Your (children's) Recent reading recommendations for 9s-14s please? (boys or unisex not girly)

[roisin]

I'm about to place an Amazon order, and am wondering if there are any recent big hits which have slipped under my radar?

what's audible?

audible.co.uk - talking books.

But unlike normal CD books which have say 30 tracks to a CD, they have pretty much one continuous track to a CD. And since DD likes to listen to them in bed and often falls asleep before she turns it off, it's frustrating for her to try to find the place again.

Thanks - hadn't come across them before.

Horrible histories, my son is obessessed with them, and, he is learning history!

roisin - I know you were asking for recent big hits, but has your ds1 done the golden oldies? - like Leon Garfield (Smith, Devil-in-the-Fog, Jack Holborn (latter was my favourite - probably because of rather than despite the nightmares ...)) or H Rider Haggard - I think I read Allan Quatermain at around 10. Or Alan Garner? - Weirdstone of Brisingamen, remember that series?

Or the very odd Owl Service, which I never quite got? Or Moonfleet?

There's a particular vein of 60s-70s adventure (and its inspirations, hence mentioning Moonfleet & H Rider Haggard) that is just sitting looking for your ds1.

Ds2: my ds is trundling happily through fiction so long as it's Enid Blyton. Which is a perfectly fine start, I think - and there are endless amounts of it. Also will countenance Lemony Snickett (though I don't much like that), the easier Philip Reeve and Mark Haddon's Agent Z books.

The Grk books by Joshua Doder are great.