Books for my Nine year old

[JimG]

Correction with regard to my reference to the Asimov short story: It was “The Last Question,” not The Final Question.

 

[PolarGuy]

John Christopher’s Tripods trilogy:

The White Mountains;
The City of Gold & Lead;
The Pool of Fire

Protagonists are tween boys; setting is the future after aliens have taken over the earth.

It was originally serialized in Boys Life magazine; the books were so enjoyable I still pick them up 3 decades after I first encountered them. There is absolutely nothing objectionable about them (other than some characters dying, albeit one sacrifices himself for others).

Stay far away from Stephen king IMHO.

 

[utunumsint]

It’s true that Asimov is an atheist. It doesn’t seem to affect his fiction, especially his early fiction, unduly. In the Foundation series, for example, it is not so much that religion is deprecated, it is simply ignored. It is as though Asimov just expected religion to quietly disappear as the centuries went on. It was a blind spot for him, but I didn’t take much note of it as a kid reading the Foundation series.

He wrote a short story called “The Final Question” which can be read on line, and which I read in a SF magazine at about the age of 11. The story ends with the universe sort of creating itself. It’s a very clever story, and I liked it even then, but it never adversely affected my faith.

I suppose we deprive our kids by not allowing them to read these books. I take for granted the freedom I had to develop myself and basically to reject many of my secular assumptions through my own discovery of the faith and how they are rationally grounded. Perhaps my kids need, perhaps not the same level of freedom (my parents did not attempt to defend any controversial aspect of the Catholic faith, but were very worldly), but some of that freedom.

God bless,
Ut

 

[Della]

I’d like to make another plug for “The Wind in the Willows.” Grahame first told his story to his son, about your son’s age, when they found a mole in their garden. All the characters are engaging and the story is nothing short of enchanting. He will love it, I guarantee it.

Since he is only nine, you may want to introduce him to books that will open his imagination in ways that are closest to your beliefs–to give him a solid foundation of truth before he explores ideas that challenge that faith. Lewis, Tolkien, and those of George MacDonald: goodreads.com/book/show/140016.The_Fantasy_Stories_of_George_MacDonald are very good foundations for faith and spiritual beauty.

 

[JimG]

I also liked Louis Sachar’s “There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom!” Despite the title, there is nothing whatsoever risqué in the book. The reading level may be somewhat below your son’s ability, but the storyline is appropriate to his age, and it’s a fun read.

 

[JimG]

I suppose we deprive our kids by not allowing them to read these books. I take for granted the freedom I had to develop myself and basically to reject many of my secular assumptions through my own discovery of the faith and how i0they are rationally grounded. Perhaps my kids need, perhaps not the same level of freedom (my parents did not attempt to defend any controversial aspect of the Catholic faith, but were very worldly), but some of that freedom.

God bless,
Ut

With respect to Asimov, I don’t want to make too much of his atheism. He doesn’t advocate for it in his fiction, nor does he bash religion. Religion is just absent from the stories. But then, religion is absent from most science fiction. When I read the Foundation novels (the original three) I liked the description of a future galactic empire; and unlike sci-fi movies, there were no big battles or explosions!

 

[utunumsint]

Well, yes, in a new agey kind of way. Deep Space 9 had the most overarching religious plot lines with the Bajorans, but the hedonism that underlines all of the Star Trek series is hardly something praiseworthy. Don’t get me started on the original series with Captain Kirk. Talk about a sailor with someone at every port! I will admit, the imagination and creativity of the shows is really something. Along with Dr. Who and Star Gate. I wish I could in good conscience expose my son to all of these shows. But I don’t believe I should.

Utunmsint asked me what a writer like Pratchett could have to offer a kid, I’ll answer with a quote from Granny Weatherwax , she’s a witch of tremendous power but rarely uses it, this is her view on sin:-

“…And that’s what your holy men discuss, is it?” [asked Granny Weatherwax.]

“Not usually. There is a very interesting debate raging at the moment on the nature of sin. for example.” [answered Mightily Oats.]

“And what do they think? Against it, are they?”

“It’s not as simple as that. It’s not a black and white issue. There are so many shades of gray.”

