Reddit reviews His Dark Materials Omnibus (The Golden Compass / The Subtle Knife / The Amber Spyglass)

Some more YA books with religious figures and themes:

• A Wrinkle in Time, briefly, but generally positive
  
• His Dark Materials trilogy, definitely negative
  
• Good Omens, satire
  
• There's also the Left Behind crap. I hear terrible things about it.
  
• Speaker for the Dead and the rest of the sequels to Ender's Game deal heavily with religion (haven't read the sequels, but this was my husband's contribution)
  
  I think it's important to turn "trusted" figures into dangerous entities in YA fiction, whether that's by turning parents, teachers, coaches, and other authorities into antagonists or just portraying them as occasionally flawed people. While younger readers may benefit from some reassurance that authority figures can usually help them, teenagers are growing up and should be aware that questioning authority and the bases of their moral systems is important!
  
  You should cross-post this thread to /r/YAwriters. Looking for more discussion topics there, and I don't think everyone's subscribed to this sub.

Have you tried the His Dark Materials trilogy?

He might like the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. Start with this original series of 5 books - there is another series of 5 books that come after this one called The Heroes of Olympus, same world and a few overlap characters but not as good as the first series. Riordan also has the Kane Chronicles trilogy.

I would maybe suggest A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (which is currently being made into a movie). It's about a 12-year-old boy trying to emotionally deal with his mother's terminal illness, who is visited by a monster at night that helps teach him valuable life lessons. Ness is an excellent writer but his other books are probably a bit too advanced for him still.

The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel

The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins (same author as Hunger Games)

Lockwood & Co. series by Jonathan Stroud. Book 1 is called The Screaming Staircase, Book 2 is called The Whispering Skull.

His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman

Chronicles of Narnia series maybe?

EDIT: The Iron Trial book has been getting a lot of push from bookstores as well this fall. Looks interesting but many people are just calling it a rip-off of Harry Potter.

His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman?

I highly recommend "His dark materials" for you to read. It has to be one of the better books I read and it is a series!

All 3 books (tangible copies)

All 3 books (Kindle)

It has coming of age, strong female protagonist, science fiction, and survival story all rolled into one.

If you liked harry potter, there is a good chance you will like this book series. (They tried to make a movie about it but adapted it horribly.. do not judge the book by the movie)

His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman are absolutely wonderful for an older child or 'tween. (skip the movie). - http://www.amazon.com/Materials-Omnibus-Golden-Compass-Spyglass/dp/0375847227

The His Dark Materials series. If you want to teach them to be a critical reader and thinker and inspire them to think independently, without feeling like you forced them to think any certain way, give them these three books. They're age appropriate, they're subtle, and they're almost a perfect foil for the Chronicles of Narnia series; this series is the secular Narnia series.

My old stand-by: His Dark Materials Omnibus by Philip Pullman.

I just finished The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and I'm still all in my feelings over it and suspect I will be for quite some time....I'm perfectly ok with that.

I love the His Dark Materials trilogy. If this helps, Amazon has the trilogy as a single volume.