Fantasy Book Suggestions

[theenglish]

Hi everyone, I am looking for some suggestions for reading material for my ten year old son. The problem is that he reads well beyond his years but he is only ten. Some things are too intense or scare him too much. We don't want him reading books that are too violent or graphic or that contain overt sex. He started The Hunger Games but he didn't like it. What he does like are books like the following:

Everything from Rick Riorden
Books by Jennifer A. Nielsen
The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit
Chronicles of Narnia
A Wrinkle in Time
Harry Potter

He's read many others that I can't recall, but generally he seems to like complex, well paced stories.

Does anybody have any suggestions that I might look in to buying for him for Christmas?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I can never stop recommending the Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin. There are six books (one of which is a collection of short stories) that focuses on named-based magic in a large archipelago and features dragons in some of the stories. The writing might be a bit heavy for a ten-year old, but I loved them as a kid. No sex or graphic violence.

 

[theenglish]

I can never stop recommending the Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin. There are six books (one of which is a collection of short stories) that focuses on named-based magic in a large archipelago and features dragons in some of the stories. The writing might be a bit heavy for a ten-year old, but I loved them as a kid. No sex or graphic violence.

I'm a big fan. That might be a possibility.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I just realized you listed Tolkien among his favorites, so if he can handle Tolkien, he should be fine with Le Guin.

Another recommendation: His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. I'm actually reading it again myself right now. Lots of great world building, although I have some issues with the prose (as a writer and editor). Gets pretty heavy-handed on a war against "God" (it's complicated and I don't want to spoil anything) and does feature a child character killing a few people (in self-defense), but it's not graphic and it's something that character hates doing.

 

[DigificWriter]

These suggestions are based both on the types of novel series you say he's read and on stuff I know that I personally first read when I was a pre-teen between 10 and 12.

* Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan Trilogy (Leviathan, Behemoth, and Goliath)

* Phillip Reeve's Mortal Engines Quartet (Mortal Engines, Predator's Gold, Infernal Devices, and A Darkling Plain)

* Frank Beddor's The Looking Glass Wars Trilogy (The Looking Glass Wars, Seeing Redd, and Archenemy)

* Terry Brooks' Word and Void Trilogy (Running with the Demon, A Knight of the Word, and Angel Fire East) and everything he's published with the word "Shannara" in the title

* The Homecoming Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore and the rest of his Drizzt Do'Urden novels

* Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman's Dearh Gate Cycle (Dragon Wing, Elven Star, Fire Sea, Serpent Mage, The Hand of Chaos, Into the Labyrinth, and The Seventh Gate)

* Guy Gavriel Kay's The Fionavar Tapestry (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road)

* Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising Sequence (Over Sea, Under Stone, The Dark is Rising, Greenwitch, The Gray King, and Silver on the Tree)

* Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's Peter and the Starcatchers series (Peter and the Starcatchers, Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Peter and the Isle of Rundoon, Peter and the Sword of Mercy, and Bridge to Neverland)

 

[Jedman67]

Try the Phillip Pullman series, His Dark Materials or something? Not sure if its kid-friendly.
The Liveship Traders should be good, most of the Star Wars stuff should be alright.

The Magician by Raymond E. Feist only has a little implied sex, a ten year old would probably miss it. Great book. Be careful if he wants to read the sequels though, some of them get a little violent and have more sex, less implied. The later series in that 'universe' are totally inappropriate for his age.

The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudy Caravan is pretty cool, but has a lot of violence and a bit of sex towards the last book.

 

[auntiehill]

The Tripods Series by John Christopher. I was a big fan of the Chronicles of Narnia when I was a kid, and just stumbled upon "The White Mountains" (the first in the series) while in the library. I was fascinated by them; I think they're a great read for any kid. It's more science fiction than fantasy but the world it creates in the books feels very similar to a fantasy series like Narnia, in a way.

 

[marillion]

After my daughter blew through the Potter books about about the same age, she got into the Children of the Red King series (AKA the Charlie Bone series)... Much like Potter, the stories are mostly set at a school for kids who have unusual gifts, but not "wizards" per say.. She loved them and I think you'll find that they are perfectly suited for a 10 year old who can read beyond his years.

 

[Greg Cox]

Diana Wynne Jones?

 

[Velocity]

Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St. Mary's series of fantasy novels and short stories. St. Mary’s is a rather innocuous looking facility, but behind its doors, the eccentric researchers are investigating major historical events in contemporary time via time machines. Their aim is to observe and document – to try and find the answers to many of History’s unanswered questions… and not to die in the process. Exciting and also funny. Dinosaurs, Troy, and other historical mysteries investigated.
It amuses me that the author uses her own real name as the name of the .....well, find out for yourself.

 

[DigificWriter]

Some more suggestions, all strictly YA:
* Star Trek author Diane Duane's Young Wizards series

* Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Days of Blood and Starlight, and Dreams of Gods and Monsters)

* John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series

* Brian Jacques' Redwall series

* Michael Scott's The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series

* Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series

* Ridley Pearson's solo series The Kingdom Keepers

* Suzanne Collins' Underland Chronicles (Gregor the Overlander, The Prophecy of Bane, The Curse of the Warmbloods, The Marks of Secret, and The Code of Claw)

 

[Steve Roby]

Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain and Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Moon of Gomrath, and Elidor were up there with Narnia for me when I was 10 or 11.

 

[UncleRogi]

A couple I haven't seen:

The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny

The first three of Dragonriders of Pern, then the Harper Hall Trilogy (Dragonsong, Dragonsinger,
& Dragondrums) by Anne Mcaffrey. The YA was her specific target for the trilogy.

I would recommend Fionbarr as well.

I wish I could read all these for the first time, again! Lots of awesome stuff here!

Enjoy!

Edit: I'm glad to see there are a few kids out there reading.

 

[JD]

I never realized just how graphic most of the stuff I read is until right now.
I don't think there's anything to bad in Terry Pratchett's Discworld books.
I'd definitely put in another vote for His Dark Materials, I just read them for the first time a year or two ago and they were great.
If he's into comics and doesn't mind a story with a group of girls as the protagonists, then I'd recommend the Lumberjanes series from Boom! Studios. I read the first volume a while back and really enjoyed it. I think he's pretty much be right in the target age range.