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Awesome kids books that adults can read - 14/4/2008 8:29:38 PM

Posts: 3506
Joined: 26/9/2005
From: two counties east of home

I don't know if there's been a thread like this before - let's face it, there probably has. If so, my apologies.

Anyway I have found myself reading an alarming number of kids' books recently and found them to be ass-kicking (ker-POW!!!). I was just wondering what others read and what you'd recommend.

You'll realise it anyway but I'm going to point out that the ones I've read have been a lot of fantasy.

Garth Nix - Abhorsen trilogy
Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials trilogy
Stephenie Meyer - Twilight/New Moon/Eclipse
Joseph Delaney - the Spooks novels

I also read Holes about a kid who gets sent away to some sort of detention/juvy camp. I can't remember who wrote it but it was very good.

I read the first Artemis Fowl book but didn't think it was that brilliant so I didn't move on to the sequels. It was a decent enough read though.

I read The Amulet Of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud and enjoyed it - thought it was really funny in places

- but not enough to want to read the rest of the Bartimaeus trilogy.

I can't remember what else but I'll get to it I'm sure.

< Message edited by JV -- 14/4/2008 8:32:32 PM >

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 14/4/2008 11:51:35 PM

Lazy wolf eyes

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From: Royston Vasey

I'd recommend having another stab at Artemis Fowl, JV. The first sequel is much better than the first novel.

I read a lot of teen horror stories - I'm quite addicted to any Christopher Pike books.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 15/4/2008 12:28:29 AM

Rgirvan44

Posts: 18905
Joined: 10/3/2006
From: Punishment Park

The Redwall books can still be quite enjoyable as you get older.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 15/4/2008 6:58:37 AM

Gimli The Dwarf

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From: Central Park Zoo

The sequels to The Wind In the Willows, written by William Horwood, I actually prefer them to the original.

The Willows In Winter, Toad Triumphant, The Willows and Beyond and The Willows at Christmas. All excellent.

Also, Anthony Buckeridge's Jennings books. The comedic trials and tribulations at a boarding school. I loved them when I was younger and I love them now.

< Message edited by Gimli The Dwarf -- 15/4/2008 6:59:55 AM >

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 15/4/2008 8:36:16 AM

homersimpson_esq

Posts: 19969
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Springfield

quote:

ORIGINAL: Gimli The Dwarf

The sequels to The Wind In the Willows, written by William Horwood, I actually prefer them to the original.

The Willows In Winter, Toad Triumphant, The Willows and Beyond and The Willows at Christmas. All excellent.

Also, Anthony Buckeridge's Jennings books. The comedic trials and tribulations at a boarding school. I loved them when I was younger and I love them now.

I'll have to search that out and check it for authenticity...!

Nobody's mentioned the Harry Potter series, which while not as complex as the His Dark Materials trilogy, still has a lot of little asides to keep adults happy, and the story generally zips along at a nice merry pace.

I find I can read The Very Hungry Caterpillar quite easily too.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 15/4/2008 10:04:03 AM

Amelie_Scotland

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Joined: 13/10/2005
From: Take a guess.

The Wind On Fire Trilogy - William Nicholson
It's very dark, completely original and has a fantastic leading girl, if you like His Dark Materials, I'd recommend this.
I also have a soft spot for the Darren Shan vampire books, even though they're a little trashy.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 15/4/2008 10:12:40 AM

Hobbitonlass

Posts: 11519
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Westeros

quote:

ORIGINAL: JV

Garth Nix - Abhorsen trilogy
Joseph Delaney - the Spooks novels

These would be my recent favourites. I'm pretty pissed off as I have had The Spook's Battle on hold at my local library for what seems like months. It's certainly very popular.

I've yet to read the Amulet Of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud but I do own it and it is in my, very large, pile of books to read.

John Connolly's "The Book of Lost Things" is another excellent, if pretty scary at times, read and a recommendation!

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 15/4/2008 1:42:42 PM

kathryn2

Posts: 1479
Joined: 24/4/2006

Susan Cooper's 'The Dark is Rising' sequence is excellent. Ignore the terrible film and read the book instead!

