Need Children's Book Recs for a VERY Picky Reader

So here's the deal. I have an 11 year old brother who has just gone through the entire Goosebumps and Animorphs series, and now cannot find any books to read. He's an *extremely* picky reader, and will only read books with pretty much these specifications:
-The main character must be a boy
-The books may not be "long" (200+ pages, he says)
-He wants the main character to be about his age.
-He prefers series
-horror/sci-fi preferred

So. Can anyone think of any books that may fit? I'm having so much trouble with this. I don't want him to quit reading, and I think his parameters are quite absurd myself, but *shrugs*
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I recommend all of Bruce Coville's series. Aliens ate my homework is the first book in a great series (of 4 i think?) about a sixth grade boy named Rod. My Teacher is an Alien is about kids in 6th grade, and is the first in a series. He also wrote another series about a group of kids called The A.I Gang that I greatly enjoyed as a kid (out of all his series I would guess this one was aimed the oldest). More recently he wrote a longer series (but with shorter books) called I was a sixth grade alien. As you can tell by the titles, they all focus on aliens and characters around grade 6 at the start of the stories (which might be a year too young for your brother? but I seem to recall my brother reading animorphs/goosebumps around the time he read these novels). I can still vividly recall these novels years later (and reread them frequently :)).

My sons are 12 and they love the books by Rick Riordan. These are more in the genre of fantasy. He retells the Greek myths from the point of view of a young boy.

He might like the Spooksville series by Christopher Pike (the first one is The Secret Path). Christopher Pike and R. L. Stine are pretty similar. The series is about a boy about your brother's age, and all the books are about 150 pages.

When I was in grade 5/6 I loved the book Shadow of the Minotaur by Alan Gibbons. It's about a boy named Phoenix who has to play out Greek myths (battle the Minotaur, Medusa etc.) to save his father. It sounds similar to the above suggestion but it's more Sci-fi.
The Great Brain isn't scifi/horror but he might want to try it.
If you could convince him to read longer books The Seeing Stone was good although it's definitely more fantasy.

Encylopedia Brown fits everything but the last criteria- it is mystery though, so maybe it will be okay.

Andrew Clements has many good books that are worth looking at.

I asked a similar question on GD and got a lot of good suggestions, so it may be worth you reading through that thread as well:http://www.librarything.com/topic/58376

Brothers are... well, they are what they are. I wish you success!!!

What about The Neverending Story? I think it might not fit the page limit qualification, but everything else is there in spades.
And don't forget, Harry's 11 in the first Harry Potter. As much as I'd love to share this with my son now, I'd also LOVE to wait and do it as a read together starting on his 11th birthday.

Thanks so much for the suggestions, I'm definitely going to pass them on to him :)

re:Harry Potter, don't think I haven't tried. He tried to read them a few years ago, but his school librarian told him they are "too advanced" for him, so he hasn't made an effort to try again :( I feel like part of this is done to spite me :P

oh, grr, when I hear stories of librarians telling a kid that a book is "too advanced" it makes me crazy!! We DID NOT learn that in library school, I promise!! I bet the school has Accelerated Reader, right? I am forced to live with AR at my school, but I try really hard not to tell a kid a book is not on his reading level (kids are smart, they'll figure it out and bring it back if it's too hard!). Sorry, climbing off my soap box now.

Here's what the boys in my school like:

Franny K. Stein by Jim Benton; the main character is a girl, but she's a mad scientist, so the boys really like her.

Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
(see his website BoysRead.com)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan

Chet Gecko series --I think the author's name is Hale

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Guardians of Ga'hoole (sorry, no idea on the author)

He may also like the Redwall series--I don't have them at this school, but they were very popular at a previous school I worked at.

Black Lagoon series (novels, not the picture books) by Mike Thayer

Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville, and others in the Magic Shop series

If I was at school, I could scan my shelves and my memory would be jogged. But it is summer vacation, and I have to rely on my memory!

I never told a kid a book was too hard, unless kindergarteners wandered into the high school section. And then I just told them that those books didn't have any pictures.

Occasionally a teacher will ask that kids read on their reading level, whatever it is. But that is usually to prevent a junior high kid from reading Dr. Seuss just to get the points. I might say something if an elementary student was trying for 'way over their level (a Level 2 reader wanting to check out a Level 7.5 book) - but if they had a legitimate reason for wanting it, and could get the gist of the reading, I was pretty amenable.

My sci-fi loving ten year old loves the Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordon, so I can definitely second that recommendation. He likes long books, too, but here are a few he has enjoyed that are short:

The Spiderwick series by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians and its sequel by Brandon Sanderson. These might be considered "long" but they are funny sci-fi page turners with a 13 YO hero and my son loved them.

The Plant that Ate Dirty Socks by Nancy McArthur (funny science fiction, there are ten in this series, and they are all short.)

Star Jumper: Journal of a Cardboard Genius by Frank Asch (These might be a bit easy, and they are definitely short, but my ten year old and his friends liked them a lot. There are several in the series.)

