Is there a way to get ds to stretch himself with his reading?

[JumpandScore]

He's always enjoyed reading but doesn't seem to have progressed much since he was 8yo, now 14. He knows what he likes and reads the same books over and over. What he likes is Harry Potter, Olympus, Cherub, Skulduggery Crescent. He can read more difficult books, has read Lord of the Rings etc but by preference he always returns to his favourite children's books. What might catch him?

How about some of the book series that increase in complexity as they go along? The Alex Rider books do this, as do Eoin Colfer's books, particularly in the jump from the Artemis Fowl books to Airman and his books aimed at adults.

That sounded great Thomas as he's read some Alex Rider and Artemis Fowl books, but he's justctold me he didn't enjoy either

Terry Pratchett Diskworld? Not sure is 14 is old enough to really get them but he might like them

My non-reading brother adored the Darren Shan cirque du freak books at that age too.

Hmm ok, a tough customer :o If he's into fantasy stuff, how about the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series? There's a special edition of the first book aimed at teenager readers (the same as the usual one, just with a different intro).

Or The Golden Compass?

Hunger Games, Darren Shan, CurseWorkers series. The Book Thief, My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece.

Teen fiction tends to be the heaving bosom stuff (vampires) or crazy action adventure (Chris Ryan). Hard to get outside those formulae.

Try easy adult books - Lee Child, Jack Reacher books. David Gemmell for fantasy, or the Ann Rice vampire ones. They are for adults and he will become absorbed in the plots but the stories are a bit more grown up.

Oh he's read all the Hunger Games and Maze Runner ones, are they a bit more advanced?

The Dark Is Rising sequence
His Dark Materials sequence

What about Sherlock Holmes? The Hound of The Baskervilles?

tbh, it's an achievement to get teenage boys reading at all. Anything besides porn & you're doing well better than avg. Mine reads The Beano or Calvin & Hobbes at dinner time.

He really does enjoy reading and is often to be found on his bed with a book (banning gadgets from bedrooms helps!) but he must know most of what he reads off by heart

Various series from Robin Hobb?

www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=farseer+trilogy+by+robin+hobb&tag=hydrukspg-21&index=stripbooks&hvadid=51186149429&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12842038051871509440&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=m&ref=pd_sl_2xqwe4qb5z_b

Do deals like one re-read for one new read or whatever?

Mine is intently reading the Patrick Ness books (Knife of Never Letting Go, etc) at the moment.

Raven's Gate series by Horowitz
Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

Don't the Patrick Ness books turn extremely dark and violent?

The Raven's Gate books are terrifying, or maybe that's just me being a wuss :o

I was going to suggest maze runner and hunger games, yes they're more advanced.
The black magician trilogy? Plus its follow on trilogy which I cant remember the name of

Round the world in 80 days / To the centre of the earth?

What about Isaac Asimov? The Black Widow mysteries are short stories, kind of in the vein of Sherlock Holmes, but very enjoyable. They make you feel clever when you spot how it's done!
Or his straight sci Fi of course.
Arthur C. Clark, Brian Aldiss, Vernor Vinge etc.
Pratchett is a great suggestion- very accessible, pretty funny.
Tad Williams is good too, but the size of the volumes may put him off.
Ursula le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy (though there's now four!) is good too.

Oh and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash or William Gibson's Neuromancer or Idoru might appeal.

Random old classic suggestion, but I remember my brother (reluctantish reader) and I really enjoying Papillon at that age.

(There is some v gory stuff in it though. I can still remember the gory bits 20+ years on)

thanks for posting this, as I have a similar problem with my 12yo - he gives up on virtually every book after a couple of pages, doesn't like even remotely challenging books

It's really interesting how kids like to re-read. I was the same as a kid. Mine's stuck in Department Nineteen at present.

He loved Hunger Games trilogy (actually, so did I, particularly the first book), and it led to really interesting discussions about empires and how their power is maintained despite the superior numbers of the colonised. He also liked Pig Heart Boy and Noughts and Crosses, both by Malorie Blackman - books (other than Batman graphic novels) are such a tough sell for my DS, they must have been deeply engaging to get him finishing them. Also Mortal Engines.

Anything remotely period I can't get him to read at all, so Sherlock Holmes, PG Wodehouse, even Just William! Odd, because he has read some fantasy stuff, which you could argue requires a similar willingness to enter a familiar but slightly different world.

Mine hates books set or written in the past, too. It's dystopian futures or magic all the way

I read my favourites many times over as a child. I can still remember big chunks of the Narnia books.