Also, Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad is brilliant.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 15/4/2008 2:06:31 PM

jonathan74

Posts: 809
Joined: 23/12/2005

quote:

ORIGINAL: JV
I also read Holes about a kid who gets sent away to some sort of detention/juvy camp. I can't remember who wrote it but it was very good.

Louis Sachar wrote Holes.

I've just finished Phillip Pullman's Tiger In The Well, and I'll tender that for consideration in this threaad.

< Message edited by jonathan74 -- 19/6/2008 3:43:48 PM >

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 15/4/2008 10:03:09 PM

Funkyrae

Posts: 20306
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Just stick a pin in a map

quote:

ORIGINAL: Amelie_Scotland

The Wind On Fire Trilogy - William Nicholson
It's very dark, completely original and has a fantastic leading girl, if you like His Dark Materials, I'd recommend this.
I also have a soft spot for the Darren Shan vampire books, even though they're a little trashy.

Oh dear lord yes! Very macabre in places, with those band camp type marchers with their baton twirling, climbing up trees and poles to slash and hack with knives and the burning alive. Not what I would class as typical child reading.

I have to say I really enjoyed the Lemony Snicket series. The wordplay in it is fantastic and likely to go over the heads of many of the age group it's aimed at.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 16/4/2008 12:48:04 AM

Lazy wolf eyes

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From: Royston Vasey

Alice in Wonderland is one I can read over and over again.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 16/4/2008 3:46:37 PM

MOTH

Posts: 3175
Joined: 3/10/2005
From: Sittin' on the dock of the bay

There's a terrific book called The Annotated Brothers Grimm by Maria Tatar, in which all your favourite child-friendly tales form the main text of each page with lovely illustrations to boot, whilst little snippets of info in the margin tell adults about the much darker origins of each story, with a special section at the back for altogether more adult fairy tales and essays. Excellent reading and a lovely book to hold and look at.

I'd also give a shout out to SE Hinton's series of teenage books, which are surprisingly resonant for adult readers and all of which have been filmed at some stage : The Outsiders, Tex, Rumble Fish and That Was Then, This is Now.

Also worth read is The Last Legionnary Quartet by Douglas Hill ; Galactic Warlord, Deathwing Over Veynaa, Day of the Starwind and Planet of the Warlord. Sci-fi for teenagers, but great imagination and story - done right, it would make a great film series

And of course, the obvious :- Roald Dahl.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 16/4/2008 5:04:44 PM

Dirty Hartigan

Posts: 5890
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: Manchester

quote:

ORIGINAL: MOTH

Also worth read is The Last Legionnary Quartet by Douglas Hill ; Galactic Warlord, Deathwing Over Veynaa, Day of the Starwind and Planet of the Warlord. Sci-fi for teenagers, but great imagination and story - done right, it would make a great film series

I thought these were excellent pulpy SF as a kid - I think they're out of print now. Rather sadly, Douglas Hill died last year after being knocked down.

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Post #: 13

RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 16/4/2008 5:07:58 PM

Diggler

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Joined: 30/9/2005

My Side of the Mountain.

Having finished Jon Krakeur's 'Into the Wild' I was searching for similar books. Someone recommended MSofM so I searched online for it. Couldn't believe it was a kids book! A great read.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 17/4/2008 5:05:32 PM

crayon

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Joined: 1/10/2005
From: East-ish

I'm reading a series called The Books of Pellinor, which reminds me strongly of James Clemens' Wi'tch series but for a younger market. I've recently read Across The Nightingale Floor, which is the first of a series of 3 and is just wonderful in the intricacy of detail in the world it creates. The next two are on my bookshelf waiting to be read.

I adore everything Tamora Peirce has ever written and whenever I feel the need for a comfort read, I'll always gravitate back to those.

Isabel Allende has written a trilogy for children, the first is called The City of the Beasts (I don't know if there's an overarching name for the trilogy) and they're a pretty good introduction to magic realism if you're not familiar with it. I remember hugely enjoying them but I haven't read them in a couple of years now.

Edit - just saw in another thread and was reminded, Trudi Canavan's Black Magician trilogy is amazing. Seek it out and buy it now if you've not already read it!

< Message edited by crayon -- 17/4/2008 5:15:22 PM >

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 18/4/2008 12:03:07 PM

kathryn2

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quote:

ORIGINAL: crayon

I adore everything Tamora Peirce has ever written and whenever I feel the need for a comfort read, I'll always gravitate back to those.

