Recommend Good Books Please

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Hello,

My 9 year old loves reading but he's a bit lost at the moment. He's wanting to find a new series or author to read.

He's read and loved all the Harry Potters, Narnia Chronicles, Goosebumps etc

He's read Paul Jennings.

I tried getting him into the Tomorrow series by John Marsden but he wasn't that interested. I've also tried him on Dr Who books but he couldn't get into those.

So can anyone recommend good books for a 9 year old. He's a good reader and read his first 2 Harry Potter books when he was 7 or 8.

Thanks
Helen

When I was about 9 I was introduced to the Willard Price "adventure" series by my father. I read every single one of them in very short order.

They are about a pair of brothers (in the first novel they are 13 and 19 respectively) who use ingenuity, strength, and moral character, and their brains, to capture animals for zoos. They also defeat villains (redeeming a few a long the way.)

Very exciting stuff for a young boy to read, and I thoroughly recommend them. Not sure what level your son reads at though. They are quick studies and if you get one you'll be able to tell pretty quickly if they are too young or old from him. A quick warning if your son is easily squeamish... they do detail things like shark attacks and one of the main characters survives an attack by a saltwater crocodile, and another gets attacked by a silver back gorilla. I.E. they take lots of risks in their work, but they always survive. They survive using wit, quick thinking, and ingenuity. So it's definitely a good moral instructive and inspiring series.=

I would recommend something like the Discworld series, it might be a little advanced, but its tons of good fun.

Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix
Artemis Fowl by Colfler
Slaves of the Mastery
Eregon by chris paolini
Edge Cronicals
The best advice is just to work your way through the older reader section in the kids library.

I'd recommend books by John Bellairs. Liked them a lot when I was growing up (long before Harry Potter books came on the scene). His books aren't nearly so fantastical, but they still contain a supernatural element, mystery, and (IMHO) great writing-kept me turning the pages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bellairs

Thanks. I'll go to the library on Monday.

Helen

I loved Gone Away Lake and Return to Gone Away by Elizabeth Enright. Written in the late 1950s, she was a niece of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Z

I'd recommend:

The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud(Starts with The Amulet of Samarkand)
Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer(Artemis Fowl, The Arctic Incident, The Eternity Code, The Opal Deception, The Lost Colony, book 6 will come out this year)
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Redwall by Brian Jaques
And most anything by Terry Pratchett

At 9-10, I became a huge Michael Chriton fan. The first I read was Congo, the second Jurassic Park (that was close to the time the movie came out), and Sphere. I don't think those are too much more advanced than Harry Potter, but they have far more science in them instead of magic. I liked science as a kid so that was no problem. Jurassic Park started my obsession with chaos theory that lasted for the next few years.

The Abarat by Clive Barker:
http://www.amazon.com/Abarat-Days-Magic ... 534&sr=8-4

The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, 20 years after by Dumas. A tale of two cities by Dickens. The first three are pure entertainment. In a Tale of two cities many people focus so much on the heroism of Miss Pross and especially Sidney Carton that they overlook the rightousness of madame DeFarge's anger. I love that book. Alyssa, that Clive Barker book sounds interesting, I like his work in the Hellraiser 1,2 and 3 and Bloodline and Lord of illusions. Is that book actually suitable for a 9 year old?

I grew up reading Holling Clancy Holling, David Macaulay,
and other great author illustrators whose books showed kids how things work..

Published works by Holling Clancy Holling:

* Paddle-to-the-Sea [1941] A small canoe carved by an Indian boy makes a journey from Lake Superior all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
* Tree in the Trail [1942] A cottonwood tree watches the pageant of history on the Santa Fe Trail for over two hundred years.
* Seabird (novel) [1948] A carved ivory gull is the mascot for four generations of seafarers aboard a whaler, a clipper ship, a steamer, and an airplane.
* Minn of the Mississippi [1951] A turtle hatched at the source of the Mississippi is carried through the heart of America to the Gulf of Mexico.
* Pagoo [1957] An intricate study of tide pool life is presented through the story of Pagoo, a hermit crab.

Some of his earlier works included:

* Little Big Bye-and-Bye [1926]
* Claws of the Thunderbird [1928]
* Rocky Billy [1928]
* Choo-Me-Shoo [1928]
* Twins Who Flew Around the World [1930]
* Book of Cowboys [1932]
* Book of Indians [1935]
* Little Buffalo Boy [1939]


Published works by David Macaulay:
Macaulay is the author of several books on architecture and design. His first book, Cathedral (1973), was a history, extensively illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings, of the construction of a fictitious but typical Gothic cathedral. This was followed by a series of books of the same type: City (1974), on the construction of Verbonia, a fictitious but typical Roman city; Pyramid (1975), on the building of monuments to the Egyptian Pharaohs; Castle (1977), on the construction of Aberwyvern castle, a fictitious but typical Medieval Castle; Mill (1983), on the evolution of New England mills; and Mosque (2003). Other books in this series are Underground (1976), which describes the building foundations and support structures (such as water and sewer pipes) that underlie a typical city intersection, and Unbuilding (1980), which describes the dismantling of the Empire State Building in preparation for re-erection in Asia.

Macaulay has illustrated a number of other books, including the popular The Way Things Work (1988, text by Neil Ardley) which was expanded and rereleased as The New Way Things Work (1998). These works remain his most commercially successful. He has also written a number of children's fiction books.

His books often display a whimsical humor. Illustrations in The Way Things Work depict cave people and woolly mammoths operating giant-sized versions of the devices he is explaining. Motel of the Mysteries, written in 1979 following the 1976-1979 exhibition of the Tutankhamun relics in the USA, concerns the discovery by future archaeologists of an American motel and the archaeologists' ingenious interpretation of the motel and its contents as a funerary and temple complex.