Ideas of books for a boy age 12+ ... stuck for Christmas presents!

[DCLane]

@jugglingphil - thanks. He's mentioned Philip Pullman as well.

 

[growingvegetables]

Can also add a recommendation for:
Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

+1

And also the Inkheart trilogy by Cornelia Funke

 

[Arjimlad]

My son's read the Hobbit & the Lord of the Rings trilogy and really got stuck into them. He didn't get as into Swallows & Amazons as I did though. Brendon Chase by BB is a classic, and Rider Haggard are a good read if very outdated !

How about some Jack London ?

 

[fossyant]

[QUOTE 2186530, member: 1314"]Too young for a 12 year old, poss.[/quote]

Worthy read though - my son is 12

 

[dellzeqq]

manga comics
George Elliott
Georgette Heyer (I know that's an odd one, but it will help him with the girls in a couple of years time)

and now's the time to get him interested in some quality fillums.

Soy Cuba
Wages of Fear
It Happened One Night
Stalker

that kind of stuff. They're very open minded at that age

 

[Hicky]

Diary of a wimpy kid, my lad has borrrowed one and gone through it quickly, he's 10 in May...try him with one from the library first rather than buy it however his teacher used it after him and was impressed.
Rat burger, boy in a blue dress, gangsta granny all walliams books(some Xmas presents), I'll ask him in the morning what the next levels are or what the girl who sits next to him is reading as she's an avid reader.
He's read a few of the Potter books, guess it is down to what motivates your lad, we have library cards for our kids for the local library and the inlaws(it is right behind their house).

 

[Arch]

I bought a couple of books for my boys from The Works recently, factual ones full of "interesting" inventions and bizarre facts, there are plenty of those type about which might hold his interest longer than a story.

There are a couple of books based on the New Scientist 'Last Word' Q and A page which I've enjoyed flicking through - They are called "Does anything eat Wasps" and "Why don't penguins feet freeze?" and "Do Polar Bears get lonely?" The questions are an eclectic mix, and the answers interesting and humorous. Great if he's a fact magnet.

 

[Alex Newman]

Percy Jackson Series
Stormbreaker series
Young Bond
The Hobbit
Artemis Fowl
Young Samurai

 

[Hitchington]

An encyclopedia based on a favoured subject? I loved the Science one I got when I was kid.

Good call. As a 12 year old I loved atlases, science books, history books, encyclopaedias... I was always more into no-fiction than than fiction and one of my most prized books (I got when I was 11 or 12 and still have!) is "Travellers in Space and Time" by Patrick Moore. Awesome read!

 

[Stonepark]

@jugglingphil - thanks. He's mentioned Philip Pullman as well.

At that age on the fiction side, if he likes books, he is probably ready for adult books and at that age, I was reading Tom Clancy, James Herbert, Terry Pratchett, Asimov, etc

On the non-fiction side, good technical books will never go amiss, Bike maintenance or similar(if he is into cycling), permaculture if into gardening, good bird books if bird watching, good resource issue books if interested in the environment, sas survival manual if interested in outdoors etc.

What really annoyed me at that age was being given a book which was too simple or supposedly aimed at my age as most often they were not in depth enough, whether fiction or non-fiction and were quickly discarded, while the 'complicated' books I still go back to now.