Great books for young people?

[Tiefling]

Song of Ice & Fire would not be appropriate for a child. Mid to late teens, okay. But a kid? Have you forgotten how disgustingly bloody that book is? How it's lessons are essentially (so far) how everyone is somewhat bad at heart?

Oh come on, I started reading that when I was twelve. And I don't think it has any "lessons." It presents a story, it does not tell the reader how to view the real world.

As for blood, gore and sex, 10-12 seems okay.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson (Lord Foul's Bane, The Illearth War, etc.)

Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

[ both of the above are a bit dark ]

 

[Nissien]

I haven't seen Alan Garner's Alderley books mentioned: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath. Together with the Chronicles of Pryddain, those books (from the early 60s) first brought to life the D&D type adventure.

Other books already mentioned that were my favourites as a kid:
The Dark Is Rising Sequence, Earthsea, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Shannara, Doctor Doolittle, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

Some new titles:
The Gammage Cup (originally published as The Minipins), although I never found the first book in the series
The Phoenix and the Carpet, and the Story of the Amulet (again, I never read the first one, Five Children and It)
The Moomin books (especially Comet in Moominland!)
Green Smoke, Dragon in Danger and Dragon's Quest, by Rosemary Manning
Merlin's Mistake, by Robert Newman
The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Power of Three, by Diana Wynne Jones

 

[Mistwell]

Oh come on, I started reading that when I was twelve. And I don't think it has any "lessons." It presents a story, it does not tell the reader how to view the real world.

As for blood, gore and sex, 10-12 seems okay.

Well, George R.R. Martin said in an interview that the books are targeted to an adult audience. So, your 17 year old opinion aside, I really don't think they are quite right for a pre-teen audience.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Hard to find, but worth it.

The Keill Randor series by Douglas Arthur Hill is a great one (Galactic Warlord is the first book - yeah, you've gotta ignore the lame title). It's more of a sci-fi series than a fantasy series but still a great read.

Has anyone mentioned A Wrinkle in Time and A Swiftly Tilting Planet yet? Those were very influential on me when I was a kid.

 

[CaptainCalico]

great suggestions!

I would add the Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce, Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey, and the Asterix graphic novels.

(Thrilled to see that other folks have read Gerlad Durrell)

 

[Roland Delacroix]

Well some of these aren't really fantasy, but:

Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged
or The Fountainhead
Stephen King's Eyes of the Dragon
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Lord of the Flies
for a great book on human nature-Obedience to Authority (short, but may be a difficult read)

-Mike Gill

Are you insane? Atlas Shrugged is 1,100 pages, tiny type, of philosophical mumbo jumbo. The Fountainhead, maybe even Lord of the Rings and Lord of the Flies, these are books you read in your late teens/early 20's (depending on the person) when a young adult is beginning to first develop their unique life philosophy.

Madeline L'Engles series is excellent, very interesting and makes science fun for kids. I'll also add my support for Bellairs. His mild horror books are great, especially back when he wrote them, in that they deal with common problems among kids. The main character is a dorky, overweight book-worm living with his uncle, who deals with the typical problems such an environment causes for a young boy. He also solves many of the problems with quick thinking, and IIRC eventually gets a female friend that is an excellent role model for girls as well.

The Xanth novels are pretty good. Funny, weird, and the main characters display excellent morals. Like Narnia, but not quite as good.

When I was a kid I read some of Bradbury's and Asimovs stuff. Alot of Asimovs stuff in particular has a tone of writing appropriate for children. Bradbury's tone is more adult, but the stories are simple enough for anyone. These books really got me fired up about space and science, if you want your kids to be engineers/scientists load this stuff on their bookshelves.

LeGuins Earthsea books are great but her other stuff I would catergorize with the books at the top, too philosophical for the very young.

You may want to look into the graphic novels Maus I and Maus II. They are about a polish man in america who visits his father and questions him about how they escaped the Nazis. The Jews are all drawn as mice and the Nazi's as cats, it's an excellent way to introduce the subject of WWII to children.

EDIT: Oh, and my GF read some of the Redwall books. I haven't but she says they are good for kids. Since she is an elementary school teacher I find her opinion hard to refute

 

[Tiefling]

Well, George R.R. Martin said in an interview that the books are targeted to an adult audience. So, your 17 year old opinion aside, I really don't think they are quite right for a pre-teen audience.

I'm 14, not 17. Unsuprisingly, I think this gives me a decent bearing on what the general age group can deal with. In reality, I don't think any book is inappropriate for children (in the "mature elements" way, not the "Ayn Rand really wacky philosophy" way). Your mind will only render what you have read in a level that you are ready for.

Roland: We read Lord of the Flies in sixth grade. It was a fun read, although I doubt any of us truly grasped the meaning of it.

 

[tsadkiel]

I'm 14, not 17. Unsuprisingly, I think this gives me a decent bearing on what the general age group can deal with.

I would say it doesn't. I'm familiar enough with you, Tiefling, to say you're not a typical 14 year old.

There are no real ironclad rules for this sort of thing. Some 12 year olds would be fine with the Martin books, most won't. You have to know the individual kid. As a general rule, though, I wouldn't give the books to any kid of mine unless I thought they were ready, and even then they'd have to deal with repeated talks about the adult issues raised; I'd be reading the books right along with them.

 

[edbonny]

Two of my childhood favorites:

The Secret Garden
Half-Magic

- Ed Bonny