A good book series for an 11-year-old

[David]

My son is a voracious reader. I'm looking for advice on where I should point him. His reading ability if off the charts, but his interests are very much that of an 11-year-old boy. He could read Tolkein and understand it, but it won't hold his attention due to its length. Maybe in three years, but not now. He is currently in the 39 Clues series and he likes that. He also likes stories with strange creatures like Big Foot, Loch Ness Monster, etc. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

[[deleted user]]

Hey,

I have a huge Young Adult section in my goodreads and all would be a good fit for your son. In particular, I liked the Artemis Fowl series and the Bartmaeous series but those are more fantasy. The Westing Game features a 12 year old protagonist and is a mystery story. You cannot go wrong with Louis Sacher. The man understands youths deeply. His Wayside stories entertained me on many a sick day.

Also, I recommend searching for children's versions of Ulysses journey. I read this short action packed one, translated into prose as a kid. Pure exciting adventure. Never a dull moment and gets him started on the classics.

Also, continuing the hardcore fantasy trend, the Chrestomanci series by Dianna Wynne Jones.

I really enjoyed the Series of Unfortunate Events. Especially if he's a voracious reader, the main protag Klaus may be relateable. But be warned that as they are named they are ... darkish. I read them when I was 13.

Sorry, I gave you more fantasy than non-genre....^_^;

[Aaron]

I second Artemis Fowl and Bartmaeous.

I would add The Seventh Tower series by Garth Nix.

I see alot of Rick Riordan stuff doing well lately.

[[deleted user]]

Dww108 wrote: "My son is a voracious reader. I'm looking for advice on where I should point him. His reading ability if off the charts, but his interests are very much that of an 11-year-old boy. He could read To..."

I checked out my brother's bookshelf because he adored those 39 clues books. There was Chasing Vermeer SilverFin and all of Roald Dahl

[[deleted user]]

Garth Nix is a definite. I recommend the first of the Abhorsen series as well.

[terpkristin]

Can't easily go hunt/copy/paste on phone, but you may also look into the older posts in the "What Else Are You Reading" and "General" sections. We have had similar conversations on this type of subject.

[Art]

I would recommend Mortal Engines, The Wind Singer or Stormbreaker All books I enjoyed as a teenager bit also shared a love of with my younger brother

[Dustin]

Fablehaven? < Haven't read this one, but I know there's lots of mythical creatures.

The Amulet of Samarkand?

The Lost Years? < And it has been a long time since I read this.

The Rithmatist?

[Louie]

I was about 10 or 11 years old when I read The Chronicles of Narnia. Plenty of strange creatures in there to enjoy. And not too long, pretty short actually, to keep the attention span of an 11 year old.

[John (Nevets)]

I don't know if they hold up, but I remember loving the Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective series at about that age.

[Dharmakirti]

I was about that age when I first read The Belgariad. It remains one of my favorites.

[Malaraa]

For fairly short books try Robert Lynn Asprin's Myth-Adventure series, and Foster's Humanx world, with Nor Crystal Tears and the Pip & Flinx series starting with For Love of Mother-Not.
I'm not sure if Christopher Stasheff's books have aged well, I used to love The Warlock in Spite of Himself but I think it was very very 80's so it might not work as well now.

Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master are a bit longer, but start with the story of 2 boys slightly older than him, so they might hold his interest soon?

And don't forget to look for short stories from authors whose novels he might like to move on to as he ages. :)

[[deleted user]]

Sanasai wrote: "For fairly short books try Robert Lynn Asprin's Myth-Adventure series, and Foster's Humanx world, with Nor Crystal Tears and the Pip & Flinx series starting with [book:F..."

E.g. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett both have books for youths!

[David]

I thank you all for taking the time out of your day to respond. Lots of good suggestions here. I appreciate it.

[Cliff]

I can second the recommendations for Fablehaven, Percy Jackson and Artemis Fowl. All excellent series. Oh, and I'll add in the Underland Chronicles (Suzanne Collins' lesser known series).


BTW, I hope you'll forgive the mild threadjack here, but I wanted to remind you that there's a sanctioned off-shoot group, Sword & Laser Kids, dedicated to the discussion of genre books for the pre-teen and YA reading audience.

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

I think we've had some good monthly picks that might be of interest to your son.

[Trike]

Definitely try The Star Beast by Heinlein. I read it when I was 11 and a weird creature is featured. If he likes it, give him the other Heinlein juveniles. I liked Tunnel in the Sky best.

I second Alan Dean Foster's Pip & Flinx series, another that I started at that age. Pip the minidrag is a cool companion.

