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Subjects: Adults, If You Like..., Science Fiction, Teens
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Introduction

Read Alikes for Whovians:

A Reading List for Dr. Who Fans

January 2014

The Day of the Doctor has come and gone and again you find yourself waiting for new episodes of Doctor Who. Here is a list of books to tide you over while you await the new Doctor’s appearance. If you are a new Whovian or a fan from the old classics, check out these books for adults and teens who love the Doctor.

Or maybe you have not discovered the Doctor yet, but you are curious about what your friends are talking about when they argue about the 4th Doctor vs the 10th Doctor and Tom Baker’s scarf vs David Tennant’s tie….we might not be able to school you in all things Doctor, but these books are something you and your friends can both enjoy.

Note: “Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of the Doctor, a Time Lord—a time-travelling humanoid alien. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-travelling space ship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, the Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilisations, help ordinary people, and right wrongs.” Wikipedia

Recommended Reads

BZRK by Michael Grant
ISBN: 9781606843123
Publication Date: 2012-02-28
In the near future, the conjoined Armstrong twins, under the guise of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, plot to create their own version of utopia using nanobots, while a guerilla group known as BZRK develops a DNA-based biot that can stop bots, but at risk of the host's brain.

Every time I see the Cybermen and their attempts to rid the world of human emotions because they are seen as a disadvantage, I can't help but think of BZRK. Here, one of the most demented villains I have read (human, although they would also make a good alien species for Dr. Who), use nanotechnology to try and reach the same goal as the Cybermen. Chilling, adventure packed, and full of important ethical discussions.
Shade's Children by Garth Nix; Diane Dillon (Illustrator); Leo Dillon (Illustrator)
ISBN: 0060273240
Publication Date: 1997-08-23
In a savage post-nuclear world, four young fugitives attempt to overthrow the bloodthirsty rule of the Overlords with the help of Shade, their mysterious mentor. On every child's 14th birthday, they are collected by Overlords inhabiting the Earth and their parts are harvested to create machinelike creatures whose sole purpose is to kill. Shade and his band of children are trying to stay alive and off the radar. They are the only hope for humankind, but is Shade the hero that his kids think he is?

This is one science fiction thriller which left me with chills long after I finished the book.
Variant by Robison Wells
ISBN: 9780062026088
Publication Date: 2011-10-04
After years in foster homes, seventeen-year-old Benson Fisher applies to New Mexico's Maxfield Academy in hopes of securing a brighter future, but instead he finds that the school is a prison and no one is what he or she seems.

There are many instances in the Whoverse where people are not what they seem, and the revelation can shock you. Variant has one of the most jaw dropping revelations I have read in a while that would fit perfectly in the world of Doctor Who. Benson Fisher gets himself enrolled in a boarding school that has no adults, but once he is there he can't leave - and he really, really wants to leave because what is happening inside the school is terrifying.
Interstellar Pig by William Sleator
ISBN: 0525440984
Publication Date: 1984-06-11
Barney's boring seaside vacation gets very interesting when the neighbors next door get him involved in a bizarre game called Interstellar Pig.

It is very Whovian fun. Oh, but don't lose.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
ISBN: 9780765338143
Publication Date: 2013-05-07
Ender is a child, a genius. And he is recruited to play a game. A game that it turns out will have tremendous repercussions for the history of the human race, an alien species, and Ender himself.

If you continue to read the series, there are several titles, you will also get an interesting look at a boy who rejects violence and embraces an ethic similar to the Doctor's.
Mr. Was by Pete Hautman
ISBN: 0689810687
Publication Date: 1996-10-01
After his dying grandfather tries to strangle him, Jack Lund discovers a door that leads him fifty years into the past and involves him in events that determine his own future.

This is a dark, compelling look at domestic violence and a fascinating take on time travel. Like Dr. Who it presents time travelers who sometimes travel into their own past timeline….can they change their own life? Should they?
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
ISBN: 9780385737425
Publication Date: 2009-07-14
As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show, "The $20,000 Pyramid," a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space.

This time travel adventure is intended for a younger audience, but this in no way limits appeal for more advanced readers. In the 6th grade, four mysterious letters change Miranda's world forever: I am coming to save your friend's life, and my own. Find out what happens in Stead's When You Reach Me, one of my very favorite middle grade reads that readers of any age will love. As Doctor 10 would say, Brilliant!
Nobody by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
ISBN: 9781606843215
Publication Date: 2013-01-22
Fifteen-year-old Claire Ryan has always felt invisible, always lived beyond people's notice, which causes trouble when she instantly connects with seventeen-year-old Nix, who really can become invisible and has been sent to assassinate her.

