My 10 year old son loves to read and has flown through everything I’ve given him so far. He especially loves books with sequels. I’m out of ideas for what is current and popular for his age group (he is finishing up 4th grade). Some recent favorites of his have been:
All 3 Hunger Games – these are his ultimate favorite right now
All Percy Jackson
Hatchet
Harry Potter (he liked these but he had already seen the movies so he was a bit bored with them)
He’s read most of the standard children’s books, he worked to buy every copy of Dogman, and now he’s on to this style chapter book. I keep seeing Dungeon Crawler Carl mentioned but the general
Consensus is the themes are not suited for a 10 year old. I’ve tried him on classics like The Secret Garden but he says those are boring. What do you guys recommend?
by National-Royal-2756
25 Comments
May be a bit young, but the Warrior Cats series. Very long series, so will take him around to get through, very good books.
A bit violent/tragic, so tread with caution if he has a sensitive soul
They aren’t super recent but he might enjoy the Doomspell and Silver trilogies by Cliff McNish
the wee free men by terry pratchett, and subsequent tiffany aching books. the later books in the series get pretty dark but I read them at 11 and it was a good place to first encounter those concepts.
He might be ready for A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin.
Discworld wouldn’t be bad for him. A mix of adult and ya but all of the books should be fine for his age. Start with The Wee Free Men and go from there.
Lockwood & Co. series by Jonathan Stroud
Chronicles of Narnia by C.S Lewis
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Adventures
Sherlock Holmes
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings
Jules Verne, Charles Dickens have great adventure books for 10 yos
Enders Game is pretty good and if Hunger Games wasn’t too violent you should be good to go
My son is 11 and just devoured all the Artemis Fowl books and is now on to the Will Wilder series. hope that helps! 🙂
If he likes fantasy he may enjoy the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. There’s soooo many books in there too if he gets hooked.
The Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix
I read the first one when I was 9 and loved it. Discovered there’s a whole series as an adult and still enjoy the world building and perspectives.
“Among the Hidden” is the first book and follows the perspective of a 3rd child in a society that has mandated no more than 2 children per family. It is a dystopian world, but written and intended for a younger audience compared to Hunger Games which some find to be too graphic. The series explores the experiences of the main character from the first book for the most part, but a few of the books highlight the perspective of others he meets along the way.
Redwall series by Brian Jacques. 22 books in the series, jumps around in timelines/characters. Knight/fantasy type tales but with animal characters (mice, rabbits, badgers, etc).
The Shadow Children by Margaret Peterson Haddix for more dystopia
The Prydain Chronicles or Redwall for classic fantasy vibes
Charlie Bone series for another take on magic school (which I actually liked better than HP)
Animorphs if you think he’d be down for something genuinely horrifying (but still for kids)
Peter and the Starcatchers for a fun take on a Peter Pan origin story (I was OBSESSED with these lol)
The Chronicles of Prydain
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Hobbit
Your friendly local librarian.
Good for him and good for you!
The Rangers apprentice
Wings of Fire series!
My fourth-grader just finished the first book in The City of Ember series and loved it. I haven’t read them myself and can’t vouch for the rest, but he sped through it.
Gregor the Overlander (same author as Hunger Games)
Other Rick Riordan series
I Am Number Four
Michael Vey
The Hobbit is really fun, although (even though I’m a massive lotr fan) I would recommend him being older for both the lotr books and movies.
I also really recommend the ‘Morrigan Crow’ series – although at the moment it is unfinished. It’s similar to Harry Potter although definitely has elements of Percy Jackson. A female protagonist who starts at 11, with incredible power she doesn’t understand before getting found family.
Madeleine L’Engle – A Wrinkle in Time and the sequels.
All books by Kenneth Oppel
Alex Rider. English teen spy series.
Bog Standard Isakei by Miles English
The Great Brain by Fitzgerald
The Spook’s Apprentice
Gregor the Overlander will be perfect for him, since he already loves Suzanne Collins.
Discworld?