There only 4 (original trilogy plus a prequel) but the Tripod books I think would work for that age span.
I enjoyed the Morrigan Crow books, by Jessica Townsend. Only 3 of them so far but she apparently has plans for at least 9(!). They may be at the high end of the age range you're looking at -- for the littler kids, mine has been obsessed with the My Weird School series of which there must be like 50+. The Thirteen Story Treehouse series is also outstanding.
My kids are obsessed with Wings of Fire. To the point where I can't think of any other books they like that I can recommend. My older son also enjoys the Prydain books, which were recommended in last year's version of this thread.
My kids liked The 13 Story Treehouse but they have content density similar to a graphic novel.
That's true. The Weird School books are similar: we only get them from the library because he'll blast through one in 20 minutes. The reason we bought the Treehouse books is that he'll re-read them time and again.
Wings of fire and there's some other series involving warrior cats.
I enjoyed the Tripod books a lot when I was that age, but they're super intensely weird in a 1970s kind of way. If you haven't read them, I'd read some reviews or something before you got them for your kids. (Also, there was a prequel? I never knew.)
If you want deeply strange recent trash, Newt was into the Guardians of Gahoole. Owls -- moonlight-based mind control; slavery; fire worship; inter-owl racism; all very odd. No detectable literary value.
Newt was also fond of the Skulduggery Pleasant books. Girl wizard; hardboiled gun-toting skeleton private detective.
We have the same rule about graphic novels.
Most recently devoured: The Nyxia books.
Can't believe he read them all and didn't get bored: the 39 Clues series.
Which takes us to: the whole Rick Riordan book-production industrial complex: Percy Jackson, Magnus Chase, 39 Clues, Rick Riordan "presents" and probably 500 more. I think my older son has read, literally, all of them, and he's perfectly willing to put down a book when he finds it boring, so while I don't like them, they're doing something right.
They both really liked Shannon Hale's "Real Friends" series.
Space Case.
Andy Weir books (for kids at the older end of the range, or for reading to them).
Took them a bit to get into, but wound up loving: A Long Way From Chicago.
The "Brian's Saga" books, which begin with Hatchet. Again, at the older end of the range.
The Nameless City books.
Ponti's City Spies books.
Gregor the Overlander series.
The "I Survived" series of books.
I'll stop there for now.
My older son also enjoys the Prydain books, which were recommended in last year's version of this thread.
Yay!
I'll confirm Gregor the Overlander on Newt's behalf.
Seriously, how do you get Beanpole from Jean-Paul?
7:() It was published about 20 years after the first 3 came out over the course of a year or so. When the Tripods Came. Less well known and I did not think as good as the originals; I don't think we discovered it until our kids were on their 2nd run through.
How suspenseful is Hatchet? I got it at some point to read to the kids, but they're such fragile pansies about suspense that I was not sure about it.
I should know this as I remember the word chapter book extensively used in my childhood, but what does it mean exactly? Is it distinguishing from lower grade books that aren't divided into chapters?
Thanks. Haven't read Hatchet myself; just a skim for appropriateness.
17: I use it to mean separate from picture books or easy readers.
I just double-checked because it rang a bell: I bought the Gregor books two years ago, because Hawaii loved the Hunger Games. She never read them, but sequestered them off into her secret stash. Damnit, kid. At least leave them out in the public area. Maybe I'll nudge her on that.
Pokey is devouring Percy Jackson right now. The 13N treehouses have been a big hit in our house, too. We've done a lot of Nathan Hale history books and I Survived.
Wings of fire looks good. Space Case. too, but I'm also noticing a Spy School series by the same author - anyone's kids fans of that one? That seems like Hawaii's wheelhouse.
" The 13N treehouses "
Is it a story about a treehouse where they run PET scans?
This is also crap -- I'm recommending it as trash your kids may enjoy rather than anything worthwhile -- but James Patterson had a series of genetically modified teenagers with wings on the run from the authorities that both my kids read: Maximum Ride.
Opinions on Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series?
Atossa enjoys graphic novels, and any such "only from the library" rule would be hypocritical since I have quite a collection myself. In addition to some kid-appropriate superhero stuff we like Phoebe and her Unicorn, Princeless, and the old classic Calvin and Hobbes. She likes Big Nate and Dog Man although I don't. We still haven't managed to get her into books more advanced than the Princess in Black (technically a chapter book but with lots of pictures), but she's only 6.
Newt read them but I don't remember his ever saying anything about them or seeming interested in them -- my vague second hand impression was that they weren't good.
I don't think I can add to this list with anything new. But I did try something the other day. I called the children's librarian and asked him to select a bunch for me. That went well.
Ogged: Glad your kids liked A Long Way from Chicago. It is wonderful. There's a sequel if they want more Grandma Dowdel. I'm hoping to become her when I grow up.
21: I think that may be the most targeted joke I've ever seen on Unfogged.
The full Calvin and Hobbes box set was the best investment I ever made.
I was just asking about this in the other place! (and my other, other places, as it happens). I'm more in the market for things-to-read-at-bedtime, rather than things for Mr. 9 to read himself, much as I would like to encourage more of that. We're giving "A Tale of Time City" a try starting last night.
