Need reading recommendation for boys

[GameMonsters]

Any reading recommendation for 12-year-old boys? My problem is they are both above reading grade levels so they can easily handle books for 14-15-year-old books, but I need to make sure the contents is suitable for their age. They like almost all kinds of books, except love or romance.

Any suggestion will be appreciated. Thanks.

[Rizla]

John Christopher Tripods Trilogy (The Sword and the Spirit Trilogy is very good too).
Edgar Rice Burroughs The Land that Time Forgot Series.
Hunger Games (the first book).
Harry Potter.

Lots of Arthur C. Clarke (City and the Stars, Childhood's End, Rama, and the collected short stories)
Issac Asimov Foundation and Robot Series.

I like Sci-fi

Edit: Also Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Hobbit.

[WillAdams]

Hal Gordon's _Divers Down: Adventure Beneath Hawaiian Seas_ --- free audio version here: http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=6202
The Adventures of the Mad Scientist's Club, et. al.
H. Beam Piper's _Little Fuzzy_ --- available in: http://www.mobileread.mobi/forums/sh...ad.php?t=47980
Swiss Family Robinson --- listed in this older discussion along w/ other titles: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=177158

[Mike L]

When I was that age, I lapped up John Buchan. His most famous is The 39 Steps, for which there were then several sequels. Also John Wyndham (The Day of the Triffids and others).

Mike

[elemenoP]

The Giver (no violence), The Maze Runner (quite a bit of violence, check commonsensemedia.org), The Hobbit

eP

[Strether]

Here are four excellent books, all adventure stories featuring teens:

Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls
Holes by Louis Sachar
Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen
Hatchet by Gary Paulson

All are available as ebooks from Amazon at reasonable prices.

Jim

[Gazella]

Rick Riordan.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

Heroes of Olympus series.

Kane Chronicles trilogy.


Excellent books. Big fan of the author.

[Hampshire Nanny]

Turning to the classics, many of which can be found in the Mobileread library, others at Project Gutenberg:

* Jules Verne, adventure and science fiction
** 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
** A Journey to the Center of the Earth
** All Around the Moon
** An Antarctic Mystery
** Around the World in 80 Days
** Dick Sand: Captain at 15
** Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon
** Five Weeks in a Balloon
** From the Earth to the Moon
** In Search of the Castaways
** Journey to the Center of the Earth
** The Mysterious Isand

* Victor Appleton, adventure
** Moving Picture Boys Omnibus
** Tom Swift Omnibus, Volume 1, and 4 more volumes

* Thomas Bullfinch, legends and folk tales
** Bullfinch's Mythology (or The Age of Fable)
** Legends of Charlemagne
** The Age of Chivalry

* Arthur Ransome, folk tales
** Old Peter's Russian Tales

* Edward Stratemeyer, adventure
** Rover Boys Omnibus, Volume 1, and 4 more volumes

* Frank Patchin, adventure
** The Pony Rider Boys in the Rockies, 11 other episodes in the Mobileread library

* H Irving Hancock, adventure
** Grammar School Boys Omnibus
** High School Boys Omnibus
** High School Boys Vacation Omnibus
** and the same boys are then found in the Annapolis Omnibus, West Point Omnibus, Young Engineers Omnibus, and Dave Darren Omnibus.

* H Rider Haggard, action and adventure, science fiction/fantasy
** Haggard Omnibus, Volume 1, 15 more volumes

[Dazrin]

At around that age I was reading mostly fantasy like the Lord of the Rings, lots of Forgotten Realms books (Drizzt/RA Salvatore mostly), The Wheel of Time, David Eddings (Belgariad/Mallorean and Elenium/Tamuli), Terry Pratchett (Discworld), Douglass Adams (Hitchhiker's series), etc. I also started on some Tom Clancy not much later than that, but that is probably a little much at 12. None of those really have inappropriate things in them (erotica/slash fiction).

