Anyone want to suggest some books for a nine-year-old?

[andrewducker]

My cousin Lucie has a kid who will be nine shortly, and she's wondering about book recommendations.

He so far loves the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon, etc), the Artemis Fowl series and the Alex Rider kid-spy books.

Harry Potter and Series of Unfortunate Events were both too scary for him, so we're looking for things a bit less dark than that.

She describes him as "Intellectual age of 12, emotional age of 5."

Thoughts?

Comments

[rmc28]

Diane Duane's Young Wizards?
Starts with "So You Want To Be A Wizard" I don't think it's as scary as Harry Potter, but then I think Stormbreaker (the only Alex Rider I've read) is scarier.

My 7 year-old has enjoyed having the Worst Witch books read to him, also Terry Pratchett's children's books: Truckers, Diggers, Wings trilogy, and Wee Free Men.

He might like the Timothy Zahn Star Wars spinoff books, especially the first trilogy: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command. They weren't written until I was 18+ but nine-year old me would have loved them. (and I was definitely an intellectual-12, emotionally much younger nine-year-old)

I read a lot of Rosemary Sutcliff at that kind of age, and especially loved The Eagle of the Ninth. Others I remember well were The Silver Branch, Dawn Wind, Brother Dustyfeet, The Witch's Brat & Sun Horse, Moon Horse.

Lucy M Boston's Green Knowe books, starting with The Children of Green Knowe, were also favourites of nine-year-old me. http://www.greenknowe.co.uk/shop.html lists them.

[dalglir]

Unlundun?

[andrewducker]

Suggested age for that is around 13. What's the plot like for unpleasantness? As scary as Harry Potter?

[conuly]

I second the Young Wizards recommendation. Does he like anything other than fantasy and other non-realistic books? Let me go downstairs, look at my shelves, and then get back to you. Hold on,

[conuly]

Okay. How about some books by Gordon Korman? Some of his books published recently include the Swindle series and UnGifted, or you can just go with classic Bruno and Boots. Very funny, not terribly frightening at all.

If you want classics, the Henry Huggins books by Beverly Cleary (same universe as the Ramona books) are a good place to start.

If he's dead-set on less realistic fiction, you might try Wildwood, the Ordinary Boy series, Powerless, or Arch-Villain. Some of the books by Hilari Bell might be right up his alley as well. I'm thinking of Prophecy and The Wizard Test, but the latter DOES have one use of a curse word. (A minor character is insulting the main character when he uses it,)

[busaikko]

Diana Wynne Jones: Howl's Moving Castle, Dark Lord of Derkholm

Terry Pratchett: The Wee Free Men, Maurice, the Johnny Maxwell trilogy (this might be too dark)

Roald Dahl: James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Mary Norton: The Borrowers

Susan Cooper: The Dark Is Rising series

It sort of depends on what exactly he finds scary. For example, some children can't deal with the idea that parents/caretakers could be abusive or neglectful (i.e., Harry Potter, James and the Giant Peach, Johnny Maxwell), others are horrified by any kind of body transformation (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Howl's Moving Castle). Or sometimes it's just "bad people being threatening" (as in Harry Potter), in which case something with less evil is better.

[conuly]

If we are going to go with Diana Wynne Jones, lets not forget the Chrestomanci books, Time City, or The Ogre Downstairs.

Ooh, and Eva Ibbotsen has some great ones. How is he about reading books with female protagonists? Some boys aren't that fond of it for some silly reason.