It's We Recommend, in which we use our superpowers to find readers the perfect book. Got a kid who needs a recommendation? Write us at thediamondinthewindow (at) gmail (dot) com with the age, reading tastes, favorite books, and any other relevant (or irrelevant) information, and we'll give it a shot. And really? All the good suggestions are in the comments.
This one will break your heart. Though maybe that's true only if you're the parent of a teenager? See here:
I have a 13 year old boy to whom I read every night, or we listen to books on tape. He likes John Flannagan's Ranger's Apprentice, Jonathan Stroud's Bartimeus Trilogy, Scott Westerfeld's steampunk Goliath, Behemoth and Leviathan, Percy Jackson etc. (which I barely survived).
We're looking for new books or series in which boys do things! Action, technology and survival skills get bonus points. So does well-written. The less mushy kissy stuff the better.
The idea that a 13-year-old boy is still letting his parent read to him fills me with a bittersweet envy and joy. I am so very happy for them, and so OF COURSE I want to find them books that will feed the beast, with lots of boys doing lots of things (except for—you know. Because who wants to hear about that with a parent?).
I fear, though, that I am out of my depth here. The first thing that occurred to me is something they have probably already read:
And somehow, once I thought of it, it was hard to think of anything else. It was like I had a finite amount of creative energy in my brain, and it yielded this, and then that was it. I have not weathered the time change very well is the truth. If I think harder, I guess maybe The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel? But...I don't know. This is the one stuck in my head, so this is the one I am going with.
But YOU, kind readers, you are not hampered with my narrow mind. So give: what books can we recommend so that they can still read aloud (or listen together!) to books, even as the boy goes further down the road to teenager-hood? Put ideas in the comments, please!
