I need help with literature for an 11 year old

MaVeN1337

New member
Feb 19, 2009
438
0
0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Kingdom_for_Sale_%E2%80%94_SOLD!

I read that when I was 12. It's a challenge but I recommend it highly.
 

Lilani

Sometimes known as CaitieLou
May 27, 2009
6,581
0
0
Grimsinger said:
I read The Hobbit, and all thee Lord of the Rings. Or geo-science type books. Giving my reading selection, I'm sure my parents never guessed I'd end up studying cartooning.
This is a good idea--especially the Hobbit. It moves at a much quicker pace than the rest of the LotR books so it should be able to keep his attention.

Oh, and the Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois. I LOVED that book when I was growing up.
 

blankedboy

New member
Feb 7, 2009
5,234
0
0
Atherton. Definitely.
It's a serious, not cheesy in the slightest sci-fi that features one of the coolest settings I've ever seen in a storyline. The storyline in itself is amazing, however the actual writing is atrocious. Give it to him anyway, it's awesome. It can get a bit mindfuckey at times, but it'll do.
 

Delite13

New member
Aug 7, 2010
1
0
0
I agree with A Wrinkle in Time and Terry Pratchet - he may miss the Pratchet humourous references but they are very well written. I've heard Redwall is excellent as well.
 

Trivun

Stabat mater dolorosa
Dec 13, 2008
9,831
0
0
Jazzyjazz2323 said:
My little brother has recently started to get into ancient mythology and sci-fi and I'm ecstatic about this but I don't know about any good non cheesy sci-fi that'd be good for an eleven year old to read.So far I've given him the William King Space Wolves omnibuses' but I'd like to also give him some good mythology books and other sci-fi stuff.Any suggestion are welcomed please and thank.
Give him this:


If he is into ancient mythology then he'll like this, as although it's set in a fantasy world the bulk of the story is heavily based around the Histories of said world (yes, that is meant to be a capital H, the Histories in that book are a massive part of culture and society for the main characters and their people). It's not quite sci-fi, but it does have some sci-fi elements, and the sequel series is much more sci-fi based with some basic elements of steampunk too.

Definitely a good series, it may be a little hard for him to read at first but it's a series that I first started reading when I was eleven, I found this by chance in my school library. Immediately became a fan of the author and now own the entire series (the Three Worlds Cycle) and am awaiting the next book to come out soon. It does have some minor adult themes but for the most part is fairly mild and never explicit in anything, though the later series that make up the cycle do tend to get a bit more adult-oriented than this one. Nevertheless, a great story that sounds like a perfect fit for your brother, and a very well documented and designed world and story with extremely interesting and engaging characters. I highly recommend this to your brother, and indeed to you too...
 

Senor Alto

New member
Jan 23, 2011
5
0
0
Definitely have to agree with the Redwall series. As for the mythological stuff, Lloyd Alexanders Chronicles of Prydain Series delves haevily into welsh lore, and all of his books are awesome. Also Garth Nix's Abhorsen trilogy. If you can find it, Timothy Zahn wrote a series called Dragonback that he specifically targeted for 13-15 year olds. He doesn't write down to them, but its not super complicated either. Anything by Zahn is good in my experience. David Weber's Honor Harrington series might be a little ahead of his reading level, but you can find most of them online at baen.com for free, as has been mentioned. Dogsbody by Dianne Wynne Jones. That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure that with all these suggestions he should stay busy for a while

Talking about these books makes me want to go back and reread them all. :)

I'm really happy to hear about a new generation of 'bookers.' I always used to spend my lunches in school reading. Wish your bro many years of happy reading!
 

rotund0

New member
Nov 15, 2009
17
0
0
In addition to the great stuff mentioned above:

Robert Asprin "MythAdventures"
Terry Brooks "Shannara" series
Gordon R. Dickson "Dragon Knight" series
Stephen R. Donaldson "Thomas Covenant" series
David Eddings "The Belgariad and The Malloreon"
Raymond E. Fiest "The Riftwar Saga"
Gary Gygax "Gord the Rogue"
Barbara Hambly "Darwath" series
Robert E. Howard "Conan" stories
Fritz Leiber "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser"
Michael Moorcock "Elric of Melniboné" stories
Fred Saberhagen "The Books of the Swords"
 

theonlyblaze2

New member
Aug 20, 2010
659
0
0
Maybe he is a little young now, but he should read Homer's Odesey(I don't know how to spell it.) It is possibly the best Greek Mythology story around.
 