Edit - just saw in another thread and was reminded, Trudi Canavan's Black Magician trilogy is amazing. Seek it out and buy it now if you've not already read it!

How could I forget Tammy Pierce?! I've been reading her books since I was eleven!

I did read The Black Magician trilogy, but wasn't hugely impressed with it. They're quite good, but I wouldn't re-read them. Same with The Age of the Five books. I read them all because I needed to know how it was going to end, but once I knew that I wasn't particularly interested in going back to them.

Which is a bit of a contrast with Tamora Pierce's books, which, although arguably not as well-written in terms of world-buidling or plotting, are old friends that I can read again and again.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 5/5/2008 12:23:25 AM

Grunny

Posts: 1985
Joined: 24/4/2006

I really like Michelle Pavers wolf brother books.
Also any picture book by Oliver Jeffers - they are aimed at 3 yr old but they make me laugh and break my heart!!!!
Dave Mckean and Neil Gainman's children book are great to look at!

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 19/5/2008 7:40:13 PM

doubtlesswonder

Posts: 2332
Joined: 21/10/2005
From: Yorkshire

The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. It's three separate trilogies, and then one more book of 4 short stories. They're absolutely fascinating, it's a whole new world with different races, hundreds of types of animals and I think they're brilliant.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 8/6/2008 7:33:26 PM

iamjacks

Posts: 12
Joined: 5/6/2008
From: Back of beyond

Are we talking teenage books or children's? I'd give The Little Prince by Antoine Du Saint Exupery a go, it's lovely. (if you're in the mood for lovely)

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 9/6/2008 8:37:05 PM

iamjacks

Posts: 12
Joined: 5/6/2008
From: Back of beyond

Re reading old fairy tales is always a great option, especially the Brothers Grimm!

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 14/6/2008 12:39:57 AM

Implodingme

Posts: 81
Joined: 12/6/2008
From: sunny Stirling

quote:

ORIGINAL: JV
Garth Nix - Abhorsen trilogy
Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials trilogy

See, I felt a bit let down after Sabriel by Garth Nix. The next two books just didn't live up to the promise of the original for me.

His Dark Materials is nothing short of breath-taking. Anyone who prefers the Harry Potter books over these is just plain wrong.

I would recommend all of Dr Seuss's stuff. While he may have been a bit of a bastard in life, in fiction he wrote some of the most imaginative, joyful kid's books I've ever seen.

And may I just take this opportunity to warn everybody off the Vampirates series. Do not let the fantastic titles fool you, these are horribly formulaic and ultimately boring books with only flashes of the awesome that a book of such title should contain. Don't do it.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 16/6/2008 2:45:33 PM

Kilo_T_Mortal

Posts: 13521
Joined: 30/9/2005

Just opened this and was shocked that no one had included watership down. I always thought it was too dark for children. Excellent writing, was really interested in reading about the implicit misogyny in it as well. So strange that I hadn't noticed, sod it it's a great book.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 19/6/2008 12:54:02 AM

doubtlesswonder

Posts: 2332
Joined: 21/10/2005
From: Yorkshire

quote:

ORIGINAL: Implodingme

quote:

ORIGINAL: JV
Garth Nix - Abhorsen trilogy
Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials trilogy

See, I felt a bit let down after Sabriel by Garth Nix. The next two books just didn't live up to the promise of the original for me.

His Dark Materials is nothing short of breath-taking. Anyone who prefers the Harry Potter books over these is just plain wrong.

I would recommend all of Dr Seuss's stuff. While he may have been a bit of a bastard in life, in fiction he wrote some of the most imaginative, joyful kid's books I've ever seen.

And may I just take this opportunity to warn everybody off the Vampirates series. Do not let the fantastic titles fool you, these are horribly formulaic and ultimately boring books with only flashes of the awesome that a book of such title should contain. Don't do it.

I love both the Harry Potter series and the His Dark Materials series, but I wouldn't say I favoured one over the other. I wouldn't really compare them, to be honest. I suppose they're the same fantasy genre, but both series' are brilliant in their own ways.

