The Top Ten Books to Read with Your Teenaged Son

I’m no expert, just a mom whose son likes to read as much as she does.

My 15-year-old son just finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and its sequel Catching Fire (reviewed in these pages by Kim’s daughter Kelsey) and immediately said to me, “You have to read them, too.” 

We have a long history of reading books together.  Of course, it started when he was a baby and I read picture books to him, but long after I’d stopped reading out loud to him (and anyone who knows me knows I stopped doing that as soon as my kids could read to themselves), he and I would trade books or take turns with them.

I used to sneak into his room after he had fallen asleep to nab the new Harry Potter off of his night table so I could cram in a few chapters before my own bedtime.  (Now he stays up later than I do, so that kind of sharing doesn’t work so well anymore and I have to wait my turn.  Or he has to wait his.) 

We both love fantasy, so I made him read some of my favorites.  I gave him the best of the best, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card when he was too young to appreciate it, forgetting that reading comprehension is a different skill from moral nuance comprehension.  But a few years later, he agreed to try it again–and loved it as much as I did.  Victory. 

More recently, I started passing on to him all the graphic novels I loved and he’s now as eager as I am to read the best of that genre.   I’m thrilled to have someone to talk with ad nauseum about Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman and Alex Robinson and a ton of others.

Book sharing took on a more official tone when Kim and I started a parent/son book club with a couple of other families.  Once a month we’d meet for dinner, wine (the kids got sparkling cider) and a discussion of a book that had been agreed upon at the previous meeting.  Many of our choices were suggested by our elementary school librarian Yapha Mason who has a book blog of her own and an inexhaustible knowledge of what kids at every age like to read.

Some books were huge hits with both parents and kids, but others were less successful.  One important lesson we learned was that kids mature fairly quickly and a bunch of 12 year olds will happily read a middle reader book but a bunch of 14-year-olds won’t.   We had to “grow” our choices along with our kids.   So here are my top suggestions for books to read with your teenaged son, ones that you’ll both enjoy.

This first group is good for 12 to 14 year olds.

1.  ENDER’S GAME by Orson Scott Card.   You saw that coming, didn’t you?  It’s exciting, riveting, action-packed–but the moral implications are explored for every choice the characters make and there are no easy answers.

2.  Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby.  A very moving book about whether or not a chimp can be a domesticated pet and how inhumane humans can be to animals and to each other. 

3.  Holes by Louis Sachar.  I love this book.  So do all my kids.  It’s fast-paced, fascinating, funny and moving . . .  It’s just terrific.  One of my kids read it at a younger age and, while he loved it, found some parts of it to be extremely intense, so even though the reading level isn’t too sophisticated, be aware that the emotional content is.

4.  The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer.  I love pretty much everything Nancy Farmer has ever written, but for sheer reading pleasure, Sea of Trolls wins out.  Norse mythology and actual history combine to make a rollicking tale that keeps you on the edge of your seat, but is smart and thoughtful, too.

5.  Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko.  Kids love that this is set on Alcatraz (we later visited the island and it was all the more exciting for having read the book).  I loved that there’s a realistic and sensitive portrayal of autism in the book and what it would have been like for parents to deal with it back then when it wasn’t even being diagnosed.

6.  The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.  A favorite from my own childhood.  It’s more whimsical and less action-packed than the other books on this list, but if you have a son with a good sense of humor, he may love it.  And you almost certainly will.

7.  Harry Potter and also The Lightning Thief.   These are sharing a number because I’m going to assume you and your son have read these series already.  BUT IF YOU HAVEN’T, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

For the older kids (14 to 16):

8.  Ray Bradbury’s Short Stories.   We did these one month in book club, and everyone really enjoyed them.  They’re a little unnerving for younger kids–and some of them feel a little dated–but each one has an idea in it that makes you think about life, the universe, or human relationships in a whole new light.  I read them when I was young and I still think of them frequently.  In fact, I recently wrote a blog post about one of them.

9.  Ant Farm by Simon Rich.  Snort-sparkling-cider-out-of-your-nose funny.  This SNL writer has his own style: each piece is shorter than this blog, but just a few lines from him are funnier than an entire book of knock-knock jokes.   Not for little kids, since the masturbation jokes abound–but the older kids will laugh harder than they ever have before. 

10.  David Sedaris Essays.  Again, not for the little kids, but my son and I loved talking about these together.  Sedaris writes beautifully and honestly and it’s a great way for teenagers to realize that non-fiction writing can be as captivating as a novel.   

So there you have it: my suggestions for what to read with your teenaged son.   Feel free to send in any additional titles.