Five Favourites: Books for Boys

A quick disclaimer to start with: there is nothing to say girls can't read these books. I've just noticed boys can be a little bit... harder to please, shall we say. 

I've tried to pick books you may not have heard of, or which may not come to mind immediately - Lewis, Tolkien, Dahl and Rowling, I'm looking at you. Age-wise, think 7 to early teens, depending on the reading ability of the child in question. They'd also work as read-alouds.

So...

1. Jules Verne, Around the World in 80 Days. 

Ze Husband would never forgive me if I didn't include Jules Verne on this list. He was pretty prolific, so if this one goes down well, then there are a lot more to read. Also, the books are in the public domain, so everybody wins.

2. Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons.

 

The first in a series of 12. I may be slightly biased, having grown up just down the road from the places the books are based on, but objectively, they're still pretty good. There's also a TV series.

3. Lucy M. Boston, The Children of Green Knowe.

I loved this book, and its sequels, as a child; I seem to remember my brother liking them too. It's a ghost story, but not a scary one. Actually, almost everything in the Faber Children's Classics catalogue is pretty good.

4. Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals.

   
Funny. Very, very funny.

5. Terry Pratchett, Truckers

Truckers and its sequels, Diggers and Wings, are some of the funniest books I've ever read. I wouldn't recommend the Discworld books for this age group, but the Bromeliad trilogy is a work of genius. A note of warning, however: Pratchett was a very vocal advocate for euthanasia. This doesn't come across in his books, but it's something parents may wish to be aware of.

Happy reading! 

Linking up with Ashley at The Big White Farmhouse for Five Favourites. Hop on over and share the link-up love!