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My youngest is a boy, elder siblings all girls. We have ballet books, pony books, girls adventure stories, Little House series, Heidi series, What Katy Did, Little Women series, Anne of Green gables etc etc

 

Trouble is...he doesn't go a bundle on any of these. ;) Any ideas for boy books. He has read and enjoyed all the Redwall books, and the Narnia books, and he hates books written in the first person.

 

Thank you

Willow.

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How about Swallows and Amazons? There are a lot in the series. They are all tales of countryside adventures involving lots of sailing and independence. If he's reading pretty well he might enjoy Jules Verne (find a modern translation - it makes a difference). Sherlock Holmes has been a big hit around here too.

 

Best wishes

 

Laura

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I don't have any specifics for you but you might want to check out various literature based homeschool programs for great ideas on books to read. Check out the 4th-8th grade programs and see what books they use. That might get you started.

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The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan

 

The Eragon series

 

The Inkheart series

 

Harry Potter

 

You might want to preview, as most of these have elements of magic and fantasy. We're pretty conservative, but I know some families have objections to these things.

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You might do a search for some of her lit. lists.

 

My ds enjoyed the Mysterious Benedict Society and its sequel (Perilous Adventure, I believe). Has he read Lord of the Rings? Ds liked those, too. He is currently enjoying a series that begins with King of the Trees. There are five in that series. What about the Little Britches series?

 

Sorry, I must say that I do not know what person these are all written in!

 

HTH

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Hates books written in first person? Wow! Umm, several good "boy books" that I can think of are in first person... Robinson Crusoe, C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy....

 

But I'll second Harry Potter, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Has he read any of the G. A. Henty books? DS loves Winning His Spurs and In Freedom's Cause.

 

Is Treasure Island in first person?

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Some random books my 12-13 son enjoyed this past year. Not sure what person they are written in, tho.

 

Golden Goblet

Black Ships Before Troy & sequel

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

Bud, not Buddy

Rascal

Maniac Magee

21 Balloons

 

I'm hoping to get into the Little Britches series next

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I loved The Three Investigators, but none of my girls will read them because they're "boy books." It was a great mystery series.

 

If he likes fantasy/sci fi, then he should try

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (Riordan)

Tapestry series (Neff)

Gregor the Overlander series (Collins)

Children of the Lamp (Kerr)

 

 

If he likes action/adventure, then he should try

Alex Rider series (Horowitz)

Ranger's Apprentice (Flanagan)

Five Ancestors (Stone) - each book in the series is written from the perspective of a different character

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This forum is amazing! I write a request before bed and I wake up to find all these wonderful suggestions! Sometimes the time difference is great. ;)

 

Thank you all for these suggestions, Lots to go for here. He has read The Hobbit, but I was holding off on Lord of the Rings as we may do Literary Lessons from LOTR next year, as we live in NZ. I had forgotten the Swallows and Amazons books, which is daft as not only does ds sail, but my Granny lived in the English Lake district and knew not only Beatrix Potter, but the family the origional S & A books were based on as well!

 

Thank you all, I shall make a list and hit the library catalogue.

 

Willow.

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I loved The Three Investigators, but none of my girls will read them because they're "boy books." It was a great mystery series.

I was going to mention The Three Investigators too--dh liked those when he was a kid.

 

What about Encyclopedia Brown? He's a 10 yr old 5th grade kid-detective. The books are at a 9-12 yr old reading level.

