! They are contemporary enough imo. I enjoyed them because they are mystery and I will provide them for my boys when I have them as well. I don’t think they go out of style. I think parents passing that sort of thing on has disappeared. I don’t blame the lack of good literature available for boys not reading these days. It’s easy to get distracted with tons of various forms of media, but with a little discipline I believe (from absolutely NO experience, fwiw) that boys can be influenced to enjoy reading. But they aren’t going to get that influence on the computer or TV.
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Louis Sachar: Holes
Dr. Seuss
Calvin and Hobbes (I know, I know, but it’s still good for boys!)
Cey
My wife is a children’s librarian. She finds that boys, particularly pre-high school boys can often be persuaded to read non-fiction before fiction.
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Rick- I was thinking Hornblower too- I read most of them when I was in Jr High and I’m a girl 🙂
I don’t think Madeline L’Engle’s “Wrinkle in Time” series has been mentioned.
One alternative in a classroom situation is for the teacher (or a student who can do it well) to read aloud for a few minutes every day. That would be a great way to do a book like “Count of Monte Cristo” or others where the vocabulary might be a bit advanced. Most kids enjoy being read to, even through middle school age. An added benefit is that it can improve their concentration (if they actually choose to concentrate…).
Dana
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I was gratified to see Artemis Fowl mentioned in the very first comment. That’s a series that has received far too little attention, but is outstanding.
I got a review copy of a book called Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass by Erica Kirov. It’s the first book of a series, and it looks pretty good. My review is at http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-magickeepers-the-eternal-hourglass/
They still make the Hardy Boys books, so those would certainly be on my list. The Narnia books also have to be on the list. I noticed someone mentioned Lawhead’s Pendragon books, which would be a good recommendation for older middle-schoolers.
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Blake – “Left Behind”?? Shudder…
In high school I was assigned and gobbled up “Les Miserables.”
I think Erik Larsen’s books “The Devil in The White City” and “Thunderstruck” would be entertaining and informative for that age group – full of the gory details of crime they see on CSI but also filled with history, innovation, and beauty.
Also, I have never been a scifi geek (I use the term affectionately) but I still greatly enjoyed “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy” as a middle/high schooler.
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everybody, what is up with all of these non-fiction books?
What about Stephen Ambrose’s “Band of Brothers” or Galloway and Moore’s “We Were Soldiers Once…And Young”?
Also Marcus Luttrell’s book “Lone Survivor”. I have had a number of students read it for my 11th grade U.S. History class and everyone who has read it has loved it.
“Survivor” is an amazing story about a team of SEALs in Afghanistan, and it’s all true of course. I couldn’t put the book down.
Right now I am reading “Not a Good Day to Die” by Naylor about operation Anaconda, again in Afghanistan.
Also, don’t forget about “Black Hawk Down” by Bowden and “Ghost Soldiers” by Hampton Sides (I think) they made “Ghost Soldiers” into the movie “the Great Raid” a good movie, but the book is better.
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There are some great suggestions in this thread!
Some that worked both for me, and for my son, that haven’t featured yet:
– Rosemary Sutcliffe’s Eagle of the Ninth series is both compelling story telling and beautiful writing (covers the half-millennium period of Roman Britain).
– Robert Heinlein’s youth sci-fi was a firm favourite, and probably topping the list was Citizen of the Galaxy; sci-fi can date, but this seems to keep working for some reason.
One thing that helped enormously in our home was reading aloudto the kids from a young age. They loved it, I loved it. Eventually, they took over the books to read for themselves.
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As a librarian at a small public library I am often asked to recommend books for middle school/high school boys. For boys in middle school I recommend Jeff Smith’s Bone series of graphic novels. It is eight volumes so if they like the first they have more to read.
I also recommend Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider series.
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Raise the Titanic was excellent. Just don’t let your kid watch the movie. Nothing morally wrong with it (from what I remember… it just sucked.)
🙂
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I think it depends on the boy. I don’t see myself as growing up in an advanced environment. I went to a small, poorly funded, Mennonite school where the library was in the math room and one of the math teachers was the librarian.
I walked into the library one day and “out of the blue” Mr. Miller, the Math teacher said “I think you’d like this book” and pulled Leon Uris’ “Exodus” off the shelf.
I thought it looked interesting and so I took it home and read it, and it sparked my love for history and so you could say it changed my life.
