Need Help finding Fantasy genre books for 13 yo boy lexile reading score 1500

[Bobbie]

Thanks guys I will tell his mother
Hes in 8th grade

[Bobbie]

The Last Guardian of Everness (and the sequel The Mists of Everness) looks good
i'll send him these to check out

[Wendy]

Simply explained, what is Lexile?

[Bobbie]

It is the reading comprehension level score you are tested on in school

[Wendy]

Thanks

[Traci]

Would he be open to reading SciFi? Any fantasy I can think of might either be too old-fashioned or too graphic in adult content. He might have better luck going this route.

[Bobbie]

Yes traci, I think he would

[J.D.]

Some suggestions that might be acceptable to all parties involved:

Ivanhoe

Gulliver's Travels

Most of Edgar Allen Poe

Robinson Crusoe

Most of Washington Irving

The Story of King Arthur and His Knights

Most of Herman Melville

Some of Nathaniel Hawthorne (particularly his short fiction).

[Jonathan]

It sounds like the dilemma I had at that age. I would definitely recommend Lord of the Rings again though. As said before The Hobbit has a higher lexical score but Rings itself as an entire book (all the three combined) is far more complex and challenging. It should be much, much higher. The Lexile score is based on the language of the book yes? Well Lord of the Rings has far more complex language than the 1000 rated 'The Hobbit'. I'd recommend that he try Lord of the Rings anyway because it's worth reading as a book for anyone.

[Aloha]

I agree that the The Lord of the Rings series is more complex in language and ideas than The Hobbit. I think for a boy his age with a high lexile score, reading the classics would be best. The language and ideas are complicated without being explicit in content.

For a contemporary author, I highly recommend Railsea. It's complex with a vivid description of the railsea ecology, and with Mieville's special brand of smart storytelling. I have not read Paolo Bacigalupi's YAs, but based on The Windup Girl for grownups, which was a co-winner for the Hugo award, his YAs should be good.

[AM H]

LOL i heard that 50 shades of grey was badly written! That would likely bring his IQ down instead of up. LOL. Kidding!

[Aloha]

I'm reading it now. I've been reading so many science books and difficult literature, I thought I'd bring my IQ down a bit. Bobbie, you've read it many times. What's your IQ now? LOL.

[David]

This is a tough one because I think most epic fantasy isn't written at a very high reading level. The Novik books certainly aren't. I found His Majesty's Dragon disappointing from a writing standpoint.

The only thing I can think of that fits is Samuel R. Delany's Neveryon series. It's really sword and sorcery on a college level examining aspects of slavery race and gender. You'll need to check it for sex before you give it to him to see if it's too much, though. It's been a long time since I read these and I can't remember how explicit it got. Delany is notorious for including explicit sex in his books.

[Jonathan]

I've always found this website helpful for finding out about what is quality fantasy: http://bestfantasybooks.com/

[Janny]

You might want to look at writers in the genre who wrote before Tolkien - back then, before written vocabulary was 'dumbed down' to third grade reading level by the news magazines - authors had a richer style of writing.

There was a series of paperbacks issued by Ian and Betty Ballantine that brought books of that era into print again: it was called The Ballantine Fantasy series, and the titles of that run of paperbacks is now collectible. I should think the list of titles might be in Wikipedia, or online if you search.

Books did not tend to have explicit sex, or shocking content, when those were written, either. Gormenghast and The King of Elfland's Daughter were a few of the more accessible titles.

[Jonathan]

Gormenghast might be over any thirteen year old's head. It's very bizarre.

[Marina]

Has anyone suggested Neil Gaiman's Nevewhere yet? Great book, no sex, minimal violence.

Also I'm right now finishing up Michael J. Sullivan's traditional fantasy trilogy. Theft of Swords is the first book. There was a discussion on it in this forum a while ago. Not overly challenging languague-wise, but a good clean read.

[Bobbie]

Aloha wrote: "I'm reading it now. I've been reading so many science books and difficult literature, I thought I'd bring my IQ down a bit. Bobbie, you've read it many times. What's your IQ now? LOL."

My IQ might be down LOL But My libido is through the roof

[Bobbie]

Masha wrote: "Has anyone suggested Neil Gaiman's Nevewhere yet? Great book, no sex, minimal violence.

Also I'm right now finishing up Michael J. Sullivan's traditional fantasy trilogy. Theft of Swords is the fi..."

Thank you Masha

[Bobbie]

Jonathan wrote: "It sounds like the dilemma I had at that age. I would definitely recommend Lord of the Rings again though. As said before The Hobbit has a higher lexical score but Rings itself as an entire book (a..."

I know he's read both already

[David]

You can check out all the Ballantine Adult Fantasy books at the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Group here on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/2...

In that vein, I thought of H. P. Lovecraft. His work would definitely appeal to a 13 year old mind.

Two major series came out of the BAF line; Evangeline Walton's Mabinogion series and Katherine Kurtz's Deryni Cycle.

[Bobbie]

Thank you David
I will definitely pass them on to him

[Donna]

Lexile scoles can seriously misrepresent the difficulty and reading level of books. I would not make that a criterion for choosing books. For example, A Tale of Two Cities is 990 and The Hobbit is 1000. Anyone who has read these two books would know that Dickens' novel is a much more difficult read. It is also, on an emotional level, of less interest to a 13-year-old.

