Which books have you borrowed from your DCs and then really enjoyed?

This thread is a little old now but just thought I'd add my favourites:

His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, and the Sally Lockhart series.
Twilight Series (well, the first one)
Hunger Games (Well, the first one!)
Both books by Jo Danilo (Blackwood Crusade and Curtain Twitcher's Handbook)
And lastly, but by no means leastly -
All Mr Gum books by Andy Stanton (for kids aged six to a hundred!)

My kids and I were fighting over the Angie Sage books, starting with Septimus Heap.

Books I would never have read if I had not had DDs: the Mog books (Judith Kerr); Hairy Maclary series; Mary Rayner's books about Mr & Mrs Pig. Though DDs are 18 & 11 now, & reading more sophisticated stuff, we still quote them constantly.

Books DDs recommended to me: Twilight series, His Dark Materials, 'Goodnight Mister Tom'; 'Charlotte Sometimes'; Malorie Blackman; & especially Hilary McKay (Casson family made me laugh out loud.

Old favourites that I've shared with DDs: the Anne(of Green Gables) books but especially the later ones; Dimsie books; Chalet School(yes, another one confessing to owning a complete set); 'Swish of the Curtain' + sequels; & a rare long-out-of-print book about a college for wizards (a 1930s precursor of Hogwarts), called 'Vermilion' by Norah Shaw.

Books we've discovered together: has to be Harry Potter, surprised not to find more mentions in this thread as can be read on so many different levels & re-read with enjoyment so many times.

The Dark is Rising Sequence (5 books in all) by Susan Cooper are great, plus the Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett (is it cheating if his other books are for adults?). Also like Philip Reeve, Garth Nix and Trudi Canavan, although the chance to read with a four month old around isn't great :-(

Anyone read Gareth Thompson's books??

They are in young adult category and not a series as such, but read really well.

They tick all the boxes for me: real settings (Cumbria or thereabouts), present time but with historic connotations, coming-of-age stuff, not fantasy and very human and thoughtful generally, but not preachy.

He is a new writer and having just read Sunshine to the Sunless, I am reading the Anarchist's Angel.

I would love more of this type of literature as can't see the point of pure fantasy.

Hunger Games (well, the first one, anyway) anything by Meg Rosoff, and also absolutely anything at all by Philip Pullman. Also discovered a fantastic new writer who writes for teenagers - (www.jodanilo.me)- she has two books available on Lulu.com, completely different but both gripping.
These are all teen books, and I don't have a teenager but read them anyway.
My five year old daughter and I both adore Andy Stanton's Mr Gum series. You read for a few pages and it makes you smile, and then, all of a sudden, you get it and it makes you cry with laughter. By far the funniest things I've ever read.

We've got Charlotte Sometimes - I'll try it. And Wolves of Willougby. Never heard of some of the others - great to have so many suggestions - thanks! I shall look them up and report ...

Nothing much better than Robert Westall's The Devil on the Road.

Another rec from me for Charlotte Sometimes, and also the rather excellent "The Amazing Mr Blunden" by Antonia Barber (which you might have seen as a film directed by Lionel Jeffries).

DD2 liked a book called Century which is time/memory related - I was underwhelmed by it tbh but it gets v good reviews.

Have you read Coraline?

I have never read a book all the way through apart from last week i was waiting at dd2's school to collect her with dd1's library book in the car to return so i thought i would have a gander and suddenly i was addicted to Bram stokers dracula, great book

time/memory - When Marnie Was There

The Green Knowe series (starts with The Children of Green Knowe) - laps over into ghost territory, is that OK? It's the gentlest ghost story there ever was.

Oh and maybe The Wolves Of Willoghby Chase.

And what's that series that was made into a terrible, Americanised film fairly recently? It will come to me....

Some lovely books there, Cym

Time travel / back in time type things - try Charlotte Sometimes. Also Playing Beatie Bow. Bedknobs and Broomsticks is also more interesting than the film would suggest iirc.

I'm commuting by train at the moment, and my resolution is to read all the stuff on my childrens' shelves that I have bought for them over the last couple of years and wanted to read/re-read myself, as I find good childrens fiction stands up well to the distractions of other people on their mobiles, my tiredness etc. I'm notionally working through themes - my current theme is books about travelling back in time/memory - enjoyed An Angel for May by Melvin Burgess, Tom's Midnight Gdn - lovely to go back to as an adult, about to read Alison Uttley's Traveller in Time, liked Catherine Stott's two books - Marianne Dreams and the Mirror Image Ghost. Any suggestions for any other time/memory travel childrens' books I can try??

Siobhan Dowd is the name. She wrote four children's books before she died. I have read two - A Pure Swift Cry and Bog Child. I think they're okay - certainly they raise a lot of issues but Bog Child dodges issues, and being set at the time of the hunger strikes, has a wealth of political detail that is not explained at all.

I like Gulf by Robert Westall as well as The Machine Gunners. I am so out of date these days though, this thread is really helping get my list together. People say Siobhain O Dowd (?) v good? Are they right?

Re Pullman I liked the mules on wheels!!!!

I'll let you know, somehow, BG!

Would love to know what you thought of Monsters Of Men, after you've finished it. Lots of good stuff in there (and one really interesting idea later on) but the whole is the mayor good or bad thing got a bit irritating after a while.

Borrowed Diary of A Wimpy Kid from DD - really funny, only meant to read a couple of pages, ended up reading the whole book. The film really does not do it justice.

DH got several of the Alex Rider stories on talking books supposedly to keep the DCs occupied during long drive on holiday in France in July - we ended up completely hooked!

I generally like Robert Westall - certainly his most well-known The Machine Gunners; and also The Watch House and Futuretrack 5, and a few others. But his best book (which I'm just re-reading for the n'th time) is Devil on the Road: one of the best YA books ever.

Chaos Walking - very clever, pretty well executed. I've just received today on loan a hardback copy of Monsters of Men, since I am waiting for the paperback before I fork out for it. I just don't love it though: I find both Todd and Viola hugely unsympathetic as central characters - though obviously lots of people like them - and that's disappointing in a YA book; in a book for adults, you just get on with the story regardless of your feelings for the characters. Having been spoiled for a bit of the last book, I feel disappointed that Ness didn't go the whole hog with a certain character's journey but pulled back at the very very last moment. I'll be interested to see how the characters justify and come to terms with the ways they have behaved towards others.

Have we mentioned Robert Westall? The one that is generally around in print is The Machine Gunners, which ds says is pretty good , but I came across a book of his shorter pieces - Christmas Ghost, I think it was called - and they were really marvellous, particularly the title story. He's not nearly feted enough.

On Wyndham, ds joke (you have to say the punchline fast):

Knock knock
Who's there
Dave
Dave who
Dave the Triffid

Dandy - have you read the Chaos Walking trilogy? If not, do please check it out. It will restore your faith in teen fiction, I'm sure.

I loved the Pullmans - except for the silly mules on wheels things. I liked the Sally Lockharts better though.

Heh! The one about boys and sex was "Doing It" - I am still pretty ambivalent about that one too, because of the ways it objectifies girls and sex (which of course I know is common at the teen age he is writing about) and encourages (I feel) disrespectful thoughts about female teachers.

The more distance I get from His Dark Materials, the less I think they were so great. I still really rate them, but not to madly as I initially felt.

I think YA writers do take more risks and are more innovative than adult writers, and they are more concerned with 'story'. Often they handle subjects and issues a lot more deeply and more maturely than a lot of contemporary literature. However, I've not had a lot of brilliant YA reading experiences in the last year - everything is very repetitive and trying too hard to be up to date and 'issue-led'.