Ideas for very fast reader, ds aged 12

[admylin]

Ds (12) is a very fast reader. He loves books and has recently got through all the Harry Potter books, the Eragon books, the Bartimeus triology, the Spooks Aprentice books, the Alex Rider books, The Tripods, The Book Thief, To Kill a Mockingbird and is on The Alchemist at the moment (the last three taken from my book shelf as he has nothing left to read).

Any tips on what to get him next? I'm looking at getting him 3 or 4 to keep him going. If I give him a good book on Friday he'll be asking for a new one on Sunday!

Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit?

Lord of the Rings? That should keep him quiet for a bit.

X-post - mus be a good idea.

:)

John Wyndham books eg The Day of the Triffids, The Chrysalids, the Midwich Cuckoos, the Kraken Wakes, etc

Hi admylin, why don't you just let him choose?

Second the Philip Pullman suggestion.

The complete Terry Pratchett collection should keep him quiet for a bit as well, as long as you don't mind random snorts of laughter as he's reading :)

I was like this as a child too, and just worked my way through the library - I usually went through 5 books a week

DS is 10, and has read some of the books your DS has. He's currently enjoying the Redwall series - and there are 14 of them! Book people has had a set of them in the past.

If he can browse in a library, he should find 15 books or so that attract him easily enough. If dd found a book she enjoyed reading in German which ws originally written in English, I would just order that. Maybe if he browsed in a library, he might find books of a different type that attract him too, so widen his reading a little IYSWIM

The local library is too small - he's been through most of it and the rest is girly stuff (his words)!

Just seen there's a new Spook's Aprentice book that he doesn't have yet and I'll look at the Redwall series PandaG, thanks. If he likes it and there are 14 that'll keep the peace for a while.

Hi ZZZen, he would chose but he's asking for more books in English at the moment so I thought I'd get some tips on here.

We'll be going to the shop at the weekend too so he can get something there to keep him going. They are quite good at suggesting things too. He got Holes by Louis Sacher there but it only took him 2 nights to finish, then they suggested The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende which is quite thick but I gave him it on Friday after school and he'd finished it by Sunday. The great thing is he can then tell you the whole tale with details - I thought he might/must be skipping bits!

Anne McCaffrey's books about the dragonriders of Pern? There are 100s of them (or so I always thought!)

ZZZenAgain, I am also a voracious reader, and even at a young age would always welcome suggestions of new authors to try, particularly if i'd just "run out" of a favourite!

Definitely agree re the library - I lived there as a young teenager. I was happy to be given suggested books but mostly picked my own - just browsed along the shelves and looked for interesting covers or titles. That way I read a good range of genres - some rubbish but some brilliant stuff!

I'll chip in suggestions of Sherlock Holmes, again LOTR and His Dark Materials, and maybe things like Jurassic Park/The Lost World by Michael Crichton? Maybe some Stephen King if he's in to horror?

Remember that you can order books in from a bigger library if you get a list together - you don't have to buy everything.

I second Terry Pratchett - masses of them and quite chunky. My DD loves him. He might also like Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books, but they are quick reads.

Same here. Agree with John Wyndham and other ideas. Ray Bradbury?

What about Darren Shan? My 12 year old ds has read the saga of Darren Shan series and now reading demonata series. He loves them. He is fussy about books, but loves these.

I have same problem with ds2 (10). He reads too quickly and we can't keep him supplied fast enough.

Many kids, esp boys, like Robert Heinlein "juveniles". Red Planet, Have Spacesuit Will Travel, etc.

Watership Down.
Swallows and Amazons and all the other books by same author.
The Biggles books or Robert Westall books (but he has to be into War to dig them, and some are fairly heavy).
The Railway Children
Isaac Asimov
Robert A. Heinlein
The Star Wars Novels
Star Trek Novels

Sympathies, I have a DS like this too! But luckily he still likes TinTin and will re-read them and similar.

Thanks -there are some great ideas. Amazon here I come!

For those with quick readers I can suggest The Book of Time triology by Guillaume Prevost. They kept ds going for quite a while and are about time travel so alot of history in there. Ds loved them.

Percy Jackson series?

Another library thing - I think it's the norm now for libraries to allow you to borrow books from one library and return to another in the same authority, so if you were able to get him to a bigger local library occasionally he could find himself some fresh titles there and return them to your local branch (check first, but there's no reason for a library service with a modern circulation system not to do this).

We use Amazon for inspiration. If you seach for books he has already enjoyed you can look in the "also bought" and "listmania" sections. We make a list and order in at the library. We have rarely had a problem with any book we have wanted to order. You don't have to stick with what is on the shelves.

SkippyjonJones, that's a great idea, thanks. I had never thought of that. Will try to get ds to have alook on line tonight.

CHerub series? I like them.

Get him started on all the classics too. Treasure Island, Moby Dick, Sherlock Holmes etc

How about some old school type books such as the Hardy Boys.