Ash HN: Book you wish you read as a kid?

[tmaly]

I am always looking for interesting books for my kids.

I know of many good books, but they won't work well with kids as they require a lot of context one gets from living many years.

What books for kids age 10-13 have you discovered along the way that you wish you had read as a kid?

[desio]

Feed them fiction! 10 to 13 is great age to nurture the imagination and exploring ideas. - Harry Potter - Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree series - Lord of the Rings (start with the Hobbit) - Sherlock Holmes (and Agatha Christie's mysteries) - Asimov's Robot and Foundation series

[thorin]

His Dark Materials would have been good to read around that age, and Dune maybe slightly older. I read both as an adult.

[chrispeel]

I wish I'd read "Small Gods" by Pratchett as a kid for its humor and perspective on religion

[keiferski]

Accounting Fresh from the Lemonade Stand. A great little book that teaches business and accounting principles via a lemonade stand story. It's a good way to get kids interested in business and entrepreneurship.

[tmaly → keiferski]

this looks amazing, thank you for the suggestion

[Dracophoenix]

Perfect age range for dystopian novels. You can start with Animal Farm and Anthem for the 10 year-old(s) and the one closer to 13 can read 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451.

There's also the Lord of the Rings novels and the works of the greater Legendarium (Silmarillion, Children of Hurín, etc.)

The books I wish I read as a kid were the Count of Monte Cristo, the Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged, all of which I had read at the cusp of adulthood despite having the aptitude to understand the works as a teenager.

[the_only_law → Dracophoenix]

I can never remember name, but I picked up a simple modern dystopian novel in 6th grade.

The premise was something along the lines of a future earth, that has faced catastrophic ecological collapse and led to three social stratas. The bottom class, which lived in the underground ruins of the old world, living in darkness and physical mutations are common. Then there was the perceived middle/upper class. Who lived in surface, and enjoyed a life of luxury, but it was all artificial, down to the sand on the beaches, which were plastic. I believe it was encompassed in a massive container to protect them from the dangers of the "outside world" (described at the point as being an inhospitable wasteland). All of this was built literally on top of the ruins on which the previous group lived.

And then there was a somewhat unknown class. You see, while the middle and upper class people were busy living in their plastic world, another group of the most elite had returned to old world, and started to rebuild... For themselves. The rebuilt enjoyed a mix of both the return of nature and the advance technology humanity had developed. Majority the underground underclass and the superficially wealthy upper and middle classes had no idea of , this outside a select few of the most powerful people within the upper society.

If I remember correctly, the plot focused on people from the middle/upper class strata recruiting and using the underclass bottom dwellers, some who had generated useful mutations, to fight against the highest elite, who were seen as hiding and exploiting for themselves the reborn earth and ecosystems. Ofc, they didn't tell any of these new recruits this until it was time to fight.

I'm probably remembering this wrong, but it's been frustrating I can even remember the name of the book. It did feel like I was more targeted towards kid/teenagers than some of the aforementioned books while still having a an interesting plot and morally ambiguous characters, actions, etc.

[Dracophoenix → the_only_law]

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with a work the possesses all the characteristics you've described. The closest to your description that I've read is the Atherton trilogy by Patrick Carman although there aren't any mutations in that one. If you want to try your luck, you're best bet would be to ask this question on https://old.reddit.com/r/books.

What year do you remember reading the book in? That may help narrow it down.

[warrenm → the_only_law]

Sounds like an interesting mashup of The Personifid Project, The Time Machine, and the TV series The 100

[secludedrelish → Dracophoenix]

Maybe it's just me, but as a 17 year old who read Anathem a month ago, I still found some of the ideas in Anathem hard to wrap my head around. As a story, yes, a 10 year old could read it, as genuine philosophy, idk. (unless it's a super smart 10 yr old etc etc).

[daniel-cussen]

None that I did not go ahead and read. I read what I had to read, it was a lot, I had a lot of fun, but there's no book I wish I read as a child I didn't actually read. Yeah there's some you don't hear about like...no I did read that one, the Godfather the book, like...plus there's books I read too early, Frankenstein fucked up my mood and like deeply disturbed me for two days. But that was a good memory too, I like the bad moments, good moments meh, good suffering yes, time is made of suffering.

Like watching TV...huge void. Well except hero cartoons, action movies, actually had useful tips now that I'm a Roman Law hero. So May 12, 2012 I was told "you're our hero" by the victims in the spur of the moment after delivering from the criminal, (those are the criteria that must all be met for hero status in the context of Roman Law). He was issuing death threats, later gang mates too, and I realized, "oh I you actually are supposed to wear a mask, the cartoons were right." There's other smart things in there.

[themodelplumber]

The Tripods series by John Christopher. I read it in my 30s and it blew me away.

Still, my kids are around the same age as yours and haven't read those books despite my recommendations. :-) But they have also found some really great reading material by themselves through the school and library. Books and graphic novels that I wish were around when I was younger.

[Dracophoenix → themodelplumber]

I read the trilogy at 12 (sadly, I haven't read the prequel 4th book) and they were pretty enrapturing. The paperback covers are also beautifully illustrated. The biggest influence on the work is obviously War of the Worlds, but style of the books is reminiscent of pulp adventure comics from 1920s.

[thorin → themodelplumber]

There was a TV series on the BBC when I was around 10 which I don't think they ever finished, but it was fantastic. I read the books around the same time.

[prosaic-hacker → themodelplumber]

Seconded. (or maybe that should be Thirded) Read the whole series in the early 70's when I was in high school. (Thank you High School libraries).

[tmaly → themodelplumber]

I will check it out. The last 70s series I read was RingWorld

[devilbunny]

Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar novels. I read them in my early 20s, they were fun then but would have been magic when I was 12. Short setup: the Earth is hollow, there's a sun at the center.

[sergiotapia]

Mi planta de naranja lima.

A very tender coming of age story, perfect for children.

[hnthrowaway0328]

Masters of Doom. I'd definitely go into game programming.

[gigantecmedia]

Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Ender’s Game

[frankgrecojr]

the art of thinking clearly

[tmaly → frankgrecojr]

I have a copy, I think 10 might be a little young still.