Charlie the Choo-Choo

When I was growing up in the 80s, I think I read every Stephen King book that was available at the time. Probably mostly between the ages of 13 and 16. I LOVED horror movies and books.

I currently have a 10yo. He seems to only want to read comic books. I also have a hard time getting him to watch horror movies with me (as in The Blob, Dracula, or The Mummy…nothing too heavy duty.) He will watch any action movie that I allow him to, and even the ‘kid oriented’ movies seem quite violent, so I don’t think the violence in some of the King books is much worse.

I am going to assign him an array of ‘real’ books to read over the summer, and I am considering having a King book be one of them. As I recall, they all had some adult themed subplot to them, aside from just the horror. Does anybody have any suggestions as to which King books may be on the edge of acceptable for a younger reader, or should I just wait a few more years? I’m just afraid that in a few more years, when he’s a teenager, he’s not going to listen to anything I say anyway, and now is the time to put as many ideas into his head as possible. That way, later on when he’s making his own choices and not listening to me, he’ll already have as many of those ideas as possible already swirling around in his head from which to choose from. I kinda feel like I have this narrow window in which to shove them all in there, lol.

I’d love for my son to try out King. My entry point was around the same age with Salem’s Lot and then Regulators/Desperation. I was hooked. But, I know it’s a different time.

What would you recommend?

Novels or short stories welcome.

I’ve been loving IT but now that I’m almost done I’ve been wondering if king has anything else centered around children?