[Geralt]

I second Dazrin suggestions.

I'll add,
Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien
Princess Bride by William Goldman (this is a superb adventure book)
The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper

[crich70]

The 5 book "The Dark is Rising" series by Susan Cooper is a good fantasy series of books. They're based in the mythology of King Arthur and his Knights. Robert Louis Stevenson's books "Treasure Island" and "Kidnapped" might be good choices and of course the SF of both H.G. Wells & Jules Verne are old standby's for a good read.

[BenG]

The Thief of Always by Clive Barker

[Hatgirl]

Harry Potter by JK Rowling (just in case they're the only kids on the planet who haven't read it...)
Sabriel by Garth Nix (there are 3 more books and a short story in that world if they like it)
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken (lots more in this series if they like that book)
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper (first in a five part series)
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (very different from the movie, but also great)
Ronia The Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren
The Hounds of the Morrigan by Pat O'Shea
Truckers by Terry Pratchett and Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett (each the first part in a trilogy) Nation by Terry Pratchett (a standalone novel)

Uh... those are off the top of my head :-D

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by Gazella

Rick Riordan.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

Heroes of Olympus series.

Kane Chronicles trilogy.


Excellent books. Big fan of the author.

+1. My 11-year old son is a big fan of Rick Riordan.

[Yapyap]

A lot that I'd have mentioned have already been brought up - I heartily second both the Bartimaeus books (as well as Jonathan Stroud's new Lockwood & Co. - I didn't warm to it after the first book the way I did to Bartimaeus, but it fits and is well written) and anything by Rick Riordan in particular.

I know I bring this up a lot, but it IS my all-time favourite series (which just got finished - the ninth and final book was released yesterday) and it fits the topic and if a 30-something woman's personal taste may be called in question, it's also Rick Riordan's sons' favourite series. So, yeah, Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy.

It starts off as a kids' series, but "grows up" like Harry Potter did, so the final books are very much YA, I'd say. Lots of violence (and I mean a LOT, especially later on); relationships exist and matter, but it's not a series focused on romantic love or romance (love is important, but more the family/friendships way).

Other than that, I'd say 12 - especially if reading on a higher level - is the kind of age where most YA books should already be suitable, at least any that aren't strictly girl-oriented (nothing wrong with the girl-oriented YA, but a lot of them do have a heavier focus on romance and love triangles and beautiful bad boys).

Things like The Hunger Games should be okay though, I'd imagine, or Maze Runner, mentioned above (I didn't personally love it but many people do). Also Neal Shusterman's Unwind series (the last book should be out this year) as well as the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness (starting with The Knife of Never Letting Go). And the Leviathan trilogy by Scott Westerfeld should be suitable.

I'd also recommend Katya's World and Katya's War by Jonathan Howard (girl protagonist, but absolutely no romance - adventure/action sci-fi set on a future human colony world).

Two books I just read recently - Itch and Itch Rocks by Simon Mayo - also excellent "boy" action/adventure thrillers. A bit like Alex Rider (which also fits as a recommendation here), just with more school and chemistry and less international spy stuff.

Oh! The H.I.V.E. (Higher Institution of Villainous Education) series by Mark Walden - definitely written for boys in that age group, lots of fun with enough depth to it.

Probably also most things by Eoin Colfer - Artemis Fowl, his new W.A.R.P. series. Also, I think basically anything by Brandon Mull would fit the age category and be suitable content-wise.

I've read more that should be fitting, but I'm having trouble remembering them all right now. Some of the recs above are middle grade (such as Rick Riordan), but I've tried to include only the ones that work well across age groups, i.e. they might be for 9-12-year-olds but are absolutely okay for readers of any age above that.

Out of older stuff, I'd say "pretty much any Jules Verne" and Alexandre Dumas and Walter Scott (Ivanhoe, Rob Roy) and Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger books and... oh, many. 12 is a great age for reading.