May I Ask for Advice? (i.e. HELP!)

I have a much younger brother (13), who is a very reluctant reader. My mum and dad are desperate to get him into some new series. Other than some obvious gender-neutral series (Redwall, Narnia, etc.) I don't know of any other guy-type books out there.

I know that many of you have raised/are raising boys- can you share any recommendations? He loves the Hardy Boys, if that helps any. I'm really at my wit's end!

My 13 year old son read and really enjoyed these books within the last couple of years.

Wolf Brother
The Sea of Trolls
The House of the Scorpion
Diary of a Wimpy Kid

The first two are firsts in a series, but we haven't gotten our hands on sequels yet. The last one is also the first in a series, and my son has read all of them and loved them.

1. Dune and sequels. Although this may be a bit too mature depending on the kid.
2. Modissett's Recluce series starting with The Magic of Recluse.
3. David Eddings' Belgariad series starting with Pawn of Prophecy
4. Edgar Allen Poe stories
5. Sherlock Holmes stories
6. Jules Verne

These worked for my son, anyway.

The Dark Is Rising Sequence maybe? (Okay, okay it's not necessarily a guy-type book, but worth looking into maybe, no?).

I think Eoin Colfer (why can I never get author touchstones to work?) might fall under that category too if your brother's not read those yet.

Uhm... if he doesn't mind a bit of romance thrown in you might also want to look at The Fledging of Az Gabrielson. I don't think it's part of a series that's particularly long (at present), but still...

Oh! Darren Shan. A friend of mine's a teacher at an all-boys school and they loved those books.

Uff... I don't really know whether any of those would fit what you're looking for for your brother, but I hope they can offer you at least a bit of a starting point!

ETA: Fixed to spell author name properly. Have a touchstone or two too: The Supernaturalist and Lord Loss (There. Now I have author touchstones of a sorts after all. Ha!)

The Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan, beginning with The Ruins of Gorlan.

DrN, as I'm 20 and I just made it through Dune grudgingly last year, it might not be such a good choice. The book is surprisingly slow in comparison to the movies as I remember. You might try His Dark Materials, which starts with the Golden Compass. The main character is a girl, but she's very much a tomboy.

Seconded on Ranger's Apprentice, also Harry Potter (duh), A Series of Unfortunate Events (starts with The Bad Beginning) or for a bit of horror, try Spook's Apprentice. Catherine Webb's Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle is another interesting one, but perhaps not boyish. Perhaps also Catherine Jinks' Evil Genius.

I'm going to 'second' the Sherlock Holmes suggestion, and the Belgariad.

Thirding Sherlock Holmes. Loved those stories as a kid.

How about the Alex Rider novels by Anthony Horowitz? Starting with Stormbreaker, I believe? Haven't read them myself but the kids love 'em at my local bookstore.

I'd be careful with His Dark Materials. I was generally an advanced reader, but I read the first one when I was 11 and didn't really understand it. Of course, 13 is very different from 11, but a reluctant reader might prefer something a bit more accessible.

A lot of 13-year-old boys read all sorts of adult fantasy, but I don't have any particular suggestions there.

Whatever HE is interested in...even if it's comic books. If he likes a subject, he will enjoy reading. If you push it on him you will only push hims away from the opportunity for a lifelong love of reading. This advice was presented to me the son of by a gentleman who was a school principal who raised three intellinget and successful children. The one son was not into reading. Now a grown man with children of his own, this son is very intelligent on account that he loves to read and study. He credits his dad with fostering his interest in reading with comic books and anything else that he was into.

John Marsden was a popular choice for my son at that age.

If he is into fantasy or sci-fi, Peers Anthony has the Xanth series that is really fun reading. It starts with A Spell for Chamelion and takes off from there. Don't let the strange titles deter you. Peers is known for his play on words. My son and husband both loved these (still do), also the Harry Potter books.

In follow-up to #12, one of our local librarians (the teen librarian) says that she often guides reluctant readers to graphic novels in their area of interest.