As for other books, would anyone recommend the 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' series, or the 'Princess Diaries' series for adults? The Unfortunate Events film, and both the Princess Diaries films are a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine (although the latter might have something to do with the fact that I'm madly in love with Anne Hathaway

) and I was wondering if I should give the books a go, or are they much better suited to kids/teenagers?

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quote:

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See Mr Grey abuse women.
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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 19/6/2008 9:21:35 AM

Amelie_Scotland

Posts: 17468
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From: Take a guess.

The Princess Diaries are true guilty pleasures for me, I love them. They're so unpretentious and funny. Meg Cabot is good at writing as a young girl. They're pretty predictable (although the most recent 2 have surprised me) but fun and breezy. If you're willing to overlook some of the cheesy bits then they are pretty cool.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 19/6/2008 11:52:03 AM

Helen OHara

Posts: 3477
Joined: 15/9/2005

Wow, other people who have read The Last Legionary books! I thought - like Keill Randor - I was the only one left. But I'd third that recommendation. It was sad to hear about Douglas Hill - I've got a book of his called The Lightless Dome which was shaping up to be interesting when it stopped. And there was never a sequel, dagnabbit.

Ahem. I can also thoroughly recommend Diana Wynne Jones. Her books cover a varying age spectrum, and some of those for very young readers aren't so gripping, but her stuff for sort of 12 years and up is brilliant. I still adore A Tale of Time City, Homeward Bounders, The Magicians of Caprona, Howl's Moving Castle and a bunch of her more recent and older stuff.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 19/6/2008 12:05:47 PM

Kilo_T_Mortal

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Helen OHara

Wow, other people who have read The Last Legionary books! I thought - like Keill Randor - I was the only one left.

I read them, they belonged to my brother. Was he really good at unarmed fighting or something? And did he have to fight some sort of pterodactyl when he was young? I need to research to jog my memory.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 19/6/2008 12:30:14 PM

Helen OHara

Posts: 3477
Joined: 15/9/2005

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kilo_T_Mortal

I read them, they belonged to my brother. Was he really good at unarmed fighting or something? And did he have to fight some sort of pterodactyl when he was young? I need to research to jog my memory.

He was an awesome hand-to-hand fighter, and indeed practically as highly trained in every form of combat. The pteradactyl you're thinking about may be the telepathic alien Gyl, who he hung out with (discovered it on the shelf and started re-reading it recently. Not as well written as I remember, but still kinda fun).

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Post #: 27

RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 19/6/2008 1:38:54 PM

Fluke Skywalker

Posts: 9540
Joined: 23/4/2006
From: the dark side of the sun

I loved those Douglas Hill books as kid!!! Really sad beginning with his whole race getting wiped out, but he was a hard bastard and meeted out some punishment along the way. Plus he had the unbreakable skeleton like Wolverine

I can't remember what happened at the end - didn't he catch up with some shadowy elite?

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Post #: 28

RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 19/6/2008 3:45:06 PM

Kilo_T_Mortal

Posts: 13521
Joined: 30/9/2005

quote:

ORIGINAL: Helen OHara

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kilo_T_Mortal

I read them, they belonged to my brother. Was he really good at unarmed fighting or something? And did he have to fight some sort of pterodactyl when he was young? I need to research to jog my memory.

He was an awesome hand-to-hand fighter, and indeed practically as highly trained in every form of combat. The pteradactyl you're thinking about may be the telepathic alien Gyl, who he hung out with (discovered it on the shelf and started re-reading it recently. Not as well written as I remember, but still kinda fun).

No, no the pteradactyl was from the last book about his early life. Where he had to fight one when he was young. Oh wiki despite thy faults I love thee still.

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RE: Awesome kids books that adults can read - 20/6/2008 3:58:29 PM

Harley Quinn

Posts: 5768
Joined: 23/1/2008
From: Arkham

quote:

ORIGINAL: Helen OHara

Ahem. I can also thoroughly recommend Diana Wynne Jones. Her books cover a varying age spectrum, and some of those for very young readers aren't so gripping, but her stuff for sort of 12 years and up is brilliant. I still adore A Tale of Time City, Homeward Bounders, The Magicians of Caprona, Howl's Moving Castle and a bunch of her more recent and older stuff.

I love Diana Wynne Jones, I've only read a handful of her books but they are great. The Homeward Bounders still scares me now. The big wuss that I am.

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Post #: 30