stories that appeal to adults and 9 year olds!

[tiggy114]

Hi everyone. I'm looking for fiction books and stories that i can read to my 9 year old that i won't find incredibly boring! I really love, thrillers, horror and adventure, page turning books but none of my books are really suitable for him. I love sherlock holmes but i don't think he's quite old enough yet. He has a low attention span so it needs to be something gripping that he'll want to stick with. Maybe a boys adventure story? Any suggestions?

You could try A series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. This is the web site that's goes with the books which also gives an idea of the theme and tone they are written in

www.lemonysnicket.com/

I read them to DD when around same age and we have them all on audio disc too. But they are certainly not 'girls' books. Have to say I probably liked them more than DD - and I love Holmes too :)

Just about anything by Diana Wynne Jones (A Tale of Time City might be a good place to start for an adventure/thriller)

Susan Cooper, the Dark is Rising sequence (the most thrilling one to start with is The Dark is Rising, and then read Over Sea Under Stone second - it's not the intended reading order, but it would work fine that way round, and then Greenwitch, The Grey King, and Silver on the Tree)

The Percy Jackson series: you'll pick up a lot about the Greek myths as a side-effect.

The basic scenario is that the gods continue to exist and have children with mortals. One such child is Percy. The godly component means that mythological monsters sniff them out and seek to destroy them, so when old enough they find their way, by various means, to Camp Half Blood where they learn to use their talents. And get embroiled in all sorts of disputes and wranglings between the gods too.

Look at Michael Morpurgo.
My dds (in Yr7 and Yr5) were both doing a bit of study of some of his books, and all 3 of my dc said I should read Private Peaceful. I did, and it's an excellent book, 'held' me, but also accessible for younger ones. I also enjoyed Adolphus TIps, but there are others he's written as well. Great author.

A Dog Called Grk and sequels are exceptionally fast-moving and accessible once you've got past the first page!
Eva Ibbotson's books Journey to the River Sea, Star of Kazam
The Alex Rider stories
Inkheart trilogy
Lionboy trilogy
Julia Jarman's Time Travelling Cat series
The London Eye Mystery
Ender's Game (contains some disturbing scenes of bullying and cruelty to animals)

I know this isnt for everyone but many love this american curriculum.(dont be put of because its american, people from all over use it)
sonlight
World and American history and geography mainly.
Its focus is read aloud books all woven together into a curriculum. Or if you prefer just be inspired and just pick and choose the bits you fancy!

If you request a catalogue they will send you one (hours of fun browsing through it!)
There is also a sonlight uk yahoo list where those of us who are fans discuss it/make sugestions etc. Many of the books can be purchased inexpensively from Amazon or second hand throught the yahoo list.
Or have a 'core' package shipped from America!

On the sonlight uk list (hidden away in the files) there is a survey of british history reading list that is well liked by many too.

I hope that helps

thanks guys. I'll be spending an houror two on amazon checking these out! Never read any of them so there's got to be one in there that takes our fancy :)

Have just read this with my boys and loved it:
here

Also really enjoyed Gillian Cross Demon Headmaster series.

Benedict Jacka's Ninja series
caroline Lawrence's roman mysteries
Michael Lawrence's jiggy McCue series ( Toilet of Doom is hysterically funny!)
Artemis Fowl
Young sherlock Holmes

The Mysterious Benedict Society is a great, fast-moving yarn.

Have you read the "Just William" series? Or maybe with summer coming "Swallows and Amazons" or "Huckleberry Finn" would inspire some outdoor play?

All of the above fiction titles. Also they are all/mostly available as audiobooks (our branch libraries and main library and Schools Library have very wide selection.) Martin Jarvis reading Just William is ....heaven.

How to Train Your Dragon books are great too.

Ds1 (10y) picked up some graphic novel versions of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in the library and is now reading the original to himself. It's in the public domain, so free to download on iPad or similar.

Anthony Horowitz, who wrote the Alex Rider books, writes horror for kids too.

Maybe showing my age a bit here but I loved Willard Price when I was about that age and I just re-read them last month! A series about two brothers who travel to exotic places collecting animals for zoos ( I know, not very PC) and get into lots of derring do style scrapes! Quite educational about wildlife and fab! Also an oldie and a goodie-C.S Lewis and of course secret 7 / famous 5 et al! Me? Ancient? No!

Oscar Wilde's stories for children. They are quite short and a little different to most fairy stories/morality tales. Lots to talk about in them.

Percy Jackson and The Kane Chronicles
Roman Mysteries
The Darkest Age Trilogy by A J Lake
Eragon and the rest of that series
Anything by Anthony Horowitz
I assume you've done Harry Potter.
Narnia

DH reads Mr Gum and Diary of a Wimpy Kid to the boys and enjoys them (I don't!) oh and the Willard Price books. And the Alfred Hitchcock Mysteries.

Like Maamaa, we second Enid Blyton-the famous five series(the secret sevens aimed for younger readers. Secret seven is easier to read but not as adventurous). These are the books that change my 7years old from books with pictures to books with just text in an instant. She got us to read her the famous five but read secret seven herself. Some details in the books might be a bit out of date, but you could talk about it together. And they do eat a lot in the stories, those hungry kids!

We're now starting on Enid blyton's adventure series which set in far away land. Swallows and amazons are brilliant too but lots of technical terms when first read, but after a while we realized it didn't matter at all. Enjoy

My brother liked the Redwall series by Brian Jacques around that age. Up till then he'd never really wanted to read anything he didn't have to.