“Nope.”

“Pardon?”

“There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.”

“It’s a lot more complicated than that–”

“No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.”

“Oh, I’m sure there are worse crimes–”

“But they starts with thinking about people as things…”

True. A good insight that Pope JPII developed in detail in his theology of the body.

And from TH White’s work (this is from Merlin and Merlin lives backwards in this tale whicn explains why he knows future history. He is arguing against the idea of might making right with a young Arthur at the beginning of his reign):-

There was just such a man when I was young—an Austrian who invented a new way of life and convinced himself that he was the chap to make it work. He tried to impose his reformation by the sword, and plunged the civilized world into misery and chaos. But the thing which this fellow had overlooked, my friend, was that he had a predecessor in the reformation business, called Jesus Christ. Perhaps we may assume that Jesus knew as much as the Austrian did about saving people. But the odd thing is that Jesus did not turn the disciples into storm troopers, burn down the Temple at Jerusalem, and fix the blame on Pontius Pilate. On the contrary, he made it clear that the business of the philosopher was to make ideas available, and not to impose them on people.”

This is a good thought, so long as the thought does not turn into moral relativism. Live and let live, yes, but truth above all.

God bless,
Ut

 

[MarkAndrews]

Please consider my new novel The Joy of the Lord. I have been calling it a Catholic Harry Potter.

It is available on Kindle for $2.99. I wish I could put it up at a promotional price, but I have to wait 30 days after publication to do that and I just released the print version on All Saints’Day.

You can read the first four chapters for free in the preview. I will share the description below. Warning: The book has a prolife message which includes an unwed mother coming to find the faith and battling her estranged boyfriend to save her child. Also, there is a story line similar to Screwtape Letters where demons discuss how to corrupt their humans. Nothing as scary as Voldemort or Sauron, but as you probably agree with me, actually real.

Description

Regina Marie Andrews spends her days off from school like any typical twelve-year old: meals with her family, playing with friends, and watching television to pass the time. She enjoys her ordinary parents, ordinary brother, and ordinary life.

God in heaven decides His people on earth have suffered in the shadow of the evil one for long enough. He chooses to free a sleepwalking world by sending the archangel, Gabriel, to a child, who will share what she learns about the amazing story of the Incarnation of Christ with the people in her life.

When Regina takes on an amazing mission, God touches the hearts of her family, friends, and enemies and changes their lives forever. Angels and demons battle for the souls of humanity and the past intertwines with the present as the Gospels become alive through the eyes of a young visionary.

A story of faith, challenge, life, sacrifice, and hard choices, The Joy of the Lord will have everyone asking themselves about their own walk with God, thereby growing closer to Him.

Pax Christi
“Mark Andrews”
Like Regina on Facebook

 

[Viki63]

I recommend C.S.Lewis’ space trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, and Perelandra. On second thought, the first 2 are great for a child, the third one, not so (That HideousStrength),It’s too heavy.

George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie. Lovely Christian allegories.

Otto of the Silver Hand, by Howard Pyle

Rosemary Sutcliff’s Roman Britain Trilogy: The Eagle, The Silver Branch, The Lantern Bearers. The Eagle was made into a movie with several battles in it, but I think the book is fairly violence-free. They are great historical novels for young people.

 

[MarkAndrews]

I asked for prayers during the writing process a couple of years ago somewhere around here. Maybe you read some. I am using a pen name.

 

[Therese18]

There are a lot of really great books out there for that age group. Some kids’ fantasy books I highly recommend (in NO particular order!):

-Percy Jackson series. I know a LOT of grade 4 kids who loved these. I really enjoyed them, too, and they’re a very clever take on Greek mythology. (Movie is TERRIBLE, fyi.)
-He might like the Prydian Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander. It’s 5 books.
-Brian Jacques’ Redwall series
-The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper. Really good with lots of Celtic mythology.
-Of course, The Chronicles of Narnia!
-The Summer of Magic quartet by Andrea Spalding. I don’t know if these are available outside of Canada, but they’re full of British and Celtic legends. Very Arthurian.

