The Sword and Laser discussion

I am trying to compile a list of books to read with my son and thought I could use some advice from the community. He has read the Harry Potter books twice. I also got him ender's game this last week and he read about a half of it the day he started it, so YA scifi and fantasy is his wheelhouse. He is also 9.

My tastes tend to run into more of the Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, Brent Weeks type of things, with an occasional side of Lovecraftia or Scifi people recommend to me. So YA is unfamiliar territory for me.

So, given all this, can anyone give me some recommendations for books I can read with my son?

I remember the A Swiftly Tilting Planet around there somewhere but I don't recall what age I was. I thought Ender's Game was more Middle School so if he's tackling that, what about the I, Robot stories by Assimov?

Anything by Rick Riordan is excellent reading for a young man that loves fantasy. Cinda Williams Chima is also a great YA fantasy writer with very successful novels out there. Age appropriateness is hard because each child matures at his own rate, but commonsensemedia.org is a great resource for parents. I used it a lot as a teacher. It rates books based on content and gives children's review scores as well as other parents. It'll probably prompt you to sign up for the emails and whatnot but you can skip that and it still works well. You can look up books for a specific age and genre or key search the title of a book. I hope this helps.

I would recommend the Ranger's Apprentice series starting with The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan, even though I have not read it, but its one of the only epic fantasy out there targeted to YA or middle grade readers.

I would also recommend Brandon Sanderson's Alcatraz series, which is his middle grade books starting with Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians. I have read all four books in the series.

Personally, I would recommend the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, which was my first gateway to fantasy, which I discover and read at the time starting with Redwall.

Also The Hobbit or The Chronicles of Narnia are both not a bad idea either.

The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin
I was completely fascinated with the first three books as a kid and couldn't count how many times I reread them.

Brandon Sanderson has the Alcatraz series. I read the first one and thought it was fun. At around the age of 10 I would likely have considered it one of the coolest things ever. :)

You might also consider checking out some of Gaiman's YA books. Coraline, Odd and the Frost Giants, The Graveyard Book, MirrorMask. He also co-wrote a sf book with Michael Reaves called InterWorld that was rather good. (This is not a typical Gaiman book)

I almost forgot. There's Terry Pratchett's Johnny Maxwell Series starting with Only You Can Save Mankind.

I have a twelve and an eight, boys both, and we've been working our way through some SFF as bedtime reading for about 2 yrs now. Check my books, under the shelf "already read to younglings" for what we've covered, and "future geekling reading" for my up-and-coming list. I have no idea how to link to the shelves directly...

Then there's Her Highness, Darth Gwendolyn, the Tiny Tyrant. Sometimes she deigns to allow me to read to her. Sometimes.
T

Kevin wrote: "I would recommend the Ranger's Apprentice series starting with The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan, even though I have not read it, but its one of the only epic fantasy out there targeted to YA or..."

I listen to the Flanagan books on audio - they're great, I think he'll enjoy those :-)

I'd also like to recommend The Shamer's Daughter, The Shamer's Signet, The Serpent Gift and The Shamer's War. The main character is a girl, but from book 2 and forward, she takes turns with her older brother to narrate a chapter, and they're great to read aloud too.

I would also recommend any thing written by John Christopher, even though I only read his science fiction books.

Also anything done by Lloyd Alexander, especially his The Chronicles of Prydain starting with The Book of Three. The second book was even made into a disney animated film back in 1985.

The Sword in the Stone and Mistress Mashams Repose by T.H. White

The Dark Is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper

The City of Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau

The Norby Chronicles by Janet Asimov

I would add _Un Lun Dun_ by China Mieville if he's an intense reader, but a young person might need help to get through. Also of note are the Septimus Heap books by Angie Sage. More in the way of wizardry would include the Artemis Fowle stories.

I'm assuming that your son is a child and not a young adult.

What a great thread! I've been going through this same thing the last couple years. My son is now 11.5 (That half is important to him!) and I'll list out some of the books he's read during that time. He is a very fast reader and his teachers don't even bother trying to put him on a chart anymore for what reading level he is.

He does enjoy the "book club experience" in that I have read at least half of all these books with him, either in person or on my own and we've talked about them.

In no particular order:

The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

The Fablehaven Series by Brandon Mull (*****really***** recommended by my son), he then followed it by the start of the Beyonders Series by the same author, but Fablehaven is MUCH better IMO.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (good "smart kids save the world" books, again highly recommended.)

