My son is 10 and can be very particular about books, and as a result is running out of reading material.
He’s read the whole Wings of Fire series by Tui T Sutherland and a bunch of the Warriors books, and little else has captured his interest.
I’ve tried introducing the Percy Jackson series to no avail, as well as the Blackthorn Key and a few others over the years.
I like to get my kids at least one novel as a Christmas gift, but I am struggling to find anything for him as the fantasy/dragon/talking animals genre isn’t very familiar to me.
What would the good folks of reddit recommend?
by MissGigiBeans
15 Comments
Tamora Pierce
Maze Runner series, Hatchet series, Harry Potter series, Enders Games Series, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Holes, The Hunger Games Series (maybe a little dark for a 10 year old), The Scythe series (these are my favorite books, but again, maybe a little dark for a 10 year old)
Brian Jacques. He has the Redwall series, about anthropomorphic speaking woodland animals set in a medieval time period. And the Flying Dutchman trilogy, a boy and his dog (who can communicate telepathically with each other) going on adventures and help people in need.
Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz, Gregor the Overlander series
Eragon book series maybe? Not sure if the age rating fits
How well does he handle horror? The Piggy series by Terrance Crawford has all but the main character as anthropomorphic animals and is set in a hate plague apocalypse. It’s on the same level as Goosebumps in terms of horror and writing.
The Dragon Realm series by Katie and Kevin Tsang may also be of interest to him.
The kids at my school that liked Wings of Fire also checked out
Gregor the Overlander
Fablehaven
The Land of Stories
Artemis Fowl
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Rick Riordan. Even if he’s reading above the writing level he writes books packed with kids navigating not only saving the world with their unique skills but also running up against different types of human relationships both healthy and unhealthy. The adults are often as multifaceted as the kids, even though they’re background noise in comparison. A lot of the choices we make have consequences, both good and bad.
Artmis fowl series
Kenneth Oppel’s Silverwing trilogy
It’s like Warriors, but with bats
brandon sanderson has some good ya fantasy that it sounds like he could probably handle
Talking animals = *Redwall* by Brian Jaques, *Wild Magic* by Tamora Pierce, and in a way, *Northern Lights* (or *The Golden Compass* if you’re in the US) by Phillip Pullman. I would not recommend *Watership Down* yet, unless you’re reading it to him.
Dragons = The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (comes as a boxed set) by Patricia Wrede, *The Last Dragonslayer* by Jasper Fforde, *Joust* by Mercedes Lackey. I would avoid the first three Dragonriders of Pern books. Start with *Dragonsong, Dragonsinger,* and *Dragondrums* if you want to go there.
He might like one of the series by Jonathan Stroud
“The Phantom Tollbooth,” by Norton Juster
“Where the Mountain Meets the Moon,” by Grace Lin
The Green Ember series by S.D. Smith
Warrior rabbits fighting for their freedom from wolf and falcon overlords. Not cheesy, very intense and absolutely captivating