Books for 12yo boy

[Macareaux]

Can any MN feminists recommend any good books (novels) for a12 year old boy. Not necessarily with an overt feminist message but certainly ones avoiding stereotypes that cast girl characters into supporting roles (or no roles at all).

Watching with interest.

The Northern Lights has a female protagonist.

Derek Landry, The Skulduggery Pleasant novels. Very strong female lead (a 12 year old girl). Written for early teens, it is a mix of humour/fantasy/intrigue. I thoroughly enjoyed them! (I bought them for my DSwho loved them too).

My son loved Skullduggery Pleasant and Northern Lights at that age.

I've been reading Terry Pratchett's The Wee Free Men with DS. The main character is a girl, and a typical Pratchett protagonist - intelligent, cool headed, and brave. A fair few of the main series of Discworld books also have strong female characters and protagonists (notably the Witches books), if you think he's old enough for them.

You might want to look at David Weber's Star Kingdom series ( A Beautiful Friendship, Fire Season, and Treecat Wars ), a young adult series set in his Honor Harrington universe about the early days of contact between humans and treecats. I've only read the short version of A Beautiful Friendship that appears in one of the main series anthologies, but I think it'll tick your boxes. The main series would too, except I'd say it's too adult for a twelve year old (read at least as far as the destruction of Blackbird base in Honor of the Queen before disagreeing).

Diane Duane's So You Want To Be a Wizard series is excellent urban fantasy/SF. The main character is a girl who's about fourteen at the start of it, if I remember right, and her younger sister steps into the limelight a few books in. I thoroughly enjoyed the first four as a teenager, but I haven't read the more recent ones.

Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time series is yet more SF (you might spot a theme in my recommendations...) with different main characters as you go along, but at least three of the five have female leads. The first two are about a teenage girl called Meg, and the last about her daughter. And at least some of L'Engle's Austin Family books (non-SF, for once) follow the teenage daughter of the family.

Agree about the Skulduggery Pleasant books. Very strong female characters. Just got a signed copy of the new one for my son so I should be in his good books... pardon the pun.

Thank you for all suggestions -will go and investigate them.

My son loved the Northern Lights series at about this age - and there's also the other set - starting with the Ruby and the Smoke - non-mystical, set in Victorian London - which are really good. I think he said enjoyed that set more than NL. They're an easier, shorter read too. (As long as you don't mind him reading about opium dens )

I second Wee Free Men and the rest of the Tiffany Aching series. My 13 year old has recently finished the fourth of the series and loves it.

I'd also recommend Joanna Czechowska's The Black Madonna of Derby which has two sisters switching as main characters throughout most of it. I think it does a great job of showing the very normal emotions people, particularly young women, are going through. I might wait a bit on this one if he is sensitive as it does involve death, including that of a teenager.

As a bloke, I was very impressed by the Hunger Games (which I had no intention of reading until it was recommended to me by my brother).

Strong female lead of course but, more than that, there's all sorts of layers and commentaries on today's world.

(I defer to the parents on here for guidance on age suitability).

My 12 year old DS enjoyed the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, and the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix. He read both at age 9/10, then again recently at 11/12.