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Books for Charlie Higson loving 10 yo

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 9:07 pm
by Yamin151
My twins both love reading, no problem for Thing 2 who loves fantasy and has the whole gamut of LOTR and all manner of modern serious and fun fantasy (Terry Pratchett) to enjoy and choose from.
Thing 1 more challenging. He resists the 9-12 section because its babyish (who doesn't love a good Enid Blyton~? I still do!) and against my better judgement I allowed him to read the Charlie higson Fallen/Sacrifice etc series - he loves all the post apocalyptic zombie stuff! We fell out today because I feel I let those through wrongly and really they are too grown up in their themes for me to feel comfortable in him branching out to, say Michael Grant etc, again, due to language and more adult themes.
Am I being a woos? He has read Hunger Games and all the Young Bond. I don't want him to feel babyish but choosing from the teen section is such a minefield - not so much for wizard/other world fantasy, but it is for Zombie type stuff I feel.
So, any recommendations or advice? Do I let it go or try to find something (??what) a little more age appropriate.......?

Thanks!

Re: Books for Charlie Higson loving 10 yo

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 9:15 pm
by Yamin151
Just for info, he has read and loved all of Morpurgo, Holes, Anthony Horowitz,

Re: Books for Charlie Higson loving 10 yo

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 10:08 pm
by southbucks3
Son number one can't stand fantasy, but enjoyed the hybrid skullduggery pleasant series.
Also aged 11 he read all the Chris Ryan adventure books for kids, they are fine, no swearing but deal with some adult concepts in an implausible way. Robert swindells writes horror adventure, the boys enjoyed 'hydra' recently. Mortlock by Jon mayhew got great reviews, but son number one never got into it. Finally John grisham has written the Theodore Boone murder, mystery, law books, which benefit from the omission of his usual ludicrously extended description and read quite well.

Good luck.

Re: Books for Charlie Higson loving 10 yo

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 10:17 pm
by Yamin151
Thank you southbucks, he has enjoyed the chris Ryan ones and may not have read them all. Skulduggery he didn't get into, will look at those horror ones because he loved the Horowitz ones. They read one Theodore boone, wonder if would go for another. It's hard for those who don't like fantasy isn't it? Was it as restricted in our day? Zombies or fantasy! Ponies or pirates maybe?? No, we had school stories!
Thanks again, off to amazon, at least with kindle I can offer him a sample before buying the paper book

Re: Books for Charlie Higson loving 10 yo

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 10:26 pm
by JamesDean
Anything on the KES reading list take his fancy? I know he's not going, but its a useful resource - its certainly made my DS expand what genres he usually reads ...

JD

Re: Books for Charlie Higson loving 10 yo

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 10:41 pm
by kittymum
My ds is the same year (he's a March birthday though). I admit I'm fairly free and easy about what he reads. From memory these are some ...

Yr 5 - he read among other things the Hunger Games trilogy and the whole Cherub series - I know this is not something everyone would be comfortable with but him and I talked it through and I do believe children self sensor ... also Maggot Moon (again not everyone's thing) and Wonder (dd also read this age 8 ).

Yr 6 - Divergent series, Gone series (he read I think 4 of them but then was bored with them), The Fault In Our Stars, currently on book 3 of Maze Runner books ...

I think he's planning on reading the Mortal Instruments series after he's finished the Maze Runner series and was saying something about The Perks of being a wallflower the other day

Re: Books for Charlie Higson loving 10 yo

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 10:46 pm
by Yamin151
JamesDean wrote:Anything on the KES reading list take his fancy? I know he's not going, but its a useful resource - its certainly made my DS expand what genres he usually reads ...

JD
Not so much JD, quite a lot of fantasy. I'll take another look with him though, thank you for the reminder.

Re: Books for Charlie Higson loving 10 yo

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 10:50 pm
by Yamin151
kittymum wrote:My ds is the same year (he's a March birthday though). I admit I'm fairly free and easy about what he reads. From memory these are some ...

Yr 5 - he read among other things the Hunger Games trilogy and the whole Cherub series - I know this is not something everyone would be comfortable with but him and I talked it through and I do believe children self sensor ... also Maggot Moon (again not everyone's thing) and Wonder (dd also read this age 8 ).

Yr 6 - Divergent series, Gone series (he read I think 4 of them but then was bored with them), The Fault In Our Stars, currently on book 3 of Maze Runner books ...
He wanted Gone and that caused the ruckus today. Hmmmm, I'm just not sure, but I do take your point about self censoring, and I must admit I am influenced by the fact that any of these post apocalyptic books would make me feel very depressed, and I worry it will make ds so too.
He also mentione the fault in our stars, is it not terribly upsetting?
Thing 2 is working his way through maze runner. Not sure why thing 1 not so keen.
Will look aMaggot Moon too, thank you.

Re: Books for Charlie Higson loving 10 yo

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 10:58 pm
by kittymum
Ds wasn't mad about Gone. I certainly don't think it's any more potentially distressing then The Maze Runner - that I did think about.

If he liked hunger games how about Divergent? TFIOS yes it's upsetting, he cried, it's obviously a traumatic subject matter and one of the main characters dies. He wanted to read it, I read it and decided he'd stop reading it if he didn't like it. He loved it (btw he also cried reading The Hunger Games and Divergent).

Re: Books for Charlie Higson loving 10 yo

Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 11:13 pm
by Yamin151
I have a problem with reading these books first, because as i said I find them so depressing, and I feel life is too short to read books through duty. So I accept that means I rely on what other people say. Thing 2 is reading divergent. I think the trouble is that getting thing 1 out of his very narrow genre is a problem, and he is reluctant to go 'off piste'. Maybe that is the issue really, how to get children to try different books!
Thankyou, that's helpful