Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Children's books

Join in for children's book recommendations.

Original poster

Books for well-read 13 year old boy?

29 replies

WeakandWobbly · 16/10/2020 16:01

My ds is an avid reader. Any suggestions for book series I can get him for Christmas? He has read all the jk Rowling, Philip Reeve, Robert muchamore, but doesn't like Terry pratchett or jrr Tolkien. Help!!

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Peachypips78 · 30/10/2020 22:45

Has he read the Sherlock Holmes books by Anthony Horowitz? They are adult books officially but my bookish 13 yr old liked them.

doadeer · 30/10/2020 22:33

Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Mortal Engines by Phillip Reeve
The Wind Singer by William Nicholson
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Eragon By Christopher Paolini

PhantomErik · 30/10/2020 22:28

Anything/everything by Rick Riordan - Percy Jackson etc.

Other really good series:
Divergent
Hunger Games
Maze Runner
Roman Mysteries

Dan Brown - Davinci Code, Angels & Demons, Digital Fortress etc

EwwSprouts · 30/10/2020 22:23

Guess it's down to personal preference. DS 16 and I watched the film last year and were both drawn in.

I'm not offended because you don't like Adrian Mole. I think spots, first crushes and embarrassing parents are fairly timeless. DS was amused by them and read all whole Hitchhikers series, and he's fed up of dystopian works. If you could recommend a recently published YA novel with a good dose of dry humour I'd buy it for him as an xmas present.

Curioushorse · 30/10/2020 12:25

@EwwSprouts

A monster calls is an amazingly moving film though.

A well read 13 year old could expand their vocabulary exponentially by switching in a few less recently published books.

A Monster Calls is a lovely film, yes, and the book is a masterpiece. But it is aimed at younger children, as opposed to Patrick Ness’ other books which would be targeted at 13+.

He could expand his vocabulary by reading older books. Of course. But I’m not sure that was the OP’s question. In fact, many of the people who (very kindly) recommend books on these threads, may not have read any YA books in rather a long time. They may not know that some of the books haven’t aged very well. Adrian Mole, for example (not sure it would improve vocabulary much!), is funny really only if you understand the 80’s cultural references. It doesn’t go down well with children, around 35 years after it was written, and I’m not sure it’s that funny anymore. Alan Garner is aimed at younger children (only Red Shift is YA), and they’re obviously fabulous books. But unfortunately he used so much contemporary school boy slang that they’re tricky for modern readers to understand. And while I’m a massive fan of his, I’m also going to have to admit that there’s that same slightly patronising misogyny in the way the characters speak to each other that you get in a lot of books from that time period. I’ve not managed to successfully get any students reading them for fun in the past decade.

I didn’t mean to offend anybody- but there are just so many fabulous YA authors out there and I think some of the stuff written in the past few years is honestly much better than what was appearing during our childhoods. I was sort of trying to point out that it might be worth looking at some of those glorious books.

My best YA books of the year:

  1. Burn by Patrick Ness
  2. The Great Godden by Meg Rossoff (not suitable for your son, OP- but divine)
  3. The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargreaves (not quite what OP asked for)
  4. The Loop
EwwSprouts · 30/10/2020 10:18

A monster calls is an amazingly moving film though.

A well read 13 year old could expand their vocabulary exponentially by switching in a few less recently published books.

Curioushorse · 29/10/2020 20:42

Patrick Ness books ((not A Monster Calls- the others). Simon James Green books, William Sutcliffe books- those are all more up-to-date than some of the suggestions on this thread.

EwwSprouts · 29/10/2020 20:39

Artemis Fowl
The dog hunters - the adventures of Llewelyn & Gelert
Hitchhikers Guide
Adrian Mole
Mortal engines

LoeliaPonsonby · 28/10/2020 19:15

Also the Wheel of Time series if he’s in to fantasy - that will keep him busy for a while Grin

LoeliaPonsonby · 28/10/2020 19:15

Ursula Le Guin?

Scout2016 · 28/10/2020 19:11

Something by Neil Gaiman or Philip Pullman?
Or, longer shot, the Miss Pereguine's Home for Peculiar Children series?

BlueChampagne · 27/10/2020 16:09

Kevin Crossley-Holland's Arthur trilogy

Rugbycomet · 26/10/2020 18:08

Animal Farm....George Orwell

Woodifer · 26/10/2020 18:05

Susan Cooper - "dark is rising" series is really good

Original poster
WeakandWobbly · 23/10/2020 12:45

Thank you @creativehare. We've got a bit stuck with books and he loves modern adventure type books mainly. Some great suggestions on here!

OP posts:
creativehare · 23/10/2020 12:22

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Original poster
WeakandWobbly · 19/10/2020 17:41

Thanks for all of your suggestions x

OP posts:
BlueChampagne · 19/10/2020 13:37

Sherlock Holmes

Augustbreeze · 18/10/2020 22:55

Last Dragon series by Chris D'Lacey

Skulduggery Pleasant is the best thing ever, so funny.

Witchend · 17/10/2020 23:36

Ds loved The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.
It's historical fiction.

MrsElijahMikaelson1 · 17/10/2020 18:21

DS loves Marie Lu, Michael Grant and Taran Matharu.
He also loved the Eragon series and Skulduggery Pleasant if your DS liked Alex Rider.

Original poster
WeakandWobbly · 16/10/2020 20:17

@BookishZen I forgot to say he's read all the Alex Riders too, but thanks for replying!

OP posts:
BookishZen · 16/10/2020 18:53

If he enjoyed Robert Muchamore, then he may enjoy the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz.

Original poster
WeakandWobbly · 16/10/2020 18:21

These are super ideas, thank you!

OP posts:
Lua · 16/10/2020 17:51

Ready player one
Skyward

Huge succes with mt 14Ds. I read and enjoed them too

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

Join Mumsnet Log In

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.

Swipe left for the next trending thread