Deb­bie Ja­cob

?I know boys who love to read. I al­so know many boys who cringe at the thought of read­ing a book. Over the years, I've been able to rec­om­mend some books that all boys have liked–even the most re­luc­tant read­ers in the bunch. Here's my top ten picks.

Most books can be ap­pre­ci­at­ed by stu­dents in Forms One through sec­ondary schools. That's be­cause fan­ta­sy, folk tales and even ad­ven­ture nov­els, to a cer­tain ex­tent, have a wide-rang­ing ap­peal. Just look at Har­ry Pot­ter. Any­one from ten to 100 can ap­pre­ci­ate JK Rowl­ing's mag­i­cal hero.

1. Er­agon by Christo­pher Paoli­ni:

This is the first book in the In­her­i­tance se­ries. The au­thor is on­ly 25 years old, and he was on­ly 15 when he fin­ished the first draft of Er­agon. The book was orig­i­nal­ly self-pub­lished by Paoli­ni and his par­ents who even de­signed the drag­on-eye cov­er. This mag­ic/fan­ta­sy se­ries, which in­cludes El­dest and Bris­in­gr, is a favourite of boys. The se­ries be­gins with 15-year-old Er­agon and his ad­ven­tures among drag­ons and elves. You can find out more in­for­ma­tion about the In­her­i­tance se­ries on this Web site: http://www.ala­gae­sia.com/in­dex.php. Vis­it these Web sites to find out more in­for­ma­tion: Ala­gae­sia.com, Shur­tu­gal.com or Er­agons.com (Span­ish).

2. Lord of the Flies by William Gold­ing: This mod­ern clas­sic is still ir­re­sistible. The tale of a group of Eng­lish school­boys who are strand­ed on a de­sert­ed is­land is just as chill­ing and rel­e­vant to­day as when it was first pub­lished in 1954. Lord of the Flies is a pow­er­ful al­le­go­ry about pow­er and pol­i­tics. It is a clas­sic man-against-na­ture, good-against-evil sto­ry that is high­ly ap­peal­ing to boys. My broth­er nev­er read a book ex­cept for this one and he loved it.

3. Sav­ing the World and Oth­er Ex­treme Sports by James Pat­ter­son: This is a fast-paced, plot-dri­ven nov­el about try­ing to save the Earth. The au­thor is well known for his adult sus­pense/thriller nov­els. Boys tell me they can't put this se­ries down.

4. The Gun­slinger Se­ries by Stephen King: This is some­thing like a sci-fi cow­boy se­ries, which is very pop­u­lar among teenage boys. The Dark­tow­er I is the first in the se­ries. In this book, the Gun­slinger takes on the mys­te­ri­ous man in black.

5. Crack­er! The Best Dog in Viet­nam by Cyn­thia Kado­ha­ta: This is the sto­ry of Crack­er, a Ger­man shep­herd who be­comes a work­ing dog for the army. Crack­er's job is to find ex­plo­sives. There's lots of ex­cite­ment as Crack­er ven­tures in­to dan­ger. This is an eas­i­er book for stu­dents who need to build their skills. For stu­dents in Form 1.

6. The Drag­on­fight­er of Ku­la­main by Karen M Penn: I have not read this book, but it comes high­ly rec­om­mend­ed and I no­ticed it is on a num­ber of re­views for best read­ing. Stu­dents say this is a fast-paced fan­ta­sy ad­ven­ture sto­ry about an or­di­nary boy, To­ry Hast­ings, who dis­cov­ers he is des­tined to be a Drag­on­fight­er in an­oth­er re­al­i­ty, Ku­la­main.

7. Dogs Don't Tell Jokes by Louis Sachar: Most boys know the nov­el Holes, a book for 11 and above, about a set of ju­ve­nile delin­quents sent to a camp in the desert where they dig holes all day. Sachar now writes for a younger au­di­ence. Stu­dents from 12 to 14 who find read­ing a chal­lenge can ap­pre­ci­ate this book as well. (I re­al­ly liked it and I'm a lot old­er than a teenag­er!)

This nov­el is about a boy who wants to be a stand-up co­me­di­an. He is prac­tis­ing his craft by be­ing the class clown. Sachar's nov­el looks at puns and jokes and what is re­al­ly con­sid­ered fun­ny. It's a light read that makes you re­al­ly think about those stu­dents who are in­tent on be­ing the class clown. For stu­dents in Form 1.

8. No Talk­ing by An­drew Clement: No Talk­ing is about a con­test be­tween boys and girls to see which group can keep from talk­ing for the day. Clement is a very pop­u­lar au­thor with young read­ers and he has a num­ber of oth­er books. Boys who find read­ing a chal­lenge can ap­pre­ci­ate this nov­el. For stu­dents in Form 1.

9. Leg­end of the St Ann's Flood:

The sto­ry of Joseph, who res­cues a snake, who hap­pens to be Ma­ma Dlo's son, from the zoo is equal­ly ap­pre­ci­at­ed by boys and girls. This folk­tale can bridge up­per pri­ma­ry and low­er sec­ondary schools. For stu­dents in Forms 1 and 2.

10. The Last Po­lar Bear by Har­ry Horse: Nov­els by Har­ry Horse are hi­lar­i­ous. Each nov­el fea­tures a fun­ny grand­fa­ther and his spunky dog Roo. The grand­fa­ther is al­ways run­ning away from home to go on some ad­ven­ture. He writes let­ters back to his grand­son. These books are for read­ers nine to 12 who ap­pre­ci­ate good hu­mour. Low­er sec­ondary school stu­dents can cer­tain­ly ap­pre­ci­ate the hu­mour in this nov­el. The il­lus­tra­tions, black and white line draw­ings, are quite fun­ny too. For stu­dents in Form 1.