Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Any avid readers?

We have an avid reader or 3 in our family

However, DS (almost 10) is strictly a fantasy reader. Talking animals are among his favorites

I'm struggling right now with letting him get books from the adult section in the library and bookstores. So many have a bit too much adult content for me to be completely comfortable. But he has outread the Children's and Young Adult sections LOL. I'm spending alot of my reading time reviewing and previewing to see if I think they are OK. I tend to be a bit more liberal regarding sex (nothing explicit, but implied tends to pass) since he ignores most of that but stricter when it comes to descriptive violence.

For those of a fantasy bent he is working through
The Redwall Series
Anne McCaffrey's Dragons of Pern (as a side note, the books by Her son Todd are much more science based although do still have talking dragons)
Mercedes Lackey selected books in her Heralds of Valdimar series. Some have too much adult contect for a 10 year old in my opinion
Anything Tolkien
Selected books by Margaret Weiss and Tracey Hickmann (spelling)
He loved Ender's Game (which by the way still remains one of those books that haunts me. It was a read I couldn't put down and have never forgotten.)
David Eddings

By the way, has anyone else found that the young adult sections seems to have more adult content that alot of the adult sections or have I just been previewing the wrong books?

Has he tried any of Patrick O'Brian's sea stories? Those are good stuff--and there are lots of them!

The John Dunning bookseller mysteries are good, too--Booked to Die, The Bookman's Wake, etc.

Any interest in classics like Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick, Gulliver's Travels? How about John Buchan (The Thirty-Nine Steps, etc.)?

There's a series called Boys Own from Penguin--oldies-but-goodies--She, Greenmantle, Man Who Was Thursday, Treasure Island, Prisoner of Zenda, Tarzan of the Apes, Around the World in Eighty Days--that might be worth a look.

bye for now
minnie

edited to add: What about Rumpole (John Mortimer)? Those are fun, and pretty innocent, really.

Oh. What about Michael Crichton's books. They are good page turners.

http://classics.jameswallaceharris.com/Lists/ByRank.php

This is science fiction, but several very worth reading, my faves:

A Canticle for Leibowitz - tiny bit preachy, end of man-wise, and a little grim.

Ringworld. - fun, iirc.
Fahrenheit 451 - just a good book about book burning.

I, Robot. Of course.

Dune.
___________


Also, not science fiction....I haven't read the books, but the pbs series was very enjoyable. Good for a young man, I'd think:

Admiral of the Fleet Horatio Hornblower, 1st Baron Hornblower, GCB, is a fictional protagonist of a series of novels by C. S. Forester, and later the subject of films and television programs. Ernest Hemingway is quoted as saying, "I recommend Forester to everyone literate I know."[1] and Winston Churchill signalled "I find Hornblower admirable."[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Hornblower

And some info on the Captain Jack Aubrey books mentioned above..I very much enjoyed these. I kind of thought O'Brian writes like Jane Austen for the Sailing man. Tight, funny writing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_and_Commander

Oooh, elh, I *loved* "Ender's Game." What an amazing book.

Hitch hikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Books by David Brin ("Earth")

Maybe William Gibson "Neuromancer" & others

My son and my daughter�s most highly gifted friend love this series.

I enthusiastically second The Prisoner of Zenda! Also try The Scarlet Pimpernel. And the James Herriot books (All Creatures Great and Small) if he hasn't already read them (they aren't thrillers but I can't resist recommending them anyway). Can he handle Dick Francis? The protagonists are always getting beaten to a pulp and they usually sleep with somebody, but I don't remember anything too graphic.

How about,

William Gibson, "Neuromancer" and others

Mutiny on the Bounty

The Mysterious Benedict Society

Does he like historical fiction: "Escape from Warsaw" was a favorite of mine.

The Giver

The Chocolate Wars - might be too young for him but I have just heard reviews that they're fabulous.

The Book Thief

Jerry Spinelli books

A Wrinkle in Time

If you want a good intro into crypto, then try some books by Neal Stephenson. Neal was a GT kid himself. Neal weaves in culture, ethinicity, history, language, computers, and crypto into his a books.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Stephenson