There are other considerations, as the discussion above makes clear. For example, the CONTENT of the book and what a child can handle emotionally.

I also recommend the Everness books. A good choice. J.D.'s suggestions also look good. Non-fantasy but a ripping adventure story for a young teen: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. (It will also get him interested in history.)

[Brenda ╰☆╮]

Totally agree Donna!
I guess J. D. said it better than I did.
;)

[Bobbie]

It is not a criteria we are choosing for him, It is a requirement for school, even though the school is unable to provide it for him. He loves to read and finds books he likes on a regular basis. My Daughter doesn't put many restrictions on his reading agenda as he is responsible young man and enjoys a good twisted story much like her. This score thing has made options limited to boring reads for him so I couldn't agree with all of you more.

[Jonathan]

As a student teacher in Australia that frustrates me when such a focus is put on 'scores' and systems made like that. They seriously ignore the fact that every student is at different levels and is not interested in the same things. Forcing that kind of thing will only make kids disinterested in school and more likely to find things themselves that they like. School should help students with their interests...

The problem here too is that most of these entertaining fantasy reads don't even have lexile scores so that does limit him again to old slow books that most people only come to enjoy later in life if at all.

[Michele]

gah! This lexile thing drives me nuts! I am a school librarian and find the whole thing overdone! Maybe they could negotiate the reading of some high level non-fiction and let him read whatever fiction he wants. Older books with old-fashioned language might pump the lexile score up, if they are rated.

[Jamie]

Ok so I'm 13 and I'm in 8th grade and vowing on 9th grade and read these books this year daren shann books. But especially the vampire ones They are a great read I couldn't put the books down which mention coming home and reading to 12 at night.. Even though I don't nOw this reading system thing. He sounds very smart but I tell you he would be missing out if he didn't read them there is a web site and there is Another series about demons the vampire ones are the best. My bro and my mum have read them and said what a great book!!!!!!!! They rant really fantasy even though there is a little bit it's more horrer but not the kind that you can't sleep at night but there still worth reading

[Bobbie]

I will pass it along Jamie Thank you

[Jamie]

Happy to help might be intrested in the book I'm reading now by David gemmell it's called dark moon violence blood mature sexual reffrences that sort of stuff also fantasy Dark Moon

[Jamie]

Also a neat trike my English teacher tought me it's called the 5 finger trike it helps you find a challenging book simply open to a random page read it if you find a word that you don't know or don't understand count it as 1 finger 5 hard words the books to hard 3-4 fingers it's perficte 1-2 it's to easy.

[D.E.M.]

Fantasy suggestion:
Michael J Sullivan's 'Theft of Swords'.

[Sybil]

I've run into the same issue with my kids. We use a slightly different system, accelerated reader book level, but I think it is very similar in determining level. They have a website anyone can use called arbookfind.com where you can search by grade level and genre. My kids tested at a college level of reading, but all the books below fell within the range of suitable for them. We were also recommended the five finger rule another post mentions.

I have had the most success looking at older books,pre1990
The illiad
Around the world in 80 days
The time machine
Journey to the center of the earth
Wasp by Eric Frank Russell (not fantasy, but mischievously funny)
Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
The blue sword
The deed of paksenarrion* There is one scene in the third book that would make me hesitant to recommend this to a tween, but I'm still going to give it to my twelve year old.
The Princess and Curdie.
The count of monte cristo
The blue fairy book
A Christmas Carol - not your classic fantasy novel, but it has magic, adventure and redemption
The green rider - this book was still in range albeit on the low end

[Carly]

FYI, the Hitchhiker books start getting very sexually explicit. The first is fine, but they start becoming problematic for young readers later down the road. I read them when I was quite young, and there's a scene in Thanks for all the Fish that made me long for brain bleach.

I'd also recommend Terry Pratchett. He has a YA series-- The Wee Free Men is the first book--as well as a lot of books in a very loosely connected series (they can be read out of order.)
If you want to carefully control mature content, the adult books can have some raunchy jokes, but they are free of sexually explicit scenes or graphic violence. The YA series is definitely age-appropriate, as well as being entertaining and creative enough that older readers enjoy it as well. If he wants to read adult rather than YA books, Going Postal might be a fun one to try.

[Sybil]

Good to know, I'd only read the first three. My oldest is reading the series now, so I can at least warn her.

We'll definitely check out Terry Prachett.

[Carly]

In retrospect, I have no idea how explicit the scene actually was--(view spoiler)[Two characters have sex in the sky while flying. It's an explicit but positively-portrayed romance scene. (hide spoiler)] It really may not be that bad. I encountered it as a rather sheltered 6th grader and have yet to reread it, so all I have to go by is my sixth-grade horrified reaction. I do think that if that book is acceptable, most adult fantasy books should be as well, unless you're trying to avoid sexual violence.

[carol. , Senor Crabbypants]

Carly wrote: "FYI, the Hitchhiker books start getting very sexually explicit. The first is fine, but they start becoming problematic for young readers later down the road. I read them when I was quite young, a..."

Interesting. I was kind of surprised when I read your comment, although it stirred up dim memories. I think I read the series in my early teens. Now that you mention flying, I start to dimly remember it. Frankly, although I read the first couple many, many times, I didn't often re-read all the way through, because the humor didn't take. So that's the main impression I remember from 'So Long' and 'Mostly Harmless'--don't bother. ;)