I'm a public school teacher and all my students read for the first ten minutes of the day. I'm building my classroom library. I've noticed that a lot of the books that the young men in my classroom are interested in are comics/manga and tie-in books. On the other hand, most of the young women opt for the novels. I think a lot of this is because ultimately either covers or content look a little girly to inner-city teenage boys.
The boys like Chainsawman, Soul Eater, Dragon Hoops, The Crossover, among other things.
Do you know any novels that teenage boys may like? I have The Crossover (series), The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson, etc. I'd also prefer no series because I have to buy everything out of pocket, and the upkeep of series can get a little expensive. Not looking for manga because I have plenty of and that I need more options other than manga and comics because that's become the default.
by finnisterre
27 Comments
The Return of the Incredible Exploding Man Hutchinson, Dave (hilarious, superhero)
The Blade Itself (and all of the The First Law, )Abercrombie, Joe
The Riyria Chronicles, The Riyria Revelations, Sullivan, Michael J. (2 dudes having adventures, perfect?!)
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms – The Tales of Dunk and Egg, Martin, George R.R. (3 Novellas)
Red Rising is great, but it is a series (6 published). Would also recommend Project Hail Mary.
Fill it with adventure classics!!!
Holes, Hatchet, The Wringer by Jerry Spinelli, The Series of Unfortunate Events, Eragon series, Among the Hidden series (these may be a little low for that age group but I read them all as a 16 year old girl and enjoyed them!).
*Tunnel in the Sky* by Robert Heinlein – this is the answer
Buy a Ray Bradbury collection of stories. If a big collection is too expensive try The Illustrated Man or The Martian Chronicles.
Also, You Don’t Know Me by David Klass.
Both of my teen boys liked the Scythe series by Neal Shusterman.
Take a look at the books by Tristan Jones. They are biographies. He does stretch the truth a bit but he really did whst he writes about. My favorites of his are Ice and Incredible Voyage. I prefer Incredible Voyage.
2 of the stories I think are exaggerated are the one about the spider in the swamp and the tiny fish in the Amazon.
Ice is about his trying to beat tje record for sailing (wind not power) the furthest north. It tales him and 3 legged 1 eyed dog a couple years to complete because he had to drift on the ice. In the Incredible Voyage which took 6 years he sails from the lowest point of navigable water (dead sea) to the highest navigble water (Lake Titikaka in the Andes). His boats are between 19 and 24 ft mostly 19 and most is done solo.
Into Thin Air by John Krakhauer
All books by Jason Reynolds
Matt Dinnaman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl books.
James S. A. Corey’s The Expanse series
Scott Lynch’s Lies of Locke Lamora
Don’t know the author but Hatchet finally got my son to finish his first book years ago
Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford.
Lord of the Flies
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett. It is part of the DiscWorld series, but it can be a standalone quite easily.
The Legend and Young Elites series by Marie Lu
The Thin Executioner by Darren Shan
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Goodbye Days and In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner
Salt to the Sea and I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
Promise Boys by Nick Brooks
Patron Saints of Nothing and Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
I’m a high school English teacher – Carl Hiaasen’s YA books
Also: are you familiar with donorschoose.org
Check it out, don’t pay out of pocket.
I’ve had 3 projects funded there and was ordering a class set of novels…oh, and some magazine subscriptions for my class library
I used to love Enders Game. I sincerely believe every teenage boy should read Beartown too (follows a hockey team so could draw some boys in that way)
The Skyward Series, it has a talking spaceship that is obsessed with mushrooms.
Maybe Howl’s Moving Castle? It is originally a book by Diana Wynn Jones but later made into a comic/Manga
The middle school rules of books are cool
Matthew Reilly Contest or Hover Car Racer
By the way, you should buy used books for your classroom library, if you’re not already doing that. So much cheaper, and often they’re like new. Libraries have great sales throughout the year, and sometimes they’ll sell all the books you can fit into a bag for one dollar. Or thrift stores, garage sales, etc. Don’t go broke buying books, you don’t need to!
Chronicles of Narnia (can buy the books individually), Sherlock Holmes, Brendan Sanderson books, The Call of the Wild, Holes, Treasure Island. Illustrated Classics can be good, too.
Let’s keep Enders Game and The Mighty!
maus and Persepolis would be good to bridge the gap. at that age i think i was into enders game and the leviathan series
Kurt Vonnegut books!
Check out [https://www.reddit.com/r/litrpg/](https://www.reddit.com/r/litrpg/) and the LitRPG genre in general for what young men are most likely to enjoy nowadays. These are generally independently published books not from established publishers and are available most often online, Kindle Unlimited is a good source.
Some popular titles are “He Who Fights With Monsters”, “Dungeon Crawler Carl”, “Azarinth Healer”, etc.