Suggested reading for 15 y/o son?

inmypocketnottheirs

Our 15 y/o is a very reluctant reader and this shows in his English grades at school. As I think most of us will agree, reading is one good way to improve these skills.

So, can anyone suggest some suitable modern day reading material. Like most young adults his age he is X Box mad, he does like outdoors stuff too. He is very keen on his BMX and does go out a lot on that when the weather is conducive, and very sports/football orientated.

I don't think Enid Blighton and Biggles stories will cut the mustard, so am hoping for some current favourites.

Thanks all!

Prothet_of_Doom

What about some autobiographies? I read Andy Kershaws life story, and it made me cry. It's about how he messed around at school, scrapped himself into Leeds University, became entertainments secretary, put on some big concerts, took drugs, got married, got divorced, was on the run from the police, got himself sorted out, etc etc.
Also read biographies of Joe Strummer, and Paul Weller recently, which were interesting.

marisco_2

These are all a great read;

Terry Pratchett - Discworld
Joseph Delany - The Spooks series
Robert Jordan - Wheel of Time series
Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
A Song of Ice and Fire books, the first in the series being Game of Thrones. Great for kids who have an interest in fantasy stories.
Michael Grant's Gone series - sci-fi
David Eddings - The Belgariad and the The Mallorean series

Alikay

At 15 my boys were choosing their own reading material. Not a massive volume, admittedly as like most of their age group, were having to do quite a bit of reading for 11 GCSE's, and tended to want to chill out with the TV or playing a bit of FIFA in the few spare hours between school and sports/socialising etc!

DS1 was football and cricket mad so liked biographies of sports and media personalities, plus for some reason, Dan Ariely's books on business and economic psychology.

DS2 went to cadets and has since gone into the RAF so liked military-themed thrillers like Andy McNab's books and biographies of historical military or aviation figures.

DomRavioli

If he likes the more darker end of the spectrum (I find Terry Pratchett to be a little infantile for my liking), he could try Kathy Reichs (made into the "Bones" TV show) and if he's into scifi, could try maybe Douglas Adams or Tolkein?

DigForVictory

If he's seen any of the films over Christmas, give Harry Potter a whirl? (Mostly to enable 'the books are different' conversations!)

Charlie Higson's Young Bond books (moving straight onto the original Fleming & the new pretenders after that if he likes the tales?)

The Haynes for your car? (If only to show you where to do an oil check, and where to top up screenwash? Start him on something to help you & see where it goes...)

A good cookbook - again, reading both for fun and with an alternative agenda...

If ever he's thought his family were a bit odd, Gerald Durrell's "My Family & Other Animals". (It's "old", but odd family dynamics are still fun!)

If he has any interest in the Army, try George McDonald Fraser's McAuslan books - The General Danced at Dawn, McAuslan in the Rough and The Sheikh and the Dustbin... (Which are all collections of short stories.) If he likes *any* of them, then try a serious history, The Steel Bonnets (a history of the Border Reivers of the Anglo-Scottish Border), the autobiography Quartered Safe Out Here (a memoir of his experiences as an infantryman in the Border Regiment during the Burma Campaign of World War II) or the left hand history of the Flashman papers (start with Flashman and see how he goes!)

There are very few Bond film scriptwriters who have such a breadth & quality of writing... (Me, biaised? No, just I've read the lot & howled with laughter - and if McAuslan can't woo him, go back to Harry & try MacAuslan again in a couple of years...!)

All the best!

shelley_crow

The Hunger Games trilogy is a good read, I was pleasantly surprised.

pukkamum

My son is nearly 13 and is an avid Dean Koontz fan, I bought him the Dean Koontz frankenstein series and he loves them.
At 15 I would have thought adult books are the way to go, Stephen King is always a good introduction.

bylromarha

Another vote here for Michael Grant's Gone series. It's Under the Dome meets Lord of the Flies for teens.

HIVE series by Mark Walden is pretty good too - stories of a school where villians are trained.

Cherub series is apparently very good - 9 year old son came home from school with one of the books, and was told by a 17 year old male to leave the series for a few years as the themes are too adult for a 9 year old, but he, as a 17 year old, loves them.

Frankly, there is an awful lots of fantastic teen writing out there at the moment - I prefer some of it to the adult stuff!

hazyjo

Nick Hornby stuff definitely, maybe Jeffery Deaver if he likes the thought of thrillers (The Bone Collector's a good introduction, or The Blue Nowhere if he's computer-orientated). James Patterson also okay for thrillers (not always keen on the endings).

Jx

Errata

If he's a reluctant reader and keen on football get him reading the online fooaball reports. I taught basic reading skills to a group of very reluctant teenage lads readers and they were far more interested in reading about football than novels, because it related to the life they lived, not the life of fantasy fictional characters.