yay new stories!

So a hundred million years ago, talitha78 gave me Gravitation and I read them and bought up to current at the time, book eight. Then I loaned them to a friend I was trying to ease into slash, along with Queer as Folk (you'd be surprised how often that combination works. I kind of want to wager that Brian Kinney and Yuki have some kind of magnetic force going on; I am tempted to try it on comic fanboy friends). But anyway, then I changed fandoms and other stuff and I went shopping (please never ask how I ended up in Macy's) and was wandering through Borders....

And there, there is Gravitation, ,10-12, plus some other stuff. To be safe, I picked up everything labeled Gravitation and stared with wide eyed sincerity at the clerk while clutching my new bathing suit.

Note: Took me two page to remember how to read the damn things.

But whee! I FORGOT HOW ADORABLE SHUICHI IS! AND DEAR GOD HE IS WEARING AN OUTFIT I SWEAR MY SISTER GOT FOR MY NIECE! LIFE PRETTY!

I think I am reacting toward Marvel now. I had an insane desire to buy a lot of manga. Even the stuff that vaguely freaks me out.

Part 1: Child:

Okay, question. Child was sorting through the shelves blindly and managed, somehow, to pull out two things that were so painfully inappropriate he watched me in displeasure while I giggled on the floor. What's a good title? I did a fast sort of what was available and most of it seemed good but I'd rather pre-read it quickly so when he tries to explain the plot (and he *will*), I'll be able to follow along. He tends away from anything relationshippy and toward things that go boom.

Yes, he and I have a lot in common.

Very very very light romance of either type is fine, but honestly? He'll *skip* it. I need to find him, like, The Really Awesome Advetures of a Boy and His Iguana or something. If I could draw, I'd totally do it for him.

No rush; currently I have him on a reading schedule with The Chronicles of Narnia (four chapters daily). I just want to variate his reading a bit so he doesn't realize this is actually supposed to improve his vocabulary and reading skills, and he's already suspicious when he saw the box set says "Classic" on the front. Why I let him see the box I have no idea.

In closing: Yay Shiuchi! Currently getting scary notes from Reiji! Yuki being Yuki!

AlsO: Belladonna, sequel to Sebastian, the incubus one by Anne Bishop? Pretty good, but not as good as the first. But lots of worldbuilding and pretty fascinating way the world works.

Also, God, how can anyone write so much about sex and have almost none????? GOD WOMAN INCUBUS AND GORGEOUS WOMAN AND MYSTERIOUS HOT GUY. IT IS NOT THAT HARD.

If someone isn't fanficing her somewhere, they *should* be. I have never read any books that need the PWP supplement more. Seriously.

Comments

[idiasm.livejournal.com]

OOOOOO I've been waiting to read the Belladonna and Sebastian books until I can buy them both in paperback (yeah, I'm not that OCD but all my books have to be the same and I'm poor and it's kind of a long story) but I'm glad they're good because I'm so excited because I loved her other trilogies. But I KNOW RIGHT ABOUT THE SEX. There should be more. It should be graphic. I have never found any fanfic but I bet there is some... I just don't know where to look for some of that stuff; books are harder, I think, than TV shows.

[lazar-grrl.livejournal.com]

Would Edgar Allen Poe be too macabre? What about Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet? Maybe some classic sci-fi like "The Witches of Karres" or some Heinlein and Asimov? Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit? Sorry if any of this is age inappropriate, but I never really read age appropriately.

[yarngeek.livejournal.com]

The Heinlein juveniles are probably fine, but I'm living proof that later Heinlein will warp you for life and make people say things like "You know, that explains so much," later when you are a productive adult.

Asimov doesn't blow up, but I liked him when I was a preteen.

Lois McMaster Bujold might be too mature for him, but they're terrific books, and he will proably enjoy the "let's blow shit up" aspects. I find Ethan of Athos and Borders of Infinity to be good gateways into the series. (I do suggest a certain amount of pre-reading; there are (two) highly elided sex scenes in BoI.)

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Some of my favorite shounen (boys') manga are Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Dragonball, Shaman King, Fullmetal Alchemist, Prince of Tennis, and D.Gray-man. These are all adventure/fighting manga (with the exception of Prince of Tennis, which is, well, tennis, but the matches are very actiony, just like a battle) and I believe they're all being published in English.

