Where to Go from Harry Potter for a 9 Year Old Reader?

I think he would enjoy the City of Ember series. I read them all myself and I think they are totally appropriate for a 9-year old. They are also in the fantasy/fiction genre so he should enjoy them

I read the Wrinkle In Time series when I was in 4th grade and enjoyed them. They are a bit more exciting, but nothing worse than Harry Potter. If anything, much less so.

Try the Narnia series too. I think he would gobble them up. I read all of Narnia when I was in 3rd grade.

If I think of anymore I'll add them on. I love fantasy/fiction and always have.

Oh, the Secret of NIMH is also good!

My son is in 5th grade and truly enjoying The Odyssey, Gilgamesh and Beowulf. I have gotten him all junior teaders, not the originals, from the library. THere are many different authors for all of them.

He also ate up Johnny Tremain.
I intend to give him Jim Ugly and By the Great Horn Spoon.

Percy Jackson
The Guardians of Ga'Hoole, it's about owls.
Brian Jacques books
Tolkein,
CS Lewis
Artemis Fowl

We get NAtional Geographic and my kids all read it, plus Smithsonian.

let him dive into the classics! tolkien and the narnia books are the obvious Greats. also let him have a taste of huck finn, the wind in the willows, alice in wonderland (carroll's, not knockoffs), d'auliere's greek (and norse) mythology, and yes, percy jackson, which does a surprisingly good job of staying true to the source material yet being relevant to modern kids.
good for you for fostering a reader!
:) khairete
S.

Try the Inheritance series.

It has 4 books (the 4th is coming out this month! YAY!!!!)

The titles are: Eragon, Eldest, Brisingir, and (the new one...) Inheritance (By Christopher Paolini)

Each book is pretty long, about the length of the 5th Harry Potter novels. The series is about a farm boy who finds a dragon egg. It hatches for him, and he bonds with the dragon becoming a dragon rider. The riders had been destroyed when an evil rider rose to power, and declared himself king of the land. Eragon and his dragon leave his homeland to defeat the evil king. He meets elves, dwarves, urgals, etc. It's a great series, one I started reading when I was in 9th grade (It's roughly at the Harry Potter level...) and have enjoyed reading it over and over. :) lol.

My boys like the Eragon books by Christopher Paolini. And we're huge Harry Potter Heads.

:)

Definitely Percy Jackson and Narnia. Both are very age appropriate.

The challenge with Harry Potter is that it is really designed for the kids to grow up with Harry Potter. Each book is another year in school, so the theme is a year more mature. It really is a fabulous series. I would really consider getting him involved in another series or two and then reading the first 4 Harry Potter books yourself. Catch up with him so that when he's really ready to begin book 5, so are you and you can read them together and discuss it. There's some really deep issues addressed, and you might be really glad you were able to talk to him about them.

Good luck! Happy reading!

your son sounds a lot like my younger son! He's an avid reader, too. Well, until this year....& now he's too busy to read other than for homework! + driver's ed sucks up a lot of his free time....

Okay, very similar transition: the Magic Treehouse series, & then H.P. He chose to stop at #5 because it felt too old for him. Finished the series last year.

From there, he moved on to: Charlie Bone (there's 4 now), The Red Pyramid series, Artemis Fowl, the Eragon & Eldest book series , Clive Cussler has a few children's books - Vin Fizz, etc, James Patterson's Maximum Ride series (my son loved it!), Kingdom Keepers, The Invention of Hugo Cabret (loved it!), & many more....

Amazon & Barnes/Noble have search parameters geared for fine-tuning age groups. Perhaps this would help. Oh, & we live in a small town....I simply called the school librarian & asked for help! She was a fantastic resource.....

Almost forgot: magazines...Ranger Rick, Boy's Life were favs. Now it's all about Road/Track & Car/Driver.

I just read other people's suggestions, so mine are going to just be seconding the Narnia series and the Percy Jackson series.

How about Tolkien? When I was 13 I read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series. My sister was 5 years younger than me but also loved to read and picked it up after me so she was 8 when she read those books. My son is only 4 but I am bookmarking this question because I am very excited for him to get into reading as well.

Go to the school library and ask the librarian for suggestions. Do the same at the local library (ask for the children's section librarian). It will make their day!

Charlie Bone has more than three books - at least five, I think. My daughter liked the first one OK but after that found it kind of a paler imitation of Harry Potter ("special" kids at a special school for their powers, etc.) But it's another option.

I have checked out books for classes at our elementary school for over two years now, and the Eragon series is popular though I can't vouch for it as we haven't read it. Also popular with many kids is the Warriors series (the latter is about cats who talk and battle; characters do die; and it's VERY "samey" book to book but some kids love it).

If he doesn't like historical fiction yet, try him on historical fact -- many kids eat up nonfiction books!

I totally second the Percy Jackson series. Don't confuse Rick Riordan's several series!

First you want the five Percy Jackson and the Olympians books.

Follow with the two new series: One is called Heroes of Olympus and has two books so far, the other is the Kane Chronicles and also has two books out.

The 39 Clues series will engage him but don't buy them; there are lots of books, mostly in hardback, and they'll add up; most school libraries and public libraries have them.

He might like anything by Riordan or Gordon Korman. If he would be interested in very good "school stories" he has great options: Louis Sachar's "Tales from Sideways School" series, which is short stories that are very funny and clever; and the short novels of Andrew Clements (his best known is "Frindle") which are remarkable novels about realistic kids in realistic school situations. I suggest you read Clements yourself!

- Percy Jackson (Lightning thief is #1 of 6... great books)
- 39 Clues (same author as PJ)
- The Black Stallion
- Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn & Conneticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court (aka Mark Twain, big time)

To Keep In Mind for next year or the year after

- Sherlock Holmes
- The Belgariad (David Eddings... 10 book series, his best work, hands down)
- The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey (soooo many books. First 2 are DragonFlight & DragonQuest... minimal sex, aka occasional references and *** instead of love scenes... but it's there. One of the best authors ever, and the *first* to pair up dragons and heros, instead of pitting them against each other. Like most sciFi, strong female and male protagonists)

CS Lewis's Narnia series

JRR Tolkien - The Hobbit is appropriate for that age. The Lord of the Rings trilogy may or may not be right for him at this point but they are great books.

Madeline L'engle - A Wrinkle in Time - amazing book - she has a number of others at this age level and then a number at more the tween/young teen level.

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler.

Zilpha Keatley Snyder - The Egypt Game

Has he read the Lightning Thief series? They are GREAT!

here are a couple wizard series that I know of

Midnight for charlie bone (first in the series about the boy charlie bone)
So you want to be a wizard series

funny series that your on might like
Hank the Cowdog series my son loved these in 3rd 4th and 5th grade.
Gregor the overlandor series
The redwall books (there is about 20 of these)

a little older series maybe starting in 5th and 6th grade
the ranger's apprentice series

one of my 9YO daughters is an avid fantasy fiction reader and some of her favorites in the genre are:
Percy Jackson and Heroes of Mt Olympus books by Rick Riordan
Warrior Cats books by Erin Hunter
Eragon books by Christopher Paolini
the 39 Clues series (various authors including Rick Riordan)
Charlie Bone books by Jenny Nimmo
The Familiars by Adam Jay Epstein
and a series that's more mystery/adventure but sorta in the fantasy fiction genre is Trenton Lee Stewart's Mysterious Benedict Society series

The main character is a girl, but what about the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett?

I also vote for Narnia. Lots of good adventures in there.

The Underland Chronicles (which starts with Gregor the Overlander) by Susan Collins is an awesome series for your son's age group. We went to it from Harry Potter, starting with me reading out loud, resulting in my soon-to-be ten year old sneaking the book and reading ahead. (And he still wants to listen while I'm reading it to our 7 year old).

Another series we've really enjoyed is the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull, five books, good story.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a good read aloud book (allows you to explain as you go, as needed). My boys laughed through the whole thing and still talk about it even though we finished over a month ago.

I haven't read this series, but a friend of mine and her children swear by the Ranger's Apprentice series and also recommend Inkheart and its sequels.

Rick Riordan (author of the Percy Jackson series) also wrote The Red Pyramid and The Throne of Fire (which are based on Egyptian mythology). I just finished the first book and thought it was a great story (even better if you read the myths together before reading the book; probably the same with the Percy Jackson series).

We love Harry Potter...I would read it too...it is a great conversation starter--good vs evil, what would you give your life for, etc. you are missing out on a lot if you don't get to talk about it with him!

My son likes the Magyk series (10yo). Rangers apprentice. He also just finished Rascal and loved it, even tho his interests are more in the fantasy genre. We are reading a cricket in times square together. How about Hatchet and other Gary Paulsen books? Also good to read together.

My son is a 9 year old 4th grader too. He loves funny books so he read all the Captain Underpants books, all the My Weird School and My Weird School Daze books and now he's into the Andy Griffiths Books - Just Stupid, Just Joking, The Day My Butt Went Psycho, etc. These books can be a little disgusting at times but they are hysterical. He also liked the A to Z Mysteries and read all those books.

Hope this helps.

The Percy Jackson series (Lightening Thief was book 1), also the Cat series - Warriors by Erin Hunter, Dr. Doolittle, Acorna series by Ann e McCaffrey and her PERN series when he gets to 6th grade.

If he can read Harry Potter, he can read at this level..
Here are some lists with suggestions.

http://www.multcolib.org/kids/booklists/harrypotter.html

http://www.squidoo.com/Good-books-for-10-year-olds

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/new...

percy jackson and the olympians. i think he should be fine to read the rest of the hatrry potter books. me and my daughter who is now 11 have. my husband read the eragon books and he may like those. the author of the percy jackson series is also writing another series that he may like (i havent read this one).