gostlyfantom

New member
Jan 22, 2011
405
0
0
The night angel trilogy! ;)

on a more serious note redwall books or enders game... The secrets of the immortal nicholas flammel maybe?
 

spartan231490

New member
Jan 14, 2010
5,186
0
0
Jazzyjazz2323 said:
My little brother has recently started to get into ancient mythology and sci-fi and I'm ecstatic about this but I don't know about any good non cheesy sci-fi that'd be good for an eleven year old to read.So far I've given him the William King Space Wolves omnibuses' but I'd like to also give him some good mythology books and other sci-fi stuff.Any suggestion are welcomed please and thank.
The ranger's apprentice series isn't inappropriate as far as I remember, same with the percy jackson series. If he's very mature, I suggest the Sword or Truth series, which is the best fantasy series ever written(yes I'm including LoTR) in my opinion, but that is very mature stuff.
 

Romblen

New member
Oct 10, 2009
871
0
0
The only book I remember well from that age group is the first Maximum Ride book
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum_Ride:_The_Angel_Experiment
Unfortunately, it goes downhill after the second book, but the first book is pretty good and the second is not as good, but not terrible. I would recommend them. The first book is titled the Angel Experiment and the second book is called School's Out Forever.

A book that influenced that series was also written by James Patterson called When the Wind Blows, it's a bit more mature, but it's also pretty good.
 

voetballeeuw

New member
May 3, 2010
1,359
0
0
GrimTuesday said:
Buy him Redwall books, lots and lots of Redwall books.
This, this and this. I read so many Redwall books when I was younger. I highly recommend them. The stories are incredibly entertaining, with interesting characters and conflicts. Great recommendation, good sir.
 

Frungy

New member
Feb 26, 2009
173
0
0
Xpwn3ntial said:
Manicotti said:
I think Dune is a bit much for an 11 year old.

OT: i, Robot is a good read. Anything Asimov, really.
I started with Lord of the Rings and Dune (my sister gave me a hard-bound copy with the first 3 books in it). I managed to get LoTR confiscated a total of 21 times until my teachers just gave up and let me read in class (sheesh, I don't know what their problem was, I was being quiet, reading something good and I could multi-task enough to sortof pay attention to whatever boring stuff they were droning on about).

Dune was amazing, and made it an annual tradition to re-read it over 3 weeks every year for the next 10 years. Every time I came away with something new. When I was 10 it was just a cool sci-fi story. When I was about 15 I started to grasp some of the more complicated philosophical stuff about limits and the illusion of limits. As I got older I began to understand more and more of what he was talking about. I still read the novel occassionally, about once every 3 or 4 years now, but every time it gives me food for thought.

I really don't like it when people say, "X is too young for this novel". It's ridiculous and it drove me nuts at school when teachers and librarians told me to "try something easier". Sure I didn't grasp all of it, but it did make me think. Dividing books into age groups smacks of mediocracy and aiming to be mediocre is the biggest sell-out possible.
 

GrimTuesday

New member
May 21, 2009
2,493
0
0
voetballeeuw said:
GrimTuesday said:
Buy him Redwall books, lots and lots of Redwall books.
This, this and this. I read so many Redwall books when I was younger. I highly recommend them. The stories are incredibly entertaining, with interesting characters and conflicts. Great recommendation, good sir.
I'm 19 and I still read them, which I think is a testament to how good these books are that no matter how old I get I still read these books.
 

SpikeyGirl

New member
Jun 30, 2009
409
0
0
I don't know how good it would be for an 11 year old but I quite liked the first few 'Stravaganza' books by Mary Hoffman, about kids who can travel to a parallel version of Italy and has a few cloak and dagger elements if I remember rightly. It may be a bit old but my reading age was never quite right for my age.
Also 'Daniel-X' by James Patterson, same author of 'Maximum Ride', Daniel-X is more about aliens and hunting them before they hunt him.
I also can agree with most of the suggestions having read most of them and if it wasn't for the internet I would probably be rereading them even at the grand age of 18.
The Percy Jackson books have recently expanded into Roman mythology quite nicely, while the separate(ish) series of 'The Kane Chronicles' with Egyption mythology is loosely connected. I'm hoping the author does something with Norse mythology next.
 

Fetzenfisch

New member
Sep 11, 2009
2,460
0
0
I started Dragonlance around that age, it was mostly fascinating.
The Jedi-Acedemy Books if he likes Starwars

And of course Terry Pratchett. You may start of with the (in my opinion) best children-compatible ones

-Only you can Save Mankind
-Johnny and the Dead
-Johnny and the Bomb
(you can get all 3 novels cheap in one book)

And the Nomen-trilogy i guess.