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Here's a "mega age 12 boy list" for you. I started it off with summer reads, or what we think of as light, fun, "snack food" books. Enjoy! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

JUST FOR FUN -- "POPCORN" BOOKS

- The Mysterious Benedick Society; The Perilous Journey; The Prisoner's Dilemna (Stewart)

-Eragon; Eldest; Brisinger (Paolli)

- Varjak Paw; The Outlaw Varjak Paw (Said)

- The Magic Books: Dragon Magic (Norton)

- Inkheart series (Funke)

- Enchanted Forest series (Wrede)

- Dragon Spell (Paul)

- Dragon series (Yep) -- Dragon Cauldron; Dragon of the Lost Sea; Dragon Steel; Dragon War

- Tiger series (Yep) -- Tiger's Apprentice; Tiger's Blood

- Tripod series (Christopher)

- Artemis Fowle series (Colfer)

- Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (Riordan)

- The Bromeliad Trilogy (Pratchett) -- Truckers; Diggers; Wings

 

 

HUMOROUS

- The Great Brain series (Fitzgerald) -- misadventures of turn of century rural town brothers

- A Year Down Yonder; A Long Way From Chicago (Peck) -- 1930s small town misadventures

- Cheaper by the Dozen (Gilbraith) -- big family misadventures; a little mild swearing by the dad

- All Creatures Great and Small (Herriot) -- (and others in the series) a little mild swearing

- My Family and Other Animals (Durrell) -- a little mild swearing

 

 

FUN TALL TALE

- The Great Turkey Walk (Karr)

- By the Great Horn Spoon (Fleischman)

- Holes (Sachar)

- The Twenty-One Balloons (DuBois)

- The Pushcart War (Merrill)

- Maniac Magee (Spinnelli)

 

 

DETECTIVE / MYSTERY

- From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (Konigsburg) -- art museum mystery

- Chasing Vermeer (Raskin) -- art museum mystery

- The Westing Game (Raskin)

- Detectives in Togas; Mystery of the Roman Ransom (Winterfeld) -- ancient Roman; 4 boys

- The Samurai mysteries series (Hoobler) -- 1700s Japanese boy and samurai/judge "Sherlock Holmes"

- Five on a Treasure Island (Blyton) -- mystery/adventure of 1950s kids on an island with a ruined castle

- Case of the Baker Street Irregular; Case of the Threatened King; Case of the Vanishing Corpse; Case of the Somerville Secret (Newman) -- 1890s boy helps Sherlock Holmes

- Basil of Baker Street (Titus) -- a mouse Sherlock Holmes

- minute mystery collections by any of these authors: Sobol, Conrad, Weber, Obrist, Bullimore; Stan Smith, Neiderman

- Solv-A-Crime Puzzles (Singer)

- You Be the Jury (Miller)

- Hardy Boys series (Dixon)

 

 

REAL LIFE

- The Toothpaste Millionaire (Merrill) -- 2 middle school students make a fortune making toothpaste

- From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (Konigsburg) -- art museum mystery

- Little Britches series (Moody) -- 1900 misadventures of city boy turned Colorado rancher

- Five on a Treasure Island (Blyton) -- mystery/adventure of 1950s kids on an island with a ruined castle

- Call it Courage (Sperry) -- South Pacific teen overcomes fear of the ocean

- The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Aiken) -- exciting Dickens-like rags to riches adventure

- The Great and Terrible Quest (Lovett) -- exciting medieval quest/adventure

- Land I Lost; Water Buffalo Days (Nhuong) -- memories of pre-war rural Vietnam

- Born in the Year of Courage (Crofford) -- shipwrecked Japanese fishing teen in 1850s

- Island of the Blue Dolphins (O'Dell) -- young Native Amer. woman survives alone on an island

- Two Little Savages (Seton) -- two turn of the century boys live as Native Americans

 

 

 

SEA ADVENTURE

- Horatio Hornblower series (Foerster)

- Midshipman Quinn series

- Kon Tiki

 

 

FANTASY

- The Reluctant Dragon (Grahame)

- Half Magic; Magic by the Lake, Knight's Castle; Time Garden; Seven Day Magic (Eager)

- Five Children and It; The Phoenix and the Carpet; The Book of Dragons (Nesbit)

- Peter and the Starcatchers series (Barry)

- The Secret of Platform 13 (Ibbotson)

- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Fleming)

- The Phantom Tollbooth (Juster)

- The Never Ending Story (Ende)

- The Hobbit (Tolkien)

- The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Tolkien)

- The Seeing Stone (Crossley-Holland)

