Alternatives to The Fellowship of the Ring

[Gobbledegeek]

Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for children's books that would keep us going until DS gets old enough for the Lord of the Rings trilogy? I read The Hobbit with him at bedtime and he loved it but I think the trilogy would be too old for him.

We've also read Impossible Creatures, Narnia, Five Children and It. He loves the traditional stuff that has a classic feel and he's good with vocab, imagery and inference. Adventure and tension are fine, I just don't want to either scare him or read something in advance of when he'll get the most out of it. Suggestions please! Thank you 😀

A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'engle)

Charmed Life (Diana Wynne Jones)

The Dark is Rising (Susan Cooper)

How old is he?

Have you read A Series of Unfortunate Events yet?

The Chrestomancy Series by DW Jones is utterly wonderful & has entranced all my fantasy loving children (I've read the whole thing aloud at least 5 times!)

The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper as above! The first in the series is lighter than the rest.

At the point where I was still struggling a bit with the wordiness of LotR and Tolkien's habit of adding page after page of exposition, I read a lot of David Eddings' The Elenium and The Tamuli.

I don't know if you are concerned about some of the themes in LotR and DS being too young, or whether, like me, it's that they are just a bit heavy on exposition, but I don't recall anything particularly jarring in Edding's stuff, and it isn't nearly as wandering and heaving going as some of LotR.

The Belgariad by David Eddings (followed by the Mallorean). Loved these when I was a teenager.

Thank you everyone! These suggestions are great. Sorry I forgot to say he's 9 so at the young end. My DD (14) is currently reading The Dark is Rising and loving it.

The Wizard of Earthsea series, Ursula le Guin. Eat yout heart out, Potter!

Earthsea I would say would be to old for a 9 year old.

I read the LOTR at age nine, didn't find it distressing at all.

Did miss out the boring bits though!

What about something by Philip Pullman? I love LOTR, and I also really liked the Subtle Knife etc.

The Book of Three / Black Cauldron series by Lloyd Alexander?

Loved the His Dark Materials trilogy, particularly the Subtle Knife.

Another vote for Diana Wynne Jones. The Chrestomanci series would be awesome for that age 👍

We enjoyed King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (Benedict Flynn). The language and vocab is very similar to The Hobbit I think - very much a classic book style. Also Robin Hood and His Merry Men (Roger Lancelyn Green).

Dark is Rising is brilliant (first one is weakest imo).

Also Weirdstone of Brisingamen (Alan Garner) and some his others (Moon of Gomrath and Elidor are best for this age I think).

Jules Verne was a big hit in our house. The Phoenix and the Carpet is the sequel to Five Children. The Railway Children has a similar feel of children relying on themselves.

Many thanks! It looks like DWJ has it 😀. There are some here I've never heard of but I think he would definitely love the King Arthur/Robin Hood ones too.

The Chronicles of Prydain? (Lloyd Alexander) If he was ok with the Hobbit these should be fine, I think

These are all first in a series:
Mortal Engines, Philip Reeve
The Sword in the Stone, TH White
The Spook's Apprentice, Joseph Delaney (can't remember what age S1 was but Google says 9+)
Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy - S2 loved these in Y4
Wolf Brother by Michele Paver - ditto Y5
Gladiator: Fight for Freedom, Simon Scarrow - ditto Y5/6 (don't get this confused with Simon Scarrow's 23-book series which appears to be for adults )
Stoneheart, Charlie Fletcher (I loved this - fantasy blended with real life set around the stones of London)
Carbonel, Barbara Sleigh
and moving away from fantasy
The Falcon's Malteser, Anthony Horowitz
Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz
Young Bond: Silverfin, Charlie Higson

Another vote for Chronicles of Prydain - it's absolutely perfect for that age. Ditto Dark is Rising.

The other one that my two boys have loved (which I didn't grow up with, unlike the others) is Letter for the King.

I enjoyed the Midshipman Quinn books and Doctor Who books around that age. Also LOTR though.

For a non fantasy but classic Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease is great at that age.

(but yes DWJ before anything else! My kids enjoyed listening to Dark is rising at that age btw - might be nice for your kids to have the story in common)

Another vote for The Dark is Rising!

Children of Green Knowe series
The Edge Chronicles

The Dark is Rising is brilliant as is Diana Wynne Jones.

I'd recommend Archer's Goon, by DWJ for a boy of that age. He'll enjoy the chaos of it.

Yes to Chrestomanci. also the Snow Spider trilogy Jenny Nimmo

Some more recently written options:

My DD has loved the Skandar trilogy (I’ve not tried) - they might be more of a read it himself option

The Midnight Hour & the Midnight Howl

Land of Stories series

Anything by Katherine Rundell

The Phoenix and the Carpet is the sequel to Five Children.

And The Story of the Amulet.

Plus other E. Nesbit - The Treasure Seekers, The House of Arden etc.

(For anyone who doesn't know, there's a sequel, Five Children on the Western Front, by Kate Saunders. Would recommend reading it first before giving it to a 9yo. DD14 is probably about the right age, though, if she read and enjoyed the original.)

If he'll read something other than fantasy, how about Arthur Ransome? I think I was 9/10 when I first read them.