book ideas for 13 yr old boy please!

[belcantavinissima]

dh wants to send his ds (my dss) some books for his birthday but have no idea what 13 yr old boys are in to literary wise.

any ideas gratefully received

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DD1 and I have just read Tamburlaine's Elephants which I think would be ideal for a 13 year old boy.
Roald Dahl's autobiography Boy and Going Solo also went down very well with the 13 year old boy I gave it to for Christmas. He also loved The Owl Service

thank you rosa, how old is your dd?

She is nearly 11 but reads far in advance of her age - the book is quite bloodthirsty and more than suitable for a 13-year-old.

It depends on what kind of books he would like. Action/Adventure ones would be Alex Rider series and CHERUB. If he likes Fantasy, try the Maximum Ride series. This is also some Action/Adventure. For more Fantasy, try the Pendragon series.

my ds1 loves the darren shan books.artemis fowl are very good, alex rider (all this is coming from ds1 who is nearly 11 but reads at a higher age range) depends on what type as duber says.

no idea what books he likes- though he is very very very into skateboarding. wonder if there are any 13yr old type books on skateboarding???

i think dh would like to get him fiction really as he doesnt think he has even read a book at home since he last bought some for him ooh about 3 or 4 yrs ago.

i should add at this point that dh doesnt see/speak to him from one yr to the next and his ds lives in vietnam so this is why we dont know what kind of thing he would like!

i am beginning to think a book might be a bit of a stupid present idea actually given the situation.maybe i will say so to dh

"Face" and "Refugee Boy" - both by Benjamin Zephaniah are brilliant (read them for kid lit at uni)

RB is about a boy coming to the UK from Eritrea during the war and how he is treated by immigration and various people - very touching.

Face is about a black kid that has an accident and about people's prejudices (more about his face than colour but BZ uses his experiences, I think, WRT racism - although it's underplayed somewhat.)

They even got a "normal" adult-looking cover, not childish at all (just bright orange spine and white front with a kid walking on it/head with no face IIRC)

Amazon have Paranoid Park which is a teen book about skating - fiction.... about a boy that gets in with the wrong crowd at the skate park and they get him in to trouble etc... sounds good.

RosaisRed: thanks for the Tamburlaine link. I've just gone ahead and ordered it. DS2 loves Geraldine McMcCaughrean.

She is great, isn't she Threadworm. DD1 loves her version of the Arabian Nights as well.

DS 12 loves the Maxiumum Ride books, also the Hive books by Mark Walden

What about Chris Ryan? He's an ex SAS sergeant and his Alpha Force and Code Red books are action packed adventures set in different parts of the world. NB I work for the publisher, but I have seen first hand at his events how mesmerised audiences of 300+ boys are by his true life experiences working in the army and as a bodyguard.

I second Christywhisty's recommendation of the HIVE books.
Also very popular amongst teenage boys at my school are the Robert Muchamore Cherub Series. Class A is the first There are 7 or 8 out now I think.

Eoin Colfer - Artemis Fowl is also very popular, though there haven't been any published recently.
Also Terry Pratchett's Discworld goes down well in some circles.
Anthony Horowitz: Alex Rider of course is well worth a read.

Tbh if he's a keen reader I would ask what he's got and what he likes. Otherwise you may disappoint him with duplicates. My boys (keen readers) are always delighted with book tokens.

If he isn't a keen reader I'd tread very carefully, and possibly buy him a computer game instead!

I no longer have any knowledge of the genre (nor know anyone who knows ...) but I'd think a skaty 13yo (who sounds like he doesn't read much) would like those sophisticated graphic novels - Neil Gaiman? - you'd have to check how appropriate though - I know some of his is for children & some very much not. Or Alan Moore's Watchmen - I remember reading the first episode back in the 80s and thinking This stuff is Poetry.

Give dh a few hours to browse in your local Forbidden Planet sci-fi shop - I'm sure he'll find some things.

These are all recommended by 13 yr old boys of varying ability:

Action and Adventure:
Cherub (series) by Robert Muchamore
Alpha Force (series) by Chris Ryan
Alex Rider (series) Anthony Horowitz
Power of Five (series) Anthony Horowitz
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
Boy Solidier (series) by Andy McNab and Robert Rigby
Young Bond (series) by Charlie Higson
Nemesis series
Code red series

SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY
The Magicians? Guild (trilogy) by Trudi Canavan
Wheel of Time (series) by Robert Jordan
His dark materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
Blade Runner by Philip K Dick
Dune by Frank Herbert
Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
The Legendeer (trilogy) by Alan Gibbons
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Stoneheart (series) by Charlie Fletcher
Runemarks by Joanne Harris
The Black Book of Secrets by F E Higgins
Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve