Hi

I’m Tristan Bancks, author of the Mac Slater and Nit Boy series’. I’m always on the lookout for incredible reads for boys and, over the next three months, I’m going to be guest-blogging at least twice a week here at Boys, Blokes, Books and Bytes. I’d love you to get in on the conversation and share your thoughts on amazing boys’ books, too.

To kick things off, I’ve asked a handful of Australia’s favourite children’s writers to give their tip on the best book for boys ever. And here they are:

James Roy: The Machine Gunners (by Robert Westall)

David Metzenthen: The Really Nearly Deadly Canoe Ride (by David Metzenethen)

Pat Flynn: Holes by Louis Sachar and Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs (by Gerard Michael Bauer)

Nick Place: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (by Douglas Adams)

And my tip? My Side of the Mountain (by Jean Craighead George)

What’s your tip on the best boys’ book ever?

Tristan.

Glad you asked! Lightning Strikes is the name of a new series of action-packed stories from some of Australia’s brightest and best. Just like lightning these books are short, sharp and sensational.

Favourites are Queasy Rider by James Roy and Meg McKinlay’s Going for Broke but there are six in the series now.

Queasy Rider is about two boys who find an old bike and hatch a plan to get rich. Going for Broke is a crack-up funny story about Nathan Foley* and his attempts to break a world record. Any world record! There’s more about Lightning Strikes here.

*not that Nathan Foley.