boys books

[namedujour]

I second A Wrinkle in Time! Madeline L'Engle is one of my favorite children's/YA authors. It's a fantasy story about children travelling through space-time to rescue their father, and they visit other planets and people on the way. Great storytelling, characters, and imaginitiveness.

I was going to suggest A Wrinkle in Time as well! It isn't a mystery, but it's very suspenseful and the characters are a total delight.

The movie came out a year or two ago. Netflix offers it, and you can probably find it at a DVD rental store as well.

 

[Bluraven]

Has anyone read G.A. Henty? He's supposed to be a great "boys" author, and I've seen his list of books...if I'd heard of him when I was a lad, I'd have devoured 'em!!

Also, just finished the first in the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix (Mister Monday). Read it in a day (ironically on a Monday!).
Another good book is called The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen, by Lloyd Alexander. It is full of wisdom, adventure, and that sort of "everything-happens-for-a-reason" appeal. I loved it.

 

[abecedarian]

I've read a couple of G.A Henty books..they're very popular among homeschoolers these days. The one's I've read are Under Drake's Flag and another I can't remember the title..I liked them very much. They make wonderful read alouds and they are very boy-friendly. Another nice thing about his books: they were all written over 100 years ago, so the reader gets a totally different slant on the various cultures encountered in the books. I will say, from reading Under Drake's Flag, that Henty was a VERY patriotic Englishman..and was not too fond of the Spanish. If you think Drake was a pirate,and not just a loyal British privateer, you may have problems with Henty. But, as a way to see historical events from a British perspective, these books would be wonderful. Also, if political incorrectness bothers you, skip this series. Being written so long ago, the definition of that term has shifted more than just a bit. Home school parents just point that out to the kids, and enjoy the adventures.

I ordered The Cat of the Bubastes from the interlibrary loan system a few years ago, after these were reprinted, and was shocked to recieve this ancient tome, tied up with yarn, and placed in a zip-lock bag. Attached to the book was a post it note(I doubt it was archival quality) that read: "This book is very old, please be carefull!" Carefull? As if I could take that home and hand it to my kids Why, oh why, did they send something that valuable in the first place...it was a first edition! Somebody forgot to tie on their thinking cap that day!

 

[Twilite]

A few of my suggestions have already been mentioned, but when I was about that age, I enjoyed reading;

The Hobbit
The Hardy Boys
His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman
The Wind Singer Trilogy - William Nicholson
The Animorphs Series - K.A Applegate.

The last three I'm not 100% sure when I read them, and to be honest I probably couldn't pick a ten year old boy out of a crowd of children aged 4-12, let alone judge what level they should be reading at. I read Animorphs before the other two. I'd say those, then Wind Singer, then His Dark Materials in reading age. No idea what everyone else thinks of KA Applegate's series, but I was hooked when I was younger and got all my school friends reading them too. Shame I grew out of them I sometimes consider reading the whole (now finished) series again just to see what happened to my childhood buddies in the end!

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

No idea what everyone else thinks of KA Applegate's series, but I was hooked when I was younger and got all my school friends reading them too.

I was also hooked on these books when I was younger, and I got my sister hooked on them too. I still remember going down to the library with her and rading the special section they have for these books and taking home as many as we could carry

 

[dele]

I loved the Animorphs series too. I stopped reading them when I switched schools in 7th grade and we didn't have the Scholastic Book Club anymore. I still wonder what happened to them too.

 

[WoundedThorns]

hah that reminds me of my mother looking at a book i wanted to buy and saying "isnt that a book for boys"

she thought that about LOTR. hey, your son can read those

i used to read "choose your own adventure" a lot back in elementry school

theres always the harry potter books

i've read alot of those "great illustrated classics" where someone adapts a classic so its easy enough for a kid to read.