Ideas for 12 year old DS please

[inthesticks]

He loves reading but has exhausted all his favourite authors and we are struggling to find something new.

He's a very able reader but I'm careful not to give him adult fiction unless I know it's suitable.

He likes; adventure stories, historical, animal stories.
Dislikes; fantasy, books written with cod dialect (e.g. The Redwood Series), horror.

He's read all :-
Michael Morpurgo
Caroline Lawrence
Anthony Horowitz
Robert Muchamore
Chris Ryan
Most of the Erin Hunter books
William Nicholson
Zizou Corder
Isabel Allende forest series
Michelle Paver

and many more.
He'd particularly like something like the Caroline Lawrence Roman mysteries.

Also he's impatient at choosing books, so when we go to the library he can never find anything he wants. I end up choosing stuff for him with about a 20% success rate.

Rosemary Sutcliff? (For example Frontier Wolf, Sword at Sunset, Eagle of the Ninth etc.)

I would recommend that you have a look at the Inkspell books by Cornelia Funke.
The Mortal Engines books by Philip Reeve are also excellent.

At the moment my Ds is really enjoying the first Tom Scatterhorn book by Henry Chancellor. He has also just read Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease, which has just been reprinted, and he absolutely loved it.

Thank you these all look good.

Another thought - might he like Jules Verne (especially thinking of Around the World in 80 Days & Journey to the Centre of the Earth). Definitely historical & adventure

The Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. They were recommended by DS2's school, and he adored them. started reading them at 11/12, and rereads them now at 14.

There are dozens of them, so would keep him oging for ages.

Are there not some raunchy bits in Sharpe? Or is it just my Sean Bean fantasy?

The 'raunch' is very mild indeed.

How about C S Forester? My brothers loved the Hornblower books, and nothing at all raunchy there.

Adding Sharpe to the list, and Hornblower.

The Golden Ocean by Patrick O'Brian and its semi-sequel The Unknown Shore

If he likes those - and he's a good reader - there's the Aubrey-Maturin series to go through (all 20 of them!) which would keep him going for ages

I also remembered the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson. They're complete tosh, but harmless, and both DS2 (14) and DD (12) have devoured them. As they involve children with wings (from a genetic experiment) they may stray too far into SFF for your son.

I have some other recs if he is prepared to take a dip into SFF.

The Rick Riorden Percy Jackson books are great. They are based around the characters of Greek Mythology coming to modern day New York, and doing battle with Percy Jackson and others, who are half human half greek gods themselves.

Don't let the film put you off - it was seriously dumbed down.

Mortal Engines series as mentioned above is fab. DS1 didn't like the Scatterhorn book. The Graveyard Books are great also.

All the Biggles books.
Robert Westall (?): Kingdom by the sea author and most what he wrote is suitable for a 12yo.
Hardy Boys.
Edge Chronicles series.
Star Wars novels: most of them are reasonable for a 12yo, but watch for the violence.
Robert Swindells.
Louis Sachar: who we only just discovered, great writer!!

I also struggle to keep 10yo DS in books!!

Eoin Colfer books, too.

My 14 year old dd, who loved Caroline Lawrence is reading Mary Renault's Mask of Apollo at the moment, and loving it. It is quite 'raunchy" and grown up in places, though so if you are concerned about that sort of thing you might want to read it yourself first.

Has he read Philip Pulman?

He's read the Maximum Ride series, didn't like Eoin Colfer or Mortal engines.

He has read all the Malorie Blackman Noughts and Crosses series and quite likes something with a moral/ ethical message.

Holes is a set book in Year 8 at school and so is one of the few novels DS1 has read. (my other son hasn't inherited my love of reading). I read it and loved it but will hold it back for DS2 as he will probably do it next year at school.

Although he's not keen on fantasy in the form of dragons and wizards etc. he seems ok with some sci fi Butterbur so other recs gratefully received.

Thanks everyone I am making a list and ordering from library.

Oh well, if he's read Malorie Blackman, the Mary Renault will be tame by comparison!

Percy Jackson is addictive fun, Philip Pullman is more intellectual, Philip Reeve is like a less literary Pullman, quite dark though.

Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge is less well known but really well written and exciting.

At 12 he could read the "juvenile" Terry Pratchetts, (Diggers etc) or start on the "adult" ones - they don't have any sex/gore/bad language to speak of - they are fantasy, but the comedy dominates.

If he likes science fiction then there's loads of new Doctor Who novels - they're not great literature, but they're written with enthusiasm and imagination not just churned off a production line, and they should all be suitable for his age range.

Has he read A Series of Unfortunate Events?

Seeker I hadn't read the Malorie Blackman books myself but they are also set books at school, albeit Y9 so I assumed they were ok.
I only realised recently when I read some Year 9 essays that they are a little er passionate..

We saw the film A Series of Unfortunate Events which ranks in our family as The Second Worst Film we ever saw. DS refuses to try the books even though I have said they are not the same as the film.

It can be frustrating sometimes when I feel certain he would enjoy a particular book but he won't give it a try. Yet he is just like me in hating that in-between books feeling.

OOps how embarrassing. I was so fed up of being inthesticks I decided to try out some new names.
Forgot to change back.
Didn't like it anyway.
I want a clever funny name.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - first two are out, and all our family (adults included) are waiting for the third. the main character is a girl, but that hasn't put off DS2.

Also the Otori Trilogy by Lian Hearn - absolutely awesome. It's set in a fantasy world not entirely unlike feudal Japan. The main character discovers that he has strange mental powers. There's a sequal and a prequel too. There's a tiny touch of sex but probably nomore than a 12year old is already aware of.

Iirc sex does feature briefly in Sword at Sunset (I seem to remember Arthur is impotent- or am I thinking of a different book?), but really not in a way that I think would be a problem.

Again, Hornblower does occasionally have sex, but I wouldn't see that as a problem; it's not prurient iyswim (and not in every book).

I would also consider The Three Musqueteers (and the sequels), the Count of Monte Christo, Treasure Island (if he hasn't read it), Kidnapped.

Dd at this age read a lot of oldfashioned detective stories: Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot etc. Conan Doyle and Christie are not particularly nasty or particularly adult in their subject matter.

Oh,yes - I'd forgotten Agatha Christie - dd has a craze for a while at about 12!

No takers for Mask of Apollo?

Yes I have Mask of Apollo on my list.
Thanks to all who have replied on here It will take a while but I plan to try all these suggestions.

my 10 yo loves this one
www.amazon.co.uk/Boy-Dress-David-Walliams/dp/0007279043/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280617018&sr =8-1

The Ghost of Thomas kempe by Penelope Lively