Need Literature recommendation for my son - Not historical

[Michelle My Bell]

My son just finished The Giver and liked it! This was huge because I truly couldn't get him to read much of anything before. He asked for his next book and has been unimpressed with the selection in our curriculum, which is historical fiction.

I really want to get him a book that is engaging, thought provoking, and possibly has a movie to watch at the end. We did this with The Giver and he really liked comparing the book to the movie. He already saw The Hunger Games so that is out. A movie isn't a must, just a bonus. 

I am not trying to stick with dystopian literature. I just need some good book recommendations at about the same reading level as The Giver. Any recommendations? Thank you in advance!

[Zoo Keeper]

There are other books in the Giver series...

Maybe Ender's Game -- book (and it's a series, too)   & movie

[kristin0713]

We just read The Westing Game as a read aloud and my kids (12 and 14) loved it.  It's a mystery with some humor.  I think it is on the same reading level as The Giver, although with all the characters it might get a little complicated.  I get a lot of ideas from the BraveWriter book club lists and past Arrow/Boomerang issues.  

[kristin0713]

I just realized that you wanted a movie to watch after reading.  Has he read A Wrinkle in Time?  I was disappointed with the movie, but we still enjoyed comparing the two.  

[Lori D.]

similar length and reading level as The Giver:
Tuck Everlasting (Babbit) -- film version
Animal Farm (Orwell) --  film version
The Hate U Give (Thomas) -- film version
The Outsiders (Hinton) -- film version
The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway) -- film version

no film version, but thought-provoking:
All American Boys (Reynolds and Kiely)
The Wave (Strasser)
The Day They Came to Arrest the Book (Hentoff)
American Born Chinese (Yang)

longer, slight step up in reading level compared to The Giver:
Ender's Game (Card) -- film version
To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) -- film version
The Book Thief (Zusak) -- film version
And Then There Were None (Christie) -- film version

Edited November 12, 2020 by Lori D.

[Ellie]

What about the Divergent series? The first movie was kinda close to the book, the subsequent movies were not even close, but it would be a discussion. 🙂

Or Miss Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children. I don't know if there were movies for all three (or four?) books or not, but there's at least one.

[Servant4Christ]

What about the Maze Runner series?

[Servant4Christ]

3 hours ago, Zoo Keeper said:

There are other books in the Giver series...

I JUST noticed this! 😂

[Michelle My Bell]

Thank you everyone for all the fantastic selections! I am going to have a bunch to line up for him now. 

[Hunter]

10 hours ago, Zoo Keeper said:

There are other books in the Giver series...

Maybe Ender's Game -- book (and it's a series, too)   & movie

Enders' Game was the first book that popped in my head, too! My youngest son loved this book. 

My 6th grade class read The Iceberg Hermit and I still remember that today. I think this might have been the first book that several of the boys ever read cover to cover.  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0590441124/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0

In high school, the boys were reading this series and quite surprised when I joined them. The Dune series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel)

My oldest son was a big fan of any of the Star Wars books and movies that feature Boba Fett  https://www.youtini.com/collection/boba-fett

The Famous Five Mystery series was my favorite as a tween and early teen  https://www.fadedpage.com/csearch.php?author=Blyton, Enid

The Scarlet Plague by Jack London is an overlooked treasure  https://www.gutenberg.org/files/21970/21970-h/21970-h.htm

Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a classic http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2488/2488-h/2488-h.htm

The Princess of Mars is timeless  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Princess_of_Mars

Tarzan of the Apes. There is no need to comment. LOL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan_(book_series)

[Lori D.]

I love Hunter's list -- just an FYI that the older vocabulary and sentence structure in many of those books puts those them at a big step up in reading level from The Giver. In case that is crucial for this student at this stage. 😉 

[Junie]

He might like Holes.  And there is a movie.

 

[Servant4Christ]

1 hour ago, Junie said:

He might like Holes.  And there is a movie.

 

Oldest has read this multiple times now and likes it. I didn't realize there's a movie. I get some of the best ideas here and then DH thinks I'm super creative. Lol

[Hunter]

8 hours ago, Lori D. said:

I love Hunter's list -- just an FYI that the older vocabulary and sentence structure in many of those books puts those them at a big step up in reading level from The Giver. In case that is crucial for this student at this stage. 😉 

Yes!

My boys and I were reared on the KJV Bible, so our familiarity with older vocabulary and sentence structure was precocious by modern standards. 

Edited November 13, 2020 by Hunter

[Hunter]

3 hours ago, Servant4Christ said:

Oldest has read this multiple times now and likes it. I didn't realize there's a movie. I get some of the best ideas here and then DH thinks I'm super creative. Lol

My oldest asked me again recently how I knew something that turned out to be critical to how his entire adult life developed. I simply told him that all the time that I was accused of "wasting" online was mostly doing research.