My son read ALL the Encyclopedia Brown books when he was younger, but your son is likely past those books now.

The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch, The Name of This Book Is Secret is book 1.

We are also partially into the John Carter of Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

He also is getting a lots of fun out of starting the first Dragonlance trilogy by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman. (The Dragons of Autumn Twilight.)

He enjoyed the Hunger Games, but we really started those when the movie was big. But, he will tell you the book (series) is much better.

Lastly, he inhaled the Brian's Saga by Gary Paulsen during reading time at school.(Book one is Hatchet.)

My son has a goodreads account now. So, maybe someday I can talk him into checking this post out with me and adding on to the list.

Thanks for the post and good reading!

Eoin Colfer's Airman, which is like a fun cross between The Count of Monte Cristo and an early 20th-century, dieselpunk Batman Begins. I haven't read Colfer's Artemis Fowl books but they're frequently praised by the children's librarians I work with.

Mortal Engines, first book of The Hungry City Chronicles. I haven't read the rest but I imagine if he likes the first he'll want more.

The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix, starting with Sabriel. They're a bit dark but if your son read the last couple Harry Potter books he'll be fine. Nix has a few other YA series but I'm not as familiar with them.

The Obernewtyn Chronicles, starting with Obernewtyn, are like post-apocalypse fantasy versions of X-Men (or more precisely, take the central ideas from The Chrysalids and expand them to epic length).

Oh, I did want to ask, my son has a kindle and really prefers books in that format. Has anyone else found it hard to share some of these older series with their kids when they don't seem to want the paperback version? Odd problem, I know.

The Maze Runner by James Dasner 3 books in the series, dystopian scifi
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld also 3 books in the series, this one is more of a steampunk middle grade book.

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

Anything by Nancy Farmer

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

The Pendragon Series by D.J. MacHale

Anything by Jane Yolen

The Fairy-Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley

The Spiderwick Chronciles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black

Anything by Philip Pullman

All the Heinlein juveniles are good but might seem a little dated.
The Rick Riordan books were enjoyed by my 9 year old.
The Pern books by Ann McCaffrey are quite good too as are the robot books by Asimov.

The Transall Saga ~ Gary Paulsen ~ If your son likes Paulsen's Brian books and he likes sci-fi, he will probably enjoy this read.

For some darker reads that are thought-provoking, maybe check out The House of the Scorpion and Shade's Children. I loved Shade's Children because Nix refuses to patronize children. However, the future in this book is grim, so you may want to read it first.

The Giver ~ This book was incredibly popular in the late 90's, but I'm seeing fewer and fewer students who have read it in the past five to ten years. Love the conversations this book promotes.

If you think he might like mixing up some sci-fi with some historical fiction, then I'd recommend looking at Walker of Time and The MIssing Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Found is the first book in that series.

And someone else had posted this list from Wired. I can't remember who posted this originally, so I apologize. I bookmarked it and I've referred to it a few times. "67 Books Every Geek Should Read to Their Kids Before Age 10. "http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/03/...

The Belgariad by David Eddings and his wife Leigh Eddings.

Terry Pratchett's The Wee Free Men (Discworld, #30) is wonderful. It's the first of his run with feisty Tiffany Aching as a protagonist, who is supposed to be about your son's age. Since he enjoys Harry Potter, he should enjoy these.
Also, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak is a good one to break up the SF/F. If you want to get technical, I call it paranormal historical fiction because it's the story of a girl growing up in Nazi Germany told from the perspective of Death as he pops into and around her life. I discovered it in my early teens and was surprised at how dark it got, but if your son got through The Hunger Games and all their gore then The Book Thief should be no problem for him.

There are a lot of classic S Fauthors that are fun.
H. Beam Piper wrote a lot of good stuff, which would be good beginning SF for a kid. The Fuzzy stories are great. So is Lord Kalvan of Othewhen, lots of derring do in an alternate world. You might avoid Space Viking because it is built around murder and vengance.
And anything by James H. Schmitz is great. Lots of cool adventures, many with girls as protagonists, just to keep things interesting.

Oh, and the Heinlein juveniles. Tunnel in the Sky, Citizen of the Galaxy and Citizen of the Galaxy are three personal favorites. All great for youngsters.

Thanks Everyone! Keep them coming if you have more to say. He reads quickly during the summer.

I'll add The Colors of Space by Marion Zimmer Bradley to the great list of books mentioned here.

André