 

 

SCI-FI

- House of Stairs (Sleator) -- a little mild swearing, but it is appropriate to the character

- The Green Book (Walsh)

- Enchantress from the Stars (Engdahl and Lowry)

 

 

HISTORICAL ADVENTURE

- The Golden Goblet (McGraw) -- ancient Egypt

- Hittite Warrior (Williamson)-- ancient Egypt/Israel/Hittites

- God King -- late period Ancient Egypt

- Shadow Hawk (Norton) -- late period Ancient Egypt

- The Ides of April (Ray) - ancient Israel under Roman occupation

- The Bronze Bow (George) - ancient Israel under Roman occupation

- Eagle of the Ninth (Sutcliffe) -- ancient Britain under Roman occupation

- Detectives in Togas; Mystery of the Roman Ransom (Winterfeld)

- Story of Rolf and the Viking Bow (French)

- Otto of the Silver Hand (Pyle) -- medieval Europe

- Shakespeare Stealer (Blackwood) -- Renaissance England

- The King's Fifth (O'Dell) -- conquistadors in the New World

- The Samurai's Tale (Haugaard) -- 1700s Japan

- Adam of the Road (Gray) -- Medieval England

- The Master Puppeteer (Paterson) - 1700s Japan

- The Sign of the Beaver (Speare) -- Colonial US/Native American

- Johnny Tremain (Forbes) -- Revolutionary War

- Across Five Aprils (Hunt) -- Civil War

- Sounder (Armstrong) -- post Civil War South

- The Great Wheel (Lawson) -- building of the first Ferris Wheel in 1893

- Snow Treasure (McSwigan) -- WWII Norweigan children hide the country's gold

- Winged Watchman (Van Stockum) -- WWII occupied Denmark and resistance fighters

 

 

NON FICTION

- The Way Things Work (MacCauley)

- Pyramid; Cathedral; Roman City; etc. (MacCauley)

- Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun (Blumberg)

- Great Escapes of World War II (Sullivan) -- true tales of escapes

- True Adventure Collection (Dowswell) -- true tales of spies, near disasters, rescues, etc.

 

 

CLASSICS

- Paddle-to-the-Sea, Tree in the Trail, Seabird, Minn of the Mississippi (Holling)

- Rikki Tikki Tavi; The Jungle Book (Kipling)

- Black Ships Before Troy; The Wanderings of Odysseus (Sutcliffe)

- Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain)

- Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (and others by Howard Pyle)

- Treasure Island (Stevenson)

- Call of the Wild; White Fang (London)

- The Time Machine; War of the Worlds (Wells)

- 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea; Mysterious Island; Around the World in 80 Days; Journey to the Center of the Earth (Verne)

- Sherlock Holmes short stories (Doyle)

 

 

ANIMALS (real)

- Rascal (North)

- Shiloh (Naylor)

- Owls in the Family (Mowat)

- The Black Stallion, The Black Stallion Returns, Island Stallion (Farley)

- My Side of the Mountain (George)

- Where the Red Fern Grows (Rawls)

- Summer of the Monkeys (Rawls)

 

 

ANIMALS (talking)

- Ben and I (Lawson)

- The Rescuers, Miss Bianca, Miss Bianca in the Orient (Sharpe)

- Basil of Baker Street (Titus) -- a mouse Sherlock Holmes

- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (O'Brien)

- Watership Down (Adams)

 

 

 

SLIGHTLY OLDER BOOK IDEAS (age 14+)

- Ben Hur (Wallace)

- The Sword in the Stone (White)

- The Colditz Story; Men of Colditz (Reid) -- true stories of English WWII POWs in German camp

- I Robot (Asimov) -- a very little mild swearing

- R is for Rocket (Bradbury) -- a very little mild swearing

- Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bradbury) -- suspense / mild horror?

- original Star Trek series episodes written as short stories by James Blish

- His Majesty's Dragon series (Novik) -- a few mild swear words; tactfully suggested relationships between unmarried people

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