What’s the latest on your tween or teen’s favorite reading list? My 13-year-old is an avid reader, which is amazing given that he started elementary school as a reluctant reader. He was a late bloomer but also? Some of those early education reading books bored him! He has an active imagination and like me, he is more intrigued by fantasy, science fiction and books that are a little different than the mainstream.
He’s been reading up a storm again lately so I thought I’d put together a list of 10 Fantasy Books good for kids around his age based on what he’s loved. Many of them are series because I don’t know about your kids but Nate in particular gravitates towards series. He just loves when he can find one he loves so he has several books before he has to part with his favorite characters.
#10: The Iron Fey series – Nate and I have been actually reading this series together. He just finished all 7 books (in two weeks), while I’m on book 4. These youth adult books are about the fey – if you’re familiar, these are not your average Tinkerbell fairies but a world of dark and light fairies that exist in the modern world. It’s not a new topic by any means but this series was new to us and Nate plowed right through them.
#9: The Fearless Travelers Guide to Wicked Places – I received this one as a sample and Nate read it in a day. It has to do with witches and magic and Nate added it to his “favorite books” list that he keeps on a corkboard in his room so it’s definitely a winner!
#8: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – well, you’ve probably heard of this one since the movie was a mega-blockbuster late last year. Nate and I both read all 3 books in the series and Nate even recently read the short story book {Tales of the Peculiar} that compliments the series. It’s such a different series compared to the usual vampire, witch or werewolf story that generally dominates this genre. Not for the faint of heart as I personally think this one has some scarier parts than other youth adult books.
#7: The Kane Chronicles – these days, almost everyone’sfamiliar with Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief series by Rick Riordan,but have you heard of the Kane Chronicles? Nate picked this series up and read the entire thing in a weekend, he loved it so much.
#6: The Testing – This one is a part of a trilogy and personally I read book #1 a few years ago and thought it was okay but didn’t love it. I never picked up the second one. Nate, on the other hand, found it on our Kindle account and promptly asked for book 2 and 3. He loved them all.
#5: The Unwanteds – Amazon calls this series “The Hunger Games Meets Harry Potter.” Nate also has this as his #1 favorite series on that corkboard list I mentioned above.
#4: The Five Kingdoms– Brandon Mull is a favorite author of ours. This 5-book series is about a protagonist named Cole who discovers a portal to another world.
#3: Legend – I read this series by Marie Lu years ago and thought it was time to introduce it to the teen. He loved it but tiny spoiler alert: he didn’t love the ending of the series and didn’t talk to me for a few days after. 😀
#2: Accidental Hero– not sure where we found out about this one as it doesn’t have a ton of reviews on Amazon but it’s a 3-book series that Nate enjoyed.
#1: The Underland Chronicles – by Suzanne Collins, of the Hunger Games Trilogy. This 5-book series is a tad tamer. Cole (4th grade) is starting on it now.
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