You also might want to take him to the library or a bookstore and let him pick something out himself. We can give all sorts of recommendations, but in the end if he doesn't like it, he won't read it!

Perhaps Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series; it starts with Mister Monday.

Wow! Teach me to go Wii bowling! Thanks so much for the suggestions so far. He really would prefer not to ever read at all, but that's just not practical. I'm sort of scared to introduce graphic novels as I've never read any with much textual content. Are there some out there that are worthwhile from a reading point of view?

He loves sports (I've tried to get him hooked on Matt Christopher), and cars, trains, planes,- he's a very typical guy if that helps spark any other ideas.

Lots of good advice here, and good recommendations, too. A few more that come to mind:

The Edge Chronicles
The Lightning Thief (and the rest of the Percy Jackson series) -- this is a great one for boys, lots of action and humor
The Artemis Fowl series -- again, lots of humor that appeals to adolescent boys ;-)
The Graveyard Book

A couple of authors to look for:
Louis Sachar
Jerry Spinelli
Jack Gantos
Gordon Korman

Good luck helping your brother find fun stuff to read!

I always recommend Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card to my students and others looking for books for boys.

my son is 15 now and loves to read. i know he really liked reading the Forgotten Realms series of books. It is based in a world where my son plays a roleplaying game. R.A. Salvatore wrote a bunch of them with a main character who is a dark elf named Drittz. I may be spelling that elf name wrong, but my son enjoyed them very much. Also, the X-Wing based series of Star Wars novels, I think most of them were by Michael A. Stackpole. They were a familiar universe, but very action oriented and fighter pilot-like. hmm. People have already mentioned John Flanagan, Anthony Horowitz, and Eion Colfer. Some of my touchtones aren't working here... We also had big success with Cressida Cowell's Dragon-Viking series, I can't remember the order, but don't think it matters with those. The viking is supposed to be the author, I think his name is Hiccup Haddock Horrendous the third.

I strongly agree with choosing things he is interested in. My son was avid by 13, but at 8 and 9 it was a real struggle. We bought books where the characters were Lego men and Spider-man and Bionicles. If he will read comics, those are really wonderful. There is a lot of action, the time commitment is short and the word count isn't too steep. Novelizations of tv shows and movies that he likes are also a good place to look. If it a subject he has interest in, he is MUCH more likely to read it. Even if the subject is superheroes or toys or whatever. There are books about and involving almost everything you or a kid can think of.

Good luck :)

edited because i somehow made a double post :)

You said he loves sports, perhaps he might be interested in biographies of sports figures.
There is the Sports Great ... series. They are only about 65 pages long, so they shouldn't feel too overwhelming for him.

ETA: from a summary on our local library catalogue "-- High-interest biographies with easy-reading text about star athletes.-- Written for the reluctant reader, these books give lively accounts of the most famous sports stars.-- Each book contains career statistics, action photographs, exciting game action, and an index."

Random idea in terms of inspiring him to read (if you two get along well): Find something he likes and read it aloud together, switching off paragraphs maybe, doing voices and sound effects. That way, even if its a longer book he won't have quite the same commitment as he would reading the whole thing by himself. Make it less about reading and more about enjoying the story. Don't have to be cuddly, you could be sitting on opposite ends of a couch, or opposite ends of the living room, just as long as you can hear each other.

If he doesn't read much, Hank the Cowdog books from John R. Erickson might get him going. The reading level is a bit lower, but the interest level is higher, the humor level is very high, and the potential for voices, sound effects, and general read out loud, laugh out loud fun is through the roof. I love them.

The Maximum Ride Series by James Patterson is excellent.....I also agree with the Artemis Fowl recommendations, and The Golden Compass series by Phillip Pullman.

While I was teaching I liked turning kids on to Hatchet and other of Gary Paulsen's books as he is great at making believable adventures in modern wilderness.

When I was a kid I loved reading Zane Grey's western novels. They are short and to the point and kind of "romantic" in a boy's way, at least for some boys. I realize not all 2009 boys have any interest at all in cowboys and the like, but Zane Gray's novels are very believable and fun. (confession: don't know if it is Gray or Grey)

#27 - Both my kids had to read Hatchet in 6th grade (ages 11-12) and neither one of them enjoyed it. Not sure why...

