Books for kids

[Prometheus]

I have a 10 year old niece who is a big reader, so I've been trying to keep her supplied in good books. Most of it so far is stuff I liked at her age, but what with being both male, and 20 years out of date, I was hoping for some recommendations.

So far, the only specific request she's made has been for Michigan Chillers, which are essentially off brand Goosebumps, as far as I can tell.

[Vulture]

I've actually been making a list for my little brother... 11 or 12... somewhere in there. Recommended age in parentheses. I don't use them as a guide outside of roughly determining what order to read them in:

Huck Finn (12)
Tom Sawyer (12)
The Giver (11)
Flowers for Algernon (14)
Robin Hood (12)
Oliver Twist (12)
Hatchet (11)
Watership Down (11)
Animal Farm (13)
Ender's Game (12)
To Kill A Mockingbird (12)
Brave New World (14)
The Grapes Of Wrath (15)
Slaughterhouse-Five (15)
1984 (14)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian (14)
Where the Red Fern Grows (10)
The Diary of Anne Frank (12)
The Call of The Wild (12)
And The Devil Will Drag You Under (13)
Catcher in the Rye (13)

A few he's already read:

Bunnicula (9)
Hitchhiker's Guide (12)
Shiloh (9) (whole series)
White Fang (10)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (9) (whole series)
And a fuckton of Goosebumps and Hardy Boys

Basically, if it's on a banned book list there's a good change it's up for consideration.

*edit: ZOMFG I forgot about Hank the Cowdog... I almost did a great disservice to syruptitious loaderation and the porcupine blues.

[Rook]

Just have to throw this one out there.. The Little Prince.

[Prometheus]

Dude, I forgot all about Bunnicula! I loved that book as a kid.

A few of the ones I've already added to the pile:

My Side of the Mountain
The Far Side of the Mountain
Frightful's Mountain

The Golden Compass
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass

My Teacher is an Alien (whole series)
A Wrinkle in Time
Rats of NIMH
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (and the other fudge books)
Trumpet of the Swan

A whole bunch of other stuff no one's heard of, that I still had lying around from 20 years ago.


I figure in a year or two I'll drop a whole pile of Judy Blume on her, since they're practically survival guides. Also, the Animorphs series, because they were awesome, and it gives me an excuse to find the ones I never got to read.


For your brother, try any of Cory Doctorow's YA novels, especially Little Brother and Pirate Cinema. They have good lessons in them, like how you should encrypt your web traffic, and that the law is an ass.

[Rook]

Is Lord of the Flies too mature?

[Vulture]

*takes all kinds of mental notes from reply #3*

Is Lord of the Flies too mature?

I've got that, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and A Clockwork Orange waiting in the wings. I figure 13-14's about right for those, but may not be generalizable because as far as I'm concerned at 14 you're an adult in the world of books and I start slinging David Foster Wallace at you.