[d.w.w.]

I couldn't find a dedicated thread on kids books, so starting a new one.

Summer vacation is coming and we have a voracious reader at home who will be turning 11 this year. Would like to get some book suggestions from bhpians to keep her engaged during holidays.

Some of our preferences while choosing books

• Always a hard copy. Less screen time
• Somewhat bigger font on the printed book. My daughter reads for hours at a stretch and complains of headache later if the font is very small. We cant keep her away from reading for this reason, so the work around we found was to buy books with larger fonts.
• age related content. (not too much of adult/teenage content)
• loves fantasy (read Harry Potter and the likes) and not too much in to Sci-Fi

Few books that are already covered

• Harry Potter (of course)
• Famous Five
• Lord of the rings
• Diary of a wimpy kid
• few of Geronimo Stilton series
• Classics like Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Black Beauty, Stuart Little etc.
• Kids version of Ramayana and Mahabharat

[boniver]

Some books I remember reading when I was 11:
1. Hardy Boys series
2. Nancy Drew series
3. Alex Rider series

Famous Five is what got me into reading, "Five Go to Smuggler's Top" which IIRC was book no. 4 in the series was the first book I read. Finished all the 21 (or was it 22) books in a few months and moved onto Harry Potter. I was 8 years old and bedridden after an accident. Hope the kid can keep up his reading habit, mine kind of dwindled after I went to college. Funnily, at one point of time I used to read storybooks all the time, even when walking on the road or travelling by bus, or under the blanket at night with a torch!

[mayankk]

Thanks for this.
My son is a voracious one too, and he polished off the Geronimo Stiltons and wimpy kid with a vengeance. I am trying to move him onto Enid Blyton, but it hasn't taken his fancy.

Any recommendations here will be forwarded promptly.

In any case, I let him loose inside an Oxford or an Om, and let him pick out whatever he wants to try. I feel that any kind of reading is better than ANY kind of digital time, so even if I do not sometimes agree with what he gets, I let him be.

[srini1785]

Originally Posted by d.w.w.

Few books that are already covered

• Harry Potter (of course)
• Famous Five
• Lord of the rings
• Diary of a wimpy kid
• few of Geronimo Stilton series
• Classics like Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Black Beauty, Stuart Little etc.
• Kids version of Ramayana and Mahabharat

The whole series of TinTin and Asterix. Complete series of books are costly but if you are able to rummage at old book shops and you may find the whole series for around 1500.00. Moore market may be a good starting point.

[Abhisheknott]

Narnia - C S Lewis
Adventure series by Enid Blyton (Found it better than the other books)
Adventure series by Willard Price
Call of the wild / White Fang / Black Beauty
Calvin and Hobbes
Asterix & Obelix
Tintin (maybe in a couple of years?)

[Eddy]

My 11 year old really enjoyed reading Sapiens. The graphic novel version for kids is in two parts and are amazing. In fact, I also loved the first one.

Please invest in the hard cover version.

https://www.amazon.in/Sapiens-Graphi.../dp/1787332810


Looking for recommendations on age appropriate version of biographies & auto biographies please.

[TorqueyTechie]

I used to love Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew books when I used to be 10/11 years old. And used to love Tinkle too and was subscribed to it. I would also recommend enrolling them into a library which has a separate kids section attached. I used to spend atleast 2-3 hours there every day during afternoons and then by 4 step out to play.

Off topic : If anyone in Bangalore is looking for a good library, would recommend Indian Institute of World Culture Basavanagudi. It has a good collection of children books in a separate area. Also City central library at South end circle is one more good one.

[aargee]

Sudha Murthy's books, not sure how many children will enjoy; they're quite interesting for few children in adults as well Again, not all, some of them tend to have monotonous plot

[beez]

Originally Posted by d.w.w.

I couldn't find a dedicated thread on kids books, so starting a new one.

Summer vacation is coming and we have a voracious reader at home who will be turning 11 this year. Would like to get some book suggestions from bhpians to keep her engaged during holidays.