There are people in this world that no one can see. They are nobodies. And they are the perfect assassin. What would happen if Doctor Who looked inside the Silence and tried to determine what they were here for? Nobody takes the point of view of two unseen characters and examines a life of those who remain hidden, unseen, on the fringes of society. Sometimes, if you look just right out of the corner of your eye, you can almost see them.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
ISBN: 9781594744761
Publication Date: 2011-06-07
Jacob's grandfather has always told him stories, stories about peculiar children in black and white photographs, about an island, about an orphanage. But what if the stories are true? When Jacob witnesses his grandfather being killed by what can only be described as a monster, he sets out to a mysterious island to find the home and learn a truth that will challenge everything he knows about the world he lives in - and his grandfather.

For those haunting episodes where things are just not quite right or exactly what they seem, a mind-bending kind of read you can also try: Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman and Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.
The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls by Claire Legrand; Sarah Watts (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9781442442917
Publication Date: 2012-08-28
Practically-perfect twelve-year-old Victoria Wright must lie, sneak, and break the rules when her investigation of the disappearance of her best--and only--friend, Lawrence, reveals dark secrets about her town and the orphanage run by the reclusive Mrs. Cavendish. No one knows exactly what goes on inside the Cavendish Home, but Victoria is about to find out. When her best friend Lawrence goes missing, she knows he must be there. But no one ever comes out of the home.

The Dr. Who episode Night Terrors, where Amy and Rory get sucked into the doll house brought this title to mind. And if you are looking for creepy alternate worlds, don't forget The Thief of Always by Clive Barker and Coraline by Neil Gaiman,who has written an episode of Doctor Who, and in fact, Gaiman is a great read alike for Whovians.

Hourglass Series by Myra McEntire

Hourglass by Myra McEntire
ISBN: 9781606841440
Publication Date: 2011-06-14
Seventeen-year-old Emerson uses her power to manipulate time to help Michael, a consultant hired by her brother, to prevent a murder that happened six months ago while simultaneously navigating their undeniable attraction to one another.
Timepiece by Myra McEntire
ISBN: 9781606841457
Publication Date: 2012-06-12
When vital research about the time gene is stolen, Kaleb must join Emerson and the Hourglass team to find the criminal, who could be anywhere in time.
Infinityglass by Myra McEntire
ISBN: 9781606844410
Publication Date: 2013-08-06
Working with the Hourglass organization to locate the missing Infinityglass before it falls into the wrong hands, Lily, whose powers give her an ability to locate missing objects, realizes that the Infinityglass is actually a person.

You can't really have a YA Doctor Who reading list without the Hourglass series, an excellent time travel adventure. Emerson Cole has grown up thinking she sees ghosts, but the truth is she can travel through time and the walls between the here and now are breaking down. She meets and begins to fall in love with Michael, but their love is dangerous. I can't tell you how the Doctor and River's relationship is similar to Michael and Em's because, well, "spoilers sweetie".

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
ISBN: 1931561648
Publication Date: 2003-09-01
This title captures all the pathos of trying to love someone who travels through time.

For more time travelling romance, you might also want to try the time travelling series by Caroline B. Cooney that begins with Both Sides of Time.
The Transall Saga by Gary Paulsen
ISBN: 0385321961
Publication Date: 1998-05-11
Mark is camping solo when a mysterious beam of light transfers him to what appears to be another time, and perhaps even another planet. Trapped in another time and place, Mark encounters amazing creatures and experiences as he tries to make his way back home to his time on Earth.

With both a survival story and a time travel element, this is great for Whovians who have maybe outgrown Paulsen's Hatchet series.
The Paradise Trap by Catherine Jinks
ISBN: 9781606842737
Publication Date: 2012-04-24
Eleven-year-old Marcus is spending a week at the beach with his mother in a tiny old travel trailer, but boredom turns to terror when a new friend discovers a cellar that has magical doors through which people keep disappearing.

Paradise Trap is similar in concept to the episode The God Complex with the play on everyone having their own room designed to lure them. But for Whovians who liked that episode, this book should be a pleasing read.
You Killed Wesley Payne by Sean Beaudoin
ISBN: 9780316077422
Publication Date: 2011-02-01
When hard-boiled, seventeen-year-old private investigator Dalton Rev transfers to Salt River High to solve the case of a dead student, he has his hands full trying to outwit the police, negotiate the school's social hierarchy, and get paid.