[summertea.livejournal.com]

I second those shounent titles! All of them have things that go boom. Granted, I'm not one for Dragonball but uh. The rest are cool. :x

(Dude, PoT's tennis is on crack. It's practically action! TORNADOS. BRIGHT LIGHTS.)

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm only on vol. 7 so far and the moves are still in the realm of reality, but I heard they get pretty crazy as the series goes on (when you start off with jr high kids already doing the moves of the most famous pros, there's really nowhere to go from there but magical tennis).

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

I'sd also say Hunter x Hunter, but then I remembered that the manga is a little bloodier than the anime. Uh - excellent story, but might be worth flipping through and checking for appropriateness before letting Child have it.

[thespatz.livejournal.com]

If he's read Narnia (and has read, I assume, Lord of the Rings), he might like The Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper. No explosions, but Arthurian legend and magic and floods and a big fire.

Is he more of a fantasy fan or scifi or other/equal opportunity?

[kinkyprude.livejournal.com]

There's a new series by MT Anderson that's really awesome, the first book is called Whales on Stilts. It's a little sci-fi, a little mystery, really funny and has a lot of visual humor with in the text.
If he'll read a book about a girl, there's The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. It's really funny fantasy, but with blue highland hooligan fairies and written scottis dialect.
There's also the Bone series by Jeff Smith, which is a wonderful graphic novel for kids, and being re-released in fully color.
Ooooh, or the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan, which is about modern day demi-gods who still have to deal with the everyday. The first book is The Lightning Thief.
Sorry. Children's librarian. Inappropriate fascination with kiddie lit.

[graceandfire.livejournal.com]

Would boy child read about girl heroes? My all time favorite adventure series (intermediate level) are the Tamora Pierce books starting with the Alanna series. Ooh, also Inda by Sherwood Smith which does have a boy hero who starts out as a second son being sent to war school and ends up kind of a pirate. Inda is more sophisticated and reads older than the Tamora Pierce books but all are very entertaining. Mild romances in them but very mild. Oh, I think there is actually sex in the Tamora Pierce series later on but it's handled very matter of factly.

And I agree on Belladonna. I enjoyed the book and then afterwards I was 'huh, where was the sex??'

[joannindiw.livejournal.com]

Diana Wayne Jones - The Crestomanci books, perhaps? If he is ok with reading about girls - Tamora Pierce's stories.

Naomi Novik's Temeraire series - I'm not *sure* it's kid appropriate, but it has dragons and fighting and lots of politics? (seriously. Dragons. Flying. Things that go BOOM. sadly, though, along with the things that go BOOM also death and death and. Hm. May not be appropriate).

Ah, here! "Freak the Mighty" by Rod Philbrick.

And "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen.

Ok, those last two might actually be appropiate and even are about boys. ^^

[joannindiw.livejournal.com]

Oh, uh. Graphic novel-wise - If he at all likes football? He could check out Eyeshield 21. Um. I'm not sure any of the other manga I collect is really child-appropriate... Though, ok. If you can find it? Kazan is pretty good. It was published by the now-defunct-apparently ComicsOne and all of it was published, but I'm not sure you can easily find it, if it's not languishing on a shelf somewhere...

[dine.livejournal.com]

Diane Duane's Young Wizards series is a very good one

also, a lot of Diana Wynne Jones' stuff is great; I have extremely fond memories of Archer's Goon, The Ogre Downstairs and Dogsbody - as well as others that might be a bit advanced for him just yet. I highly recommend her works

[surreul.livejournal.com]

On Anne Bishop, god yes, where is the sex? Her Dark Jewels series? *whimpers* Explicit torture, explicit sexual torture, but no real sex. I've looked for fanfic...

[cynonymous.livejournal.com]

You might try The Great Brain series by John D. Fitzgerald -- they're less challenging than the Narnia books, but they're a lot of fun. The title character is a very clever Tom Sawyer-type living in Utah in the late 1800s, with the stories narrated by his younger brother. They were written about 35 years ago and recently re-released; you might even find copies from the earlier printing in used bookstores.