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Buckley,
I’m curious what manga you would recommend. I don’t read a lot of manga directed toward boys (shounen). The only one I could think of that is licensed is Beck. It follows a group of high schoolers as the form a band and try to get picked up by the record companies. I haven’t finished it, but it’s a fairly solid storyline.
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Christian writes fantasy books about Viking adventures.
Just came across these blogs and websites about Lars Walker:
http://theologica.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-novel-from-lars-walker.html
http://nordskogpublishing.com/book-west_oversea.shtml http://www.larswalker.com/
I hope to check out one of his books soon.
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I’ll second Brian in BC on “Chickenhawk”, best combat account I ever read.
Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pit novels (“Raise the Titanic”, “Sahara”, “Flood Tide”, etc.) Quick reads and fun.
Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood”. Some of the most fluid, easy to read writing ever.
Erich Maria Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front”. An excellent way for young boys to learn that war is not anything like playing “Call of Duty”.
Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451”.
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I tried reading SF growing up, but couldn’t get into it–had to create not just the characters, but the whole world in your imagination–too much work. Struggled w/reading until I read The Bourne Identity (pre M. Damon) Couldn’t get enough of the genre. All about individualism, doing the right thing, expect the unexpected….Loved it. Any Ludlum is a good read.
Also
David Morrell (the guy that gave us Rambo–but he’s only credited with writing First Blood)
Matthew Reilly is also easy read–mindless bang bang fun
Vince Flynn/Brad Thor books – more political
Jon Land They all read like movies. Great way to get kids to read.
Christian author Robert Liparulo is also in that genre.
A classic in that genre? Count of Monte Cristo
Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island also.
The Biblical versions of the genre?
1. Ehud the Left-Handed Man! (the Book’s first ninja assassin!)
2. Joshua and the Spies
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I loved Tolkien and C.S. Lewis – especially the Space Trilogy series. Where the Narnia series is more suitable for younger kids, I think the Space Trilogy is especially appealing to tween and teen boys. Though even our university’s international studies office suggested Out of the Silent Planet as a book for international students to understand how people from two different cultures can meet.
Count of Monte Cristo and Ender’s Game were also boyhood favorites of mine.
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When my brother was in middle/high school, he read a lot of Michael Crichton books, and I did too. Not high literature, but good, engaging reads.
Any of Dumas’ works, but especially The Three Musketeers.
Unwind by Neal Shusterman – a chilling book of survival in dystopian world.
The Dead & the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
The Percy Jackson series, which many have mentioned.
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen for middle schoolers
Anything by Jerry Spinelli (Maniac Magee, Loser, Crash…)
Robin McKinley’s fantasy, some anyway, like The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – for high school
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Stephen King is pretty accessible. Try “Night Shift” (short stories), “Carrie”, “The Shining”, “The Dead Zone”, “Misery”, “Different Seasons” (4 novellas), book one of “The Dark Tower”, selected passages from “It.” When they’re hooked you can give them his nonfiction books “On Writing” or “Danse Macabre” (a history of horror–and by the way, he recommends “Jude the Obscure” and “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” as examples of excellent fiction writing.)
Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Ray Bradbury are on easy enough for students that age. Robert Heinlein and Phillip K. Dick are a mixed bag and can get very radical and trippy. “Dune” is difficult but good, so more power to them if they can navigate it. (I disagree with the poster who called it anti-Christian, but I suppose he means that Christianity does not exist in that very far future, except perhaps as part of the syncretic “Orange Catholic Bible.”) One very educational possibility is alternate history novels–and there is a series of young adult ones by S.M. Stirling.
Don’t write off comic books. DC publishes “Fables” (Snow White etc. come to our world as refugees from a war) and “Y: The Last Man” (a mysterious plague kills all males–you know, with a Y chromosome–but one). And then there’s “Persepolis” (autobiography of an Iranian woman) and “Pride of Baghdad” (fable involving lions who escape from an Iraqi zoo during the U.S. bombings). Christians may be allergic to “Testament” (a trippy look at biblical themes being re-enacted in the near future; the author is Jewish) and Deepak Chopra’s retelling of the Ramayana. And “Maus” of course.
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Good manga and comics.
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James Herriot. But be prepared to start saving for Veternary College…
And for any boy aged 10 to, well, aged, read Biggles (by Capt WE Johns). Or for hilarity, read the Willaim books (Richmal Crompton) or Jennings (Anthony Buckeridge).
