4.31 avg rating — 3,437,417 ratings

"Percy is enormously sympathetic and about as nuanced as this age group can handle. The book is peppered with humor and wisdom, and the start of a great adventure. Big plus: there are already strong female characters. "

4.10 avg rating — 9,979 ratings

"The funniest book I've ever reread five times with my kids. Years later we are reciting lines from it. It is the most tattered book we have. If I feel lousy, I know where to go to feel better. Adam Rex is a genius. Don't expect neat plot lines and simple, efficient storytelling. Instead, this is a combination of epistolary novel (mostly at the beginning), slapstick comedy, family drama, and clever science fiction. Did I mention it's funny? It's like an American Monty Python's Flying CIrcus in print. "

4.03 avg rating — 1,617,887 ratings

"Deep characters and world creation, very mature in some ways, yet it absolutely speaks to kids as young as 8, I've found. Adults can read it, feel the settings in five senses, identify with the characters, and understand what Pullman did to invent and elaborate his world while the kids are focusing on escaping the Gobblers on a 'Gyptian narrow boat. "

4.04 avg rating — 114,175 ratings

"Suzanne Collins' odd, unlikely underground adventures of a young kid from a bad neighborhood and a good family really struck a nerve with my younger son. The books are not so much gentler than Hunger Games, but the cruelty isn't human and familiar, so it's easier to take, psychologically. "

4.04 avg rating — 60,892 ratings

"Classic, classic, classic. It's not the first in the series, but the most memorable. The tension so thick you can cut it with a knife, and the characters so real you excuse yourself to get up from the book to get a glass of water. Did they ever mess this up with an attempt at making a movie? It's highly cinematic, quick-paced, and full of strange life - also oddly familiar despite the divide of an ocean and the better part of a century. "