MissWoodhouse - My son is a very reluctant reader and I tried him on all sorts of fictions and fantasy, he hated them, then I discovered that he enjoys nonfiction about things that relate to his life or are interesting. He enjoyed the humor and outdoor events in books by Patrick McManus, and he likes books on how to figure stuff out. Just an idea, not everyone is wired for fiction.

Boys, especially, for some reason.

I really am very grateful- you all came up with a bunch of books I've not heard of, and some I had forgotten. Maggie, he LOVES the old black and white cowboy movies/shows, so I'll hit ol' Zane.

So my plan for spring break is to take a day, sit at the library, and skim through all these. I'm so excited! I used to do this part time- read through books and make suggestions for children. That's when I had a life! ;)

Lots of good recommendations. I second #20 with Ender's Game I used to tell parents at the bookstore that it was like reading a video game. At that age they really don't care about anything except the battle room scenes, but that still makes it an enjoyable read.

I would also recommend books by Stephen Gould (not the biologist). He has three books where the protagonist is a teenage boy, Helm, Wild Side, and Jumper - which is nothing like the movie. Helm is probably my favorite and if he is in to martial arts at all it should appeal.

ON the more SF side some of Clark's short stories, or Asimov's robot ones, are all short easy langauge and approachable, or more obscure the man from P.I.G and R.O.B.O.T I really enjoyed Douglas Hill's Last Legionary series when I was that age, but I probably wouldn't be described as a reluctant reader.

I would 2nd #12 - whatever book he chooses. Try taking him to the library, as it will be cheaper than buying random books for him.

Can't think much on sports side. Harlan Coben's Deal Breaker series of crime / mysteries is sports related, but possibly a bit too adult for 13 - too long, and violent in places, although these days who can tell what 's too violent?!

I second #5's recommendation. I work with middle schoolers and they all loved The Ranger's Apprentice series. It's an easy read but very creative. I enjoyed it myself. There is also the Pendragon series and the Shadow Children series. All middle school level.

At 13 my son loved the Pendragon books by D.J. McHale and the Ranger's Apprentice books by John Flanagan. He is 17 now and still asks me to buy them when the new volumes come out (I'm pretty sure both series have new books coming out this year). Another series he really enjoyed was the Animorphs by K.A. Applegate.

If he were interested in sci-fi you could try Interworld by Neil Gaiman.

Another thought if he doesn't like fiction you could always try magazines aimed at young adults as well like Sports Illustrated or National Geographic for kids. You could pick them up at the supermarket and if he likes them, get a subscription.

One of my boys loved the Cherub series by Robert Muchamore.

There are the Choose Your Own Adventure books that can be fun, plus, they can be re-read with different plots if the reader chooses a different path. My son liked these. He also liked Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NYHM, though I must say, this was started by my reading a few pages a day. He got into it and finished it on his own, then read the follow up novel to it without my prompting.

We have also read other novels together in this manner, like the Count of Monte Cristo. He ended up reading The Three Musketeer series. Sometimes just making a designated time for reading out loud to him can be enough to spearhead the reading adventure on his own.

I know a woman who was raised this way as a youth; every night after dinner, her dad would read a little bit of literature, each night building upon the previous night. She ended up becoming a school teacher with a focus on literature and English. Parents can really help shape their children with just a small commitment of time.

Reading aloud with your child can be a very intimate bonding time. I recall reading to my son on several occassions and him getting teary eyed and then I would start to cry too. Then we'd laugh at ourselves and and have a good cry! Books can do that!

Ender's Game, absolutely. The perfect sci-fi gateway book if I ever read one.

For a boy of that age, the Saint books by Leslie Charteris and Ian Fleming's James Bond series would probably go down well. And though seemingly dated, you might be surprised how positively he could respond to P G Wodehouse, simply because they are great fun.