Others – more classic, other than those not mentioned above:
Tom Brown’s Schooldays
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Many of John Buchan’s works, especially: The 39 Steps, The Island of Sheep, Greenmantle, Mr Standfat, Sick Heart River.
And every boy must read Treasure Island, but Kidnapped and Ivanhoe.
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When I was in middle school, I loved John Bellairs’ horror novels, which are the exact sorts of novels that would horrify the people that run you school. I also liked Robert Louis Stevenson a lot, but that’s not contemporary. OTOH, if middle school boys don’t want tales glorifying the lives of pirates and thieves, I believe there is something wrong with them.
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My fifth grade teacher spent a half-hour a day reading to the class some of the great books she knew most of us would never read on our own. We were too old for a nap but not too old to listen to a well read story. She also gifted to each of us a inexpensive paperback copy of those stories. Thanks to her efforts reading has become a life-long delight.
Two of the books she read to the class were Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time and Wilson Rawls’ Where the Red Fern Grows. I still have both of those well-worn books.
The Sugar Creek Gang books by Paul Hutchens cost my younger self many hours of sleep as I read into the night. The Hardy Boys with their scary late-night escapades were always a pleasure. Madeleine L’Engle wrote A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet to allow to follow the advetures of her enchanting characters.
Later I discovered The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. These became an annual read over the next decade of life. The Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series was also fun to read.
My two children have enjoyed reading the Chonicles of Narnia as a family. We always read the book before we watch the movie!
My son and I have read the The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at bed time. The only problem is I have to stop reading when he falls asleep.
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Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. The best book ever for boys.
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The Chocolate War, After the First Death, and I am the Cheese are great books by Robert Cormier.
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I second the Redwall books by Brian Jacques; also the Dave Barry/Ridley Scott Peter & the Starcatchers series.
Anything by Roald Dahl, esp. “Danny, the Champion of the World” (also, check out his autobiographical “Going solo”-about his years during the War as a flying ace)
The Twenty-One Balloons, by Wm. Pene du Bois.
Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls
Penrod, His Complete Story, by Booth Tarkington (a SUPER high diction level, but hilarious)
The Bronze Bow, by Elizabeth George Speare
The Far Flung Adventures series by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddle
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Jack London’s books, Sea Wolf and Call of the Wild were some of my favorites.
Treasure Island
Anything by Llyod Alexander – Chronicles of Prydain, especially.
Absolutely must recommend the Wingfeather saga by Andrew Peterson. On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness is 1st class fiction.
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I didn’t read all the comments above, so these might have been covered already:
1) Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series
2) John Christopher’s books, esp. The Tripods trilogy (The White Mountains etc.) and The Prince in Waiting trilogy.
3) Agatha Christie mysteries – very little violence or sex, unlike contemporary mystery novels, and lots of clever plot twists. My favorites are And Then There Were None, and The Murder of Roger Akroyd.
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seconding Neil Gaiman, the Harry Potter series, and pretty much everything else that has been mentioned.
There are a lot of lists put out by librarians online on this topic – so If I get a chance I’ll find some of the links and post them…
The thing I think is sad is that IN GENERAL – most girls read the “guy books” (Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain were two of my favorite books in childhood), but not vice versa – even the ones that aren’t entirely romances (cause I understand why the boys wouldn’t want to read those)…
OH! And have you all heard about the Vatican thinking Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is actually a good film?
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I second the Percy Jackson books…my struggling reader LOVES them. We have even read quite a bit of Greek mythology because of them…we are also getting into the Norse mythology from that too.
So far these are the only non manga books he will read on his own.
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I enjoyed anything by H.G. Wells at that age.
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Nothing but the Bible–King James Version, 1611–enough of this other nonsense presented here! 🙂
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I read Louis L’amour. My Grandfather gave me Hondo as kid and I could not put it down as with any Louis L’amour book.
My favorite fantasy science fiction is Hawksbill Station by Robert Silverberg. My favorite fantasy series is The Darksword Trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
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world war z – one of the best zombie novels out there 🙂
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What got me into reading (around 5th grade) was when I read Terry Brooks’ novelization of the first Batman movie that starred Michael Keaton. It had been my favorite movie for a couple of years. It was a several hundred pages long and I zoomed through it over the course of a weekend. Totally suprised me.