I loved all these books!
God bless and good luck finding good books for your son! I also have a giant list of non-fantasy books for that age-group as well.

 

[Kamaduck]

Your son read LOTR at age nine? Wow. That’s seriously impressive. I didn’t get through those until I was 13, and even then, they were on the challenging side.

My parents generally let me read what I wanted after I was 11 or so, but they were always eager to discuss what I was reading. Their take was that it’s OK to expose yourself to other ideas- even wrong ideas- as long as you understand that any given author might be wrong about any given thing, and you constantly evaluate the ideas you’re being exposed to. That’s what I try to do with all the media I consume now. I may not always avoid problematic themes, but I always try to be aware of why they are problematic. At the same time, I don’t think I ever tried to read anything that was obviously inappropriate. I doubt they would have let me read A Game of Thrones if I’d picked it up in sixth grade.

I can think of several series that are appropriate and possibly of interest, though they’re all way easier than LOTR:

City of Ember is the first of a trilogy set in an underground post-apocalyptic world. The main protagonist is a girl (I was partial to girl heroes; your son may not be ). It’s all about the girl and her friend uncovering the secret of the surface world, with a side dish of exposing corruption within the city. There’s nothing particularly objectionable in them that I recall.

I read every single Animorphs book when I was about your son’s age. They’re about a group of kids who defend the earth from invading parasitic alien slugs, using “morphing” technology that lets them turn into animals. Not exactly great literature, but the books do handle a lot of moral and ethical dilemmas that make for good discussion topics. In a rather typical plot, the heroes discuss whether it is acceptable to expose their enemies to addictive substances (in this case, instant maple and ginger oatmeal), and whether “we’re at war and they’re trying to enslave us” is a good enough justification to force a sentient people to become addicted to something harmful. Some members of the group believe it to be totally unethical, while others think that they should use every advantage they have in order to protect the earth. Like I said, it’s not great literature (after a while, my mom would only let me read them if I alternated with classic works of SF or the English canon, for fear the writing style would turn my brain to mush ), but I do think it handles the themes of war and responsibility very well. When they’re not being so serious, they can also be quite funny, so it’s not as though the darkness isn’t interrupted by happy stuff. There is violence (lots of violence, though I don’t remember whether it’s better or worse than Harry Potter), but I don’t remember any sexual stuff. The romance plots take a backseat to the war story and the team’s friendships, and I’m pretty sure they never get past kissing anyway.

A Series of Unfortunate Events is another good series. It’s not exactly fantasy, but not particularly realistic, either. Mostly, it’s about three orphaned children who depend on each other because they have nobody else, and their continuing quest to find a loving, responsible guardian while avoiding their evil relative, Count Olaf. They’re basically guile heroes who always look out for each other, which is nice.

The Artemis Fowl books are basically urban fantasy, and star a hyper-intelligent eleven year old boy who plans to use fairy gold to fund the search for his missing father. He starts out as a clear villain protagonist (albeit a sympathetic one), orchestrating the kidnapping of a fairy and holding her for ransom (the plan works, but he decides that kidnapping people is a line he doesn’t want to cross in the future). Over time, he becomes less villainous and more heroic, helping the fairies from the first book while they deal with more serious threats. I’m not sure they showcase any particular virtues, but they’re definitely entertaining, and I don’t remember anything more disturbing than the kidnapping in the first four books.

I’ll second the recommendation for the Dear America books- like the others here, they won’t be a challenge for your son in terms of reading level, but they are quite educational and teach a lot about history. Again, most of the protagonists are young girls, but if your son doesn’t care about that, they’re good historical fiction.

Everything on this list (except maybe the Dear America books) is gender-neutral. I’m a girl, and I liked all of them, so this is also a good list for your daughter if she ends up liking fantasy and science fiction. For middle school girls, I would add some of the recent dystopian works that have been springing up- Uglies and The Hunger Games are both good. The main plot has to do with confronting a totalitarian state and/or surviving its attempts to control the populace, but do they have more significant romance plots and a bit more discussion of sexuality. Plus, obviously, violence- but nothing worse than what you’d find in Dune.

