So, my nephew is going from 8th to 9th and is apparently really feeling out of sorts.

I always give them books and stuff instead of video games, but I think he is too young for American Tabloid, or Fear and Loathing, and Catcher in the Rye may be a bit too obvious.

The books don't need to pertain to coming of age, just what you remember liking when you were this age.

(Also, I don't think he caught the ghey, or is in imminent ganger of mouth-full-of-shotgun-toe-on-the-trigger, just kinda feelin like a teenager)

Get him into some early Robert Heinlein, he'll identify with some of the characters, and just enjoy the campy early 50's sci fi. Start with Starman Jones, or Citizen of the Galaxy, or Farmer in the Sky.

Heinlein's catalog is split between adolescent and adult sci fi.

The Fountainhead.

Hehe.

Give that kid Fear & Loathing.

try this one:

i think at that age i read The Body several times (the not so short story by Steven King that "Stand By Me" was based on)

also in that collection of short stories is the seriously fucked up Apt Pupil which a kid might like.

Roots. Hee hee.

He'll probably get some Rand in school, even if it's just Anthem, and then he can find that on his own. She's too ponderous for the above average 13 year old.

Or The Talisman. Can't go wrong there.

On the Road was a favorite of mine around that age.

Then again, so was Fear and Loathing.

I own and have read both, and can vouch for their literary supremacy.

It'll teach him how to just be himself, and average 18 boards a game. Just like Dennis.

God, they teach Rand in schools? That's terrifying. Is it, a class on rhetorical devices and/or reductive logic?

'Be True To Your School' by Bob Greene (the columnist)...One of my all time fave coming of age books.

From Publishers Weekly
This diary by the author of Good Morning, Merry Sunshine may top that bestseller, for Greene's re-creation of what he considers America's last innocent year, 1964, possesses nostalgia's magic. He records his life as a high school student in Bexley, a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. With his close male friends, he thrilled to the music and style of the Beatles and balked at orders to "get a haircut!"; he mourned from January through December over a girl he continued to love even after she dumped him; sometimes he and his pals drank too much and played tricks "I'm not proud of." He recalls an era when it was hard to persuade a girl to "go all the way" and other youthful experiences that make up a poignant, funny, charming memoir. Major ad/promo; first serial to Esquire and Family Circle; author tour.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Board book edition.

From Library Journal
The diary kept by then 16-year-old Greene during the year 1964, this "year in the life" of a privileged, suburban, midwestern teen is truly what nostalgia is all about. Hey, remember two gallons of gas for 50 cents; cruising, letter sweaters, the first time you saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan ? Well, it's all herea remarkable first-hand account of that innocent time before the upheaval of the late 1960s gave way to the disillusionment of the early 1970sand adulthoodmade all the more remarkable by the fact that boys didn't usually keep diaries. But Greene, now known for his Good Morning Mary Sunshine, wanted to be a reporter and had heard a journal was good practice toward that end. So this is not just a chronicle of a time but a unique trip through the mind of a teenage boy. Rosellen Brewer, Seaside Branch Lib., Cal.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc

I got Anthem in AmLit when i was in 10th grade, and The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged in AP Lit in 12th.

It's not "literature" per se, but:
Different Seasons by Stephen King touched a nerve for me... included the story that was made into Stand By Me -- a pretty great flick.

Also, think about some Kurt Vonnegut. It's solid writing that should be damn enjoyable reading for a kid that age. Plus, his teachers will be impressed that he took the initiative to actually read Vonnegut before it was assigned to him.

I just looked this up on Amazon, and this is definitely more the speed of what I am looking for. Thanks, Dov.

Any more in this vein?

Really a great book for ages 8 to 80

you know, i do have two other books, that are very similar, but im suffering brain freeze right now.....when i go home, ill pick em out, and post em up here for ya!

totally. The short stories collections were where it was at for me.

The one with Children of the Corn in it....Night Shift, Graveyerd Shift? one of those...

War Boy by Kief Hillsbery.

FAH Q!!

obvious, maybe..... but give that kid 'catcher in the rye'.

or, how about...
'to kill a mockingbird'
'the perks of being a wallflower'

Hunh. I read Roots & Queen when in eighth grade. Part of Schindler's List, too.

I also recommend A Confederacy of Dunces; read that in tenth grade.

But, most importantly,