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14yo DS2 says he wants to read a book!!!!!

33 replies

BaconAndAvocado · 29/10/2020 22:45

DS2 hasn't been a fan of reading for pleasure fr many years so this is a welcome revelation.

He's been reading a book called Poet X at school and has enjoyed it so far. I think this is what's sparked his interest.

When we were in Waterstones yesterday he expressed an interest in reading something in the horror genre but didn't want a huge tome.

I tried to find a member of staff to recommend something but couldn't.

OP posts:
ShakeaHettyFeather · 05/11/2020 10:04

Roald Dahl and Stephen King and John Wyndham's short stories would be good. Also Neil Gaiman - the Sandman graphic novels are amazing.

horseymum · 05/11/2020 10:06

Alex rider books by Anthony Horowitz. Really good plot driven but easy to read.

Bettina500 · 05/11/2020 10:11

The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night Time is really good.
Anthony Horowitz as someone else has said.
My DS is 14 and I pick him up loads of books cheap from charity shops, he really enjoys stories themed around the difficult teenage years if that makes sense, I think he relates to them.

madamehooch · 05/11/2020 18:50

Five Nights at Freddies
Spooks Apprentice

JJsDinerWaffles · 05/11/2020 18:54

How about Philip Pullman- the Northern Lights. Very gripping with a dark edge!

Nonamesavail · 06/11/2020 21:06

My son enjoyed wonder.

elkiedee · 07/11/2020 04:31

The author of Poet X is Elizabeth Acevedo, and as someone else mentioned she has published two other books.

My 13 year old was quite slow to read for fun but then got hooked on series, though he hasn't read much at all in the last few months. He started reading Lord of the Rings and has got completely stuck and not picked it up for a few weeks - hasn't even been taking it out of his school bag. I had to go into my local library before lockdown to sort out some of my books as they keep threatening to charge fines again (though not for school age kids, which is better, and reservations are also free for kids and teens even in normal times, though I need to ask whether it would be free for us to reserve suitable books from grown up shelves for him to read on his card).

He devoured a lot of thrillers by Charlie Higson, Malorie Blackman's 5 Noughts and Crosses novels, and some of the same author's other books, Cressida Cowell's two series, Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy and his Book of Dust - 2 books so far, 2nd ends on a really outrageous cliffhanger which personally I'm really upset by (and I only heard parts of the very abridged radio adaptabion). DS1 liked the Mortal Engines books and another series by the same author, Philip Reeve. Also two series from Ali Sparkes.

At 14, he will probably be having to read books for adults, some with quite adult themes, etc at school. They actually read The Hunger Games in English lessons and for homework, which I would say perhaps 14 up and parents being aware that the trilogy has some dark stuff in it, late in year 7 or early in year 8, and he devoured the other two.

At the moment, many libraries are running limited opening hours/browsing access/service and some are closed, but if and when they are open, many public library services are offering to choose readers a bundle of books they might like. Or you can get him registered at some point and borrow some choices for him, then if he bites you can buy him more books.

August20 · 07/11/2020 04:40

The Shining or Pet Sematery would be good from Stephen King. Not IT probably due to the weird child orgy.

Not horror but I can also recommend The Dry by Jane Harper which is a detective novel about outback murder (so some psychological horror/thriller elements but not really horror genre).

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