For Love of Mother-Not also boasts one of Michael Whelan's most fun covers.

[[deleted user]]

Lots of good suggestions. You might also consider LLoyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain. Five short books.

[Thane]

Dww108 wrote: "My son is a voracious reader. I'm looking for advice on where I should point him. His reading ability if off the charts, but his interests are very much that of an 11-year-old boy. He could read To..."

2nd for Artemis Fowl. My 11 year old loved it. He's reading some Star Trek novels right now, we'll see what he thinks of those. There's plenty of YA Star Wars out there these days. Oh, and Origami Yoda and that entire series. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

[David]

Thane, my kid loves those Yoda Origami books. He's devoured them all. He will read just about anything Star Wars or superhero related. Which causes me to think he will enjoy science fiction and fantasy the way I do, but so far nothing has really stuck. He was only lukewarm about Harry Potter, for example. That's why I'm curious about others' recommendations.

[Kristina]

There are a lot of posts, so forgive me if I double up...

Fablehaven for sure.. it was fantastic. Also Brandon Mull's Beyonders series.

The Virals series by Kathy Reichs

The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Claire -it's new, 1st of a series and I loved it.

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson.. book 2 is out soon-can't wait!

Percy Jackson and Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan are also all awesome.

There is a series called Spirit Animals that is really popular at our elementary school bookfairs-I haven't read any but would be worth checking out.

[[deleted user]]

I forgot a great graphic novel, Bone. YALSA has lots of lists that might be useful. They also have an app to find great books for teens. Might be worth a look.

[[deleted user]]

David wrote: "I forgot a great graphic novel, Bone. YALSA has lots of lists that might be useful. They also have an app to find great books for teens. Might be worth a look."

Second Bone. Bone is fantastic. Note that it has been banned from schools, but that's because the main cartoon characters don't wear any clothes and the humanoid characters make jokes about that. But it's pretty benign humour and they're drawn in the style and ode to the pantsless mickey mouse characters.

[John (Taloni)]

I hesitate to recommend Xanth, but it might be appropriate for him at 13 or so. At least the first three books. Maybe the next three. "Ogre Ogre" is fair, as is "Night Mare." It's way downhill after that.

I was at the dentist today, which is what reminded me of Piers Anthony. He wrote a hilarious book, "Prostho Plus," about an interstellar dentist. Might be worth a read.

[Alan]

I'm really on the fence about Xanth for my own 11 and 13-year-olds. I enjoyed the books when I was about that age and it's pretty much age-appropriate but Piers Anthony's approach to gender and sex is odd and it bleeds through even in the first Xanth book. His version of a rape trial is ... jarring.

I second/third/fourth all the love for Bone, Riordan, Fablehaven, etc. up-thread. Another Fine Myth, Dragonsong and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy were probably the biggest hits in my family. My older son has also grown to love anything written by Terry Pratchett.

And personally, I'd start Pip and Flinx with theThe Tar-Aiym Krang, which was the first published.
I would probably recommend Space Cadet for a first Heinlein book except I have to admit that I haven't convinced my kids to try any Heinlein yet (an aversion to non-humorous SciFi) so I have no personal experience in successfully selling him ...

[Lena]

I'd recommend Silverwing and Sabriel. Both continue into series if he enjoys them.

[Steve]

I may have missed it above, but my son LOVED the Redwall series by Brian Jacques when he was about that age. He read all the available books before he turned 12, and read each new one as they came out well into his high school years.

[Wastrel]

When I was 11-ish, I was finishing off David Eddings' books (which were a bit young for me by then), I was reading Pratchett a lot, and I was getting into Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Pern, Thomas Covenant, and the Drenai novels. I'd already read a bunch of Asimov short stories, and around that point was getting into the Foundation books. I was very much into Tolkien still, but I was too old for Narnia anymore. I also read some old Arthur Ransome, in a sort of proto-hipsterish way - I enjoyed them, but was probably too old for them, and I also found them a bit dull. I think I probably read them out of nostalgia for the Enid Blyton '[insert noun] of Adventure' novels I'd read when I was younger.

A couple of years later, I got into Feist. A few years after that, Wheel of Time.

In terms of what was 'appropriate' for that age, in hindsight I'd say:
- Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms were totally appropriate for me. There was violence, and occasional sex, but it wasn't graphic, and it was in a way I could relate to and make sense of. I think kids need to/want to read about things that seem a bit 'adult' to them. Ravenloft was a notch more mature, so it was at the edge of 'dark and scary' that I could appreciate, and still very much in a fantastical, semi-cartoonish way.

