If Kids Made Summer Book Lists...
When it comes to books that can distract kids from their summer reading lists, Harry Potter is the champ, but he's not alone. We asked Potter fans, ages 12 to 18, to recommend their favorite non-Potter books.
Ages 8-12
Bloomability by Sharon Creech. The author of Walk Two Moons spins the story of Dinnie, an American girl who must adjust to an international school in Switzerland and learn how to realize her "bloomabilities."
Boston Jane: An Adventure by Jennifer L. Holm. It's 1854. Prim 16-year-old Jane Peck must jump into a raging river to save a canoe, among other things, while awaiting her fiance and fending for herself in the barely settled Pacific Northwest.
Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman? by Eleanor Updale. The sophisticated Montmorency climbs the elitist ladders of Victorian England by day and by night is Scarper, a lowlife criminal.
The Time Warp Trio by Jon Scieszka. Boys love the series and no wonder. Three friends use a magic book to travel through time for silly adventures with knights, Neanderthals, and a giant with killer burps.
Ages 13 and up
Cirque Du Freak by Darren Shan. Creepy: A boy is caught up in a world of vampires and freak shows. A seven-book series.
Demon In My View by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. An alienated teenager writes vampire novels; then one day a carbon copy of her literary villain shows up at school. Atwater-Rhodes published her first book at age 13 and this one while she was in high school, using her closet floor as an "office."
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Six-year-old supergenius Ender Wiggins carries the weight of the world on his shoulders as Earth prepares for a final showdown with alien "buggers." Like Harry Potter but even more intense, says Rachel Smyth, 17, of New York. According to children's book expert Anita Silvey, author of 100 Best Books for Children , "the book has been used in military schools to train new cadets in military thinking and in college leadership classes."
Life, The Universe And Everything by Douglas Adams. Space and time traveler Arthur Dent teams with Zaphod Beeblebrox, Slartibartfast, and others to save the universe from killer robots. As in Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, interplanetary high jinks drive the story.
Redwall by Brian Jacques. "It's the adventures of a rodent civilization," says Anais Berland, 15, of New York: mice vs. evil rats who seek to end the tranquillity of their abbey.
Silent to the Bone by E. L. Konigsburg. When Branwell is accused of dropping his baby half-sister and causing her coma, he stops talking. Only his best friend can get him to speak to exonerate himself. "A good story about teenagers," says Julie Mazziotta, 14, of Bethesda, Md.
Slam! by Walter Dean Myers. To realize his hoop dreams, a 17-year-old basketball phenom must rise above urban ills, an alcoholic dad, and a best friend who deals crack.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. The series has enchanted readers for over 50 years. The story of four children who enter a fantasy land through a wardrobe is actually a Christian allegory, but even the nonreligious can appreciate it. Sure to be hot with a movie version due in December.
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. Like the Potter series, Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy attracts teens and grown-ups. In book one, Lyra Belacqua, who lives in a Victorian-like alternate world, sets off on a quest to recover a vanished friend and learn the meaning of a mysterious element known as Dust.
The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchet. The book starts with a witch in training listening to her elbows for advice and gets weirder from there, as our heroine, aided by 6-inch blue men, battles fairyland monsters. James Shaw, 14, of Stafford, Va., liked the "swords that glow blue when they get close to lawyers." And really, who wouldn't?
This story appears in the July 25, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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