"adult" book suitable for a child to read?

Nick Hornby, Tony Parsons, maybe a biography of Roald Dahl (Donald Sturrock's is fab) and his adult short stories, EH Gombrich's Little History of the World, Ian Banks and The Wasp Factory, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Alexander McCall Smith, Chaim Potok (very clean, unsentimental, well written, about coming of age a lot of the time), Donna Tartt- The Little Friend and The Secret History. Adrian Mole! :o

I don't think anyone has mentioned the young James Bond books by Charlie Higson. DS loved them when he was 12-ish.

Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus series is challenging and very clever. DS loves all the Rick Riordan series, incl latest 'The Red Pyramid' from Kane Chronicles. Also "Goodnight Mr Tom" is a good read for that age.

Hmm...sounds a lot like my Jamie lol. I'm both pleased to know that he is nos alone, but also feel for you in this respect!

It's a conundrum indeed. You want them to read good things that stimulate them, but at the same time you do have to be careful. Saying that, recently I took a bit of a risk and passed on an ebook to Jamie and I am glad i did as i loved it, found it really refreshing and fascinating. It is newly out and called The Number 3 Mystery Book and must say that it was a great read for me, altough it is actually more for "young adults" and teenagers.

The link for the book is here: www.amazon.co.uk/Number-Mystery-Book-ebook/dp/B005457MRA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1308085980&sr=1-1

just to give you quick idea, it is a very funny book about a boy who has the Cherubism condition and his friend who is in a wheelchair. They go on a big adventure to find a mythical creature, and though there are some more adult bit towards the end it makes up for it by being a good read and tackling lots of important issues which i think kids should be learning about. i recommend it and jamie still has my Kindle and says he wants to read it again -- i may never get it back because of that book! also it costs just 69p which is a steal!

otherwise i don'tknow, i really liked Coraline by Neil Gaiman. not sure if anyone mentioned that but is also a lovely book. Scary but good writing.

hope that helps you, best of luck -

Jenny

Yes to Life of Pi- both my sons read my copy of this on a wet camping trip when they were 12 and 13 because they had run out of their own books and absolutely loved it. There is a series of science fiction/adventure books which begin with Pendragon by Mc Hale- American but I think in print here now-10 in all- and they have both read the whole lot twice and been swept away.( Will go and ask if there is any sex...no, just kissing !)

As someone who was a voracious (male - if that makes a difference) reader at that age I remember enjoying:

George Orwell, Graham Greene, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, JD Salinger, Evelyn Waugh, PG Wodehouse

What about Dune? Saw a review here: www.english-specialist.com/english-literature-teenfiction.html

~Also, HG Well "The war of the worlds" is amazing, make sure your son realises how long ago HG Wells wrote it.....

Steinbeck's Of MICE & MEN
Jack London's CALL OF THE WILD
Louis De Berniere's RED DOG
Jane Austen's NORTHANGER ABBY
Mary Shelly's FRANKENSTEIN

Stephen King's "The Talisman" is a great introduction to the amazing works of SK. It is all about a 12 yeard old boy.

My dd age 11 has just devoured all my Kasuo Ishiguro books. She has started lending them to her classmates who are also going mad for them.

Another shout for James Herriot which I really enjoyed around 12. I also liked reading true stories like Anne Frank, Douglas Adams, Agatha Christie, Dick Francis, and John Wyndham.

Must just say my mother handed me over The Shining when I was ten......... there was no real development at that time into teen fiction then adult but I needed the jump from "children's horror". Freaked me out with the adult themes. Just be careful your son doesn't jump too quickly in themes too soon.

And classics

Catcher in the Rye
Animal Farm
To Kill a Mockingbird
Treasure Island
etc

Tolkien? - I read the Lord of the Rings about that age but that was after I loved the Hobbit and wanted to know more!

Pratchett - discworld has some younger books, but he has other series too which are more aimed at children

Agatha Christie definately a good place to start with crime - not necessarily just Poirot/Marple though, there are stand alone books too.

Second His Dark Materials

Has he read the later Harry Potters? She definately aimed them older as she went along!

When I got to twelve and was pestering my mum for books she gave me the grapes of wrath (steinbeck) to read. Kept me quiet for a while .

Also remember reading a lot of graham greene around then

George Orwell has sprung to mind with the John Wyndham suggestion - those really old style orange penguins.

And what about the Constant Gardener? Rest of Le Carre might be a bit much.

Or Gerald Seymour.

Or Graham Greene.

All quite serious but generally no porn.

Ooh, yes to Adams- very funny and very cerebral.

Oh yes Douglas Adams my sister and I were huge fans at that age. I just never think of them as books because we had them all on tape.

I've been rereading them on my iPod (you see still not books) and its really weird because the tapes were abridged so huge chunks I know word for word and then suddenly its like rounding a familiar corner and being confronted with an unfamiliar street.

Ooh, yes, some excellent suggestions- I heartily agree with Terry Pratchett (especially the nome trilogy) and Bill Bryson- both very funny in completely different ways.

I used to read James Herriot, Agatha Christie, PG Wodehouse, Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, Emile Zola, Animal Farm at that sort of age and some even before. A bit later (about 14) I was on Huxley and Saki among others.

Nowadays there are books like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, The life of Pi etc...

I second John Wyndham if he likes science fiction type stuff.

I never liked children's books, read Agatha Christie, Conan Doyle (start with the short stories), Desmond Bagley and Dick Francis. Jack Higgins (very mixed, some possibly a bit violent and the eagle has landed by far the best). I also liked the original saint books.
His Dark Materials is brilliant, I've never read lord of the rings, but DDs 13 year-old best friend enjoyed it.
Stay clear of the original James bonds. I can't remember if they had any sex, but the sharks gave me nightmares - not the cartoon violence of the films.

I also loved the early Ken Folletts Eye of the Needle,Key to Rebecca and The Man from St. Petersburg*. However these and Shogan which is gory and fascinating will have to wait a until he's 14+ as they break the no sex rule.

• This is a really educational read for older teen girls, being about a world that died with the first world war. However, it is not the book to ask your Grandpa to return aged 14 . My Mum should have said it was her who wanted it back .

As a desperate-for-books 12 year old I was reading John Wyndham, Alastair McLean, Nevil Shute, Conan Doyle and pretty much anything else I could lay my hands on.
One thing to watch is that he doesn't hit some of the more meaty classics too early - I attribute my life-long loathing of Dickens to reading Oliver Twist when I was 10. Lord of the Rings fell into the same category, albeit a couple of years later.

A couple of other authors to try. Diana Wynne Jones, who wrote Howls Moving Castle wrote a lot of books to go at, well written and tough minded fantasy. Alan Garner, Susan Cooper, Joan Aikin and Ursula Le Guin are also good.

Agree heartily with the John Wyndham suggestion.
Also Ray Bradbury (esp The Martian Chronicles).
Laurie Lee-the Spanish books. I read As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning so often from the age of 10 I wore out my parents' copy.
Charles Dickens' adventure books, A Tale of Two Cities and Barnaby Rudge.
Hornblower and those Patrick O'Brien Master and Commander books
My nephews enjoyed Terry Pratchett at that age.
Victorian ghost stories like M.R.James, and adventure like R.L. Stevenson adn Defoe, perhaps.
I also agree with the library suggestion.

Philip Pullman and Michael Morpurgo both do 'in-between' books. My son enjoys them. He's reading he Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster at the moment and liking that too. The Johnny Maxwell series by Terry Pratchett were a favourite but slightly younger... still good though.

I'd second David Eddings. I loved them at 12. No sex or swearing!