After that, it was some Star Wars novels, more movie tie-ins and that sort of thing. The point is that in Jr. High books were all about tying into other stuff I liked. The SciFi/Fantasy section of a bookstore or library is full of that kind of thing.
I also loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books, but that was more in Elementary School than Jr. High.
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I’d recommend anything by Jerry Pournelle, especially his series about John Falkenberg. I bought a copy of this for my iPhone and have read it through twice already.
Several years ago, I bought a copy of “Eragon” for a local middle school and took it to a reading a few days later. I chose the passage where Aragon rescues Arya and read it to a couple of English classes that day. The librarian told me later that she couldn’t keep the book on the shelf; even the eighth-grade boys were checking it out faster than she could re-shelve it.
Several of my divinity school buddies were concerned about me when I told them I read Harry Potter during the breaks to decompress. I explained that Rowling wrote about a world in which you find a clear distinction between good and evil, complete with the lesson that either choice bears consequences. Boys need that lesson.
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Check out this website by a public school librarian with your concern.
http://gettingboystoread.com/
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History:
Conn Iggulden (known more famously for “The Dangerous Book for Boysâ€) has a pretty good trilogy on Genghis Kahn. He also has one on Julius Caesar, but I haven’t read it.
Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy (French Revolution)
Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda by Robert Wallace & H. Keith Melton
Flames of Rome and Pontius Pilate (early church), by Paul Maier
Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power, by Victor Davis Hanson
Mystery:
The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins
The Mystery of the Yellow Room, by Gaston Leroux (inspired several of the more well known mystery writers)
Father Brown, by Chesterton
Arsene Lupin stories (French rival/contemporary of Sherlock Holmes), by Maurice Leblanc
Agatha Christie
Dorothy Sayers
Adventure:
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster (one of my all time favorites)
Allan Quatermain and King Soloman’s Mines, by H. Rider Haggard
The Hidden Treasure of Glaston, by Eleanore Jewett
Men of Iron, by Howard Pyle
The Prisoner of Zenda, Anthony Hope
And of course, classics like Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, P.G. Wodehouse, George McDonald, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Frydor Dostoevsky, Alexandre Dumas, Isaac Asimov
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I thoroughly enjoyed the Amber Chronicles by Roger Zelazny. Fantasy. About one true world and all the rest are but shadows. Start out with Nine Princes in Amber, the first in the series and there are 10 books. Great fun.
There’s a book called the Great Book of Amber that I found recently (took me back to when I was about 13) for 4.99 on the bargain rack at Borders.
Princes, princesses, magic, swords, guns… Books were published between 1970 and 1991. 2 main characters (one for each of 5 books – the Corwin series and the Merlin series) First person, if I remember right.
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Jack London’s _The Call of the Wild_ and _White Fang_ are great for this age group.
You mentioned the John Carter series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, but what about his Tarzan and Pellucidar series?
Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising series has many fans.
Brian Jacques’ Redwall series would be appreciated by the younger end of the spectrum.
I greatly enjoyed the books of Martin Caidin as a teen, especially his Steve Austin (The $6 Million Man) series.
Through extremely dark, Michael Moorcock’s Elric series are great sword and sorcery epics that read quickly.
There’s always the Conan the Barbarian books, too.
Any of Ray Bradbury’s books would be good reading for a young man.
I read a lot of Vonnegut as a teen, but some may question his content.
I like a lot of Harlan Coben’s thrillers. These are especially good because (apart from his first couple books) he avoids vulgarities.
Others:
_1984_ by Orwell
_Eragon_ by Paolini
_A Wrinkle in Time_ by Engel
_The Phantom Tollbooth_ by Juster
_Big Fish_ by Wallace
_Watership Down_ by Adams
_Into Thin Air_ by Krakauer
_Flowers for Algernon_ by Keyes
_The Diary of Anne Frank_
_The Cay_ by Taylor
_October Sky_ by Hickam
_Lord of the Flies_ by Golding
_To Kill a Mockingbird_ by Lee
_1776_ by McCullough
_Pilgrim at Tinker Creek_ by Dillard
_The Princess Bride_ by Goldman
_Travels with Charley_ by Steinbeck
_The Chosen_ by Potok
_Les Miserables_ by Hugo
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Adams
The Maus series by Spiegelman
The Wizard of Earthsea series by LeGuin
The Door Within series by Batson
There’s always the Newbery Award winners and honor books (http://tinyurl.com/6cr7xy).
