(no subject)

[ginny_t]

So, I have 2 ideas that LJ should implement (yay for comment editing!). You should be able to search your flist, and you should be able to pull up your flist for a certain date. Yes, these things would be awesome, especially for forgetful people like me who conflate their entire flist into one blorb of information. *grin*

Right, the point. Around the time of the Dumbledore revelation, one of y'all mentioned a kids' wizard series that had a male partnership in it. They were mentors to one of the kids who applied to become a wizard. It's for a gift for my niece so there.) Other things I remember from the entry: it's a series with "wizard" in most of the titles, the kids don't go to a fancy school but instead work the wizarding into their "normal" lives. Anyone help? (I really should write this stuff down. Except I do. Just not, y'know, the ones that aren't for me. *hides*)

While I'm at it, anyone got any book suggestions for a 9-year-old boy? I need to keep up the "book aunt" tradition, after all.

Comments

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

got any book suggestions for a 9-year-old boy?

Rosemary Sutcliffe "The Eagle of the Ninth"
Henry Treece "Viking's Dawn", "The Road to Miklagard" and "Viking's Sunset"

[yamikakyuu.livejournal.com]

I bought my 10 year old nephew the Artemis Fowl books last year and he loved them.

[nafs]

You're talking about the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane which starts with "So You Want to Be A Wizard?" and continues on through "Deep Wizardry" "High Wizardry" "A Wizard Abroad" etc etc and so far has two "adult" books in a trilogy about wizards in the Young Wizards universe who are cats. (And yes I do own most of them :) )

The partnership in question are Tom and Carl, and while Diane has never said one way or another, there have been implications that a wizarding partnership that survives past the teen years is normally for life.

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

You're right and I did actually write it down. Thanks!

[coastal-spirit.livejournal.com]

Another "book aunt", huh? That's what I'm known as. :)

The "Bunnicula" series by Deborah Howe and James Howe was a fun read, IIRC.

Katie also really liked The Dark is Rising series at that age. It says that they're Young Adult books, so it depends greatly on the maturity and reading level of the child, but I think a child of this age would enjoy them.

Another suggestion? I started giving my cousin's son a gift card to a bookstore at around this age (because I didn't know what his reading level or interests were, or what books he already had) so that he could go and pick out his own books.

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I'd forgot about the Dark is Rising. A good idea.

Gift cards are a good idea, but I'd like to have a little influence and expose them to some of the things that matter to Aunty Ginny. Their parents are so white suburban (almost white trash sometimes) that I want to balance that, and balance the Harry Potter everyone-is-reading-this.

[coastal-spirit.livejournal.com]

Gift cards are a good idea, but I'd like to have a little influence and expose them to some of the things that matter to Aunty Ginny.

I understand totally. Both my niece and nephew (on either side of the family) had parents who neither loved or put importance on reading and books the way I did. So I tried to be a little bit of an influence in that way. :)

[seangaffney.livejournal.com]

9 years old? Perfect time for Watership Down, I'd say. :) Bunnies!

One thing to keep in mind is always aim 2-3 years higher than the child's actual age when recommending books. Kids enjoy challenges, and dislike books for their own 'age group'. Certainly I did, and I believe my friends felt the same.

[shiroiko.livejournal.com]

Garth Nix's The Seventh Tower series is entertaining and age appropriate (I liked them as an adult, but the vocabulary would be completely accessible for a 9-year-old). The first book is called "The Fall"

http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Seventh-Tower-Book/dp/0439176824/ref=pd_sim_b_shvl_title_4/105-5877772-8322040

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

What's said 9-year-old boy reading or into? And is he in that place where he won't read a female protagonist?

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

He's not allowed (by me) to refuse to read female protagonists. I know he read HP, and I think they've both read some of all of the Lemony Snickett (sp?) books.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Thing is, you can say "you're not allowed" all you want, but then he just won't read them... :p

The Dark Is Rising would be good. Start him with the titular book, not Over Sea, Under Stone, because that one...well, is boring.

Kenneth Oppel would also be a good idea: Airborn particularly, I think.

Also, Frances Hardinge's Fly By Night if you're really, really sure about that female protagonist thing. If he liked Lemony Snicket he will probably like that; it has the same Dickensian feel to it.

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

*shrug* If he won't read it, his loss; she will. (Doesn't mean I won't quiz him about how he liked it. ^_~)

I think I'll be coming by the store some Friday afternoon in the next few weeks.

[lordshipmayhem.livejournal.com]

When I was nine I was just starting into National Geographic, both the magazine and their hardcover special publications - not kiddy-fied, but the regular adult books (it was their The Civil War book, which I still re-read on occasion, that got me hooked on history). I was also reading such books as Airport and The Stepford Wives, although if Mom had read that second title before I had she'd have been less than enthusiastic about that one. I had already graduated from "young adult" titles.

Maybe the answer is to give them Chapters gift cards and let them choose their own.

[hymnia.livejournal.com]

My book-loving aunt got me started on Brian Jacques's Redwall series when I was about that age. I would also recommend Madeleine L'Engle and Lloyd Alexander--standard stuff, I know, but there's a reason they're classic. Heh. I suppose I'm showing my fantasy bias. My brother liked some non-fantasy adventure stories like Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain, too, but I never read them.

[coastal-spirit.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, the Redwall series! How could I forget that? That's an excellent idea. My daughter and I went to a reading/book signing with Brian Jacques once. She loved his books at that age.

[yumelady.livejournal.com]

*squee* Somebody mention R.L. Stine? I was older than 9 though reading the Fear Street novels. They didn't have Goosebumps back then. In fact, for such a book lover as myself, I didn't really start reading until I was 10.(ok, maybe I'm not so much the read-a-holic these days, but I was)

I think a good read would be the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede. The fourth book has a male protagonist. You may approve of the earlier books as the heroine, a princess who decided to go live with a dragon, does not need to be rescued by some stupid knight thank you very much! My brother also liked the stories when my mother read them to us. He may have been 9 or so at the time. So fun and age appropriate.
The titles are:
Dealing with Dragons
Searching for Dragons
Calling on Dragons
Talking to Dragons (this one has the male protagonist)
I think they can be read out of order but better if kept in order.