A former coworker swore by the Hank the Cowdog series (he used to listen to the audiobooks on long car trips). They're cute -- about a cowdog in charge of ranch security who thinks he's smarter than he is. (They take place in Texas, too.) I'm not sure about any iguanas, but there are coyotes and other wildlife...

How about a boy and his dog? There's the Henry Huggins series (Beverly Cleary), though I'm not sure about the reading level. It may be too young for what you need.

If he likes mysteries, you could try The Three Investigators or even The Hardy Boys (although they might be somewhat dated; I don't know if they're updated the setting in the reprints or not).

I think you can also get some abridged "classics," like Huck Finn or The Count of Monte Cristo -- maybe you could use a Sharpie over the word "classic" on the cover? ;)

[cynonymous.livejournal.com]

I'd also recommend The Mad Scientists' Club series -- also recently re-released. Funny, and episodic so they (the first two books, anyway) read like a series of short stories.

[aliaswestgate.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. If he's up for darker themes in fantasy? His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. The first book, The Golden Compass is actually being made into a movie right now.

It's got an interesting mix of steampunk concepts and magic as well. I read it as an adult a few years ago, but it's one of the more interesting series of books i've read yet. If he's not averse to exploring that? There's little romance except towards the end, and that is never explored because of circumstances. The strong part of it is the friendships and the quest. But i'm not kidding about darker themes. The price for power is steep in it and pulls no punches. But that's what i LIKE about it. ^_^ (and why i wonder how much the movie will be corrupted from the original passages)

[eretria.livejournal.com]

If you can get your hand on a copy: "The neverending story" by Michael Ende. It's one of those books you can read at any age and it will always mean something different to you. But it's always, always good.

[jade-dragoness.livejournal.com]

For manga I want to add the recs of: Trigun Maximun [this one has plenty of booms] and Eyeshield 21.

Seconding [or thirding] the rec to Tamora Pierce; any of the series she's written are pure love.

I want to rec The Enchanted Forest series by Patricia C. Wrede. The first is titled 'Dealing with Dragons'. I adore this series and I'm always pouty that they're only four books. You can get the box set on Amazon for $14.13.

Also, the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. The first book, "Redwall". All the main characters are animals. The stories are all epic adventure tales and long reads too.

In the Sci Fi genre, I love the Animorphs series by K. A. Applegate, the first books is titled "The Invasion". And even though there are a lot of books in the series, it is completed.

I've also always loved: "The Castle in the Attic" by Elizabeth Winthrop and "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli.

...I wish I could remember more of these titles. *swears under breath*

[duckyjane.livejournal.com]

I second the Redwall recommendation - if he gets into them, there are enough to keep him reading for a long, long time.

[jade-dragoness.livejournal.com]

You have good taste, my fellow bibliophile!

Books for Child

[jade-dragoness.livejournal.com]

Oooh! I nearly forgot to add:

And in poetry, Child needs "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein.

"Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" by Bruce Coville part of a series titled Magic Shop. Pretty much anything he writes is awesome. Like 'Aliens ate My Homework' [first of the Alien Series] and "My Teacher is an Alien", first of the My Teacher series.

*happy sigh* I'm having so many happy nostalgic memories that I'm going to be hitting the kids section of the library rather soon I fear. *grins*

[nimnod.livejournal.com]

Easing friends into slash - there should be a manual for that. Hmm. *Is* there a manual for that, on some odd comm somewhere?

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

on the subject of recs - Hardy Boys, the Chronicles of Prydain (they get a bit dark later, but seriously : the main character is an Assistant Pig-Keeper) Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper is very cool (don't touch the film, the fans are eyeing the reports on this movie and every bit of news makes us shudder more), I'm with everyone else reccing Dianne Wynne Jones (though I'd start with The Lives of Christopher Chant *first*, even though Charmed Life is first) and on the subject of graphic novels - have you tried him on Asterix?

[d-copper.livejournal.com]

*nods* I am glad some one mentioned Hardy Boys. What about the Secret Five?

I also loved to read Terry Pratchett's children books when I was in grade school. Johnny and the Bomb, and Johnny and the Dead.

I am not sure if you have bought it for him already, but what about non-fiction books filled with random facts? I had a series of science books that covered different topics which I read to death.

[brownbetty]

Hee, Anne Bishop! I've read her Dark Jewels stuff, is her other stuff all "LOL cockrings!" too?