I hope this helps!
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Anything by Nancy Farmer, but most especially “House of the Scorpion.” My son (17) still thinks it’s the best book he’s ever read.
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Ender’s Game series is a good one.
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I may have been the only male 14-year-old who admitted to reading “A Wrinkle in Time” when it was offered up in class thanks to the cover (the one with the Centaur on the front filled with flowers and a rainbow). But I did end up convincing a few others to follow suit. Still one of my favorites.
About 5 years younger and I was reading every Encyclopedia Brown book I could find. About 3 years later I was reading my father’s Patrick F. McManus books and every book on shortwave and radio history I could find. I realized that when everyone else was reading novels, I was reading manuals. To each their own.
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Oh–and “The Mote in God’s Eye” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Absolutely fantastic.
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I don’t believe anyone’s mentioned Neil Gaiman. I’d certainly recommend him–some of the boys will have to be a little older, say with American Gods, but Coraline, Stardust, etc. may be more accessible.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Great Gatsby in highschool; Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet and (though I wasn’t really ready for it) The Screwtape Letters were great–of course Narnia, if they won’t blow them off as children’s literature; Tolkien is a definite: LOTR and The Hobbit; Agatha Christie; some boys will really get into Lewis Carroll; The Outsiders was mentioned above (more for middle schoolers), and I second that; if you can make you class watch the A&E Pride and Prejudice miniseries, *even the boys* will want to read the novel after that. That sounds crazy, but it’s true. Mark Twain may be a good choice as well.
And of course Harry Potter. That series just draws the reader in, and I think it has the power to totally reverse a young person’s views on reading.
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I’d like to enthusiastically second the person who suggested the Patrick O’Brien books. All of them. “Master and Commander” is good, but try “H.M.S. Surprise” and “The Commodore” on for size. Full of historical detail, and great characterizations of, well, of men. Also full of action and adventure…
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Gary Paulson has written a number of books that will appeal to the outdoor lovers, Hatchet being his most popular I think.
Also check the award lists. My students, boys included, read a lot off Missouri’s Gateway nominees.
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If you’re contemplating offering “Beowulf” as reading material, look for the Seamus Heaney translation. It’s excellent, and readable.
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Our son (16 last month) has read Narnia and all the Potter books. He’s read some of the Potter books more than once. He likes fantasy books like “Eragon.” I’d also suggest some historical novels like “The Killer Angels” & “Gods & Generals” for those interested in history.
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A few of my childhood favorites are: “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and “The Mysterious Island” by Verne.
“King Solomon’s Mine’s” by H. Rider Haggard
“I Robot” by Isaac Asimov
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My wife is gobbling up the historical novels of Avi lately. They’re intended for a YA audience. Her favorites are “To the Western Sea” and its sequel “Beyond the Western Sea,” following a pair of Irish immigrants during the potato famine.
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Will-
“CS Forester’s “Hornblower†series”
I was hoping someone would mention that.
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Well, going by the 12-15 year old boys in our school, the Darren Shan books – the Cirque du Freak series (vampires) and the current Demonata series – will be eaten up with a spoon 🙂
I haven’t read them myself, so I have no idea of their literary merits, but neither have I read the “Twilight” books, and if it comes down to vampires, I want the old-fashioned evil bloodsuckers (I’m of the Professor Abraham van Helsing School Of Vampire Diplomacy) not sparkly emo-stalkers.
Also, anything with sports/cars/motorcycles/sharp pointy implements 😉
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Wow. Great list. I’d also look for mythology. Roman, Greek, and Norse. My boys liked just about everything previously listed here plus mythology. There’s plenty of good ones out there, but one author that comes to mind is Padraic Colum.
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Our son never read books until high school when he discovered “Animorphs.” A series about kids who morph into animals and do superhuman acts. He’d stay up half the night reading them.
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Never really “got” fantasy or sci-fi outside of LOTR or the Redwall books. I tended to prefer crime fiction, or action adventure books- CS Forester’s “Hornblower” series or Patrick O’Brian’s “Master and Commander” were (are) particular favourites. I also devoured the slightly old-fashioned but still exciting “Biggles” series by W.E. Johns- flying Spitfires against the Nazis with a team of friends seemed infinitely better than my rather dull life!!
