Ask Da Internets

[lagilman]

So, if you were putting together a reading list for a ten year old male child who adores Terry Pratchett and Rick Riordan, and is moaning about having "nothing new to read," what would you suggest?

Comments

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

Jim Hines' Goblin Quest books.

[rarelylynne.livejournal.com]

Co-signed.

[rosefox]

And the princess books too!

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Douglas Adams?

[ubiquitous-a.livejournal.com]

Co-signed. :)

[girasole.livejournal.com]

Larklight, and following and anything else by Philip Reeve.

The Foundling (Monster Blood Tattoo Book 1) and so on by D. M. Cornish

The Bartimaeus books by Jonathan Stroud

The Secrets of Nicholas Flamel series, by Michael Scott (first one's The Alchemyst)

[meallanmouse.livejournal.com]

Skullduggery Pleasant series.

Seconding the Goblin Quest books by Jim C. Hines.

[tammy-moore.livejournal.com]

seconding the Skullduggery Pleasant books. They are ridiculous fun.

[vcmw]

I also add my vote for Skullduggery - those books were excellent - and I thought the voice sustained through the three I've read, with decent plot escalation, which is fairly unusual in my experience of kids' comedic fantasy.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Holly Black, Un-Lun-Dun by Mieville, and possibly Tom Holt, if he likes the adult Pratchetts, and not only the juvie ones.

[ubiquitous-a.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend the Belgariad and the Mallorean series by David Eddings. Not exactly the same tone, but humorous in spots, and fantastic characters.

[mindyklasky.livejournal.com]

John Christopher - especially the Tripod books.

[sorek.livejournal.com]

seconded!

[stephen-dedman.livejournal.com]

Thirded!

Also, Heinlein's Have Space Suit, Will Travel and Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds.

[ferragus.livejournal.com]

How about Robert Asprin, especially the MYTH and Phule's company series.

(or has it been too long since I've been 10?)

[meallanmouse.livejournal.com]

Seconded - those are awesome. :)

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Ten year old?

What about the Thirty-Nine Clues series? I was kind of surprised that our son took to the series a couple of weeks ago, since our oldest daughter wasn't interested in it at all.

It goes without saying: Harry Potter.

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

Probably a couple years young for the Belgariad.

He might be right on the borderline for Jim's Goblin series.

Also, although our son hasn't shown any interest in it, there's a certain Grail Quest series that our oldest read when she was that age.

There's the Erin Hunter series The Guardians; there's a boy in the kids' karate class who is reading them.

And even though it doesn't quite fit the mold here, there's the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.

[ilvack.livejournal.com]

I'd say the Wheel of Time series, but then again that's a big read. Douglas Adams would be great, and of course STAYING DEAD.

[graycardinal]

No one's mentioned Duane's "Young Wizards" books yet? Color me startled. (Granted, it takes a few books in that series for Kit to really come to the fore, but if he's reading the Tiffany Aching stories, he's presumably not thrown by female leads.)

There is a series by P. B. Kerr beginning with The Akhenaten Adventure, featuring a brother-and-sister pair of tween djinn, that might be of interest. Parts of that one strike a rather odd tone, but if he's liked Riordan I'd count them worth a try.

As a standalone, L. J. Smith's The Night of the Solstice.

Susan Cooper's The Boggart and its sequel. If he likes those, then try him on the "Dark Is Rising" books; the boggart duo skews a little younger and more modern.

If you can find them, Bruce Coville's "A.I. Gang" trilogy. SF rather than fantasy, but fast-paced and fun with a large cast.

[saffronrose.livejournal.com]

Edward Eager, Diana Wynne Jones, later Robin McKinley books.

[kriz1818.livejournal.com]

I'll ask my eleven-year-old when he gets home from school. If I can pry him out of Riordan's latest, that is ...

[evil_plotbunny]

James A. Owen
P.D. Baccalaurio
Jenny Nimmo
Gerald Morris
Cornelia Funke

[girasole.livejournal.com]

Gerald Morris absolutely. I am sorry I left him off my own list.

[evil_plotbunny]

And I forgot to mention that this was only the authors who no one else had mentioned.

