I need Fantasy book suggestions for my 12 year old

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My 12 year old son is just running through books like a pms-er with chocolate. He really likes Fantasy novels. He’s read the Brian Jacques books, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Narnia books. His reading level is very high, but so is his innocence. I think he is ready to move out of the children’s library, but I’m scared to turn him loose in young adult/adult books. At his age, I was reading all sorts of immoral literature that I’d like to protect him from.

Any suggestion on good books that don’t have impurity?
 
If he likes the fantasy stories, perhaps he would like science fiction. However, the older science fiction stories are, in my view, more enjoyable for kids, and more innocent than the recent stuff. I would try any anthology edited by Groff Conklin to see if he likes it.
 
Hi:
You might want to check out Arx Publishing. They have fantasy books, historical fiction, etc. , for Catholic homeschoolers but kids in general. BTW, they also have a wonderful Catholic Men’s magazine.
arxpub.com/
 
Lloyd Alexander’s “Prince Taran” series would be good - The Black Cauldron is one of them. Written for teens and young adults, the stories are based on Welsh mythology. Great stuff!

Edgar Rice Burroughs - all of them. Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Pellucidar. Very good for that age level.

Robert E. Howard’s Conan series (but only the books written by Howard since they were written back in the 30s and are “clean” - do not get any of the Conan stories not written by Howard).
 
Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave (and her others of the King Arthur/Merlin series (four books)). It was written in 1970.
It’s a great, well-written story, told in the first person by Merlin (the only one I’ve ever seen treat him as entirely human). His respect for the power (magic, if you will) that is not of his own making, but is given by a god he supects to be one person, is impressive.

I’m an English teacher, a Catholic father of six. I’d be more than happy to have my kids read this.
John
 
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brotherhrolf:
Robert E. Howard’s Conan series (but only the books written by Howard since they were written back in the 30s and are “clean” - do not get any of the Conan stories not written by Howard).
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Hmm, I’m a big fan of Howard’s Conan (the real Conan), but I would neither call them “clean” nor recommend them for a twelve year old. Though not explicit, sexual themes are frequent and descriptions of female characters can leave little to the imagination.

If he does have a bit of interest in science fiction, Robert A. Heinlein’s earlier books (pre-1960’s) are excellent. Heinlein was under contract to write novels targetted at teen boys through the late 40’s and throughout the 50’s. Novels like Rocketship Galileo, Have Spacesuit Will Travel, Tunnel in the Sky, The Puppet Masters and many others are appropriate.

It is important to check when Heinlein’s books are from. His later works (mid-60’s on) are defintiely not suitable for teens. These would include Stranger in a Strange Land, I Will Fear No Evil, The Cat Who Walked through Walls, The Number of the Beast and others.

Basically, anything over 300pp is from Heinlein is out.

No one has mentiond the Harry Potter series yet. Some people object to them, but they are well written, non-sexual, and can serve as an excellent conversation point on topics like moral relativism, the nature of good and evil, the Christian worldview vs. a secular one, etc. Of course, that would mean parents need to read them, too.
 
The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper. A children’s fantasy classic. Also A Wrinkle In Time, A Wind In The Door, Many Waters, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeleine L’Engle. She’s a Christian writer, and very good. I think I read both Copper and L’Engle at age 12.

Oh, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, as well.
 
I would recommend anything by Andre Norton, if you can find them.
Excellent science fiction aimed at children and teens, and free of the condecesion one often finds in stories written for young people.

Isaac Asimvo’s science fiction is superior to most.
(While he was an atheist, I don’t recall that he ever treated religious believers disrespecfully.) He wrote some non-sf fiction, too…the Black Widowers series of short mystery stories is excellent reading, and contains (in my opinion) nothing harmful for a twelve-year-old.
 
David Eddings’ Belgarion series (5 books in the original series, 5 in the sequel series)

Ann McCaffrey’s works, including the Dragon Riders of Pern series and the Ship Who … series.

David Duncan’s Swordsman & Man of His Word series.

Christopher Stareff’s(sp) The wizard in Rhyme series.

Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series. There are many trilogies and single books in this series.

These are written for adults. but are perfectly suitable for bright younger individuals, are less violent that Tolkien and are sexually clean and for the mostpart have a strong sense of the good and the moral.
 
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Lapsed:
Hmm, I’m a big fan of Howard’s Conan (the real Conan), but I would neither call them “clean” nor recommend them for a twelve year old. Though not explicit, sexual themes are frequent and descriptions of female characters can leave little to the imagination.
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Wow, just goes to show you where my mind was back in the 60s. I read Conan starting when I was 13. I never even noted the sex and truthfully didn’t remember any in the original series. Now, by the 70s when others took up the stories, well that is a different thing.

Asimov had a large group of science fiction stories centering around his hero “Lucky Star” (e.g. Lucky Star and the Moons of Jupiter) which he wrote for children. I loved Mary Stewart’s Crystal Cave and no one has mentioned E. B. White’s The Sword in the Stone trilogy.
 
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brotherhrolf:
Wow, just goes to show you where my mind was back in the 60s. I read Conan starting when I was 13. I never even noted the sex and truthfully didn’t remember any in the original series. Now, by the 70s when others took up the stories, well that is a different thing.
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I know what you mean. Not too long ago, I re-read my collection of Howard’s Conan stories (by no means a complete one) and was surprised at how much innuendo I noticed. Howard’s Conan was strongly libido driven. I first read them as a teen and I remember fondly visualizing some of the women he described, as only an adolescent male can. :o
 
JMJ Theresa:
My 12 year old son is just running through books like a pms-er with chocolate. He really likes Fantasy novels. He’s read the Brian Jacques books, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Narnia books. His reading level is very high, but so is his innocence. I think he is ready to move out of the children’s library, but I’m scared to turn him loose in young adult/adult books. At his age, I was reading all sorts of immoral literature that I’d like to protect him from.

Any suggestion on good books that don’t have impurity?
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I’m not sure if your son is reading at a level for these, but I don’t see why not… No one has mentioned C.S. Lewis’ “Space Trilogy”.
 
Lissla Lissar:
Also A Wrinkle In Time, A Wind In The Door, Many Waters, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeleine L’Engle. She’s a Christian writer, and very good.
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These books are great, I loved them so much as a child! My husband has never read them and I’ve been thinking about picking up the series so he can find out what he missed (I checked them out of the library as a kid).
 
better than new said:
😦 DONT SAY SUCH THINGS!
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Hey, she asked for a good fantasy book, and the Holy Bible is one of the best pieces of fantasy I have ever read. Did you know it was so well written that people actually started to believe it was real? I can’t wait for the Harry Potter religion.
 
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IFormulateInfin:
Hey, she asked for a good fantasy book, and the Holy Bible is one of the best pieces of fantasy I have ever read. Did you know it was so well written that people actually started to believe it was real? I can’t wait for the Harry Potter religion.
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Say you’re sorry!
 
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