Great Books for Boys!*

*and other -- ahem -- Discriminating Readers.

For a while now, I've been meaning to post an updated, fairly comprehensive list of Ian's favorite reading material. Remember, Ian is 9 [edited: now 10]. He tends to have a limited attention span for things that don't involve double-bladed light sabers. On the other hand, he has the capacity to read beyond, say, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. So, this is an unexpurgated list of twaddle-free books that he has read on his own, without much cajoling, and enjoyed. We could call it ...




IAN RECOMMENDS:

Chapter Books


The Puzzling World of Winston Breen (Berlin)
The Guardians of Ga'hoole series (Lasky)
The Mysterious Benedict Society (Stewart)
Knight's Castle, Half Magic, and other titles by Edward Eager
George Washington's Socks (Woodruff)
A Series of Unfortunate Events (Snicket)
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (Konigsburg)
Gregor the Overlander series (Collins)
Percy Jackson series (Riordan)
Hatchet (Paulsen)
Time Cat (Alexander)


Graphic Novels


Rapunzel's Revenge (Hale)
Calamity Jack (Hale)
Mouse Guard (Petersen)
The Asterix series (Goscinny)
The Action Bible


I intend to keep this list as a sidebar and update it as often as possible. Hope it helps other parents who end up scratching their heads amidst the library stacks, thinking, "What on earth can I give this kid to read, assuming I don't want his literary incisors to simply rot into oblivion???"

Feel free to send me your own recommendations, too!