Percy Jackson was pretty good, and there seems to be quite a swath of vaguely-related-to and inspired-by books, which I suspect will do just fine since kids don't have much taste.
Gregor the Overlander has been on my list; I read it/the first one myself in a previous round of this a couple of years ago and concluded it was too intense then, but it might not be now.
Many people recommended the Tiffany Aching subset of Discworld novels at me.
xelA has read some of the Alex Rider books and enjoyed them, although I don't think he was blown away. He also really enjoyed the 13N Treehouse books. He has read dozens of "Beast Quest" books, and also the "Spirit Animals" series, both of which are right up his alley as he loves that kind of fantasy fiction + animals.
xelA enjoyed the Pullman 'His Dark Materials" books, too, although he hasn't read the third one, he did enjoy the first two and the other is on his list for some point in the future. I think those were at the limits of his abilities, not technically as a reader, but more in terms of being able to understand deeply enough to enjoy the books.* He is 8, though.
* he's obviously missing a ton of references and enjoying them as adventure stories, rather than picking up any allegories.
+1 for Prydain. Biased because I was so fond of them myself but kids liked them too.
My older son devoured all the Rick Riordan ones, just tore through them rereading repeatedly.
6: "Warriors", by Erin Hunter (who is a collective). Jane (11) has read approximately 40 of this apparently infinite series; we get them out as e-books from the library because she goes through them at such a clip that it would be annoying to either pay for copies or keep returning them to the library.
They are going to seem antiquated (and possibly problematic in some way now? Who knows?) but I did enjoy the Henry Reed books. Published 1958 to 1986, apparently there are 5 but I only read and knew about the first 3. Nice Robert Mcloskey illustrations.
Recommendations that skew less sci-fi/fantasy? I want to get 4 sets of series, none with any specific kid attached, but a range of genres.
Also books series with female leads?
So far I've ordered the Wings of Fire one, and I'm perusing the thread closely.
Now ordering the Tiffany Aching series, too.
Wings of Fire rings a bell, but it's been too long to remember what he thought of it.
Have they read the All Of A Kind Family books? Turn of the last century immigrant Jewish family of five daughters on NYC's Lower East Side.
The Maximum Ride books are crap, but they're girl-led.
That's what they said about Bananarama.
Websites, how do they work? City Spies has a female lead.
Skulduggery Pleasant has a girl protagonist, although the titular skeleton with a gun is a dude.
Non-fantasy that they loved: Wednesday Wars.
City Spies has a female lead.
And the sequel came out recently.
Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos! Extremely fun. I can probably come up with more, especially since female protagonists are a (mystifyingly) non-negotiable precondition to reading for Elke... Keeper of Lost Cities triggered a huge obsession, as did Wings of Fire -- bear in mind that the latter are extremely violent books and, honestly, one or two things in there would have made me kind of ill as a child, but kids today seem to be made of stronger stuff.
Did anyone else read Michael Ende's Momo as a kid? I read it in high school and thought it was great, then read it to Elke and thought it was SUPER GREAT. (There is a make-believe sequence with some tedious orientalist cliches, but I thought they were fairly innocuous for the 50s or 60s or whatever. YMMV.)
Also even better than I remembered it: The Westing Game. Narrative economy to take your breath away. I'm sure I've said that before, though, along with the fact that reading the story of the poor black girl from Milwaukee becoming a SCOTUS justice seems, in 2021, about ten times less possible than it did in 1979, and that just depressed the fuck out of me. The last 40 years really have not improved either Milwaukee or the Supreme Court.
My dad loved Milwaukee. But he never lived there after 1950.
I love the Westing Game. Somewhere there's a post about me re-reading it as an adult and realizing how many mental tics of mine originated with it.
If you are looking for a female lead and liked the Prydain books, try the Alexander's Vesper Holly series.
Percy Jackson turned Kid One into a reader, and I am forever grateful. Seconding the mentions of Skulduggery Pleasant above; all three liked those lots. The Bartimaeus Sequence by Jonathan Stroud was a favorite for a while.
The Inkheart trilogy has a female lead. It's probably better in German, so your kids can learn German while they enjoy the tale. On the other hand, the author lives in California now and is plased with the translation, so whatever. (She's wrong about the names, though. Staubfinger is just a better name than Dustfinger; it's ineffable but also true.)
The Ranger's Apprentice series (by John Flanagan) was recommended to me by a friend whose kids had grown out of them, was loved by Kid Three, and is now being duly recommended onward.
Speaking of Kid Three, she also liked The Last Elf (UK title; US inexplicably made it The Last Dragon) by Silvana De Mari. She liked two of the three sequels (many tears were shed over the fate of a particular character). These have not yet been translated into English, but as your kids have enough German from Inkheart they may enjoy them in that language or opt for the original Italian.
Melinda Beatty's Heartseeker books (there's a couple) might be worth a go. It's fantasy but female led.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/33344380-heartseeker
I've not read them, but the author is a friend/acquaintance, and I expect they'll be pretty good. She's one of the most hilarious twitter/blogger people I know, and her husband is the same only more so. It's a shame I can't link to his old shit-talking blog about the band he used to be in because it's laugh out loud hilarious.