- Pern on the one hand had quite a bit of sex, but was also quite comfortable and unthreatening. It was a bit 'girly', and I didn't find it that exciting, but I did find it enjoyable easy reading. [the 'Harpers Hall' trilogy is intentionally aimed at younger audiences]. It's one of those older things where the attitudes toward sex are a bit weird by modern standards, but as a child this wasn't really an issue.

- I liked Thomas Covenant a lot, but I didn't really get it. I was OK with the rape and the violence and the leprosy and whatnot, but I didn't understand the symbolic level of things - probably better read a few years later, I think.

- Eddings, as I say, I was at the old edge of. The Belgariad/Mallorean would have been too young for me (cartoonish violence, mild sexual references, very simplistic plotting, simple characters), though I did like the two later volumes in the series; the Elenium/Tamuli was on paper probably too dark for that age-range (there's a scene of lesbian snuff porn (in the aid of summoning a demonic Elder God), for instance), though in practice the cartoonish nature of it made it pretty much perfect for an 11-year-old (enough darkness and horror that I didn't feel spoken down to, but written in an untroubling, largely comfortable way).

- Drenai was a good match in content (again, lots of violence, moderate sexual references including rape, but an easy-reading style), but eventually I found the writing repetitive.

- Asimov was entirely appropriate. It's almost entirely 'clean', and I found it mind-expanding. Depends on the reader, though - some may find it dry.

- Feist's early books (Riftwar and sequels) would have been appropriate for me - when I found them a few years later, they were a bit too simplistic for me, though I did enjoy them. The Serpentwar and Empire novels were probably a better fit for me at 13 than they would have been at 11 - they were a little darker and more adult.

- Shadowrun was too adult for me in content, though not in style. I'd tried it at an earlier age and put it aside for later; when I was 11, I was enjoying it, but only picking out certain authors to follow. It was too violent and strange and there was too much (kinky) sex for an 11-year-old, but I liked that. [OK, so probably I didn't actually NEED to be reading weretiger sex scenes at that age, but I certainly enjoyed it...]

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Anyway, I think that in general, I think that if you have a voracious reader you should just throw whatever you want at him. If it's too 'adult' for him (either inappropriate or boring) he'll just put it to one side and move on. I think children can often enjoy much more complicated and sophisticated and even dry material than adults expect: they've not learnt they're not meant to enjoy it yet. It becomes, yes, somethign they don't quite 'get', but often children like to challenge themselves with things they don't 'get'. That's why I preferred reading Asimov and Tolkien to Pratchett when I was 10 - they suggested vast vistas of the world that I didn't understand yet (both in terms of their imaginations and in terms of their erudition).

Also, I think 'the interests of an 11-year-old' is a pretty meaningless description! When I was 11, I wanted to read about weretiger sex, the nominal morphology of elven languages, and astrophysics. Many of my peers wanted to read about fart jokes and football. 11-year-olds are a diverse lot...

[Wastrel]

Oh, I would definitely suggest Pratchett, though. You can start out with the Bromeliad trilogy and Johnny Maxwell trilogy, which are aimed at younger readers, then some of the early discworld novels (Equal Rites and Mort) which are likewise, and then either carry on with Discworld or skip ahead to the Tiffany subseries, which I think are also for younger readers.

[David]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. You guys are the best.

[Andrew]

The Black Cauldron series aka "The Chronicles of Prydain" by Lloyd Alexander, or any book by Gary Paulsen.

[Tokio]

Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry is a fun read about zombies. It does have violence and a few cuss words but nothing outlandish.

[Daniel]

Terry Pratchett's young adult novels are wonderful, the Tiffany Aching series is fantastic and features one of the strongest most compelling female protagonist I have ever read.

[Barak]

Sorry I'm a bit late to the party here.
I'm in no way an expert, so these aren't really tailored to what you're looking for, but I cannot pass this thread without recommending Diane Duane's Young Wizard series, starting with So You Want to Be a Wizard. Simply the best young adult fantasy fiction I've read (which, admittedly, isn't much).
I also second the recommendation for Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series.

[Joanna Chaplin]

So it's really not the pinnacle of writing quality, but when I was that age, I was devouring the Animorphs series by Katherine Applegate. Although a lot of the humor was pop culture references and might not age well. But it was fun reading about characters who talked like teens talk and occasionally lost their cool when the plan went sideways. Who can turn into animals and hang out with an alien who has four eyes and kind of looks like a blue centaur.