Book recs for 12yr old boy - YA/fantasy/sci fi

[LaRevolution]

We went to Waterstones today and God know why but I didn't write down the ones he liked the look of and now here we are 😱😳

I remembered he wanted Ready Player Two (Ernest Cline) and The Inheritance Games (Jennifer Lynn Barnes). He likes the look of something by Luke Palmer, who I hadn't heard of, but I think it might be a bit old.

What are your tween/early teen kids enjoying, please? He loves anything Hunger Games/Maze Runner/apocalyptic or a bit ghosty (Lockwood). He loved Gone by Michael Grant and the Philip Reeve Mortal Engines books.

For various reasons he's not that impressed by Philip Pullman (counter-intuitively, to me!) and is a tad young for Discworld although I know he'll LOVE that soon. He says he's too old now for Skandar but loves the Wizards of Once. He's getting on ok with a couple of classics - War of the Worlds and Dracula - but I think there's spool much good new stuff out there, as we saw in Waterstones today but didn't note down 😂

I’m looking for graphic novels for my 12 year old & 16 year old. Here’s a link I’ve been browsing

https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/reading-lists-for-ks3-pupils/graphic-novels-for-young-adults-aged-12-16-in-ks3-ks4/

can you sneak back to Waterstones and get the ones you like?

The Terry Pratchett Johnny and the... are really good. They are funny too, like disc World buy aimed at your ds sort of age group.

How about Brandon Sanderson? I've read the Mistborn series and really enjoyed it, but the Internet says recommended for 14+
Apparently the Skyward series is recommended for 12 and up.

Definitely not too young for Discworld! Terry Pratchett also wrote Truckers, Wee Free Men, Eric.

Others are Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke, Eragon series by Christopher Paolini

And of course, the Hobbit

Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series is also OK for teen readers too, according to Google. (I've enjoyed the Dogs of War series, but probs too old)

When I was that age, I loved A Wizard of Earthsea

Sorry, typos on a thread about books and reading!

DS has very similar taste and he loved the Powerless series by Lauren Robert’s.

Thanks so much all!!

I knew I'd get told he's not too young for Pratchett/Discworld 🤣 I was never that fond of the books TP wrote for kids, they just didn't do it for me. I am a huge Discworld fan, but do think that knowing a bit more in the way of cultural references really helps maximise the enjoyment, so you'll just have to trust me on that one! It won't be long before he's really into them though.

He's not really that bothered by graphic novels tbh - I think he finds them a bit busy, and I sort of agree.

Lots of good suggestions here though - thank you. If anyone has any other recs for new stuff (I do have Le Guin, Sanderson etc on the list but am interested in newer stuff at the mo) I'm all ears!

Garth Nix’s Sabriel and sequels are fab and would be fine for that age.

Percy Jackson, Poseidon's Academy, Skulduggery Pleasant and Crookhaven have all gone down a treat with my DS of similar age.

It's a tricky age I find with reading, they feel too old for middle grade stuff but can't quite identify with older teen characters and get put off.

I would agree with Skulduggery.

My 13 year old loves the Naomi Novik Scholomance series and is currently reading her Temeraire series. He loves things that involve dragons and enjoyed A Language of Dragons by S F Williamson, the next one is due out end of Dec. I think that's one that bridges the gap well for the "tweenage" stage. He also liked The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashin and is working through Alexandra Bracken's The Darkest Minds series.

Would he read the likes of Kiran Millwood Hargreaves? Or Katherine Rundell?

I find mine needs to come to things himself, he tends to resist reading recommendations from me, his sister he will sometimes listen to.

Thank you for these! He's definitely moved on from Percy Jackson - agree that it's a tricky age for pitching it just right, and also that there's a tendency to rebuff suggestions in favour of things he's chancesld upon himself! Haven't heard of Garth Nix or some of these others so will look them up, thank you. I think generally he feels he's a bit past dragons and is more into plucky older teenagers being forced to fight each other in increasingly brutal ways 😁

The Luke Palmer one that he liked he look of was definitely a bit more grown-up too, but more emotional breadth and a lot of tricky issues, I think (suicide, porn - more 15+ I would say). I'm happy for him to read about "older" subjects (hello Judy Blume and my very early teenage years!) but it's hard to find the right balance.

The Scholomance ones might be good then, like Harry Potter in that magical kids go to magical boarding school but unlike Harry Potter they are locked in there until they graduate, there are many things that will kill them and they have to form alliances in an attempt to survive to graduation.

You can never have too many dragons. Dragons are awesome and many of them definitely not childish!

Scholomance was great - I loved them - but the writing style is tricky ... I struggle to recommend them because I'm never sure if the writing will just put everyone off and I want people to love it like I did!

Artemis Fowl maybe.

Scythe by Neal Shusterman. It's a three book series and similar vibes to the other YA he's read. A young boy and girl are in training to become reapers.

Usually I wouldn't suggest Dungeon Crawler Carl for someone so young, but if he read and was fine with "Gone" then nothing in DCC is really worse. Aliens turn up and destroy the world by turning it into a massive dungeon with 18 floors. Humans are given the chance to "win" back the planet by entering the dungeon and fighting their way through to the end of the 18th floor. It uses a lot of video game logic and is a fantastic mix of dark and comedy.

@DoAWheelie that last one sounds perfect! He's very grounded, bit easily phased by gore etc so I think I'll investigate that - thank you (and to everyone else too, it much appreciated).

Philip Reeve has an extraordinary range of alternative books - Mortal Engines is an excellent series and for this age group.

The slightly strange Skandar books by another author are also a bit different too.

Thanks @MycroftSholmes - as I noted in my OP, he loved the Philip Reeve Mortal Engines series and feels he's too old for the Skandar ones (maybe not too old but he certainly found them a bit dull/predictable after the first one).

Ha I’m sorry somehow missed the double Philip :) scanning too quickly - the other ones he has written are really good too, larklight, scriveners moon, Goblins maybe too - definitely worth a look if he enjoyed mortal engines… there are also the children’s books by china mieville - Railsea.