Male Protagonists in Youth Fiction

At a youth writing conference recently, a number of participants were bemoaning the lack of teen novels with male protagonists.  It seems that in the wake of Twilight and Hunger Games, the focus has been on female heroines.  Writers and parents noted that while girls will read books with both male and female protagonists, boys will tend to prefer books with male protagonists.  Whether or not this is accurate, I thought it might be useful to compile a list of young adult books with male protagonists so those of us with school-aged sons can encourage them to read more as the school year starts.  Here’s what I have so far.  Please feel free to add. 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian (Sherman Alexie)

Enders Game (series) (Orson Scott Card)

Harry Potter (series) (J K Rowling)

Tempest (Julie Cross)

Ready Player One (Ernest Cline)

Ship Breaker (Paolo Bacigalupi)

Split (Swati Avasthi)

Marcelo in the Real World (Francisco Stork)

Where She Went (sequel to If I Stay) (Gayle Forman)

Al Capone Does My Shirts / Al Capone Shines My Shoes (Gennifer Choldenko)

The Dead and the Gone (Susan Beth Pfeffer)

So Yesterday (Scott Westerfeld)

Peeps / The Last Days (Scott Westerfeld)

The Giver (Lois Lowry)

I am Number Four (Pittacus Lore)

Percy Jackson (series) (Rick Riordan)

Carter Kane Chronicles (series) (Rick Riordan)

(Where series contain books with both male and female protagonists, I have tended to list only those with male protagonists.)

 

Comments

[alta charo]

The entire "Danny Dunn" series - he's a science fan, is friends with a science professor, and has various adventures, along with his girl-sidekick (also into science but not quite as smart or engaged in it as he is) and his boy-sidekick (not into science, always hungry, into poetry, but good for company to go along for the ride). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Dunn a 1950s/60s series. I devoured all of them when I was young. I have a particularly fond memory of reading "Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine" by candlelight during the 1965 NYC blackout.

[Christine Hurt]

Magic Thief and Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer

[CBR]

A recent-ish one is Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake.

[CBR]

And adding to the Danny Dunn recommendation--the Three Investigators series is from around the same time period (maybe more 70s). I loved, loved, loved, those as a kid.

[Dara Purvis]

The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper.

[alta charo]

Encyclopedia Brown

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_Brown

[Lance McMillian]

Hardy Boys

[Becca Rausch]

The Phantom Tollbooth

See also: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/526176-books-with-a-male-protagonist

[Matt]

_Year of the Horse_ by Justin Allen is very good.

[sara]

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

[Tung Yin]

Lloyd Alexander's "Chronicles of Prydain" series has a male assistant pig-keeper named Taran as the primary character.

Also:

Emily Rodda's "Rowan of Rin" series

Jacqueline Jules' "Freddie Ramos" series

Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the sequel, Charlie and the Glass Elevator

[Thomas NZ]

Taran, from the Chronicles of Prydain (Lloyd Alexander)

Barney Palmer, from The Haunting (Margaret Mahy); and of course the pirates from The Pirates' Mixed up Voyage by the same author

[Thomas NZ]

Henry Huggins series (Beverley Cleary) - oldie but a goodie; and The Mouse and the Motorcycle series (same); and especially Dear Mr Henshaw

Shining Rivers (NZ) (Ruth Dallas)

The Worst Soccer Team Ever series (William Taylor)

Napper Goes for Goal (for soccer fans)

Charmed Life; and more particularly The Lives of Christopher Chant (Diana Wynne Jones)

[Swati Avasthi]

Hey, thanks for including SPLIT on the list. Here are some of my favorite YAs with male protags; I find all of these very teachable at the college-level for English Lit and for Creative Writing

Looking for Alaska; An Abundance of Katherines; Paper Towns (all by John Green)

Godless, Invisible, Blank Confessions (all by Pete Hautman)

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

With or Without You by Brian Farrey

Becoming Chloe by Catherine Ryan Hyde

American Born Chinese by Gene Yang

The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin

Perks of Being a Wall Flower by Stephen Chbosky

[Jacqueline Lipton]

Thanks to everyone for these great suggestions and I'm particularly startstruck to have had Swati Avasthi comment. She's one of my favorite new authors. Thanks!

[S Ghosh]

The original Three Investigators series

[Grace Lee]

The Outsiders (or really anything by S.E. Hinton). A Single Shard, by Linda Sue Park. And three by Judy Blume: Superfudge, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and Then Again, Maybe I Won't.