free/cheap books for 12 year old boy?

[pholy]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Sherlock Holmes. Not scifi, but great stories, both short and long. And available here at the MR library for free.

[Belfaborac]

Just about everything by Jules Verne would be spot on for a twelve year old and many of his books are available here. All are likely available at Gutenberg.

Then there's H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quartermain books (King Solomon's Mines, etc); I'd think those would be great for a young boy as well.

Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeeers (and more) may not have been written for twelve year olds, but they were my absolute favourite books at that age, along with One Thousand and One Nights.

Otherwise I second the previous recommendations of Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. G. Wells and Mary Shelley: all great books and all eminently suitable I would think.

[WillAdams]

Agree w/ Swiss Family Robinson, Tarzan, et. al.

Would like to add Hal Gordon's _Divers Down! Adventure Under Hawai'ian Seas_ --- not sure if it's available as an ebook or no, but well worth tracking down.

[BenBanned]

Ender's Game
0.12


Jedi Apprentice
Its a series of books 1-6 are all 0.01

Eyes of the Dragon
Not typical Stephen King, so characters arent being raped and murdered left and right. Also 0.01

Rot & Ruin
YA zombie fiction! This ones a little pricier than the others.

[Rizla]

If you can find them cheap, get short story collections by Arthur C. Clarke and Issac Asimov. Excellent for a young fellow.

do you know what, forget ebooks. Go to a used book store and look for the above there.

And if you can, find the original Robert E. Howard. In fact, I can do better than that: Give him this:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10446

Robert E Howard, The Tower of the elephant. An amazing short story. If the Robert E. Howard stuff is free (and I'm surprised it is), give him the lot. The original Conan stories are brilliant and entirely appropriate for a young fellow.

Edit: Good news. Tons more original Conan here:
http://ia700508.us.archive.org/21/it...obertE.Howard/
Rogues in the House, Red Nails and The Tower of the Elephant are the best. You'll have to some reformatting.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

Just about everything by Jules Verne would be spot on for a twelve year old and many of his books are available here. All are likely available at Gutenberg.

Then there's H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quartermain books (King Solomon's Mines, etc); I'd think those would be great for a young boy as well.

Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeeers (and more) may not have been written for twelve year olds, but they were my absolute favourite books at that age, along with One Thousand and One Nights.

Otherwise I second the previous recommendations of Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. G. Wells and Mary Shelley: all great books and all eminently suitable I would think.

I have to disagree. I find Mary Shelley boring as an adult. H.G.Wells is good, but not appropriate for a child. Edgar Rice Burroughs might be okay, but there has been so much better since written since then.

[piperclassique]

Um, sorry, but if he wants to read why can't he look for his own books? I don't recall my relatives ever choosing my reading (just paying for it, and losing their library cards to my acquisitive little mitts)
And, no, they didn't censor me.

[BenBanned]

When I was younger I had a heavy parental filter, especially when it came to music. Unless I was at a friends house I couldn't play the "cool" video games or watch R rated films. No one ever thought check what was in all those library books though. If I remember correctly at twelve I was really into survivalist fiction and allways daydreamed about running away to live in the woods.

[rjnagle]

Piperclassique, I just wanted to agree that it is probably folly to recommend ebooks for a 12 year old. Some relevant facts: I have the credit card controlling which books are bought, and this person isn't especially into reading and has no idea where to go to find book recommendations. (that's why the baen links are great).

At 12 I was reading Phantom Tollbooth, Greek mythology, some sci fi, math books, psychology books, books about NASA.

[HarryT]

When I was 12 I was devouring all the SF classics I could get my hands on at my local library: Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov, etc. I certainly didn't need anyone telling me what I should be reading.

[Belfaborac]

Originally Posted by Rizla

H.G.Wells is good, but not appropriate for a child.

Oh really? My twelve year old self would have begged to differ.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

Oh really? My twelve year old self would have begged to differ.

Me too.

[pdurrant]

http://www.baenebooks.com/c-7-young-adult.aspx

Is a list by Baen's publisher, Toni Weisskopf.

I'd particularly recommend the Heinlein juveniles in that list:

Between Planets
Farmer in the Sky
The Rolling Stones

and also

Expanded Universe
The Green Hills of Earth and The Menace from Earth

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

http://www.baenebooks.com/c-7-young-adult.aspx

Is a list by Baen's publisher, Toni Weisskopf.

I'd particularly recommend the Heinlein juveniles in that list:

Between Planets
Farmer in the Sky
The Rolling Stones

and also

Expanded Universe
The Green Hills of Earth and The Menace from Earth

My personal favourite is "Starman Jones", but you really can't go wrong with ANY of Heinlein's early stuff, to my mind.

[piperclassique]

Probably if he was strictly forbidden to go to some of the sites mentioned here he would go and do some downloading and reading!