My cousin is in sixth grade, and he emailed me last week asking if I could suggest any books for him to read. Of course he’s already finished the Harry Potter series and he wants more of the same. He told me some of his recent favorites were:
Maximum Ride series by James Patterson
Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix
The Gatekeepers by Anthony Horowitz
Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz
Pendragon series by D.J. MacHale
and Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan.
Based on this, I went nuts and created a long list of books he might like. I thought I would post it here so other people might see it. I put stars next to the books I’ve read and loved.
All over good book:
*Holes by Louis Sachar
Stanley is wrongly convicted of a crime and sent to a detention camp called Camp Green Lake, where the fact that there is no lake is only the first mystery.
Funny books:
*Time Warp Trio series by Jon Scieszka
Three boys take accidental trips through history to meet pirates, cowboys, and ancient Egyptians.
*Diary of a Wimpy Kid(Book 1) by Jeff Kinney
Greg Heffley’s journal is full of wacky ideas, silly cartoons, and the social struggles of middle school.
Fantasy books:
The Amulet of Samarkand(Bartimaeus trilogy book 1) by Jonathan Stroud
Nathaniel is a magician’s apprentice who summons a djinni to steal the Amulet of Samarkand, and finds that he has summoned up much more than just a djinni.
Artemis Fowl(book 1) by Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl plots to kidnap a faerie and ransom her for faerie gold, but his plan does not turn out to be as simple as he had hoped.
Book of Three(Prydain chronicles book 1) by Lloyd Alexander
Taran, the assistant pig-keeper, longs to be a hero and have adventures. One day he runs out to catch the pig, and catches trouble, adventures, and heroes as well.
*Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Young Eragon raises a dragon from an egg, and must then set out on a quest to free the land of Alegaesia. Note: this book was written by a 15 year-old boy, and inspired by several other books on this list.
*The Golden Compass(book 1 of His Dark Materials) by Phillip Pullman
Lyra and her animal companion Pantalaimon live in another world where children are disappearing, horrible discoveries are being made in the north, and Lyra is walking right into the middle of it all.
Inkheart(book 1) by Cornelia Funke
Meggie’s father has the amazing ability to bring book characters to life when he reads aloud, but is this a gift or a curse?
*James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
James longs to leave the home of his dreadful aunts, but he never imagined that he might leave inside a giant peach, or the strange adventures that he might have.
*Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville
Jeremy Thatcher wanders into a strange magic shop where he buys a dragon egg, but he finds that keeping a growing dragon is even harder than keeping a secret.
*The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe(book 1 of the Narnia Chronicles) by C.S. Lewis
Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter were playing hide and go seek when they walked through the back of the wardrobe and into another world, a world drowning in endless winter with a dangerous prophesy about four children…
*The Lost Years of Merlin(book 1) by T.A. Barron
A boy with no memory of his past washes ashore with his mother and discovers that he has magical powers, but the magic is too difficult to control, and he must begin a quest to discover who he truly is, and who he is destined to become.
*Redwall(book 1) by Brian Jacques
Matthias the mouse wants to be a great hero like Martin the Warrior, and now that Redwall Abbey is under attack by rats, he may be the woodland creatures’ only hope.
*Wee Free Men(book 1) by Terry Pratchett
Tiffany Aching is a farm girl who is about to discover that she is a witch, that dark powers are conspiring against her, and that the most fearsome of all the faerie folk want to help her: the wee free men.
*The Witches by Roald Dahl
An orphaned boy’s grandmother told him all about the witches, and how they like to kill children, but when he finds himself stuck in the witches annual meeting, he will need to remember everything his grandmother told him to get out alive.
*The Wizard of Earthsea(book 1) by Ursula K. LeGuin
Ged wants to be a great wizard of Earthsea, but his pride and the darkness that stalks him everywhere he goes may kill him first.
Science Fiction:
*City of Ember(book 1) by Jeanne DuPrau
Lina and Doon know that the City of Ember, the only light in all the world, is about to go out, and they are certain that if they can decode a damaged message from the past, they can escape.
*Dragon’s Blood(Pit Dragon trilogy book 1) by Jane Yolen
Jakkin dreams of being more than the bond slave that he is, so he steals a baby dragon with the hope that he can raise it up to be a successful pit fighter, and buy his freedom.
*My Teacher is an Alien(book 1) by Bruce Coville
Peter and Susan learn that their teacher is an alien, and he seems to be planning an invasian…
Scary books:
*Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Coraline was bored the day that she found the door to another world, and it seems better than her world until she learns the horrible truth.
*Goosebumps by R.L Stine
In this series, each book is a stand-alone story about a kid who finds out that there really are mad scientists, monsters, and other things that go bump in the night.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
A small boy wanders into a graveyard after his parents are murdered, and he is raised by ghosts, werewolves, and vampires. (tribute to Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book)
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