Also for your daughter- The Magic Treehouse is way too easy for your son now, but they’re fun books for a kid age 5-7, and many deal with historical settings as well as outright fantasy. No objectionable content whatsoever, that I can recall.

With stories aimed at adults, it depends on the kid. I read Ender’s Game and the associated books when I was eleven, loved them, and didn’t find the violence at all disturbing (and then I read 1984 and *Lord of the Flies *the following year, which I also really liked). My mom said she’s handed the same book to adults, and they’ve been horrified.

I think it’s great that you’ve got such a balanced attitude about this. Sounds like you’re already doing an awesome job engaging with your son and his reading material.

 

[Kamaduck]

Oh, also- I forgot Among the Hidden and its sequels. It’s another dystopian series, with a very pro-life and anti population control theme (the government kills third children and discourages reproduction; the protagonists are third children attempting to survive and, eventually, reform the government). Again, not going to challenge your son in terms of reading level (although we read them as a class in 8th grade, which was sort of ridiculous given how easy they are), but the story is good and the morals aren’t anything a Catholic would find objectionable. He might like them.

 

[ToeInTheWater]

Surprised no one’s mentioned Beverly Cleary yet! I loved every single one of her books growing up. (Though I will say I was disappointed with her last published book, Ramona’s World – it just seemed a tad too superficial compared to the rest of the Ramona series, but I was a lot older than the target age group when I read it for nostalgia’s sake. All of Ramona’s problems in that book were quickly solved in a TV-sitcom like way with no serious repercussions. However, the earlier books deal with weightier issues such as Ramona’s father losing his job and her mother leaving her traditional home-maker role to enter the workplace.

Another book she wrote that deals with weighty topics in an age-appropriate way is Dear Mr. Henshaw, which won the Newberry Medal in 1984. The main character deals with his parents’ divorce, a father who has essentially abandoned him, bullying, and other serious topics.

Now, I suppose a Millenial kid might find the Ramona books to be a bit dated, they were written in the 1970s/80s, way before everyone had a cell phone that doubled as a mini-computer. I also don’t know if the OP’s child is the kind of boy who’s interested in books with a girl as a main character. Cleary also wrote the Henry Huggins series that feature a boy, but those books were written in the 1950s and the OP’s child might find them even more difficult to relate to. And perhaps if the OP’s child is already reading LOTR they books are a little below his reading level, but perhaps when the OP’s daughter gets a bit older she’d enjoy them.

The OP’s son may find the Lois Lowry books to be more suited to his reading level, she is likely best known for The Giver Quartet but she also wrote MANY other books that I enjoyed a lot.

I also think the Judy Blume books meant for pre-teen kids such as Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing are appropriate, though her books for adolescents are much more controversial (and some of those are quite dated, too). Certainly I’d vet her books before giving them to a 9 year old.

 

[JimG]

Maybe it’s just bad memory on my part, but there sure seems to be a lot of dystopian novels and dystopian stories around currently. When I was in elementary school, I preferred somewhat more optimistic novels. Even Asimov’s “Foundation” series, which featured the bad galactic empire vs the good Foundation, was not particularly dystopian, compared with, for example, “The Hunger Games.”

Once again I’ll recommend “There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom,” which is not dystopian at all!

 

[UnumCorpus]

Gordon Korman is a Canadian writer who writes incredibly funny books. Your son might enjoy his “Bruno and Boots” series about two boys who get up to high jinks at their boarding school, Macdonald Hall. (The first book, “This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall!” was written when Korman was 12 and published when he was 14.) There’s nothing inappropriate in the books that I can see.

I’m glad you gave a shout-out to the classic “Bruno and Boots” books! I have so many good memories reading those with my brother growing up. To this day, I still consider the second book in the series, “Go Jump in the Pool”, to be one of the funniest books I have ever read.

The Hardy Boys series was a favourite of mine growing up - these are mysteries solved by two brothers, aged 17 and 18. Obviously they’re quite a bit older than your son, but there’s nothing inappropriate in them.

Eric Wilson is another author I quite enjoyed. You might have to search a bit to find his books - they might not be available outside of Canada and/or the U.S. Most of his books are set in Canada, with the exception of “Disneyland Hostage”. He writes about two siblings and their adventures solving mysteries. Some books involve only one sibling, while others involve both.

