Help!

A local boy's school had a great idea for book week this year: they're making a list of forty books per class from which they're asking parents to choose one to donate to the library. For grades 3, 4, 5 and 6, they're hoping for one hundred and sixty new books.

The question is, what books should be included? They'll need plenty of action, adventure, humour... and definitely no girls on the cover. Here are some of the suggestions so far (stay tuned for full reviews), please let me know what you think!

Boys 7-9 years
Lenore Look's Alvin Ho series
Joy Cowley's Snake and Lizard series
Kenneth Oppel's Silverwing series
Holly Black's Spiderwick Chronicles
Kate DiCamillo's Tale of Despereaux
Charlie Carter's Battle Boy historical fiction series

Boys 8-10 years
Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid series
C S Lewis' Narnia series
Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles
Gary Blackwood's Shakespeare Stealer series
The 39 Clues series (by several authors)
Rene Goscinny's Nicholas series (author of Asterix)
Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book
Andy Griffiths' Robot Riot
Cynthia Rylant's Every Living Thing
Kate DiCamillo's The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Boys 9-11 years
Kate DiCamillo's The Magician's Elephant
John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series
Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time series
Linda Buckley-Archer's Time Traveller (Gideon) series
Garth Nix's Seventh Tower series
Elizabeth Borton de Trevino's I, Juan de Pareja
Jerry Spinelli's Loser
Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series
Emily Rodda's Rowan of Rin series
John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Cornelia Funke's The Thief Lord
Blue Balliet's Chasing Vermeer

Boys 10-12 years
Kenneth Oppel's Airborn series
Michael Molloy's Peter Raven Under Fire
Rosemary Sutcliff's Eagle of the Ninth and The Lantern Bearers
Jerry Spinelli's Milkweed and Crash (The Mighty Crashman in the UK and Aus)
Christopher Paolini's Inheritance series
Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Quartet
Lois Lowry's Messenger and The Giver
Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series
Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series
Emily Rodda's Deltora Quest series

Clare Cannon lives in Sydney where she is the manager of Portico Books.

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