12yr old grandson, not an avid reader, suggestions for books?

Alex Rider series
Rick Riordan books are amazing
Charlie Higson books
Young James Bomd series

I would highly recommend the Robert Muchamore books, they were the books that got me into reading at his age.

Also the Spook's Apprentice, can't remember who it's by

Diamond Brothers series by Anthony Horowitz.

I loved them when I was his age.

It's about a dim witted twenty something who is a Private eye and his 13 year old brother and they solve crimes Poirot style, definitely worth a read!

Audio books

He might like Marcus Sedgwick at that age

There are so many great books out there. Anything written by Rick Riordan; Percy Jackson, The Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase, Heroes of Olympus. Anything written by Piers Torday, start with The Last Wild. The TimeRiders series by Alex Scarrow. The Half Bad trilogy by Sally Green. Shades of Magic series by VE Schwab. Anything by Diana Wynne Jones. The Last Dragonslayer series by Jasper Fforde. The Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage. Even though my oldest is now 12 I still make a little time each evening to read to my two sons. They love our special time together.

percy jackson is amazing

Chase - Linwood Barclay
Young Samaurai series
Infinity Drake
HIVE

the maze runner
the hunger games
dr who
krabat (the sorcerer's mill)

I've just ordered The 1000 Year Old Boy as recommended by Sage (thank you).

I absolutely loved Irfan Masters' "A Beautiful Lie" - I have it somewhere so I'll see if DS would like to read it. If he enjoys it I'll get him Out of Heart. although they sound like very different novels!

Last year ds (then 12 and not a big reader) became completely engrossed in the Itch series by Simon Mayo. It seemed to have links with science/geology more than history but he couldn’t read it fast enough. He also enjoyed the David Walliams books for the last couple of years but this year didn’t want the new one for Xmas.

He prefers non fiction - he’s used to love football and nature comics but over the last couple of years I’ve found that he adores the How It Works magazines and is often reading them when I go to turn his lights off at night. He has all the old copies still so dips in and out of them, particularly if an article he remembers ties in with something he is doing at school. We got him a subscription for it at Xmas - less than half price on Black Friday so worth keeping an eye on if it’s of interest.

He got the Percy Jackson set for Xmas too but hasn’t started it yet - we’ve been busy and he’s sporty so he’s keeping it for when the bad weather hits and he’s not able to go out as much.

Have you discovered The Book People? They often have sets of books much cheaper than other places have just a couple. Maybe have a look at the site with him, see what is suggested for his age (including a bIt younger if he’s not into reading much) and see if there’s anything that grabs his fancy if you are happy to buy books for him.

Also have you tried him with audiobooks? Maybe for something like Harry Potter he would be better off listening to the audio book or even reading along (it’s supposed to be word perfect) - if he’s reading slowly it might all just turn into a word salad he struggles to keep track of, particularly if he’s not good at putting the best voices/intonation/phrasing/rhythm etc into it, whereas listening to somebody who can read well is a whole different experience and will also help him to realise he can read in his head like that too.

Just to add a another one into the mix- The 1000 Year Old Boy by Ross Welford is brilliant (main character has lived through many eras including Viking times)

And for a kid who's into Fortnite and feels he needs to be cool, a Young Adult book that I cannot recommend enough is Out of Heart by Irfan Master. It is YA and aimed at 12+ but definitely has the 'cool' factor.

That should read DD is an Uber book worm

Charlie Higson series (The Dead, The End etc, about 9 books in total, about young adults / teenagers surviving after a zombie apocalypse,DD is a super busy ok need and she devoured these)

Holes

Cherub series

Graphic novels are a good alternative, even humorous ones such as corpse talk

Cherub books are an older version of Alex Rider in a lot of ways.

Graphic novels and comics might also be worth a try. Asterix? He's maybe at the top end age-wise, but The Phoenix comic might be worth looking at.

pants - that didn't work. Trying clicky again Skullduggery_Pleasant

My son's 11 and not a big reader but he loves Derek Landy's amazon.co.uk/Skulduggery-Pleasant-Book-ebook/dp/B002RI9SHE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547208379&sr=8-1&keywords=skullduggery+pleasant+book+1Skullduggery Pleasant books]] Tag line - "Meet Skulduggery Pleasant: detective, sorcerer, warrior. Oh yeah. And dead."

Massive bookworm here too, although slid a bit when the kids came along as can't read a book in peace. DC also read the Michael Grant series. Over summer ds2 (14) read the book in the pic. He was rather obsessed with this as its packed with so many interesting facts and you can open to any topic that interests rather than from page to page.He at first thought it was a 'baby book', but has now found its full of fascinating facts some of which they've covered briefly but not as indepth in school. This book alone has made him very interested in science.

Yes reading books shouldn't be a chore and something a person has to be bribed to do.
Try gaming magazines. There are several aimed at that age group.
Graphic novels as others has suggested are good - just about every genre is avalible in graphic novel form.
Things like the Goosebumps series. Easy to read so they are fun and there is loads of them. But as long as he can read but just doesn't want to sit down and read a novel don't make it become obsessed with 'forcing' him.