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Children's books

Join in for children's book recommendations.

Original poster

10 year old boy, avid reader, running out of ideas!

44 replies

ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 17/02/2011 20:36

Can anyone please recommend me some authors/titles that I can get for DS1. He has inherited my bookworm gene, and is tearing through books faster than I can get hold of them. He has read all the usual suspects (Harry Potter's, Percy Jackson's, Anthony Horowitz's various, some classics although not overly impressed with them). If anyone can point me in a new direction, I'd be super grateful

OP posts:
StayFrosty · 17/02/2011 20:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

smugmumofboys · 17/02/2011 20:43

The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver? DS1 is 8 and I read them with him. They are great stories.

AutumnWitch · 17/02/2011 20:45

The Hobbit, then Lord of the Rings? I was about 11 when I read them.
Dr Who, A Wizard of Earthsea, Alan Garners books, classic sci-fi like John Wyndham?

Maybe head for a library and corner the librarian?

exexpat · 17/02/2011 20:46

Louis Sachar (Holes etc) and Alex Shearer are the ones I always end up recommending - less well known than Anthony Horowitz etc but appeal to the same sort of age range.

Original poster
ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 17/02/2011 20:47

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

OP posts:
bumbums · 17/02/2011 20:48

Charlotte's Web? Good night Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian. Raul Dahl's books?

whydobirdssuddenlyappear · 17/02/2011 20:49

How about the Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper?

Snorbs · 17/02/2011 20:51

Try the Septimus Heap books by Angie Sage. The first one is called "Magyk". They're good and thick Grin

You could also try "The Wee Free Men" by Terry Pratchett. It's part of a series of his books written for children.

omaoma · 17/02/2011 20:51

was about to suggest that myself WDBSA!

There are loads of Alan Garner novels, never got into them myself but wasn't a 10 year old boy, that might help :)

I LOVED Reader's Digest's silly spooky books about 'unsolved mysteries' and ghosts .

but i should just let him loose in a library to pick up anything he fancies.

whydobirdssuddenlyappear · 17/02/2011 20:55

Oooh Alan Garner, yes yes yes yes! Weirdstone of Brisingamen, Elidor, Owl Service (that last is particularly deliciously scary, and I thoroughly recommend it).

Snorbs · 17/02/2011 20:55

Ooh, some more - my DS went through a phase of reading all the Horrible History books when he was about 10. He also liked the Jiggy McCue books by Michael Lawrence. Finlly, I'd recommend the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer.

MooMooFarm · 17/02/2011 20:57

The 'Young James Bond' series of books by Charlie Higson?

My DS loves those.

whydobirdssuddenlyappear · 17/02/2011 20:58

Redwall books by Brian Jacques? They may be about animals, but they're fairly warlike little animals...

AutumnWitch · 17/02/2011 20:59

The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy Grin

NormanTheForeman · 17/02/2011 21:01

I would recommend a lot of these, also some good survival type books (fiction but with survival hints etc) by Bear Grylls, and the Truckers series by Terry Pratchett.

And the C S Lewis Narnia books if he's into that sort of thing.

Also, is he into football/cricket etc? There are some good fiction books (more for football than cricket) around. I can give you some authors' names if he's interested.

Othersideofthechannel · 17/02/2011 21:02

These are a bit dated but I'll suggest anyway

'The Runaways' and 'Flight of the Grey Goose' by Victor Canning

'Hardy Boys'

AutumnWitch · 17/02/2011 21:05

Neil Gaiman - The graveyard book, maybe Neverwhere.

pinkthechaffinch · 17/02/2011 21:20

'My side of the Mountain' by Jean Craighead George

Written in the late 1950s (?) it's about a young boy who runs away from his overcrowded home in the city to the Catskill mountains where he makes a home for himself inside a tree and fends for himself with lots of Ray Mears style survival tips!

It's really good, am reading it 9 year old ds at the moment.

FattyArbuckel · 17/02/2011 21:37

Un Lun Dun by China Melville
I have bough this book for many book worms who all adored it

FattyArbuckel · 17/02/2011 21:39

Also recommend David Walliams books and Malorie Blackman eg Pig Heart Boy

Hummingbird2 · 17/02/2011 23:07

The Ranger's Apprentice series seems to be very popular at the moment with boys of this age.

defineme · 17/02/2011 23:10

Eagle of the ninth - rosemary sutcliffe?

whydobirdssuddenlyappear · 17/02/2011 23:14

Actually anything by Rosemary Sutcliffe. The King Arthur ones are good.

madamehooch · 18/02/2011 08:14

'Skulduggery Pleasant', 'His Dark Materials', 'Reckless' by Cornelia Funke, 'Artemis Fowl'

choccyp1g · 18/02/2011 08:17

Michelle Paver - Wolf Brother, followed by lots of other Brother's. The first one is about a boy who befriends a wolf cub, set in the hunter-gatherer days. Some of it is told from the viewpoint of the wolf, which my DS absolutely LOVED.