Best classic books for ds (11)

[Gunznroses]

ds (10) nearly 11, has really come along wy with his reading in the last yr, he's gone from roahl dahl to "percy jackson" to "michael grant" Gone, Hunger, and most recently artemis fowl.

I want to steer him towards more quality reading and been mentioning the classics to him and i get the eye roll

Can you recommend classics that will get him really interested ? Ive thought of shakespear, but now wondering wether a book like "Silas Marner", might be better, i always found charles dickens a bit dreary as a child savefor Oliver Twist.

Treasure Island, and Kidnapped.

Around The World In Eighty Days.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.

White Fang.

He might be familiar with the stories if he has seen the films, which sometimes helps!

My Family and Other Animals - Gerald Durrell
The Coral Island - R M Ballantyne
Brendon Chase - B B (Denys Watkins-Pitchford)
Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy (Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass)

I'd steer clear of Silas Marner just yet - if you fuel the fire for reading in general, he'll come across the classics and appreciate them when he's ready. Keep him enthusiastic about reading and it will all fall into place. x

DS is an avid bookworm but plenty of the classics he finds dull. These were hits & might be close to what you want:

Stig of the Dump
Swallows and Amazons
The Railway children
Harry Potter (well, I think it's a classic, now!)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Machine Gunners
Dogsbody (Wynne Jones)
The Hobbit

I haven't tried Call of the Wild (Jack London?) on him, but feel sure he'd love it.

Failures include Watership Down, Tom Sawyer & Warhorse (though he read it at school later).

The Time Machine H.G.Wells
The 39 Steps John Buchan
The Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher (not yet a classic, but heading that way!)

How about the Huckleberry Finn/Tom Sawyer type books, also:

Jurassic Park: The Lost World
Robinson Crusoe
Gulliver's Travels
Swiss Family Robinson
Three Musketeers
Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Hobbit/Lord of the Rings
Narnia Chronicles

Surely the Curious Incident of the Dog will become a classic?
Wind in the Willows

I think Curious Incident of the Dog (In the Nighttime?) is very good, could indeed become a classic, but better for age 13-14+.

Much as I love George Eliot, I would be surprised if Silas Marner would grab him yet. How about Alan Garner (Red Shift, Owl Service, etc), to add to the other excellent suggestions.

Conan-Doyle eg Silver Blaze

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The Invisible Man

The Moon and Sixpence (fact that it's sort of a true story might draw him in)

Any Colettes

Chekhov has some funny stories

Things Fall Apart

Fahrenheit 451

The Hiding Place, Anne Frank etc

Don Camillo

The 39 Steps (very short)

Oh yeah, Huckleberry Finn would be brilliant.