Best Books for Boys

Books for reading aloud or leisure reading.

Best Books for boys, Reading is the ultimate gift you can give your son. Choose your books wisely!

My fellow homeschool moms, do you want your boy to read more... or read better literature? I do. Something you need to keep in mind is the kind of books you have your boy read. Make sure they are good books. In my opinion you should eliminate (or try) all the junk books that are out there. Especially for boys.

In an effort to get boys reading our society has resorted to what I call "boy humor". You know stories of boys who are rude to elders and call each other names. Make rude body noises and tease each other mercilessly.

In literature "boy humor" is NOT necessary. Good literature will captivate and motivate your son to greatness. It will offer up heroes who do the right thing... or if they do the wrong thing it is obvious how that wrong thing had a negative consequence. There will be a story line that will keep the attention of your son." These stories are not stuffy or boring with antiquated language. They are fun too!

Your boy is smart.

A steady diet of poorly written books, will squash the desire to read the 'good stuff" And there is most definitely good stuff out there. The classics. If you think a "classic" has to be an ancient book with difficult language to read, you are mistaken. A classic is just an excellent piece of literature that will last for generations.

I've been mulling over just how to organize this page.... there are sooo many books that I'm not sure where to start. If you'll scroll down a bit you'll see some suggestions from my 15yo son. But for the bulk of this page, I'll just have to start somewhere and make a list.

I've attempted to split the books for boys up into lists for the little guys, middle aged boys and the bigger boys. Remember these are just arbitrary age groups. Some will fit into more than one section. There might be a book in the elementary section that your little guy would love to hear read aloud. In fact some of these books are good for reading aloud to the whole family. You'll have to judge according to reading ability.

This list is far from exhaustive.

I have many many books. These are just the ones that come to mind right now.

Books for Boys: the Little Guys

Click here for our recommended books to read aloud to younger elementary homeschool boys. ... actually the older boys may enjoy them too. My 15 yo often listens in on his little brothers read aloud time.

For a selection of good children's literature for young readers...Click Here.

Books for Boys in Elementary to Middle School

These are a sampling of the books on our shelves... We have way too many books... wait what am I saying?? One can never have too many books!

• Strawberry Girl -(I know this seems like a girl book but read with an accent my boys enjoyed it!)
• The Avion my Uncle Flew I loved doing this as a read aloud. Learned some french too!
• Ginger Pie
• The Door in the Wall
• Red Sails to Capri
• White Stallions of Lipizza
• The Twenty One Balloons There are several different study guides and unit type studies that are made for this one.
• The Narnia Series Of course this is a classic you'll see recommended all over the place. You might just as well get a nice boxed set. This should be on your shelf for years to come. Read them to your kids, save them and read them to your grand kids!
Oh here's a series of books for boys! My son has been devouring the first in this series all day today. At bed time he came and asked so nicely if he could please place the boxed set on his windowsill by his bunk bed so it would be close at hand. :0) Gotta love that!

	The Rebel, by Nancy Rue this is a part of the Christian Heritage series. My older boys read these years ago and I saved them. My 9 yo is enjoying them now. Begging to read "just ONE more chapter". He has been reading this book off and on all day!

Books for Boys in Middle to High School

• The Lord of the Rings
• Animal Farm
• Little Britches Series
• Any Book by GA Henty
• Old Yeller
• The Hiding Place
• How to Win Friends and Influence People

I asked my 15 yo son (who loves to read) What books for boys would you recommend for another guy about your age. Just for fun reading. Nothing intense or heavy. Here is what he came up with. (You will probably notice a theme in some of these books. Dirt, outdoors, building things, exploding things!)

The American Boy's Handy Book Centennial Edition By Daniel Carter Beard	The American Boys Handy Book This is like a boy scout book triple strength. Kites and hot-air balloons and fishing ideas. How to build projects include: an aquarium, a water telescope, 10 kinds of boats, bird calls. Amazing squirt guns. Camping with or without a tent.
The Dangerous Book for Boys By Conn Iggulden & Hal Iggulden	The Dangerous Book for Boys We don't actually own this book... we've checked it out of our library over and over. In fact when I asked my son to recommend books he came up with this right away... then asked (again) can we just buy this book mom? I think maybe I need to just get it! It is filled with summer activities that boys can do. Another outdoors activity book filled with all things outdoorsy guys like. "knot tying, fossils, paper planes, history, dinosaurs, slingshots, fishing, making a bow and arrow"
Beric the Briton By G.A. Henty	Any of the G.A. Henty books. This is a whole series of historical fiction written about different time periods and events. Very historical and very much boys books! Moms note: I did Beric the Briton as a read aloud and enjoyed it, so I chose to link to that particular book here. There are also audio book versions as well. These are a bit heavier reading.... many boys LOVE them. Some don't. I'd suggest getting a couple to try out. Here is a link to a selection of Henty Books Henty
Hi Jolly by Jim Kjelgaard - sorry no picture.	We read this book also as a read aloud years ago when we were going to go on a trip to Arizona. This is the fun true story of a camel herd in the Arizona desert. Hi Jolly was actually Hadji Ali (say that fast, it sounds like "Hi Jolly") who was a specialist in driving camels and was one of the first camel drivers ever to be employed by the US Army. There is a memorial to Hi Jolly in Quartzite Arizona that we visited on our trip. The book either made a strong impression on my boy or he liked it enough to read it again recently. The book is out of print. If you can find it, I'd highly recommend it. Anything by Jim Kjelgaard would be great books for boys. He is famous for his Irish setter dog books. Big Red is one of the most popular. But did you know he also wrote books about other types of dogs and animals as well as other historical fiction.
	Backyard Balistics This instructional boys book tells you how to build a potato cannon and tennis mortar with pvc pipe. A fire kite, match stick rockets, and much more. Obviously your smaller guys would need supervision. Quite possibly the bigger guys too!

Books for Boys....Critiqued by Boys.

I've started collecting Reviews and Critiques on books that my teens have been reading. Here are some reviews below.