My 12 year old son is a voracious reader. He reads almost exclusively Fantasy and Science Fiction. I enjoy these as well but am trying to get him to branch out a bit. Any advice on books/authors to recommend?
Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn prose versions of The Odyssey and The Iliad a book of Greek mythology and/or Norse mythology King Arthur stories anything by Jack London
Will he read books with female protagonists? If so, some good YA lit: Homeless Bird by Gloria Whalen -- about a young girl in India Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan -- about a young immigrant girl who is forced to immigrate to the US from Mexico during the depression. Newberry winner w/ male protagonist: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park Does he play soccer? He might like Tangerine by Edward Bloor. I know you're trying to branch him out, but please make sure he has read the Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix and the Skyway Trilogy by John DeChancie. Both favorites of mine. Will try to think of more.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/You-Dont-Know-David-Klass/dp/0064473783/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252105071&sr=8-1"]Amazon.com: You Don't Know Me (9780064473781): David Klass: Books[/ame] GREAT book for emerging teenagers with a very compelling narrator. It deals with a serious topic without speaking down to the reader. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Pete-Hautman/dp/0689869037/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252105135&sr=1-1"]Amazon.com: Invisible (9780689869037): Pete Hautman: Books[/ame] I've taught this book to middle school-level students, and they almost universally love it. Well rounded narrator and enough ambiguity and mystery to keep the pages turning. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Among-Hidden-Shadow-Children-1/dp/0689824750/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252105209&sr=1-5"]Amazon.com: Among the Hidden (Shadow Children #1) (9780689824753): Margaret Peterson Haddix, Cliff Nielsen: Books[/ame] Maybe a little on the easy side for a 12-year old, but it could still be good for pleasure reading. It's really a sci-fi/dystopia story, but all of the settings and characters are very much set in reality (ie: no aliens, unrealistic technology, etc). Other positives are that it could encourage an interest in civics and government, and it's (much like SF and fantasy) a 7-book series. http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1252105...8&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=alex irvine The work of Alex Irvine. Some of these titles might be over the head of a 12-year old, and much of it is SF and fantasy, which you weren't really looking for. That said, he posts on Bigsoccer, so I figured why not toss him a plug, right?
Gosh, there's a lot to recommend. If your son likes fantasy, I've enjoyed Tamora Pierce's most recent pair: Terrier and Bloodhound about a very compelling young girl who joins the city's watch. Both relatively meaty. Bridge to Terabithia by Kathleen Patterson, esp if he hasn't seen the movie. The tragedy is rather gut-wrenching and sudden, so depending how the book is blurbed, you might want to be around when he gets to the last 5th of the book. Homecoming and Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt Watership Down by Richard Adams (probably my most recommended book). You may have to help him get past the first couple of chapters. Shane by Jack Schaefer A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens The Travels of Jamie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor. Won the Pulitzer Prize for Taylor. May be hard to find, but the reconstructed journal of a boy who accompanies his dreamer-father on the 1849 gold rush. Very funny, Jamie has refined sense of observation. Edit: may be a better work to read to him as a 12 year old. My dad read it to me when I was 12, but I reread it several times in middle school. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner. Might be very hard to find, but a first class, but little known fantasy work that was my favorite book until I read Watership Down. Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray. Won the Newberry in the 1940s, but it is an historical fiction work about a minstrel's son who gets separated from his father on the road. It'll be more accessible to a 12 year old than Travels and Watership Down. Hard to go wrong with Laura Ingalls Wilder... If your son liked From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler, I might suggest My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George about a boy who runs away (like the girl in Mixed Up Files) just to see if he can. Only this time the boy runs to a mountain to live off the land. I'd second Iceblink's recommendation of Single Shard. Edit: You know, you couldn't go wrong just finding a list of Newberry winners for your son. Very, very few poor books make that list. Looking back at my list, My Side of the Mountain, Adam of the Road, Dicey's Song, Terabithia and bungadiri's suggestion of Door in the Wall, they all won the Newberry.
I didn't mention Watership Down, because the OP seemed to be asking for non-fantasy/SF suggestions, but since it's up there I'll add that it's a story-lovers book. Genre does not matter. To follow my historical fiction bent, I'll add: The Door in the Wall, by Marguerite De Angeli. Kenneth Roberts' stuff on the revolutionary war: A Rabble in Arms, Arundel, etc. Kim, by Rudyard Kipling. Other stuff that he might be ready for, but it depends on how "old" a 12 year old he is might include Raymond Chandler's Marlowe books.
I knew you'd mention Watership Down... The Door in the Wall is a wonderful book, and if you still enjoy reading it, I would recommend to you Adam of the Road. They are almost companion books, could have been written by the same woman, Adam of the Road is just a more substantial book and you'll be able to read it over several days.
The boy in the striped pyjamas (can't think of the author now). Brilliant children's book with huge deeper meaning which you'll like yourself too.
I'm not sure how much these books would appeal to a 12 year old boy in this day and age, but there are a number of books by Edward Eager that are about a group of kids of about his age or maybe a little older who have adventures involving magic. The first is [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Half-Magic-Edward-Eager/dp/0152020683"]Half Magic[/ame]. From there you can find out about the several other books Eager wrote.
I heartily agree with the recommendation for The Travels of Jamie McPheeters. My dad read that book to me when I was around 11 or 12. I remember laughing uproariously, being worried enough about the characters to think about them during school, and really loving the descriptions of how exciting life could be for a boy around my own age. If fantasy is what he likes, I also recommend a series called The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. It's set in the contemporary United Kingdom, more or less, but invokes the classic good vs. evil magical struggle through the always-evolving eyes of people about your son's age. It is a superb series - for my money, even better than The Chronicles of Narnia, which I also recommend.
Was just thinking of a book I loved when I was a kid... Herman Wouk wrote a book about a kid in Brooklyn... somewhere in NY anyway... just about his life at school and then at a summer camp... pretty fun book. I wrote a lesson using one of the chapters. I re-read it not that long ago. Still enjoy it. It's called City Boy: The Adventures of Herbie Bookbinder. Its protagonist is Herbie, an overweight, book-smart Jewish kid. Amazon had the first sentence... a good sentence, I think! "On a golden May morning in the sixth year of Calvin Coolidge's presidency, a stout little dark-haired boy named Herbert Bookbinder, dressed in a white shirt, a blue tie and gray knee breeches, sat at a desk in Public School 50 in the Bronx, suffering the pain of a broken heart." Well, look at that... I guess he's from the Bronx!
Another great book for somebody that age is The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend. It perfectly captures what it's like to be in one's early teens, growing in confidence yet completely unsure of what's going on. There are several sequels, all of which are also good.
Quickly.... Swallows and Amazons Watership Down The Wind in the Willows Black Beauty Lord Of The Flies The Alchemist Alice's Adventures In Wonderland Treasure Island Sword in the Stone Odyssey The Railway Children Peter Pan Boy Matilda The Three Musketeers 1 and 2 Chronicles Anne Of Green Gables Goodnight Mister Tom The Secret Garden Jane Eyre The last four will surely bore him.
Any kid looking to take a break from more serious reading needs to look at the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney They're brilliant.
A lot of Animal Farm will be lost on someone who doesn't know the history of the Russian Revolution, though, and that's usually not taught until high school.
Good picks. While you're on T.H. White, how about the rest of The Once and Future King? I never read The Railway Children, but E. Nesbit has written several other good books, including 5 Children and It. Her books are a bit dated, maybe, but very imaginative stories, IIRC.