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I second the suggestions of Dragonlance series by Weiss and Hickman, Dragon riders series by Anne McCaffrey, any of Terry Pratchett's young adult novels, Hitchhikers guide series, Wrinkle in time series.
My brother enjoyed Terry Brooks fantasy novels as a young teenager.
It has been a while since I read the Belgariad series but I think they would be OK.
Heinlein's characters were always really into sex, which I found out when reading his novels at about the same age as the child in question. I Will Fear No Evil was the first one. I learned a lot, and not always about science!
Is it really possible to censor what kids read? I got all my books from the library. If I didn't want to risk the librarian seeing what I read, I would go to an isolated area and read there instead of checking out the book to take home.
If a 10-year-old is already reading adult books, then he needs some conversation, not censorship. Talk to him about values and choices. Lots of kids this age have already seen pornography, either in print or electronically. He will choose what he gravitates towards. He has probably already decided what kind of person he is. Talk to him and find out what he likes about the books he reads. But keep in mind, he may not want to talk to you about it.
BTW, I always loved picturing the kids in Ender's Game running around buck naked. I wonder if that's one reason that there hasn't been a proper movie made about it yet.
Wheel of time is somewhat dark but has some weird sexual relationships (Why does Rand get three chicks hmm?).
The Hunger Games are a little dark but if he is an advanced reader I think he will love them.
We ran into the problem, about age ten, that reading ability and emotional maturity are not always congruent. Especially with (but not limited to) gifted kids, asynchronous development is the name of the game, bay-bee, and it can be difficult finding books that challenge and are enjoyable without creeping Junior out. That was the period of time I ended up reading a lot of YA literature, because I wasn't sure if it was within my kids' emotional maturity range/creepout level. For example, there's a well-done YA novel called "Unwind" by Neil Shusterman which I would absolutely not bring home for my daughter (who is perfectly capable of reading YA lit and in the recommended age range), simply because dystopian lit sends her thoughts into strange directions.
"Ender's Game" is another one I waited a year or two on. Great book, but ds needed the extra time to gain some maturity.
We had better luck with Bradbury than Heinlein. As someone noted, Heinlein gets a little into sexual overtones. Otoherwise, I'd have had "Stranger in a Strange Land" on the list.
If a 10-year-old is already reading adult books, then he needs some conversation, not censorship. Talk to him about values and choices. Lots of kids this age have already seen pornography, either in print or electronically. He will choose what he gravitates towards. He has probably already decided what kind of person he is. Talk to him and find out what he likes about the books he reads. But keep in mind, he may not want to talk to you about it.
It depends. In general, I won't tell my kids "you can't have that book" if they show interest in one, but I won't purposely direct them toward some books, either. For one thing, both my youngest are nightmare-prone, and as noted, dystopic lit tends to instill a bit of paranoia in dd. Either that or it seems like a dandy idea to her-- I still haven't sorted that out completely. World domination may not be entirely off her choice of desirable careers....
We had better luck with Bradbury than Heinlein. As someone noted, Heinlein gets a little into sexual overtones. Otoherwise, I'd have had "Stranger in a Strange Land" on the list.
None of the ones I listed are very sexual. Podkayne and Friday are classic adventures with female heroines.
Yeah I am going to third Ender's Game. I reread that book every year since I was a preteen. Love, love, love that book.
Wasn't the second one really dark? The kid was ... found in a garbage can or something?
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