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In the science fiction/fantasy area, may I suggest anything by Christopher Stasheff, His most famous novel is “A Warlock inspite of Himself.”
Granted, I found him as an adult, but have lapped him up.
Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley” is good also.
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My son is 14, and thankfully has developed an (I think) enduring love for reading. (He goes through the occasional less interested phase, but always comes back for more.) His favourites have been Tolkien (he had read the whole of Lord of the Rings by age 11, and has since re-read it several times) and Harry Potter. He’s now working through various books by David Eddings, which are definitely in a Tolien-esque vein.
The only concern I sometimes have is that he’s very reluctant to try anything outside the science fantasy sphere. We’ve spent hours with him in bookstores trying to get home to explore other types of fiction, but he’s not interested. I guess I shouldn’t be concerned – it’s better for him to be reading lots within one particular field than not reading at all.
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David Weber’s Honor Harrington series. A bit heavy on the technical/historical infodumping but a well-written and intense space opera series nonetheless.
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Demoralized and domesticated by old ladies (of all ages and both sexes), boys need manly books, and this means: Beowulf. It’ll put hair on their chests.
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My younger son goes through spells of reading alternating with spells of watching quite dumb television sitcoms.
One series of books which fascinated him were Brian Jacques’ Redwall Abbey books, an adventure series set in a world of talking animals.
And of course he’s read all of the Harry Potter books, as well as the horse racing related novels by Dick Francis.
When I was a kid, I devoured all 70 volumes by German writer Karl May, about half of which deal with the American West and the other half with the “Orient” — neither of which he knew first hand but which he described in a very romantic fashion. Of course the first-person narrator was always a heroic German (obviously these were written long before the rise of the nazi regime, couldn’t have heroic Germans after that).
I also voraciously devoured serialized novels about private detectives and FBI agents, with less claim to literary status than Karl May but written by equally ignorant authors 🙂
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When I was in high school and middle school (I’m in my mid twenties now) I read Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, Brains Benton, Sherlock Holmes, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Alexander Dumas, Tom Clancy, Tolkien, Harry Potter, Edgar Allen Poe, Shel Silverstein, Homer, Lewis Carroll, Left Behind, Frank Peretti, Charles Dickens, John Steinbeck, George Orwell, Jack London, biographies and I had a subscription to Popular Science.
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I would of course suggest Narnia, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings as well as some of the great historical fiction books. For example a great historical fiction book I recently gave my husband for his birthday titled, “Shooting an Albatross” by Steven R. Lundin. He loved it because it was full of suspense and great historical facts. He borrowed it to my 18 year old brother-in-law and he loved it too. It is a great ‘boy’ book!
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“I forgot DUNE. That is pretty amazing too!”
The problem with Dune, which I liked, is that the follow on books are mostly junk. And a big attack on Christianity.
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Anthony Horowitz novels were popular with my nephews.
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For those who liked Into Thin Air:
A Perfect Storm.
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The Outsiders.
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I second the Wilson books. (Though as an author he’s not “Nate” but “N.D. Wilson”.)
Also, of course, Harry Potter.
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Oh! Definitely The Once and Future King, by T.H. White. It’s one of the best retellings of the Arthurian legends out there.
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I remember reading Narnia over and over again. The Hardy Boys are still great, particularly the earliest ones. If they’re at least 7th-8th grade and alienated, as controversial as this sounds, I’d suggest The Catcher in the Rye. Easy to read, and it made me feel like I wasn’t alone.
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The Last Run by Todd Lewan.
ISBN: 9780060956233
An Alaska high seas rescue of commercial fisherman which first appeared as a series of newspaper articles, and then later published in book form. Men literally and figuratively brought to the ragged edge of life. My kn-knknuckles are white just thinking about it.
True story.
Absolute page-turner .
“…His original version of this story, entitled “Storm Gods and Heroes,” was the first serial ever published in the AP’s 150-year history. After it appeared, Lewan won the 1999 Associated Press Managing Editors Association Award for feature writing and the 1999 Rube Goldberg Award for feature reporting from the New York City chapter of the Society of Professional Journalist. He was also a finalist for the 1999 Scripps-Howard Journalism Award for feature writing and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.”
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Treasure Island, Robin Hood, a good adaptation of King Arthur, Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer–any of those old classic adventure books.
