Suitable books for a 12/13 yr old boy with 16 reading age.

patchwork_cat

My son 13 would second Darren Shan and Garth Nix and recently started reading Stan Nicholls.

culpepper

Ask your library for a teen ticket or even an adult ticket. Explain his reading age is 16. We did this with my son and daughter and suddenly there were a whole lot more books they could feast on. You will need to keep an eye on book return dates as they will have adult fines if late.
My son enjoyed adult magazines too like New Scientist and American Scientific.

dora37

Thanks for all your ideas - as it was his birthday last week I bought the Northern Lights triology for him.

This week as he did fantastically well in his Oliver production(what a star :j ),
I bought him a Terry Pratchett triology from The Book People (for just £4.99 + Free del..

He also bought himself one of the Young Bond books.

So a few to keep him going over the half term.

Naetha

I'd really recommend David Gemmell (Rigante, Drenai or Troy books) Bernard Cornwell (Arthur trilogy, Grail trilogy or the most recent viking trilogy), Conn Iggulden (Emperor series - about Julius Caesar) and any books by George RR Martin, although these can be a bit heavy going!

They're a combination of heroic and historical fiction and extremely well written. They don't have any "dodgy" passages in them and are very absorbing. I'd recommend them if he likes Tolkien.

westernpromise

What about Michael Crichton? Jurassic Park, Timeline, Airframe...all very readable.

H G Wells? The short stories especially are good. Somerset Maugham too, maybe?

Jules Verne? 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? Journey to the Centre of the Earth?

Robert Graves? "I Claudius" etc..."Count Belisarius" is also very good.

Lewis Grassic Gibbon's "Spartacus"?

C S Forester - 'Hornblower' is a bit middlebrow but a good read.

Wild card: James Hilton's "Lost Horizon" - the story of a Shangri La, a Himalayan paradise where you can do anything...except leave. "Goodbye Mr Chips" is also fun and "Random Harvest" I thought was just brilliant.

It's not literature but what about Frederick Forsyth? I read "Day of the Jackal" at about 12 or 13 and couldn't put it down. Likewise "The Odessa File" and "The Dogs of War".

Robert Harris' "Enigma" and "Fatherland" are good. "Pompeii" is informative too.

springchicken

Hi my 15 yr old avid reader son recommends anything by Eoin Colfer ,Darren Shan , Phillip Pulman, Anthony Horowitz.
His favourite -Phillip Reeves -The Hungry City Chronicles ,there are four books in this series and DS cant get enough of them.

Sulumar

I second Robin Hobb, John Wyndham and Bernard Cornwell. Also, how about Agatha Christie, they're really quite well written?

anonymousie

I have DD 13yrs and DS 11 both of whom have found reading easy and interesting- I have no idea of their reading ages, but guess the are both high.

Neither are into Terry Pratchet, though I know he is widely read by teens.

DD is currently reading the Malorie Blackman- the Naughts and Crosses trillogy -meaty Sci Fi stuff with big racism type isssues that appeal to her sense of justice/injustice (she found these after reading "to kill a mockingbird" -which if he hasn't read he should do so, but also you need to read it to discuss with him- so many exciting threads of interest to kids developing there own moral scheme in life BTW read it as a parent and it gives you an amazing perspective on parenting too!).

DD has read lots of adult books including the Da vinci code etc. I used to be very careful about what she read, but found the "self censorship" thing is very effective- if the theme is too brutal or sex based they don't bother BUT you don't have to be too much "well finish one book before you start the next" either! DD waas going to try "the lovely bones" which starts with the brutal rape and murder of a teen- I jst told her that a girl of her age dies very unpleasantly and that she could chose to read it or not- she didn't in the end (the plot is such that you can read the horrible bit whilst trying to get into the book).

DS again reads most things- the "young Bond" books by Charlie Higson are his current passion. He also loves Sherlock holmes, and, of all things Jeeves books:rotfl:

Bsically they read what they want. We have books alover the house- just have to get DD2 (7) really flying through text only books like the older 2 were at this age- she can,but at the moment, can't be bothered...

stashmycash

Any suggestions apart from obviously Harry Potter.

IClaudius

does it have to be books?
My 13 year old loves T3 magazine and I have bought him a subscription to this. Also Top Gear mag.
I find that boys either read loads or absolutely zip!
The two books I bought my (non-reading) son for Chrimbo were Peter Kay's autobiography and Chris Moyles's.
He also got Frank Lampard's from someone else.
Autobiographies for whoever they like are good at their ages.