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Harry Potter-esque books?
My child has really enjoyed these. Can anyone recommend other books/series that are similar? Not necessarily the same type of story, but well written, easy for 10 yr olds to read, and challenging enough to keep them progressing. Thanks!
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Chronicles of Narnia
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (of course, if he's seen the movies, wouldn't do much good) |
Anything by Roald Dahl. Don't know if they're advanced enough, but I thought HP was written in a very similar style. I still enjoy reading them at 26 :D
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I enjoyed David Edding's Belgariad and Piers Anthony's Xanth series when I was that age.
Some I haven't read, but have heard lumped in with HP are: Lemony Snicket series, Artemis Fowl, Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. |
Perhaps....
.... the works of <A HREF="http://members.ozemail.com.au/~xenophon/bio.html" target="_blank">Alan Garner</a>?
<A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0152017976/103-1227228-1704621?v=glance&s=books" target="_blank"><IMG SRC="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0152017976.01._PE_PIdp-schmooS,TopRight,7,-26_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg" border=0 ALT="Elidor: Click for details"></a><A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0152017666/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/103-1227228-1704621?v=glance&s=books&vi=customer-reviews" target="_blank"><IMG SRC="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0152017666.01._PE_PIdp-schmooS,TopRight,7,-26_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg" border=0 ALT="Weirdstone: Click for details"></a><A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0001024388/103-1227228-1704621" target="_blank"><IMG SRC="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0001024388.01._PE_PI_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg" border=0 ALT="Moon of Gomrath: Click for details"></a><A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0001841572/reviews/103-1227228-1704621#00018415724000" target="_blank"><IMG SRC="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0001841572.01._PE_PI_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg" border=0 ALT="Redshift: Click for details"></a><A HREF="http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/books_magazines/print_books/the_owl_service_alan_garner/_review/430179/" target="_blank"><IMG SRC="http://img.dooyoo.net/GB_EN/120/books_magazines/print_books/the_owl_service_alan_garner.jpg" border=0 Alt="The Owl Service: Click for details"></a> From a newspaper interview: Despite an OBE for services to children's literature, and the fact that books like The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and Elidor are the kind of absorbing childhood fantasy that reverberates into adulthood, to view Garner as a children's writer is reductive. He puts it best when he says: "I do not write for children, but for myself. Adolescents read my books. By adolescence, I mean an arbitrary age somewhere between 10 and 18." It's an in-between group, and Garner's books are likewise poised between passion and detachment, intensity and alienation, blunt modernity and ancient myth. His style is stripped-down, yet shares dialect and linguistic relish with much older works. "The language of my childhood and of my native culture is, technically, North-west Mercian Middle English," he has said - the language of the Gawain poet. The layers of local history and a precise sense of place are paramount in his work. He has been writing for over 40 years; each book is a lengthy project as he pours so much research into it (learning Welsh for The Owl Service, for example). Eventually, "I feel a jolt within me and I hear quite without any understanding; I hear words, which I put down". Not all his work is fantasy - the Stone Quartet follows four generations of Garner's family from the mid-19th century to the second world war. |
My younger cousins enjoy the Lemony Snicket books along with Harry Potter.
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Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials
The Golden Compass The Subtle Knife The Amber Spyglass |
aren't the Lemony Snicket books the big thing now?
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Originally posted by jayson1017 The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (of course, if he's seen the movies, wouldn't do much good) |
<small>
Originally posted by juiio Despite the desire of many people to compare the two sets of movies to each other, the books are not similar at all. |
Thanks for all the great suggestions!
We went to Borders and checked 'em all out. He went with the Hobbit, and has been tearing it up. Turning off the games to read, much like when he has a new Harry Potter book. We plan to hit some of the other suggestions when he finishes The Hobbit...unless he decides to stay in Middle Earth and read the rest of the books. (I snagged The Da Vinci Code myself. Peer pressure I guess.) Thanks again! Printing and saving thread. |
A cousin gave me Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl and the Century Code (not sure) and she said that the series (there's 3 so far) has been compared to Harry. I guess, considering the protagonist is also a teenager. Can't get past Chapter 2 though, unlike with Sorcerer, where I couldn't stop reading after Chapter 1. :D
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I'd also recommend Mary Stewart's Arthurian series.
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How about:
The Thief Lord by Cornilia - Cornelia Funke (good read) Inkheart - Cornelia Funke Eragon (Inheritance, Book 1) - Christopher Paolini Bartimaeus Trilogy Book One: The Amulet of Samarkand - Jonathan Stroud (supposed to be a darker version of Harry Potter) Abarat - Clive Barker (I am reading this now and it is a fun book) |
Originally posted by neiname Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials The Golden Compass The Subtle Knife The Amber Spyglass I loved the last book when the Dr. was living with that race of "motorbike antelope"...I wanted a whole book on that. |
this is very much the American follow up to Harry Potter:
Eragon (Inheritance, Book 1) - Christopher Paolini |
Lloyd Alexander wrote 5 very good books in a series
The Book of Three The Black Cauldren Castle of Llyr Taran Wonderer The High King |
Both Abarat and The Thief of Always by Clive Barker.
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I like it, Jay. :thumbsup:
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I've been reading inkheart and have found it to be pretty good. There are some very minor sexual tones to it here and there but you'd have to have a pretty dirty mind to pick up on them. ;) I'd say 10 years and up, probably 12 to be safe.
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Maybe the Hobbit, but the Lord of the Rings might be a bit advanced, or dare I say, boring, for a 10 year old.
I'd recommend the Lemony Snicket books (I just finished the series and loved it, I felt there was still some jokes that kids wouldn't get, particularly when the author would describe word definitions) I cannot recommend Roald Dahl enough. My favorites are: Matilda, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Charlie & the Great Glass Elevator and The Fantastic Mr. Fox (a good short book) The comparisons between Rowling and Dahl are somewhat merited, but I'd say that Roald Dahl books are most similar to the beginning of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a bit whimsical and humourous, but a lot of fun to read. And though I haven't read them, I've heard great things about the 'His Dark Materials trilogy,' if your child can read 'half-blood prince' I'm sure this won't be a problem. Oh, and I don't know if it's a bit too much, but I loved 'Ender's Game' by Orson Scott Card. I'd either read it first to see if it's suitable for your child or wait a few years. Oh, and the Narnia series is pure gold. |
Originally Posted by neocheddar02
I'd recommend the Lemony Snicket books (I just finished the series and loved it, I felt there was still some jokes that kids wouldn't get, particularly when the author would describe word definitions)
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I am not recommending it (since I have not read it), but I read the sleeve jacket and it sounds like a clone of HP.
Charlie Bone. |
I second Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles....also, I think I was about 9 or 10 when I discovered my favorite book of all time (still) "Watership Down" by Richard Adams...it's not a fantasy in the sense that it takes place in a world not quite our own but it's extremely moving and very well written...if he's into animals at all, he'll love it.
Michael |
The "The Dark is Rising" series was one of my favorites as a child in the 80's.
Turns out it is being turned into a movie and is currently filming. http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Rising-Se...e=UTF8&s=books |
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