Stephen R. Lawhead has written an amazing series about King Arthur called The Pendragon Cycle, as well as a trilogy based on Celtic mythology called the Song of Albion, that would be great for older boys. I think mythology in general would be a good choice, too.
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Swiss Family Robinson.
Robinson Crusoe.
Anything by Thor Hyerdahl.
My Side of the Mountain (and the sequels).
Go read the booklists at http://www.amblesideonline.org for some excellent suggestions!
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I know quite a few fans of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, too.
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Here are some books I really enjoyed at that age or think would be good recommendations.
Chickenhawk by Robert Mason – autobiography of a Vietnam helicopter pilot, unexpected ending.
Into Thin Air – John Krakauer – About Mount Everest and a really bad climbing season. (If they like that Eiger Dreams is short stories taken from John Krakauer’s articles in Outside magazine).
Tom Clancy stuff is good…perhaps Rainbow Six or Without Remorse.
I really liked the book The Vandarian Incident by Martyn Godfrey when I was about 12 or 13…good science fiction story.
The Last Dive by Bernie Chowdhury – about technical scuba diving on the Andrea Doria and Florida caves and it going very wrong.
I also liked the Star Wars novels and think they would be great for boys. Start with the Timothy Zahn book Heir to the Empire.
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I second the Harry Potter series. It really is a fine work of literature with excellent character development, lots of plot tension, and twists to keep the readers guessing all the time. I would also recommend the Hobbit and Naria too.
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AH! I forgot DUNE. That is pretty amazing too!
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I would think Harry Potter would fit the bill, though maybe some boys would balk because it’s such a popular book with girls, too.
“Dune” (Frank Herbert) – though maybe challenging for pre-high schoolers, is a great “boy” book.
“Ender’s Game” (Orson Scott Card) – great sci-fi book in which the protaganist is a young boy.
“Foundation” (and others of the series, by Isaac Asimov) – I grew up on these. Excellent series, not too difficult a reading level, as I recall…at least not as difficult/challenging as Dune, say.
While on the subject of Asimov, I also remember reading many of his short stories, like “Nightfall.” That would also be a good suggestion for boys, reading Asimov’s short story collections. Most of them are good, clever, with twists at the end.
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some contemporary suggestions:
Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games
Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s Peter and the Starcatchers series
Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society series
Robert Liparulo’s Dreamhouse Kings series
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Go the Science Fiction/Fantasy route. That is what I started with and I fell in love with reading. And as a boy, I love that stuff. Science. Action. Heroes. Ray Guns. Swords. Villains. Magic. If you want to get a boy interested in reading, give him those things. Tolkien, Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, Stephen Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant series, Terry Pratchett (for those with a sense of humor), Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, the Redwall series, Terry Brooks’ Shennara (I forget the spelling of that, Lewis’ Space Trilogy, David Eddings’ books (This makes me want to reread those), the Riftwar Books by Raymond Feist. All of those are good for getting boys interested in reading.
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Nate Wilson’s juvie fic is fantastic. “Leepike Ridge”, “One Hundred Cupboards”, and “Dandelion Fire”. The first is a stand alone volume, the other two are the first two parts of a trilogy. “Leepike Ridge” is sort of a retelling of “The Odyssey”. Literate, funny, engaging, and meaningful.
A great classic and favorite of mine is Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo”. And no, not the lame film adaptations. The unabridged work would probably be too intimidating for most “normal” boys these days, but I’m sure well-abridged versions are out there somewhere. Wealth, power, murder, duels, swordfights, justice, revenge, mercy, redemption… It’s all there. And, as a bonus, the whole tale is fantastic Christological imagery.
(Interesting trivia: Dumas’ grandmother was an Afro-Caribbean former slave from Haiti…)
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When I was a kid (early-mid 80s) I devoured The Hardy Boys mysteries and, to a lesser extent, Nancy Drew. I would also think that the Chronicles of Narnia would be good–they are practically timeless!
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I was into Louis L’Amour and the Hardy Boys. Good junior historical fiction can be pretty accessible, though I can’t think of authors off the top of my head. Sports figure biographies (Larry Bird, Michael Jordan) are also good. I don’t know if many middle school boys are into Harry Potter, but those might work. They can be intimidatingly long, but I think reasonable for average middle schoolers to be capable of reading.
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The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer is great. Also many books by Jerry Spinelli, such as “Maniac Mcgee” and “Crash” are good.
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