It can be a challenge to convince a teenage boy to sit down and read a novel, especially with all the distractions of games, computers, home and school life, but encouraging a love of books opens up a whole imaginative world of adventure for your teen.
Here are our suggestions for teen boys.
We have compiled a top list of books for teen girls too, and for younger readers, ten books for children aged three to five, five to eight and eight to eleven.
10 best books for teen boys
- The Enemy<p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Enemy-Charlie-Higson/dp/0141325011/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302104513&sr=8-1" target="_blank"><strong>The Enemy</strong></a> by Charlie Higson (Puffin, £6.99)<br /> There's a sickness creeping over London that affects only adults, turning them into deformed monsters with an insatiable appetite - for anyone under 14. There's a rumour of a safe place to hide - but the youngsters have to negotiate deserted buildings, dark alleys and dangerous underground stations to get there...</p>
- Holes<p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Holes-Louis-Sachar/dp/074754459X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302104541&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><strong>Holes</strong></a> by Louis Sachar (Bloomsbury, £6.99)<br /> Teenager Stanley Yelnats is sent to Camp Green Lake in the middle of scorching desert wasteland. It's a place where bad boys go to dig holes. But before long, Stanley starts digging for something greater - the truth about what the holes are for, and why Green Lake has disappeared.</p>
- The adventures of Tom Sawyer<p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventures-Tom-Sawyer-Penguin-Classics/dp/0143039563/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302104578&sr=1-3" target="_blank"><strong>The Adventures of Tom Sawyer</strong></a> by Mark Twain (Penguin, £6.99)<br /> A classic and nostalgic tale set in nineteenth-century Mississippi that celebrates a young man's taste for adventure but also brings out the darkness of the adult world that surrounds him - superstition, slavery, murder and revenge.</p>
- Unhooking the moon<p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unhooking-Moon-Gregory-Hughes/dp/1849162956/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302104614&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><strong>Unhooking the Moon</strong></a> by Gregory Hughes (Quercus, £6.99)<br /> Winner of the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2010, this is the tale of two orphans who, after the death of their father, travel to New York to find their long-lost uncle. Football-loving Rat, who has premonitions of the future, is protected by her brother Bob as they negotiate strange friendships and terrible dangers.</p>
- The curious incident of the dog in the night time<p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-time/dp/0099450259/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302104648&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><strong>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time</strong></a> by Mark Haddon (Vintage, £7.99)<br /> Christopher, an unlikely and engaging hero, is intelligent and autistic and trying to make sense of the world around him - both a family break-up and the mysterious death of next door's dog. Winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year in 2003.</p>
- My swordhand is singing<p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Swordhand-Singing-Marcus-Sedgwick/dp/1842555588/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302104672&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><strong>My Swordhand is Singing</strong></a> by Marcus Sedgwick (Orion, £6.99)<br /> A classic Gothic vampire novel set in the seventeenth century. Tomas and his son arrive in a remote village and set up as woodcutters. Then a band of gypsies arrives and turn Peter's world upside-down...Winner of the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2007.</p>
- The Radleys<p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Radleys-Matt-Haig/dp/1406330280/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302104697&sr=1-2" target="_blank"><strong>The Radleys</strong></a> by Matt Haig (Canongate, £10)<br /> A family of vampires is living in respectable suburbia, just about managing to keep a lid on their terrible desires (teenagers Rowan and Clara don't even know why their parents are so resolutely vegetarian), when a gloriously bloodthirsty uncle arrives to shake everything up. A witty black comedy.</p>
- Boy's don't cry<p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Boys-Dont-Cry-Malorie-Blackman/dp/0552548626/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1302104732&sr=1-2" target="_blank"><strong>Boys Don't Cry</strong></a> by Malorie Blackman (Doubleday, £12.99 - Corgi paperback, £6.99, due out at the end of April)<br /> The interwoven story of two brothers - Dante, 17, and his younger brother Adam. Dante's ex-girlfriend turns up on the doorstep with a baby she says is his, forcing him to abandon his plans for the future. Meanwhile Adam's secret gay relationship goes disastrously wrong...</p>
- The catcher in the Rye<p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Catcher-Rye-J-Salinger/dp/0241950430/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302104767&sr=1-2" target="_blank"><strong>The Catcher in the Rye</strong></a> by J. D. Salinger (Penguin, £8.99)<br /> A 1950s classic, written from the point of view of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield, who is cynical, detached and altogether untrustworthy. The novel begins, 'If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like...and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.'</p>
- 1984<p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nineteen-Eighty-four-George-Orwell/dp/0141036141/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302104791&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><strong>1984</strong></a> by George Orwell (Penguin, £8.99)<br /> This where Big Brother started - and the original is much more frightening that anything that's been around since. Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth. Big Brother monitors every move, and the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When Winston falls in love with Julia, and begins to question the Party, he has to face Room 101 ...A nightmarish vision of a totalitarian future.</p>
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