Gary Paulson WoodSong and Dogsong.

I had to read them both and I seem to rembere that the guys liked these better than the girls in my class .

as for graphic novels I'm not sure what I would suggest. There's not many of my own that I would give to a teen. Although Return to the Labrinty is about Sarah's brother Toby and I think he's about 13-15 ish when that takes place so try that?

Herbie Brennans The Faerie Wars is the start of a YA series featuring two boys (one fairy one human) saving the faeryworld.
Or something like Wynne Jones Archer's Goon or The Dark lord of Derkholm.

Don't forget Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Very funny!

He might enjoy Brandon Sanderson's Alcatraz Books:
Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians
Alcatraz versus the Scrivener's Bones

The third book (of probably five) is due out in October and is probably called Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia.

Oh, I'm so glad you all bumped this with more great ideas! Thanks so much for them- I'll add them to the list. I spent several hours during my spring break looking over the list, reading summaries, and sitting at the library with my brother trying to find what would interest him. For the record, the books we found I loved- but once we got them home he refused to even pick them up and try one chapter. They sat there for a month before we gave up and took them back. A RL friend lent my a graphic novel American Born Chinese- still no interest. My last-ditch effort is going to be find biographies of people he likes, then I may give up for a little while.

Here's what I don't understand, and maybe you all can help me out with this. I try to find books that I know he will understand and enjoy the content. One book that caught his eye was a book about a basketball player. I had never heard of the author, so I stood there and skimmed it. The plot was not so much about basketball as it was about this thirty-something year old player coming to grips with the idea that he has a teenage child who now that the mother has died, has a letter from her that requests the child to live with him. The whole thrust of the book is that this supposed dad doesn't want to think that the child is his, and can't adapt to the idea that it really might be. Yes, this was directed at a 11-13 y/o audience. I don't know what you all think, but if I hand my brother a book about sports, I want it to be mainly about sports, not about the issues and problems that 30+ y/o sports players face. This was just one example of the very adult things I found in the youth/teen section, so am I overreacting?

I think it's reasonable to want a YA book to be more clear in what it will be about. Maybe if the main character was a teenager instead of a 30-year old it would be more appropriate? Was the book fiction or biography?

I notice there are a lot of fantasy recs here but has he tried anything by Mike Lupica or Jordan Sonnenblick? Both authors tend to write realistic-fiction about middle or high school boys. Lupica has a lot of sports books (Heat in particular was excellent) and Sonnenblick tends toward general fiction - his stuff tackles a lot of teenage issues but he's a very humorous writer too - Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie was very good as was Notes From the Midnight Driver.

Carl Deuker also writes about teen life in a sports vein. Very popular with my teen boys when I was a librarian.

The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. It starts with His Majesty's Dragon. Set in England during the Napoleonic wars, with dragons doing aerial fighting. There's no magic, just fighting dragons. My 13-year-old's favorite series.

Also seconds to Harry Potter, Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan, Gary Paulsen, and comic books. Also, my son likes the Crown and Covenant series by Douglas Bond. It is set in Scotland during the 1700's (I think) and is about the Presbyterian Covenanters and their oppression by the king.

In my experience, anything with good battle scenes is an excellent choice.

The book that got my friend's brother to start reading again was a silly trashy WWF book. But then, he's into pro-wrestling (he's in the local scene, and quite good at it), so it's not too surprising, I suppose.

The World Wildlife Fund is trashy ???

0.o
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they're always going on about 'litter', and 'waste'...

LOL

I know this might sound silly, but have you tried reading to him? My kids read a lot of books on their own, but they still like to be read to now and then (they are 14 and 17). Or you could try audio books. You could download them onto his i-pod (assuming he has one).

Also, I heard something recently about the discovery of a "reading" gene. I haven't had time to research it, but you might look into that theory as an explanation for your brother's lack of interest in reading.

My two cents worth:

Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Triliogy (The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye and Ptolemy's Gate)

and

Christopher Rowley's Bazil Broketail series (I think there are 7 or 8 books)

and

Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers