Books for well-read 13 year old boy?

[WeakandWobbly]

My ds is an avid reader. Any suggestions for book series I can get him for Christmas? He has read all the jk Rowling, Philip Reeve, Robert muchamore, but doesn't like Terry pratchett or jrr Tolkien. Help!!

Gormenghast - a trilogy by Mervyn Peake. Quite extraordinary.

Any and everything by Alan Garner.

All the Richard Hannay books by John Buchan. + The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers.

Not a series but he might like From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg.

Maybe some P. G. Wodehouse for light relief?

Sorry - not terribly modern, but books I return to again and again over decades.

And Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez - of course.

Hunger games books
Divergent series books

If he also likes realistic stuff
The Hate U Give
The Boxer
The Outsiders
The Universe Vs Alex Woods

all ones that have gone down well here

Enders Game/ Speaker of the Dead/ Xenocide/ Children of the Mind. Or just the first one.
The Once and Future King
The Dark is Rising series
At that age I was working my way through all the Dick Francis thrillers, and the works of Stephen King, Asimov and Arthur C Clarke, I cant guarantee how suitable they are though!

Ready player one
Skyward

Huge succes with mt 14Ds. I read and enjoed them too

These are super ideas, thank you!

If he enjoyed Robert Muchamore, then he may enjoy the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz.

@BookishZen I forgot to say he's read all the Alex Riders too, but thanks for replying!

DS loves Marie Lu, Michael Grant and Taran Matharu.
He also loved the Eragon series and Skulduggery Pleasant if your DS liked Alex Rider.

Ds loved The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.
It's historical fiction.

Last Dragon series by Chris D'Lacey

Skulduggery Pleasant is the best thing ever, so funny.

Sherlock Holmes

Thanks for all of your suggestions x

Thank you @creativehare. We've got a bit stuck with books and he loves modern adventure type books mainly. Some great suggestions on here!

Susan Cooper - "dark is rising" series is really good

Animal Farm....George Orwell

Kevin Crossley-Holland's Arthur trilogy

Something by Neil Gaiman or Philip Pullman?
Or, longer shot, the Miss Pereguine's Home for Peculiar Children series?

Ursula Le Guin?

Also the Wheel of Time series if he’s in to fantasy - that will keep him busy for a while

Artemis Fowl
The dog hunters - the adventures of Llewelyn & Gelert
Hitchhikers Guide
Adrian Mole
Mortal engines

Patrick Ness books ((not A Monster Calls- the others). Simon James Green books, William Sutcliffe books- those are all more up-to-date than some of the suggestions on this thread.

A monster calls is an amazingly moving film though.

A well read 13 year old could expand their vocabulary exponentially by switching in a few less recently published books.

@EwwSprouts

A monster calls is an amazingly moving film though.

A well read 13 year old could expand their vocabulary exponentially by switching in a few less recently published books.

A Monster Calls is a lovely film, yes, and the book is a masterpiece. But it is aimed at younger children, as opposed to Patrick Ness’ other books which would be targeted at 13+.

He could expand his vocabulary by reading older books. Of course. But I’m not sure that was the OP’s question. In fact, many of the people who (very kindly) recommend books on these threads, may not have read any YA books in rather a long time. They may not know that some of the books haven’t aged very well. Adrian Mole, for example (not sure it would improve vocabulary much!), is funny really only if you understand the 80’s cultural references. It doesn’t go down well with children, around 35 years after it was written, and I’m not sure it’s that funny anymore. Alan Garner is aimed at younger children (only Red Shift is YA), and they’re obviously fabulous books. But unfortunately he used so much contemporary school boy slang that they’re tricky for modern readers to understand. And while I’m a massive fan of his, I’m also going to have to admit that there’s that same slightly patronising misogyny in the way the characters speak to each other that you get in a lot of books from that time period. I’ve not managed to successfully get any students reading them for fun in the past decade.

I didn’t mean to offend anybody- but there are just so many fabulous YA authors out there and I think some of the stuff written in the past few years is honestly much better than what was appearing during our childhoods. I was sort of trying to point out that it might be worth looking at some of those glorious books.

My best YA books of the year:

1. Burn by Patrick Ness
2. The Great Godden by Meg Rossoff (not suitable for your son, OP- but divine)
3. The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargreaves (not quite what OP asked for)
4. The Loop