The Chosen

The Chosen by Chaim Potok. http://www.amazon.com/Chosen-Chaim-Potok/dp/0449213447

Best novel about growing up is The Chosen by Chaim Potok. http://www.amazon.com/Chosen-Chaim-Penguin-Modern-Classics/d... (http://www.amazon.com/Chosen-Chaim-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141040777/) I got a LOT out of that when I reread it at least thirty years after reading it the first time. Best nonfiction book full of amazing facts and insights into the human condition I didn't know before I read the book is The Nature of Paleolithic Art by R. Dale Guthrie. http://www.amazon.com/Nature-Paleolithic-Art-Dale-Guthrie/dp... (http://www.amazon.com/Nature-Paleolithic-Art-Dale-Guthrie/dp/0226311260/) There are bunch of others I could remember, but these two in particular took me by surprise by being much better than I would have guessed they would be when I first picked them up.

My children like the George R. R. Martin books, the Philip Pullman books, the Harry Potter series, and other books much in that genre category. They also read "classic" literature as they get older, for example Oliver Twist or Tom Sawyer. Two of my sons have really liked A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (which I have never read) and I really liked The Chosen by Chaim Potok (which I reread a few years ago, and still thought was very good).