And I should add
Alison Goodman
Margaret Peterson Haddix
Anthony Horowitz

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

He might like the Young James Bond series by Charlie Higgins and if he's not squicked by zombies, Higgins' THE ENEMY.

Also any of Cinda Williams Chima (http://www.cindachima.com/) (I'm going off my own boy's bookshelf, since he loved Riordan and Gaiman's Graveyard Book-- speaking of which: Gaiman's Graveyard Book.)

[klingonguy.livejournal.com]

The people who read your LJ are not self-serving enough. I'm here to address that imbalance. Ahem.

All ten-year old boys love books about things that fart! Send the kid buffalitos!

[greatsword.livejournal.com]

Just ones that haven't yet been mentioned and which my ten year old is reading.

Erin Hunter's Warriors series.

The Pendragon books by D.J. MacHale.

Tamora Pierce's Alanna series.

The Hobbit. (He's currently starting on LoTR, but not deep enough in to make it a recommendation)

Ranger's Apprentice series, by John Flanagan

I will admit that last Christmas I threw book one of a bunch of series at him to see what stuck, and the answer was 'all of them.' I also hate to admit that I haven't tried him on The Camelot Spell yet, but it's on my list.

[mtlawson.livejournal.com]

Yes, agreed with the Ranger's Apprentice series. I'd forgotten about those.

[elektra.livejournal.com]

I know they're old, but I think the Oz books by Baum (the original 14) are timeless. Also, The Magical Monarch of Mo.

[vcmw]

I still haven't read the rest of the series, but perhaps Timothy Zahn's Dragon and Thief? I really liked it - it felt like an old fashioned SF juvenile but in a good way - but I admit my book recommendations on it to 10 year old boys had about a 50% success rate so not for everyone.

What about Laurence Yep's recent City of Fire? I liked that a lot, though it came out after I left library work so I haven't had a chance to see how recommending it to actual kids goes. (There are plenty of things that I adore and kids can't stand, and vice versa, so field tests are necessary.)

Also possible - Anne Ursu's The Shadow Thieves. The pace is slower than that of the Riordan books, but there's a well executed mingling of Greek mythology with the lives of middle schoolers - a creepy sleeping plague starts it off as I recall. I admit that my interest flagged before book three but I really enjoyed reading the first one - and so did a reasonable number of kids at the library.

I'm assuming he's already been exposed to the Bone graphic novels by Jeff Smith, but if not (they're popular in school libraries) then this is both the right audience (boy, likes fantasy with action and humor) and the right age for those.

The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner? Though the later books are more young adult in appeal, The Thief is definitely a middle grade type book. We've got a narrator who should work well for a 10 year old boy, a lot of action, some definite smart alecky narration, and again the inclusion of a pantheon that while not Greek or Roman or Etruscan or what have you is fashioned in a way to fit in to that type of mythology. If he does want to read the sequels there's absolutely nothing in them a 10 year old can't read as far as content.

Debi Gliori's Pure Dead series was a favorite of mine (I've read them all). They're sort of Addams Family-ish - about a family of vaguely magic, vaguely monstrous, somewhat mafia inflected folks who live on a loch in Scotland with moat monsters and talking spiders and hacker kids - 10 is either about the right age for those or almost too old, depending on his reading level and how he feels about fairly obvious humor (the humor in Terry Pratchett, or even Skulduggery Pleasant, is more of a mix of obvious and subtle, the Gliori ones are pretty much all the obvious kind).

A Great New Author

[http://www.google.com/profiles/jawkneew8 (from livejournal.com)]

I read Brandon Mull's Fablehaven series recently (five books in all), and I found them very engaging. The author has also written book entitled The Candy Shop Wars, which I also recommend.

All the books by Mull are quite entertaining, and have a couple of kids who are living in today's world who run across a magical one. They are filled with twists, turns, suspense, and humor. I found them superior to Rick Riordan's The Last Olympian series.

DOC WILDE AND THE FROGS OF DOOM

[tim byrd (from livejournal.com)]

I offer for consideration my own kids' adventure novel, from Putnam. You can find info at www.DocWilde.com.

Here are some reviews:

Daniel Pinkwater:
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KIRKUS:
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GUYS LIT WIRE:
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