Boys I have taught with similar tastes have enjoyed The Darren Shan Saga by Darren Shan. The first book is Cirque du Freak. They are quite short and there are 12 in the series. Mild horror/vampire type stuff. (Although some of his other series are less mild.)

The Deltora Quest series by Emily Rodda has also been popular. Traditional fantasy quest with monsters and riddles etc. Again, short books and lots of them - there are several different linked series.

If you can get him to try something a bit longer, the Cherub series by Robert Muchamore are extremely popular at my school. Tough kids are recruited as teenage spies and sent on missions. Quite violent, but they have got a lot of reluctant readers avidly reading. They seem to appeal to everyone - I'd say 90% of my class (boys and girls aged 11 - 13) have read or are reading them.

It infuriates me when ANYone tells a child that a book is too advanced for them.
Let them have it, they will stop reading if they don't "get" it. GRRRRRR indeed.

Who dreamed up levels and why ? But then I came from a home where I was allowed to read anything I chose, and so did all four of my own kids.

Maybe if you buy or mooch him a Potter of his own?

He might enjoy the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer. They're a little longer than he specified though--about 300 pages each. My son read all of the books in the series and really loved them.

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. The hero is an 11 year old boy who turns out to be one of the "old ones." There's fighting against the forces of evil, and delicious Arthurian stuff. Some of it's good and scary, too.

The Prydian Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander, starring an assistant pig-keeper who wants to be a hero, and is. Also Time Cat, same author, about a boy and his cat travelling through time, meeting Caesar, Leonardo da Vinci, and St. Patrick, among others.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, about a boy raised in a graveyard by ghosts and a vampire.

And has anyone mentioned Daniel Pinkwater yet?

How about Alex Rider Stormbreaker or the Keys of the Kingdom series by Garth Nix. Not sure of the length but great series.
Hilary McKay's Dog Friday is the first of a trilogy and although this is more of a family story, The Amber Cat has a more ghostly theme.

My son, age 12, recommends the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan. The first book in the series is The Ruins of Gorlan.

And also the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. The first book is Into the Wild

Ooh I second aviddiva's suggestions. Particularly Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians and The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks :)

And I second the Spiderwick Chronicles. That reminds me of the Lemony Snicket books, the Series of Unfortunate Events, I think. All three of my kids read both of these series right in a row.

You can look into books by William Sleator I remember reading his books when I was younger. Particularly I enjoyed Interstellar Pig which is about a game with aliens that ends up being real and The Boy Who Reversed Himself which is about some teens that travel to the fourth dimension.

I think I read these in middle school... they may not qualify for the length restriction though.

I read a lot of R.L. Stein and Christopher Pike back then too.. but a lot of those stories tended to have female main characters. I think Stein wrote some of the books for Goosebumps so that's a good tie in.

One more recommendation - Scary Stories to tell in the Dark series. I think there are several volumes and they all have short "horror" stories. Could also look for other short story collections... while the whole book might be more than 200 pages the individual stories would fit the bill.

All of the Goosebump books were written by R. L. Stine. But he wrote others as well, so that may be an avenue to explore.

You might also look at Can of Worms, a very funny sci-fi book.

#20, Sleator books are definitely on the short side, so no problem there. My favourite was always House of Stairs.

Louis Sachar is very popular with boys in that age range. Holes is probably the best known. If he likes humour, the Wayside School books are fun.

Horowitz Horror and More Horowitz Horror and a few other titles (by Anthony Horowitz, who writes the Alex Rider series) might fit the bill.

Boy, that librarian's comment makes me mad! My mother-in-law librarian would be horrified. LOL My 8yo has read the first three Harry Potter books and even though I'm not sure he understood everything, there's no way I'd discourage him from trying. All of our kids have hit a place as readers where they had to get over a lack of confidence in moving to more difficult books, but they blossomed (eventually) when they finally did. :o)

The Hidden was a wonderful book enjoyed by 6th graders. If he likes it, there is a sequel also.

A lot of great recommendations here... I'll just add that the writer of Animorphs (K. A. Applegate?) also wrote a series called Remnants that is very similar.

Some interesting ideas here to check out for my Grandkids. Thanks!

My suggestion is The Young Vampire Adventures.
--Main character is Gustavus "Gappy" Grapple, a boy.
--The third book is the longest... something like 120 pages.
--Gappy is 9 in the first two books, and 10 in the 3rd book.
--There are 3 books so far, and they seem to come out every 6 months or so.
--The main character is a fairly good kid for a vampire (no biting!). In many ways he is a normal kid except for his emerging vampire powers like telepathy.

Star Donovan is the author.

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci books by Diana wynne Jones star a boy his age and are fantasies.

Emily Rodda's Rowan of Rin series and the Deltora Quest series are very readable adventure series for kids not wanting to get too bogged down in a long book but who still love a good story.