Can you recommend Young Adult books suitable for a 9 year old?

[Blatherskite]

OK, there's no way of saying this without sounding like I'm boasting so I'm just going to apologise here - sorry - and go with it...

DS is 9. A month off turning 10. According to the school's assessment, he's been reading ahead of his age since about year 2. We've been to parents evening tonight and they've said that he's gone up to a reading level of 14.3 years!!

I'm amazed and proud and excited obviously. He loves reading and it shows. I'd love to buy him a new book to celebrate his achievement but I'm not sure what to buy. I guess to support his ability I should be looking at Young Adult type books aimed at teenagers but not all of them are suitable as he is in reality, still only 9 with all of the naivety and interests that go with that age.

Could anyone recommend some books which might be suitable?

/boast

[Brytte]

What smith categorises it's books well if you go into one of their shops. They keep the young adult books well away from children's and teenagers books because they are for older teens and, well, young adults. Libraries aren't all as good at categorising the books well and lump too much into teens with no distinction between what's suitable for an 11 year old Vs a 16 year old. I tend to use online lists to gauge appropriate age and order books from the library. Lovereading4kuds is a site I use.

I think it's a tricky age I had to work hard to find books for DD'S between ages 10 and 12.

[Brytte]

W H Smith

[Jenniferturkington]

My ds is also nearly ten and is a avid and advanced reader.
He has recently read LOTR (after whizzing through the Hobbit) and also read all of the lemony snicket series over Christmas.
Others he had loved in the past include Enid blytons afventure series, animals of farthing wood, the land of stories series, Alex Ryder, The boy in the tower (fab, I read it after him), the previously mentioned Pratchett ones, Cheese, Wildwood.
He didn't like Percy Jackson.

He still re-reads his beloved Beast Quest books the whole time too!

[mummytime]

I would avoid anything called "Young Adult" as that tends to have too much sex and drugs and violence or "grown up themes" like dying of Cancer. So beware.

Admittedly I got a shock when I was reading Alex Rider to my son and one started off with him chasing after drug dealers - and having to give a quick drugs talk on the hop at 8 pm with no warning...

Classics, old fashioned childrens books and the "harder" 8-12 books are your best bet (including Alex Rider just beware).

[Brollsdolls]

I would be careful - dc1 (13) is an extremely clever, high achiever and still loves to curl up with good old diary of a wimpy kid sometimes.
I would recommend Michael morpurgo though.

[Blatherskite]

I'm told his comprehension is really good BoogleMcGroogle but I do understand what you mean about broadening his reading too. He's been very enamoured with a factual book about Space recently and has loved the Phoenix comic which we signed up for about a month ago so he is getting variety too.

He loves Diary of a Wimpy Kid Brollsdolls. I don't think he'll be giving those up any time soon :)

We're off on holiday in April and I'd love to load his Kindle up with a good variety of things while he has a good chunk of time to just sit and read.

[Witchend]

Dd2 got into Josephine Tay at about that age.
I'm not sure exactly where they'd be put in category wise.
I was looking for the copy of Daughter of Time (I think that's it) for ds (now 9yo) as I think he'd love it too, but she tells me she read it to death.
She also enjoyed Brat Farrar and, I think the other one she really enjoyed was The Franchise Affair.

Ds reads adult fact books, and has for some time. Mostly about WWII and/or planes but has recently become interested in spying (due to Alex Rider). His factual reading age is far above his fiction one, and always has been since he was 3yo and learnt to write Concorde, Red Arrows and Sonic Boom before any other words.
I just have to try not to roll my eyes when he comes at me saying "You know about the " and describes it step by step.

I agree with the comments of Young Adult books. My girls looked at them and decided to bypass them as they tend to be overly about romance or gritty living, and neither of them is particularly interested in that.
Looking back I don't think I particularly used that section of the library either.

[BlueChampagne]

DS1 is 9 and an advanced reader. Here's what has been enjoyed recently:

The Dark is Rising
A Christmas Carol
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
Heidi
The Wee Free Men
The Box of Delights

Cathy Cassidy for edging towards YA, and any Michael Morpurgo. Still loves Wimpy Kid, Dennis the Menace and How to Train your Dragon for light reading in between the heavier stuff.

He's read all the Harry Potters and all the Roman Mysteries.

Agree with mummytime that older books might be better for now than those labelled YA. I loved "Mortal Engines" but wouldn't suggest it to DS1 yet. So ...

The Secret Garden
Swallows and Amazons
Children of the New Forest
The Children of Green Knowe
Elidor
A Little White Horse

[PetraDelphiki]

I'd go with bluechampagne's list and add the belgariad series (david eddings) and maybe the pern books by Anne mccaffrey.

[GallivantingWildebeest]

I'm an editor and I work a lot on YA fiction. Echoing others here: the themes in YA fiction are often totally unsuitable for 9yos, even ones who are good readers.

It's not about being able to decipher and decode the words on the page; it's about being able to handle the themes, feelings and topics dealt with. YA books can be about sex, drugs, refugees, abuse, death, illness, war, fighting, nuclear war... Many are post-apocalyptic or dystopian (and hard work for adults to read - Hunger Games and its ilk).

I'd recommend perhaps trying some older books which may be written about innoccuous subjects but in a harder-to-access style, thus widening your ds's reading experience.

My ds (9) enjoys Michael Morpurgo, Helen Moss books (Adventure Island and the Secrets of the Tombs series), Crowns and Codebreakers series, The Accidental Prime Minister series, and Lauren St John books (The Last Leopard, etc.)

[Newtssuitcase]

I have two DSs who never stop reading.

DS2 is 9 Ds1 is almost 12.

I would recommend

The Red Pyramid Series (by author of Percy jackson)
The Secrets of the Immortal Nichols Flammel series
Small change for Stuart/Big Change for Stuart
Varjak Paw
Time travelling with a Hamster
My Brother is a Superhero (and follow on book)
Possibly - The Boy in the Tower if they are ready for an introduction to end of the world/dystopian stuff
The Divide series
The Never Ending Story
Momo
A Letter for the King/ The Secrets of the Wild Wood
Hugo Cabret/Wonderstruck/The Marvels - all for their sheer beauty if nothing else
George's secret key to the universe series (Stephen Hawking)

[Newtssuitcase]

Oh and City of Ember

[oneplus2is3]

Young adult means just that- adult themes toned down (and sometimes not all that much!). Personally I'd say 9 is a bit young- I'm just starting to recommend young adult to some 14yr olds who I think can cope with issues. As PPs have suggested what about classic 'children's lit'. Some of the language is so far removed from ours that she'll be working quite hard to keep up with plot, which itself will be very accessible.

[Newtssuitcase]

None on my list are what I would call Young Adult. He's too young for Young Adult IMO. Plus there is no need for it since there are loads and loads of books aimed at this in between age.

If you decide to do the Boy in the Tower then I'd read it first. Its a good book. Ds1 loved it at age 11. DS2 would be worried by it at age 9. Its basically the Day of the Triffids for children.

[HairsprayBabe]

I was an avid reader at that age still am, my poor mother had to keep up with my reading addiciton and keep me away from "questionable" content. That said I was reading fully adult books by 14.

Garth Nix is good for content and difficulty, he has several different series so would provide decent material for a while.
The Hunger Games?
Older books like The Hobbit, Black Beauty, Pollyanna, Anne of Greengables. They will give the challenge but don't have more mature content.
InkHeart series
DoomSpell series
Eragon series
The Book Thief
I read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at that age.

What do they normally like to read?

[clairethewitch70]

What about books such as The Secret Seven, Famous Five and The Hardy Boys, my boys loved them. Also Roald Dahl. David Walliams. Michael Morpago.

[LurkyMcLurcker]

Not sure if it has been mentioned but the Willard Price 'adventure' books are really good - two boys who go around the world collecting rare animals and having many adventures. My brother and I read and reread the series at a similar age.

[PetraDelphiki]

Willard price is very very dated...

[mrsmortis]

In some ways I think from a theme perspective you'd do better to move onto adult books. At his age I started to read Asimov's robot books for example. I finished Lord of the Rings for the first time at about that age too. Also Agatha Christie or the other golden age detective fiction Authors. Pratchett is always good (The amazing maurice and his educated rodents to start), if the jokes aren't meant for kids the just don't get them. Douglas Adams too for the same reasons. You could also look at some of Anne McCaffery's Pern books (the Harper hall books would probably be the best starting point) and David Edding's Belgariad series.

From the traditional YA fare I'd look at John Christoper's The Tripods or Prince in Waiting books. But I think you may want to read them first. Also books like Chocky or the Chrysalids by John Wyndham. Jean Ure's books might be good too. Oh and Rosemary Sutcliffe.

From the modern YA stuff: Does Garth Nix count as YA? Mister Monday etc. or the Old Kingdom books are probably good.

In our house the rule is more or less that my DD1 (8) can read any book she can reach. But the YA books are all on the top shelves...

[PuntCuffin]

What about Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials trilogy?
Eagle of the Ninth chronicles, Rosemary Sutcliffe
Earthsea trilogy, Ursula le Guin.

Sorry if I have repeated previous suggestions.

[MumBod]

Derek Landy's Skulduggery Pleasant series is well-written and aimed at 9+.

Chris Bradford's Young Samurai series is also good.

Wonder by RJ Palacio.

[MumBod]

Also Diana Wynne Jones - Charmed Life is a pre-runner to Harry Potter.

[BertrandRussell]

It's important to remember- if only to protect ourselves from disappointment- that many of the books we loved feel incredibly slow and dated to modern children. And have very old fashioned vocabularies. My reading children rejected Biggles, Jennings, William and The Hobbit, to name a few- except as read alouds.

Also, I think we often unconsciously lop a bit off the ages we read things in our memories. I vividly remember reading a particular edition of "Alice" when I was 9. But I recently actually found the book- and I got it for my 11th birthday........

[Sadik]

Maybe it's worth just trying them out and seeing what appeals though Bertrand. DD liked Jennings a lot, her fantasy-hating-super-fussy friend loved Biggles (and his little brother who can't have been more than 8 fought him for them - and given that you can buy them as a cheap set on Book People I'm guessing they aren't the only ones), all the reading children I know have enjoyed the Swallows and Amazons books, just for example.
Also, remember they were dated even when we were children! Something like A Little Princess for example would have been 75-80 years old when I read it as a child, so another 30 years isn't such a big deal necessarily. (Though it reduced dd to a sobbing heap - so perhaps only to be recommended to hard-hearted children.)