Teenage male protagonists

[lizabelle]

How do teenage boys think? This is something I'm pondering at the moment, for my own nefarious reasons, and, as in most things, my first thought was to read about them. Or rather, to read books written from their points of view.

But when it came to compiling a list of books to read, I was very short on ideas. So I asked my lovely friends on facebook and twitter to suggest fiction with a male protagonist/narrator aged 14-16, and this, supplemented with some research of my own, is the result:


The Harry Potter books - JK Rowling (specifically Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince)
Looking for Alaska - John Green (and possibly some of his other titles, too)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and various others by Sherman Alexie (I highly recommend this to everyone)
The Knife of Never Letting Go and sequels - Patrick Ness (also highly recommended, especially if you know a reluctant teenage reader; these books are very compelling)
The Alex Rider books - Anthony Horowitz
Shade's Children and Ragwitch - Garth Nix
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre
The Adrian Mole books - Sue Townsend
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
Blind Spot - Steve Jenkins
The Outsiders - SE Hinton
Tom Sawyer Abroad - Mark Twain
Percy Jackson series - Rick Riordan
(?Cherubs) Series by Rober Muchamore
Worldshaker - Richard Harland
Deadly 'Unna - Philip Gwynne
Blood - Tony Birch
Meely Labauve - Ken Wells
Marked - Denis Martin
Recon Team Angel - Brian Falkner
iBoy - Kevin Brooks
Hybrids - David Thorpe
The Midnighters Trilogy - Scott Westerfeld
The Beet Fields - Gary Paulsen (also other titles)
Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer - Lish McBride
Going Bovine - Libba Bray
Unwind - Neal Shusterman (this sounds great)
The Ranger's Apprentice books - John Flanagan
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and sequels - Ransom Riggs
Holes - Louis Sachar
The Pox Party and sequels - MT Anderson
Ship Breaker - Paolo Bacigalupi
Hero - Perry Moore
Mortal Engines and sequels - Philip Reeve
The Warrior Heir - Cinda Williams Chima
Twisted - Laurie Halse Anderson (I have a feeling the protagonist may be 17, but I'm going to check it out anyway)
Straight On 'Til Morning - Christopher Golden
The Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Some of the Septimus Heap books by Angie Sage
Od Magic - Patricia McKillip
The Door into Fire - Diane Duane
Higher Education - Charles Sheffield
Blue Moon Rising - Simon R Green
The Other Normals - Ned Vizzini
Gone - Michael Grant


Thanks so much to everyone who contributed to this list! I'm off to the library now, but I'm still taking suggestions, so feel free to add yours in the comments or by contacting me on twitter.

Comments

[bookdaze.wordpress.com]

If you're still after recs, the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer are great. I actually think the John Flanagan books read a bit young, so I'm not sure if they're in the age range you're after - still fun reads though.

Li

[lizabelle]

Thanks! I enjoyed several of the Artemis Fowl books a few years ago, but thought he was a bit younger than 15? He did age during the books, though, if I remember rightly.

And yeah, I've read a couple of the Flanagans now - they're fun, if slightly pedestrian, but probably aimed at slightly younger readers.