Boy friendly literature

[Gloria]

Hello, Please suggest any literature you recall reading as a boy that you enjoyed.  Today there is a serious imbalance in the literature being made available and being promoted.  Such being the case, more young girls like to read and they excel at reading focused tasks in school (or so it appears that way locally).  I am hoping to identify a list of books, essays, poems, etc. that appeal to young male readers.

 

Recently, I more clearly see the problem that modern works often promote leftist thinking.  The big problem is that older works also promote leftist thinking.  I suppose this was done in an effort to promote higher thinking civilizations, perhaps trying to pull men away from thoughts of war, but it seems to me we have over corrected to the point of emasculation.

[aviet]

When I was in school, the most popular book with the boys was this now forgotten classic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonfleet

Others:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Triffids
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/58319/smith-the-story-of-a-pickpocket-by-leon-garfield/9781590176757/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farseer_Trilogy(and the ensuing two trilogies)

[Gloria]

Thanks!  I will look into these and get a list started.

[Anuojat]

Lord of the M* rings!

 

+ Silmarillion

+ Homeland (and subsequent dark-elf novels) by RA Salvatore

[RichardY]

"Day of the Triffids" is good, the movie "28 Days Later" copied some of the ideas. I think British horror stories are generally better than American imo. 

[Wuzzums]

Tom Sawyer

[S1988]

I'm not male, but I'm an avid reader. I have some recommendations that don't target boys exclusively, but boys may like them.

 

Goosebumps books

 

A Series of Unfortunate Events

 

Choose Your Own Adventure books

 

Maybe some Charles Dickens books if they don't object to old literature.

 

(Actually, there's one book series in mind that's boy-friendly, and as a female I enjoy them: The Adventures of Tintin. It's a comic book series, but I don't think one should consider them lowly just because they're comic books. It counts as reading to me.)

[Drew.]

I am seconding the works by Robin Hobb. I've really enjoyed reading her stories. Her characters are really well developed and psychologically complex. I have gained insight into my self and my own experiences when reading her work.

Discworld would also be a good series, too. I really enjoyed the Nightwatch subseries.

 

The first three books in the Drizzt series were pretty good. About a good male drow in a brutal fem-centric society who escapes.

 

Finally, the Lies of Locke Lamora was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

I didn't read any of these books when I was a kid, but I know that they're books that I would have enjoyed then.

[neeeel]

I am seconding the works by Robin Hobb. I've really enjoyed reading her stories. Her characters are really well developed and psychologically complex. I have gained insight into my self and my own experiences when reading her work.

 

 

Yeah robin hobbs stuff is good. The Assassins Apprentice trilogy, and the Fools Errand trilogy really captured my imagination, I have read them multiple times.

 

When I was young I liked real war stories. Paul Brickhills books on Douglas Bader ( Reach for the Sky) , and the Great Escape, also the DamBusters.

 

I also loved the Narnia series( it never occured to me that it was a christian narrative). and Susan Coopers Dark is Rising series. Also agree with someone in an earlier post for John Wyndhams stuff.

[Spenc]

Today there is a serious imbalance in the literature being made available and being promoted.  .

Can you cite some examples or evidence of this?  It's been 15 years snce I was in high school and I didn't do any literature in university other than Plato/Socrates so I'm not up to speed on what the kids are reading these days.....

[Thus_Spake_the_Nightspirit]

How old of a boy are we talking about here? A lot of the stuff being recommended isn't really suitable for primary school boys, for example, but rather high school or young adult.

 

I'll second a lot of what has been listed for the older crowd and for upper primary, I would say:

 

Hatchet

Call of the Wild

Where the Red Fern Grows

Red Badge of Courage

Encyclopedia Brown

The Hardy Boys

The Secret of NIMH

 

 

I'll probably think of more later.

[Mykaelous]

The first book I read voluntarily was the Enders Game Saga in High School. From there I moved to autobiographies of famous people and then non-fiction books on psycology, science, picking up girls, and philosophy. I am not a fan of imaginary tales. I think the books that were the most compelling to me were books that I could identify with at the time. I suppose books like Harry Potter with magic was a type of escapism that just made me angry because they weren't real, the characters didn't have to suffer like I was at the time.

[Gloria]

Good Morning All,

Thanks to everyone who has contributed and more are always welcome. The project I am currently working on is for young boys, grades 2-5. The second grade readers are strong readers.I have not studied this beyond my own experience raising my own kids in PA.  It really jumped off the page when my daughter participated in a reading Olympics last year, she was in 5th grade.  Try to imagine a rural school hosting several other districts in the area.  I am guessing there were at least two hundred kids.  I could not help but notice the ratio of boys to girls seemed to be at about 1:12.  Other Mothers remarked having the same observation.  I asked my older boy what he thought and he told me the book list is horrible.  Asking around over the past year, here and there, and many people have commented the same thing. Then I found this ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFpYj0E-yb4

For whatever it's worth, I am optimistic that this is a culmination of factors and most (teachers, mother's , women in general) are willing to assist in helping to correct, although I don't really know that, again just my personal experience in this area.

There is a list referenced in the you tube video but the site is either down or has changed.  The disconnect there is the list is full of newer material.  Unless Dad has the time to sit and read everything first, adults simply are not familiar with this newer material.  New material is good for writers and publishers and so the world goes round, but we can't let this continue either.  I have no end game in mind, just peeling back an onion. THANKS :-) !

[NotDarkYet]

Hatchet !

[themortalgod]

When I was young the Redwall books were pretty high in my wheel house. So were Animorphs. Shade's Children was pretty good too. The Giver is a fantastic read as well as it paints a pretty powerful picture of what an SJW driven dystopian future may look like. Conan Doyle is also a great option for some of the older kids. (Holmes, Lost World, etc). Boxcar Children isn't bad, I don't remember much about it though but it was pretty adventurous and resourceful if memory serves. The Narnia books are another great option. Lloyd Alexander also has some pretty strong fantasy aimed at younger audiences. Castle in the Attic was good too. Indian in the cupboard is another great series for younger readers. Princes Bride is timeless. Treasure Island is also great. I'd also say The Hobbit is a good one. (Though LOTR and Silmarillion are prob a bit much for most young kids)

Also when I was young my parents bought me a collection of books that were abridged versions of many of the great classics shortened and simplified to appeal to a younger audience. These are them, they did an amazing job of making me interested in literature as I grew older: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=classic+starts

 

Calvin and Hobbes, though comics, are also fantastic for any boy I think. They really push hard to cement the value of imagination in a really fun way.