Yes and yes to both of these two! Again, these are two book series I liked to read growing up. My brother made a point of collecting as many Hardy Boys as he could. These are not high literature, but they are definitely fun and entertaining to read.

Lots of great suggestions on this thread! It’s great to see authors like Gordon Korman, Eric Wilson, and Beverly Cleary being mentioned. Their books bring back so many good memories. :heaven:

Another author I enjoyed reading when I was about nine or ten years old was Kit Pearson. She is a Canadian author, so I am not sure how available her books are worldwide. My favourite books of hers was her War Trilogy, which was about two English children who were sent to live in Canada during World War II. They are excellently written with sympathetic characters, though there are tragic moments, especially in the final book The Lights Go On Again. But as far as I can remember, there was nothing inappropriate.

 

[Kamaduck]

Maybe it’s just bad memory on my part, but there sure seems to be a lot of dystopian novels and dystopian stories around currently. When I was in elementary school, I preferred somewhat more optimistic novels. Even Asimov’s “Foundation” series, which featured the bad galactic empire vs the good Foundation, was not particularly dystopian, compared with, for example, “The Hunger Games.”

Once again I’ll recommend “There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom,” which is not dystopian at all!

It’s not bad memory on your part. Dystopian stories are an unusually popular genre of SF right now (especially in stories aimed at a high school or middle school audience), and utunumsint mentioned that he and his son like SF and Fantasy novels. Dystopian works are going to show up on any lists that skew towards newer SF/Fantasy (as mine does).

Personally, I really like dystopian novels- both the classic variety (1984, Brave New World, and perhaps most of all, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451) and the newer variety we’re seeing so much of now (The Hunger Games, Uglies, and Among the Hidden). I probably like them for the same reason everyone else does- I believe that they are relevant to our society. I’m pretty sure young people- at least in America, I can’t speak for other places- are no longer looking forward to the future with the same sense of “it’s gonna be awesome and humanity is going to terraform, like, the whole universe” that many early SF writers had. It no longer has much to do with a fear of technology. It’s just that, well, we don’t really trust our parents and grandparents to bring us into a world that actually works anymore. We don’t trust the school system, we don’t trust the government, and more and more of us are growing up in households that lack two strong, trustworthy parents who will take care of us. I think a lot of us like the idea of challenging the status quo and not relying on adult authorities (who often seem more interested in controlling us than in keeping us safe or helping us grow up). I can see how those themes would be worrisome to adults, but given what I’ve seen of the American school system, it’s easy to see why “question authority- most adults do not have your best interests at heart” is such a common idea in YA SF right now.

One thing I will say is that dystopia is no longer a wholly pessimistic genre. The older dystopias, especially those written in the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s, were cautionary tales about signing away freedom. They generally played off a fear of actual totalitarian governments. In newer dystopias, the idea is that we are already on the cusp of such a world, and that things are probably going to get worse before they get better. But while the old stories tended to star middle-aged men (usually classical antiheroes) who were just trying to keep their individuality and their lives, newer dystopias star teenagers- often girls- who refuse to accept the status quo. They generally start out just trying to survive, but by the end, they’re in the middle of a revolution and are having some success at bringing the big bad government to its knees. Most of them are, if not happy, at least hopeful.

Anyway, that’s heavy stuff for a nine-year-old (you will notice that I only recommended one truly dystopian series for him right now, and of all the series there, it is the one that I believe to be most in line with a Catholic worldview, with a strong pro-life message). But the issues raised in these stories are also interesting and thought-provoking, in a way that Asimov’s Foundation just wasn’t for me. Sure, it’s inventive, and I was impressed by the sheer scale of his intergalactic setting, but it didn’t leave me pondering big questions, I didn’t get particularly attached to any of the characters, I don’t remember it being funny, and I was never really on the edge of my seat wanting to find out what would happen next. I did not enjoy it the way I enjoyed the stories I put on my list. I read those because they made me happy. I’m pretty sure I read Foundation because I wanted to sound well-read.

