Although I enjoyed this book too, it is pretty dark and gruesome later on, and the themes in it are dark. I think it might be too adult for an 11-12 year old whose parents are watching violence content. ETA: Grueseome isn’t exactly the word I was looking for, but when the scene with the huge, bloated fat cat lying on a mound of dead and dying cats and langourously being fed them comes along, it’s not gentle, and I don’t think the parents would approve it.
Don’t worry about whether someone is too old for particular series. I read all the books I mentioned in my post as an adult except for the Alice books, and those are perhaps the most difficult of the ones I’m recommending. By the time someone is 11- or 12-years-old, any book that they would like are books that an adult will like too.
appleciders writes:
> Daniel Pinkwater is just right for that age, and he’s really underrated.
I’m not sure if Pinkwater is underrated. He’s well known and highly rated among experts on children’s literature. He sells well if not on a Harry Potter level. He just doesn’t have the kind of super-popularity he should have.
My daughter, who is 11, also loved the Gregor books. She (and most of her friends) are now reading a series called “Warriors” by Erin Hunter. It is a fantasy series about a society of wild cats. There are different clans of cats who battle each other, etc. I’m not absolutely sure if the series would appeal to boys, since I haven’t read them, but it certainly appeals to girls. They even call each other over the phone and plan which scenes they are going to act out at recess.
Very good, but the occasional short & mild sex/nude scene might freak out prissy parents. And he might be hard going, depending on how good a reader the kid is.
Still, he’s very good.
I talked to my daughter, and she says that boys are reading the “Warriors” books, too. They seem to be quite popular.
I found the first pretty girly, but I may be overinterpreting based on the gushy recommendation from a girl. The protagonist cat is male. The insult “kittypet” (which I call my partner when I go out in the rain for firewood and she stays inside) is second only to “cakesniffer” from Snicket.
Are the Snarkout Boys books even in print any more? What about Alan Mendelsohn? Those are my favorites. I have them all, in ancient falling-apart paperbacks.
Actually, Pinkwater’s new book, The Neddiad, is pretty good. His last couple have been really repetitive and disappointing, but I enjoyed the new one quite a bit.
These are more for younger readers. 3rd-5th grade and girls oriented. My daughter loved them. She read them at ages 8 and 9.
Jim
That’s a great recommendation. Asterix, Obelix, and the gang are a lot of fun. (The father of one of my childhood friends was in the Foreign Service, stationed in Belgium for several years, and my friend grew up reading the Asterix comics in French. Me, I settle for the English translations.)
dangermom writes:
> Are the Snarkout Boys books even in print any more? What about Alan
> Mendelsohn?
Look for the anthologies 5 Novels and 4 Fantastic Novels.
Mmmm, Aztec. 
In a more serious vein, it’s hard to go wrong with the swords and sorcery, or swords and technology, and twisted sense of humor, of Simon Green. Blue Moon Rising is the book I wish I had read at his age(you could usually find me in the biography section of the library during that point in my life). Barring that, The Princess Bride by William Goldman would be a good one as well.
Enjoy,
Steven
If Asterix is on the table, what about Tintin? Of course, not Tintin in the Congo, but otherwise…
if you want to branch out to any must-have collectors dvd’s I would definately recommend The Labrynth as well as The Dark Crystal (which has a really nice collector’s edition). He’s the perfect age for them.