Young Bond

[skillsandtea]

My 10 year old ds loved the Harry Potter series and has read them over at least a couple of times. However, nothing since has grabbed him. He loves films, especially James Bond and Avengers/Superhero stuff. He has asked for the James Bond books but I wonder if they might be a bit too grown up. I say this because he also loved watching Sherlock Holmes but when I bought him the books to read he said he found them too hard. I came across some books on Amazon about Young Bond which appear to be a bit more age appropriate as Bond doesn't yet have his licence to kill! Does anyone know what these books are like? And have your DCs enjoyed them?

Do you mean the Charlie Higson books? If so they are awesome. Admittedly my dc are too young at the moment to enjoy them (4 and 1) but I can't wait to read them with my eldest. I would say that at 10 years old they would be suitable, some mild peril and good cliff hanging stuff.

Brilliant thank you! Yes the Charlie Higson ones. Off to buy them now..

I think 10 or 11 is about OK to start them. My son loves them - he is 13 and still reading them. He wanted to read them at 9 but the library refused to order them for him (N.B. this is Germany where they are very strict about making sure children don't read about/see too much violence - toy guns are a no-no here except at Carnival time!) as in Germany they are classified as Youth /13+. Some other books he might like are Alex Rider by Anthony Horowitz, CHERUB series, by Robert Muchamore (but maybe wait until he's 11 or 12) and there is also a Young Sherlock Holmes series.

Thanks everyone.. Alex Rider sounds like a winner too.

Oh, he might like Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan, too. My son wasn't that keen, but most boys seem to like them. Similar to Harry Potter, but also worth a look is the Charlie Bone series by Jenny Nimmo (I think) - there are loads of them!

I did suggest Percy Jackson to him but he wasn't keen either..