Book Gift for a French Boy

September 1, 2012 7:42 AM

Book suggestions for 11-year-old French boy?

My godson will turn 11 next month and I'd like to buy him a good book appropriate for his age, in French!

He's not a huge reader, but he has enjoyed comics and some basic graphic novels in the past. I'd like to get him a fantastic book like those I remember reading at his age: science fiction, fantasy, dystopian novels, etc.

Edgy, weird stuff, but written for a young audience.

Any suggestions?

Thanks much!

posted by mixer to media & arts (9 answers total)

If he hasn't read them all yet, GET THIS KID ASTERIX and/or TINTIN
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:50 AM on September 1, 2012 [3 favorites]

Well they aren't really edgy, but the Percy Jackson novels are great, rip-roaring fun, and are available in french on amazon.fr.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:24 AM on September 1, 2012

My 11 year old likes Ezoah.
posted by Ian Scuffling at 12:08 PM on September 1, 2012

Maybe a bit obvious, but the Little Prince? Not in the genre you asked about, but a great book none the less. Far less of a children's book than it appears.
posted by jorlyfish at 12:24 PM on September 1, 2012

Seconding Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson novels. My son loves them, and after he listened to several of them, he asked to read this graphic novel version of "The Odyssey" so he could learn more about Greek gods/mythology.
posted by MonkeyToes at 1:12 PM on September 1, 2012

Jules Verne
posted by brujita at 3:33 PM on September 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

Paul Berna's 'One Hundred Million Francs' (can't link, sorry) was my favourite book when I was that age. It's about a bunch of street urchins in a gritty post-war Parisian banlieu who discover some bank robbers loot, and all the mayhem that ensues.
posted by Flashman at 6:15 PM on September 1, 2012

Or perhaps a story with many, many beautifully illustrated pages -- such as "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" (the author describes it as "something that is not a exactly a novel, not quite a picture book, not really a graphic novel, or a flip book or a movie, but a combination of all these things"). It's a compelling read, and constructed in an interesting way.
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:38 PM on September 1, 2012

Goscinny (he of Asterix) also wrote the Petit Nicolas books about young boys and the trouble they get into. Not edgy I suppose, but very funny and quite possibly something to make your godson into a reader. (Also available in English.)
posted by BWA at 6:57 AM on September 2, 2012