My (fairly sheltered) 6th grader read and loved Hunger Games (the main trilogy, but mostly book 1). He‘s had trouble finding interesting books in middle grade recently, so he wandered over to YA and picked up ‘One of Us is Lying,’ and ‘We Won’t All Survive.‘ He is really captivated, but I had no idea how mature they would be! I asked him to pause partway through the first and probably will on the second as well (I’m reading them too, since I had concerns). I hate censoring his choices, but he is not ready for this kind of content.
Can anyone suggest a more age appropriate book that has some action/suspense without gore or themes like stalking/rape/mass shooting/suicide etc? YA suspense books can get grittier than I realized, are there early-YA books that may fit?
He is not a fan of fantasy or romance. He is interested in thriller and dystopian stories, but they need to be ok for a less mature audience, and not be triggering for mental health.
Other books he read and liked include ‘Spy School‘ and ‘Charlie Thorne,’ though he has moved on from them.
by RandomDragon314
9 Comments
Maybe the Maze Runner? Give it a check it’s been ages since I read it!
Ender’s Game then Ender’s Shadow. He can skip the political diatribes.
Binti trilogy.
What about Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer? Child criminal mastermind kidnaps a fairy to hold her ransom for gold. I remember it being fun and not too serious. There’s a lot of action but no actual death.
Maybe also the Redwall books by Brian Jacques or the Animorphs series by KA Applegate? Both have some violence and death but I was reading them copiously at that age.
John Grisham has written several middle grade thrillers, called The Theodore Boone series, first one is Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer.
Anthony Horowitz has the Alex Rider series (made a bad movie but pretty decent TV show on Netflix)
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness might be okay. I can never remember how old 6th graders are lol
he could try the 39 Clues series
City Spies by James Ponti is worth a look
Anything by Kenneth Oppel or Eric Walters
The Barren Grounds by David Robertson. This is a kind of fantasy but based on Inuit legends so probably a new topic
War Horse by Michael Morpugo
I highly recommend Suzanne Collins other series The Underland Chronicles. Gregor The Overlander is the first one.
It’s about a 12 year old boy who falls down a laundry shaft into this city under New York. There he encounters life sized creatures and other humans. The humans are at war with the rats.
5 books total.
Similar to the Hunger Games in that it deals with the effect war has on children, but not as intense or violent, more fantastical.
I honestly like this series far more than hunger games.
I’m going to push back on the idea he isn’t ready for it if he’s reading it and interested. You’re reading with him which is great and it gives you an opportunity to talk to him about things he’s encountering in the books.
I was reading Anne Rice in middle school. My friend read Gone With the Wind. Another friend was a big Stephen King fan.
It’s great you’re paying attention and communicating with him. But I think you’ll have to reflect on who isn’t ready; you or him?
He could try the Silo series. But it honestly seems like he’s ready to tackle harder stuff.
Good luck.
I know you said he doesn’t love fantasy but would he consider The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins (author of The Hunger Games)?
YA dystopian – Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler?
Sci-fi dystopian – Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. Don’t be put off by the fact that it’s partly a fairy tale retelling, with a slight romance undercurrent … they’re really well done.
The Rampart Trilogy by the author who wrote The Girl With All the Gifts. There’s no rape or sex scenes and the violence/gore is less or on par with Hunger Games. The first book is:
{{The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey}}
I used to love 39 Clues, they’re short but really fun, and they’re written by several very popular authors. Not YA, more Middle Grade but worth a shot. This series was actually so good lol I’d read it now
Alex Rider is a good one- classic spy vibes
Lockwood and Co was also fun
The Giver is a classic dystopian, it’s so good
The Gone series by Michael Grant was one of my faves when I was about that age. t’s a dystopian/mystery type of thing
The Maze Runner was my brothers favorite
I also second Artemis Fowl, it’s so good