 

[ToeInTheWater]

Kamaduck, while I read and liked the Hunger Games trilogy, I’m not quite sure if that story fits into what you describe as:

But while the old stories tended to star middle-aged men (usually classical antiheroes) who were just trying to keep their individuality and their lives, newer dystopias star teenagers- often girls- who refuse to accept the status quo. They generally start out just trying to survive, but by the end, they’re in the middle of a revolution and are having some success at bringing the big bad government to its knees. Most of them are, if not happy, at least hopeful.

The way the THG trilogy ended is actually quite controversial in many circles and many think the revolution did not improve matters at all except for perhaps bringing out the abolition of the “Games” (which are certainly depicted as evil) themselves – and even that is not 100% certain. Even in-story, a character expresses a rather cynical opinion that he expects history to repeat itself and for the society to fall back into tyranny.

The main protagonist, I think, winds up in a place where she is desperately hanging on to hope, but is permanently scarred by her experiences, and one could argue that even if the society has advanced, she herself winds up worse off than before. I think that while the trilogy may very well be within the reading level of some 9 year olds, certainly one who could get through LOTR, and that the first two books they could likely read on their own, the last book really would be best read with some parental supervision.

 

[His_helpmeet]

Surprised no one’s mentioned Beverly Cleary yet! I loved every single one of her books growing up. (Though I will say I was disappointed with her last published book, Ramona’s World – it just seemed a tad too superficial compared to the rest of the Ramona series, but I was a lot older than the target age group when I read it for nostalgia’s sake. All of Ramona’s problems in that book were quickly solved in a TV-sitcom like way with no serious repercussions. However, the earlier books deal with weightier issues such as Ramona’s father losing his job and her mother leaving her traditional home-maker role to enter the workplace.

Another book she wrote that deals with weighty topics in an age-appropriate way is Dear Mr. Henshaw, which won the Newberry Medal in 1984. The main character deals with his parents’ divorce, a father who has essentially abandoned him, bullying, and other serious topics.

Now, I suppose a Millenial kid might find the Ramona books to be a bit dated, they were written in the 1970s/80s, way before everyone had a cell phone that doubled as a mini-computer. I also don’t know if the OP’s child is the kind of boy who’s interested in books with a girl as a main character. Cleary also wrote the Henry Huggins series that feature a boy, but those books were written in the 1950s and the OP’s child might find them even more difficult to relate to. And perhaps if the OP’s child is already reading LOTR they books are a little below his reading level, but perhaps when the OP’s daughter gets a bit older she’d enjoy them.

The OP’s son may find the Lois Lowry books to be more suited to his reading level, she is likely best known for The Giver Quartet but she also wrote MANY other books that I enjoyed a lot.

I also think the Judy Blume books meant for pre-teen kids such as Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing are appropriate, though her books for adolescents are much more controversial (and some of those are quite dated, too). Certainly I’d vet her books before giving them to a 9 year old.

I firmly maintain that The Giver is a book EVERYONE (children and adults) should read. DSD just read it and she just turned 10 last month.

 

[JimG]

It’s not bad memory on your part. Dystopian stories are an unusually popular genre of SF right now (especially in stories aimed at a high school or middle school audience), and utunumsint mentioned that he and his son like SF and Fantasy novels. Dystopian works are going to show up on any lists that skew towards newer SF/Fantasy (as mine does).
. . . .

I’m pretty sure young people- at least in America, I can’t speak for other places- are no longer looking forward to the future with the same sense of “it’s gonna be awesome and humanity is going to terraform, like, the whole universe” that many early SF writers had.

Kamaduck, I appreciate your comments and analysis regarding the dystopian genre. 1940’s and 1950’s SF was quite a bit different than current SF. Less literary, more impressed with evoking a sense of wonder. Now we are actually living in an increasingly dystopian society so it makes sense that our literature would reflect that. I just wonder how much pessimism we want to inflict on nine-year-olds! I think you have pretty much nailed Asimov, he was not much of a character writer, you couldn’t really get excited about his characters, he was more of a big picture sort of storyteller.

Thinking about your remarks, it also occurs to me that teenage vampire romance and zombie fiction have also become popular!