What are your 10-14 year old boys reading?

[Amity]

I just bought Ds1 a kobo for his tenth birthday. We have a number of books already, but I'm wondering what your boys are reading?

We already have:

Roald Dahl
Artemis Fowl series
Beast Quest

I'm trying to move him onto more "teenage" books but without sex iykwim.

Any suggestions?

[Artechim]

Had a visiting 13 year old tell me that The Hunger Games are awesome. Haven't read them myself yet though so can't tell you about content.

[TeniBear]

If he likes Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer's other books are fantastic. I like The Supernaturalist in particular, closely followed by The Wishlist. At times the latter can have some uncomfortable themes (redemption after death, forgiving people who have caused great emotional scars, etc.) but I think a teenage boy could handle it.

I suppose he's been through Harry Potter? I only got into them when I was 17ish and still found/find them engaging, even though the earlier books are aimed at children.

A Series Of Unfortunate Events is okay, though I never really got into them myself.

Could you look at what he's reading or will be reading at school, get him ahead of the curve a little? My Year 10 English teacher thought I was amazing for already having read one of our books I didn't have the heart to tell him I read it in Year 8 at my previous school

ETA: Sorry, just noticed you said he's ten. Not so sure about The Wishlist anymore. Artemis Fowl might be a touch "mature" for him as well - have you read them yourself? In the later books especially, there's a few nasty scenes shown in detail...

[Trillian]

DS1 (12) loves reading those My Australian Story books about settlement, war, refugees etc. They are a great series written especially for kids. But he's also very much like me in his tastes and he reads most books that I do - Douglas Adams, Australian autobiographies, Ricky Gervais' An Idiot Abroad, Terry Pratchett etc. But he also loves the horrible histories books and anything written by Paul Jennings.

Oh, the 39 CLues books would be a great series too.

[HotI]

I have recently acquired the "Tomorrow when the war began" series, and started reading them again. They are teenage books for boys or girls.

[Ree*Ree]

At that age my brother and myself read:
Animorphs by K A Applegate
John Marsden's Tomorrow series - though it does have a sex scene in it
The Eragon cycle by Christopher Paolini
Rowan of Rin series by Emily Rodda

[Astrolady]

Kameron is reading (slowly) War Stories for Boys. He had a fascination with War late last year, so we got him that book for Christmas. He's plodding along with it, but has never been a big reader. We're surprised he got through the first page LOL.

[Trillian]

Kameron is reading (slowly) War Stories for Boys. He had a fascination with War late last year, so we got him that book for Christmas. He's plodding along with it, but has never been a big reader. We're surprised he got through the first page LOL.

DS has that too. It's a good book.

[Chocaholic]

My just turned 15yo nephew adored the Skulduggery Pleasant books by Derek Landy. He is not a big reader (or a reader at all really) but he loved these books.

[feeb]

At that age I liked:

Tomorrow when the war began series and Roald Dahl (Judy blume but he wont like them LOL)

What about Famous Five

Oliver Twist

Narnia chronicles

Treasure island

Tom sawyer

[~me~]

DS1 9 turning 10 in Sept is reading Harry Potter. About to get him into The Famous Five.
He loves Beast Quest and there is another series called Boy Vs Beast which he likes.
He also likes the Skylanders books.

[peanutter]

Tomorrow when the war began is awesome, but there is some sex. Just a little bit.

Hunger games awesome with no sex.

Other than that I cannot comment much ... DH was reading David Eddings etc by 10, and I was reading Dean Koontz.

[~clover~]

DD loves the Tashi series, but I think she's just too old now at 11 for them.

I want to find books she can read, so I'm going to look into some of these. I was into The Baby Sitters Club & Sweet Valley High at that age, lol. I don't have time to read books at the moment, so have heard of some of these, but haen't read any.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island, 20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea. I had a series of hard cover books mum got through the Newsagent & there were some great stories in it. Little Women might not be his cup of tea though...

[HotI]

Tomorrow when the war began is awesome, but there is some sex. Just a little bit.

Yeah, i was gonna come back to say there is a little bit of sex, its not graphic though.

[AnyDream]

Ok, I'm not a boy, so I'm not going to tell you what I read when I was that age.

However, the boys in my life have been seen to enjoy:

Beast quest (i have no idea if they're good, they are certainly popular)
any book every written by Andy Griffiths (of the day my bum went psycho fame)
The abhorsen series by garth nix
The ranger's apprentice
Philip Pullman's his dark materials series (starting with The golden compass)
eragon (towards the upper end of your age range)
The graveyard book - neil gaiman
The Hobbit - Tolkein
Anything Diary of a Wimpy kid/vampire/zombie dog
The dark is rising sequence - susan cooper
The power of one - young reader version
Across the nightingale floor (again, upper end of your age range) - lian hearne

The age range you're asking about probably straddles a couple of different ranges of fiction, 10-12's are reading differently to 13-15s. But that will depend partly on the kids themselves and their readiness for longer and more involved plot lines and/or more complex themes. FWIW I have no idea whether any of the above contain any rude bits. It's been too long since I read any of them.

[Amity]

Thanks heaps guys. I really appreciate the suggestions. I will go through them with DS1. He's reading at a 15-16yo level, but I don't want him too heavily involved in sexual stuff yet.

[peanutter]

The Gillian Rubenstein ones were also really popular, and Isobel Charmody.

And other James Marsden ones (in addition to the TWTWB series).

Books made into movies also work well. Can then also discuss the differences between the film and the movie, which is great for building up their ability to analyse and critique as opposed to simply criticise (and to teach from a young age that the book is invariably better ) (I'm sort of kidding ... sort of ...)

[Phteven]

I was reading at a 16 year old level (speed and comprehension) when I was 8 and my parents pretty much let me self select my books. There are oodles of old school teen books that don't have too much sex.
All the classics - ****ens, Austen, Thackery etc are fine.
S.E. Hinton is great.

TBH I would be more concerned about violence than sex. I just skimmed the sex parts because they didn't interest me but violent books often have violence as part of the plot so it's harder to block it.