Thanks for the thread. I will be following this now for recommendations for my kids who are around the same age - 10 and 8 years.

Based on what they read, some recommendations below:

Ruskin Bond - The room on the roof, The blue Umbrella, etc.
R K Narayan - Swami and friends, Malgudi Adventures
Dog diaries - Steven Butler and James Patterson (large font)
Jungle Book (abridged classics) (large font)
Sudha Murthy (not sure if they come in large font size)

Try these out.

[PrasadS]

I'm a huge fantasy fiction aficionado.
Some of my recommendations will be:

1: Artemis fowl series
2: Percy Jackson series
3: Inheritance series (one of my personal favourites)
4: Septimus Heap series
5: Bartimaeus trilogy
6: Kane chronicles
7: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series (Harry potter fans might know this fellow)

You've already covered LOTR which i consider as the Holy Bible of fantasy fiction.
The above are just from the top of my head. Will suggest more if needed. Some of my best reads might not be that suitable for below 14 so avoided those.

FYI I've read most of these in my 20's and enjoyed them despite these being targeted for kids and young adults

[mygodbole]

Amar Chitra Katha anyone? Those edited by Uncle Pai?

I grew up reading Amar Chitra Katha. About 10 years back, when ACK was re-released, I purchased 25 comics each month. A few months later, ACK came out with a bundle offer: All ACKs for an X amount. By then had most of the comics I wanted.

The attraction for ACKs was the historical, mythological and social narratives rooted in India. In the 1970s. even my grandmother used to pick these up and read them out to my younger cousins.

[catchjyoti]

I will suggest to buy the entire set of Amar Chitra Katha. Nothing better to get your kid initiated to the myriad of stories from India.

The other books I used to read and love around your kid's age were Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series. After another 3 years or so, she can graduate to Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew case files series.

[subraiyr]

Originally Posted by d.w.w.

I couldn't find a dedicated thread on kids books, so starting a new one.

Summer vacation is coming and we have a voracious reader at home who will be turning 11 this year. Would like to get some book suggestions from bhpians to keep her engaged during holidays.

Few books that are already covered

• Harry Potter (of course)
• Famous Five
• Lord of the rings
• Diary of a wimpy kid
• few of Geronimo Stilton series
• Classics like Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, Black Beauty, Stuart Little etc.
• Kids version of Ramayana and Mahabharat

I think lot of people have already provided their suggestions. My son is 11 and has gone through most of the books mentioned in the thread till now. Along with this, i also pushed him to read some of the old classics. Started him off with the following in an abridged form

1. Treasure Island - RL Stevenson
2. Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
3. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandar Dumas
4. Peter Pan - JM Barrie
5. Little Women - Louis M Alcott - Rite of passage book
6. Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank
7. To kill a mocking bird - Harper Lee
8. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Connan Doyle
9. Roald Dhal books are a must
10. Agatha Christie - The short stories are good to read

There are a great many more which will help in building amazing english skills and imagination

[ninjatalli]

I would look at old libraries to see if they stock older comics to start off. Decades ago they were the place I would hunt for

Comics
- Archie comics
- Phantom comics
- Tinkle, Amar Chitra Katha and the lot from ACK
- Chacha Chaudhary, Billu and the lot from Pran / Diamond Comics
- If the kid can read Hindi, there's a lot more from the above publisher
- Tintin & Asterix series
- Calvin & Hobbes
- Marvel & DC comics (easy to get the kid interested given the movie franchises)

As for books, there has been several good recommendations above so not going there.

Also a friend who's kid reads a lot recommended https://justbooks.in as a good option for getting a variety of books.

[Mgdoodler]

Hi,

Apart from the books recommend above, do consider the following too:

1. Ruskin Bond - ages 5 - 10 yrs
2. Ravi Subramanian - SMS Detective stories - 2 books in this series - ages 7-9 yrs