If there's a novelization of Underworld it has a strong female lead.
It does exist and I maintain that is not exactly evidence for Rule 34.
55: From the last thread.
I don't have strong feelings about Jones but I am pretty amazed at how much a lot of old stuff (pre-2000s, I'd say) just does not hold up. Christ we were mean and judgy and ready to write people off. My kid is still on the young side of the Unfogged cohort, so I'm holding off on those. There is tons of good new stuff and I can let him wait to assimilate the rest when he's got a large body of kinder material as the standard. When he can pick it out himself, he can read it.
(Picking stuff out himself has two components right now. The closest library, two blocks away, is the last library that is still closed for COVID for some ventilation reason. I'm sad about it. A weekly browsing trip would occupy a weeknight.)
I am consistently sad about losing old children's books to my own sense of what's too racist or whatever else to hand a little kid. I loved the E.Nesbit Psammead books so much, but they have a completely unignorable amount of talking about 'savages'. I don't think any the worse of her in the context of her time -- I think her intentions were pretty good -- but multiple times over the years since my kids were the right age I've thought about buying them or recommending them and I just can't give those books to a kid. (She has others that are, I think, better because the topic doesn't come up, but those aren't the ones I specifically imprinted on.)
I think I have a weird stubbornness about inappropriate content because I read so omnivorously and took in so much horrific shit. Did any of you read "The Great Gilly Hopkins" as kids? By the author of "Bridge to Terabithia," published 1978, won the National Book Award. So Gilly, a very messed-up kid who makes lots of bad decisions, at one point in the book sends her Black teacher a really over-the-top racist greeting card, which dodges the overt N-word with a twisted punchline. The teacher's response is something like, ha ha, Gilly, you're pretty clever even though this was obviously hostile. For some reason I reread this book as an adult, and pretty much burst into flame at that point. (I may not be conveying just how offensive this joke was. It would have been jarring from Rush Limbaugh. Maybe new editions of the book just snip it out?) As a kid, though, I think the joke went somewhat over my head, and the overall impression I had was that Gilly was kind of a shitty person, and it was unsettling to spend an entire book in the mind of such a person, but that it was probably valuable in some way.
I could write a very long comment about my strong feelings about this subject. I remember the comment about DWJ and fat-shaming well, because I found the Chrestomanci books so refreshing for featuring fat, dowdy-looking girls as complete badass heroines. I think Elke had a hard time with it, though: she was really drawn to the villainous Gwendolen for her princess qualities and moral ambiguity. Not me!
Write the long comment!
I haven't been terribly conflicted. Mostly when I re-read, I remember that I did really like the books but I just don't find them enjoyable. It doesn't feel like a big loss and I'd like the Kids These Days to be better people, so the loss is worthwhile.
There's just whole categories of stuff (self-loathing or misplaced self-blame as a plot-driver) that I have no tolerance for anymore. Life's too short and there's other stuff to read.
I am always delighted to find old books that don't have a heavy dose of yucky worldview. Those are twice as good.
I read Wizard of Earthsea for the first time this summer, loved it and its worldview. I wonder how much of an influence on Rowling it was.
For kids, I'd endorse True Meaning of Smekday, just found out there's a 2015 sequel, which I plan to enjoy for myself. Agreed that books with a pleasant worldview are a pleasure.
48: The one who wins the windfall is the one who finds the fourth!
I added the Wild Robot books from Cala in the last thread, and the All of a Kind Family. Done! Hooray! Thanks, all!
9: Okay, based on title alone I feel like I need to look into A Long Way From Chicago. Early on in the pandemic, Rory started reading with her cousins (8, 18) via video chat. As two of the three are, in fact, a long way from Chicago now....
9: Okay, based on title alone I feel like I need to look into A Long Way From Chicago. Early on in the pandemic, Rory started reading with her cousins (8, 18) via video chat. As two of the three are, in fact, a long way from Chicago now....
(They've torn through Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, the Gods of Olympus, and I think Mysterious Benedict Society. They had plans for A Series of Unfortunate Events, but I don't think that happened.)
_A Long Way From Chicago_ and _A Year Down Yonder_. They are not thick books; they'll be a small wonderful snack.
The other thread is the food thread.
Atossa watched the first 3 Harry Potter movies. We hesitated to let her keep going with the fourth because of the whole murder thing. We made her a bargain: she can watch the fourth after she can read the first. Maybe it's time to remind her of that.
Although I don't think he has any series as such (but I believe some recurring characters), an author my kids loved* (I was more lukewarm on) was Daniel Pinkwater.
*And I'm assuming at least one commenter here loved it as well.
I did!! But I am not the commenter you are referencing.
o hai
Pinkwater is still writing, although his books these days aren't up to the amazing standards of those from my childhood (he said, old-man-ishly). Everyone should "The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death" and "The Hoboken Chicken Emergency". ("Lizard Music" didn't hold Jane's interest? All the stuff about hippies and Walter Cronkite was maybe just too distant.)