Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Seabiscuit for nine year-old? Other recs?

Well, it's me again--with a couple of other ideas (mostly non-historical)--my usual suggestions are always old books, but you are not wanting those, so I'm trying to think of some more contemporary ones:

Not contemporary, I'm afraid, but my nine-year-old loves reading PG Wodehouse--would those be of any interest? There are lots and lots of them, with nary a whiff of sex, bad language, or violence.

I agree with aculady about the Earthsea books--deeply moral exploration of what it means to grow up and how to live one's life in a good way.

Another fantasy author he might enjoy is Alan Garner (rather spine-chilling!).

Joan Aiken wrote lots of historical fantasies--pretty good stuff.

CFK's Agatha Christie suggestion is a good one; if he likes mysteries, he might also enjoy the Nero Wolfe series (by Rex Stout) and the Brother Cadfael series (by Ellis Peters). (OHGrandma's grandson was enjoying "The Cat Who..." mysteries recently, I seem to recall...)

Some other ideas: E.L. Konigsburg (maybe The View from Saturday?), Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game, Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series (too scary for my sensitive lad, but sounds like yours can handle it if he's reading Lord of the Flies), Lloyd Alexander's Westmark trilogy (again, too dark and violent for mine, but maybe OK for yours? my kids have all loved the Prydain series, but they skew quite a bit younger than the Westmark ones). Diana Wynne Jones seems lots of fun (I've only read a couple so far, but they were good).

We love love love David Almond--I'd definitely give those a go (Skellig may be my single favourite children's book ever).

Brian Doyle and Polly Horvath are both excellent writers for middle-school level, with occasionally quite challenging (thematically) material. We've just started the Bookweird series (by Paul Glennon)--it's too early to tell yet, but it looks promising so far.

Hope that helps!

mm

ETA a postscript: a couple of afterthoughts: Bill Richardson's After Hamelin has an interesting premise (what becomes of the one child who is not spirited away by the Pied Piper); my kids enjoyed John Fardell's Seven Professors of the Far North series a lot--they're not classic literature, probably, but they are well-written pageturners with attractive, rather eccentric, characters--worth a try?