Not science fiction at all, but a noir mystery with a hip happening beat to it that has so much of the manic feel of the 11th Doctor. Goodreads describes it thusly: "You Killed Wesley Payne is a truly original and darkly hilarious update of classic pulp-noir, in which hard-boiled seventeen year-old Dalton Rev transfers to the mean hallways of Salt River High to take on the toughest case of his life. The question isn't whether Dalton's going to get paid. He always gets paid. Or whether he's gonna get the girl. He always (sometimes) gets the girl. The real question is whether Dalton Rev can outwit crooked cops and killer cliques in time to solve the mystery of "The Body" before it solves him." Dalton swaggers like the Doctor with a unique voice that many Doctor Who fans will love.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
ISBN: 9781400052929
Publication Date: 2004-08-03
(or Really ANYTHING by Adams)

If you are a fan of the Matt Smith years, Doctor 11, you should love the slapstick humor and just out of this world zaniness that Adams puts on the page. Whether it is the inappropriately named Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish, or Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency), Adams is so much in the same campy spirit of Doctor Who. I mean, there is space travel with towels and the immortal words "Don't Panic" - what more could you ask for?
And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer
ISBN: 9781401323585
Publication Date: 2009-10-12
A sixth volume to the campy Hitchhiker's Guide Trilogy. For the fan who just can't get enough of the laugh out loud silliness of Doctor 11 and Douglas Adams.
The Princess Bride by William Goldman; Michael Manomivibul (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9780156035217
Publication Date: 2007-10-08
What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams?

If you are looking for the humor and just awesome camp of Doctor Who you might also really enjoy The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Most fans will be familiar with Wesley and Buttercup's story as a movie, but will find pleasure rediscovering this campy, classic romantic story as Goldman retells the "good parts" of the story he claims his father used to read to him as a child.
The Diviners by Libba Bray
ISBN: 9780316126113
Publication Date: 2012-09-18
Seventeen-year-old Evie O'Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of occult-based murders thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thick of the investigation.

For that spooky, retro New York feel…think Angels Take Manhattan. Especially for Whovians who love to get the chills watching episodes involving the Weeping Angels.
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
ISBN: 0394588169
Publication Date: 1990-11-07
An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Creatures once extinct now roam Jurassic Park, soon-to-be opened as a theme park. Until something goes wrong...and science proves a dangerous toy.

Playing with science for entertainment and entertainment with a deadly edge, are classic Dr. Who plot elements. So Crichton's science thriller is a perfect fit for many Dr. Who fans who may have missed it when it was released in the 90s.
172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad; Tara Chace
ISBN: 9780316182881
Publication Date: 2012-04-17
In 2019, teens Mia, Antoine, and Midori are selected by lottery to join experienced astronauts on a NASA mission to the once top-secret moon base, DARLAH 2, while in a Florida nursing home, a former astronaut struggles to warn someone of the terrible danger there.

Civilians in space and unexpected danger about to erupt. Could there be anything else more perfect for Dr. Who fans?
Erebos by Ursula Poznanski; Judith Pattinson (Translator)
ISBN: 9781554513734
Publication Date: 2012-01-19
Nick is given a sinister but brilliant computer game called Erebos. The game is highly addictive but asks its players to carry out actions in the real world in order to keep playing online, actions which become more and more terrifyingly manipulative. As Nick loses friends and all sense of right and wrong in the real world, he gains power and advances further towards his online goal - to become one of the Inner Circle of Erebos. But what is virtual and what is reality? How far will Nick go to achieve his goal? And what does Erebos really want? Enter Erebos at your own risk. Exciting, suspenseful and totally unputdownable.

Teens start playing an online game and can't stop is reminiscent of The Bells of Saint John episode. Again the theme of entertainment with a dangerous edge comes into play here as well as another theme which often appears in Dr. Who…the blurring of reality, virtual reality, and perception.
The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jessica Rothenberg
ISBN: 9780803737204
Publication Date: 2012-02-21
Just before her sixteenth birthday, Brie Eagan literally dies of a broken heart when her boyfriend tells her he does not love her, and she then must go through the five stages of grief, while watching her friends and family try to cope with her death, before her faith in love is restored and she can move on to the afterlife.

The relationship and being trapped in limbo is reminiscent of both Amy's Choice and The Girl Who Waited. Plus, Dr. Who is all about relationships: some beautiful and others tragic and even a few which are both.
Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie
ISBN: 0425099148
Publication Date: 1987-01-01
In the book, Poirot is a passenger on board a flight from Paris to Croydon. Sometime before landing, one of the passengers, Madame Giselle — a wealthy French moneylender — is found dead. Initially, a reaction to a wasp sting is postulated, but Poirot spies the true cause of death: a poison-tipped dart, fired from a blowgun. It becomes apparent that the victim has been murdered.

This novel was featured in the episode titled, The Unicorn and the Wasp. The Doctor and Donna get involved in a murder mystery at the home of Lady Eddison and who else should be there but Agatha Christie.

This list was inspired by a similar list on http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com : material and annotations from that list were used with permission.

Introduction

Read Alikes for Whovians:

A Reading List for Dr. Who Fans

January 2014

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