My kid is (11 yo boy) reading Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy. He loves it. He read Project Hail Mary a couple times. He loves the Rock Riordan stuff. (We read to him a few minutes at night and then he takes over. We also require him to read for 20 minutes after he finishes his homework before he can do anything else. He used to complain but now does it without any objection or reminders. He's not a huge reader, but he's a willing one. He loves books but generally prefers listening to them.)

I read the Lloyd Alexander trilogy and loved it as a kid. The Phil Dick might not be age appropriate.

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Hatchet, Brian's Winter, and Call Me Francis Tucket were my favorites.

Don't forget biographies. Can't recall specific authors but I remember enjoying ~150-page biographies on sports and historical figures at that age.

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Throw em out Marianne.

both classics. George's Marvelous Medicine is pretty awesome.

But my favorites are two deep cuts: Danny the Champion of the World and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More.

from me.

Where the Red Fern Grows
Old Man and the Sea
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Catcher in the Rye

This has been a really fun thread for this book nerd, and there are plenty of good suggestions here. I'm excited to share some of these books with my son and see what might grab his attention.

Fern grows.

I don't remember what age I was when I read each of those, but they were all in Middle School through junior high.

Great topic. Lots of good answers here.

My son read the Percy Jackson books around that age and they really got him into reading, which is the whole point!

Good luck. Let us know what works.

I read it in 6th grade. On the lighter side, depending on what he's interested in, a lot of classic science fiction is great. Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" is wonderful. Asimov's original "Foundation" trilogy is epic. Skip anything beyond the original 3 -- they suck.

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"Somewhere in Middle America"

https://www.amazon.com/This-Island-Isnt-Enough-Four/dp/0064402037

Fun read about two boys who kayak to a small island to camp for the weekend, but gasp, girls have already claimed the island for themselves..hilarity ensues. Super easy read and a love letter to summer and exploration. Depending on how mature your son is, it might be a little beneath him, but I read it to my kids when they were 10 and 12 and they loved it.

Do they need to be “classics”? Has he explored the nonfiction section much?

My 10yo avid reader loves Stuart Gibbs (Spy School and Funjungle series), James Ponti (City Spies), and even the James Patterson younger reader books. He loved Johnny Tremain annd Holes; Iiked Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, Number the Stars; Hatchet and Witch of Blackbird Pond were DNF for him.

He also reads a ton of nonfiction - YA versions of Boys on the Boat, Unbroken were big hits as he’s really into history right now.

Might be worth a chat with your librarian to try to steer him. I also find that sometimes if I offer a bribe to start a book he will get into it enough to finish on his own.

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by Erin Hunter.

It is about clans of cats that live together and/or fight each other. Sort of a Watership Down with cats, although with a few more battles. The great thing was that there were something like nine series, with ~5 books per series, so my son would work his way through one series and then be begging for the next one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warriors_(novel_series)

I loved the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander around that age. And I think Harry Potter is appropriate for that age group as well, although the later books get a bit darker.

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At night, the ice weasels come.

The Percy Jackson books are fun too.

Otherwise, I’d echo a lot of stuff cited below.

some attention grabbers for me were/are:

To Kill a Mockingbird
The Call of the Wild and White Fang
Enders Game and Speaker for the Dead
Holes
The Harry Potter series
Treasure Island
His Dark Materials series
The City of Ember

I've almost pulled the trigger about a dozen times to buy it on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/My-Father-Coach-Alfred-Slote/dp/0380017245

"My Father, the Coach is a 1972 children's fiction book by Alfred Slote about a boy named Ezell whose father, a terrible baseball player, becomes the coach of his Little League team, leading to humorous and ultimately successful results as the father earns the team's respect. The book, published by J.P. Lippincott, is a classic in children's sports fiction, focusing on themes of family, baseball, and a father's attempt to connect with his son."

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"F--- everyone who isn't us."
#Team128

The Jungle (Upton Sinclair)
The Grapes of Wrath
The Old Man and the Sea
The Call of the Wild

Brandon Sanderson has a number of series out there that might cater to his interests.

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along with some other sci-fi/fantasy stuff on the bookshelf of the school library: the Thomas Covenant books, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Conan the Barbarian, a bunch of Tolkien knockoffs like the Shannara books, the Belgaraid (Eddings?), etc. I remember tearing through whatever was there.

I have heard it's excellent but haven't started yet.

I loved that book. Heavy though.