thanks so much -- this was kind of a shock because short stories and *this* short story -- I'm really happy though because the entire list is made up of amazing creative brains.

Woot! Congratuations!

Literary Buffistas, I need some help coming up with recommendations for a 6th grader who is reading at a very advanced level and particularly loves fantasy. What are some more obscure books/series that I can recommend to him? I've already recommended:

• Lud-in-the-Mist
• Temeraire series
• Mortal Engines
• The Once and Future King
• A Wizard of Earthsea
• Watership Down
• Norse Mythology (Gaiman)
• The Name of the Wind
• Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
• Beowulf
• Graceling

...and he seems to have read almost all of them. He did say that he hadn't read Lud-in-the-Mist, then apparently he checked it out and read it this afternoon and says he liked it. He is a big Tolkien fan and also lists Malcolm Gladwell and Bertrand Russell (!) among the authors he's recently enjoyed reading. Edit: He also says he doesn't like science fiction. And also, he's 12, so I don't feel I can recommend books that have graphic sex scenes (so no Game of Thrones, for example).

Halp!

Belgariad? I don't think there is graphic sex in that one.

Martha Wells' Books of the Raksura, Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, Diane Duane's Young Wizards series, Catherynne M. Valente's Fairyland series, Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Boys series, most of Barbara Hambly's catalog, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, anything by Robin McKinley.

Kate, what about all of the Tamora Pierce books?

• Anything else by Gaiman
• Mary Stewart's Merlin books
• Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog
• Mary Renault's The King Must Die and Bull from the Sea (since he liked Beowulf)
• Gilgamesh

I read the Susan Cooper books and Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books at his age, but it sounds like he might've already read them.

Maybe Patricia McKillip's books?

Yaaaas, everything Dana said and definitely Tamora Pierce!

Well, anything by Robin McKinley except Deerskin, I think. That's still a bit too adult for me, although it does have wonderful dogs.

LeGuin's Annals of the Western Shore, which are YA and deal with power and oppression in interesting ways while still being (I think) interesting stories.

Rosemary Sutcliff novels -- they're set in Roman Britain, far enough away to be functionally fantasy. Similarly, and more modern: Gillian Bradshaw's historical novels, like Beacon of Alexandria and Dark North.

Michelle Cooper's Montmaray novels, which are sort of AU but mostly historical fiction. (But wonderful and everyone should read them.)

Guy Kay's Fionavar Tapestry (although it has a non-graphic rape scene). (I don't recommend most of his other novels for reasons too complicated to get into here.)

Has he read Garth Nix? The Sabriel books are good, and age-appropriate.

I read the Tearling novels this last year: they're probably too dark for him at this age, although they are technically YA.

John Marsden's Tomorrow When the War Began and its sequels, although I think it needs some examination for the racist implications of the premise and execution. It's still excellent adventure stories with serious investigation of war-related trauma.

Oh, oh! Kate Elliott's Court of Fives sequence, which can be described as American Ninja Warrior meets Little Women in a colonized East Africa. Also YA.

Oh, and of course! Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief and its sequels. Don't tell him ANYTHING. Just read them.

For graphic novels, I highly recommend Digger by Ursula Vernon. It's brilliant and everyone should read it.

Summer in Orcus by Vernon (under her T. Kingfisher pseud) is an excellent portal fantasy with a pre-teen heroine.

Hope that helps, and I should mark this because my nephew turns 10 soon and will want new reading material...