Books for Boys Recommended Reading

The following is a bibliography I created with books boys might be interested in.  Originally formatted as a brochure.

Recommended Reading: Books for Boys

Adventure

The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman

Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he has been raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard.

The Ruins of Gorlan

John Flanagan

When fifteen-year-old Will is rejected by battle school, he becomes the reluctant apprentice to the mysterious Ranger Halt, and winds up protecting the kingdom from danger.

The Fellowship of the Ring

J. R. R. Tolkein

The discovery of the One Ring ignites the great war between good and evil in Middle-earth, as a courageous group of adventurers embarks on a perilous quest to destroy the dangerous artifact.

Sidekicks

Jack D. Ferraiolo

Scott Hutchinson has an alternate identity as Bright Boy, the sidekick of Phantom Justice, but with the help of his rival sidekick, Monkeywrench, Scott begins to question whether Phantom Justice is really a hero, which leads to a dangerous confrontation.

 The Red Pyramid

Rick Riordan

Brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane accidentally unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes the doctor to oblivion and forces his two children to embark on a dangerous journey, bringing them closer to the truth about their family and its links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.

Death Cloud

Andy Lane

In 1868, with his army officer father suddenly posted to India, and his mother mysteriously "unwell," fourteen-year-old Sherlock Holmes is sent to stay with his eccentric uncle and aunt, where he uncovers his first murder and a diabolical villain.

Science Fiction

The House of the Scorpions

Nancy Farmer

In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patrón, the 140-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing

M. T. Anderson

Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.

X Isle

Steve Augarde

Hard-hitting novel set in a world that is in the aftermath of global devastation with those barely surviving, living in fear and near starvation.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams

After Earth is demolished to make way for a new hyperspatial expressway, Arthur Dent begins to hitch-hike through space.

School Adventures (and Misadventures)

Slob

Ellen Potter

Picked on, overweight genius Owen tries to invent a television that can see the past to find out what happened the day his parents were killed.

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy & Goth Girl

Barry Lyga

A fifteen-year-old "geek" who keeps a list of the high school jocks and others who torment him, and pours his energy into creating a great graphic novel, encounters Kyra, Goth Girl, who helps change his outlook on almost everything, including himself.

Looking for Alaska

John Green

Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Sherman Alexie

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

*Always feel free to ask your librarian for more suggestions!*

A Separate Peace

John Knowles

Classic story of two friends at a boarding school during World War II and what happened between them one summer.

Variant

Robison E. Wells

Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life. He was wrong.

Sports

Recruited

Suzanne Weyn

After being wooed with meals, cheerleaders, and money by the recruiter from Teller College, Kadeem Jones must decide if he will help the NCAA investigation, even though it may be the end of the good times and his chance to play college football.

Pick-up Game: a Full Day of Full Court

An anthology of short stories about street basketball, with selections by Walter Dean Myers, Rita Williams-Garcia, Adam Rapp, and others.

Girl Troubles

Th1rteen R3asons Why

Jay Asher

When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate, he spends a night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death.

     Getting the Girl

Markus Zusak

Tired of being the underdog, Cameron Wolfe hungers to become something worthwhile and finally finds a girl with whom he can share his words and feelings--his popular brother Rube's ex-girlfriend

An Abundance of Katherines

John Green

Having been dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, recent high school graduate Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his