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I have just finished reading all the 'how to train your dragon' series to my lad, for bedtime stories. It has taken about 6 months and we're now looking for something else to read. We've tried a few Roald Dahl books but I just don't enjoy reading them (not sure why, I wasn't that keen when I was a kid too). I suggested Harry Potter but he doesn't want to (I think he thinks they'll be scary and I can't convince him otherwise).
Any suggestions? A series will be good because if he gets into it, he gets engaged with the story and we can move from one book to the next. While reading the dragon series we both looked forward to the bedtime story and I want to find something that we both enjoy again.
My son enjoys:
Beast quest books
David Walliams books
Mr Stink
Diary of a wimpy kid
and enjoyed the dragon series too
Diary of a wimpy kid again
Anything by Dahl, or walliams
Razzle.
The Hobbit? Maybe a bit young but.....
Stoner Jr (7.5) has ripped through pretty much all the beast quest stuff. Its a bit basic IMO and doesnt develop vocab much, but he enjoys the fantasy.
I got him a boxed set of fighting fantasy books a few months back and he's just started on them (the originals, from Warlock of Firetop mountain onwards) having read a few "starter" kind of decision books from the library this summer.
He also loves horrid henry books.
PS The Worst Witch books are very good too - takes me back to when I were a nipper! 🙂
Wimpy kid my boy loves
He keeps going back to Horrible Histories.
My 6 year old keeps asking for more Harry Potter books, which is getting to be a bit of a pain as the later ones are massive 🙂
He enjoyed The Hobbit (not done LOTR yet) and particularly enjoyed A Wizard of Earthsea and sequels (so much so that he dressed as Sparrowhawk for his school's 'Come as your favourite book character' day).
Roald Dahl also a good choice.
Diary of wimpy kid is good and you can' transition into them reading chapters or pages to you.
Me and my daughter started the hobbit about then. We finished it but when we considered lord of rings we moved onto Harry potter. Dahl is very good .
To be honest all reading is good at this age... Developing a love for books and reading is essential life skill.
As an 8 year old I really enjoyed reading The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall. I think I had the same copy out from my local library 13 times.
I also really enjoyed the Richmal Crompton 'Just William' series.
There's a few there for me to look at - thanks. Someone had recommended Walliams ( I'd forgotten) so may check his out.
Never thought it'd be so tricky! Jus after the moon on a stick - something we both enjoy, engages him and ideally helps him learns new words and vocabulary.
Will check out some of the suggestions above.
We do have Diary of a Wimpy Kid which he is reading to himself. I may also get Harry Potter and see how we get on. I haven't read it either but from what I hear, suspect he'd like it.
Another one for the walliams books. Reads them in days,
Thump (8) is currently enjoying Stig of the Dump, by Clive King.
In addition to all of the above, the Michael Morpurgo books are well worth checking out (War Horse, Friend or Foe etc).
Our boy loves the Barry Loser series and the David walliams books, we got the walliams ones with the CDs and paperbacks, mixing up reading and listening as we go.
Horrible histories are great.
Saving Harry Potter for when the same age as Harry is when the books start and work from there
+1 for the Just William stories - if he likes them there are plenty of books in the series. As a one off longish adventure story, Brandon Chase by B.B. is just a fantastic rollicking tale.
The Mouse and his Child - Russell Hoban
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mouse_and_His_Child
Have fun with the last visible dog...
Your lad might still be a little young, but I'd highly recommend Conrads War by Andrew Davies.
Think i might have been nine or ten when i read it. Wouldn't mind actually reading it again.
This thread has made me buy a set of Fighting Fantasy books. For my boy ofc ¬_¬
Scream street, my lad loved them.
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A bit old skool but have you tried the famous five/secret seven yet? The language is dated and it's quite funny to hear your 7 year old describing things as "smashing"!
As above, David Walliams books and The Worst Witch have gone down well, a few Roald Dahl ones as well. There's a series of books on Zac Power (kids secret agent kinda thing) and Space Scouts - they seem to involve lots of gadgets such as the "1000 dog fart" stink bomb which always gets a laugh.
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See if you can find The Box of Delights by John Masefield, it's one of the original children's fantasy books and I remember being very thrilled by it when I was young.
Is Anthony Horowitz too grown up for him? Our son LOVED all his books.
I absolutely loved Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons books; again, a little dated language-wise, but lovely adventure stories.
Look for Catherine Webb's Horatio Lyle books, a sort of Steampunk Victorian Sherlock Holmes/mad inventor series; really lovely stories aimed at children. Her first two books might be worth looking at as well, Mirror Dreams and Mirror Wakes; she was fourteen when she wrote them. She now writes under the names of Kate Griffin and Claire North, but those books are decidedly adult!
One of my favorites as a kid.
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I used to read books as a kid that had two brothers who would get into adventures collecting animals for their wildlife park.
On thinking about it maybe time has passed them by, Swallows and Amazons was a staple of my youth.
How could I forget Professor Branestawm I had to read out a passage in school when I was about 9, couldnt manage it as I was laughing to much 😆
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My boys enjoyed Beast Quest but also loved Tintin. Luckily I still had most of them from when I was a kid.
Mine loves the Mortal Engines quintet and prequels. Some quite adult themes in them dealt with well, and cracking stories with flawed characters you might actually care about. That'd last you fair while, waiting for the last Fever Crumb book to be written!
Hobbit went down well, Roald Dahl too, David Walliams is another favourite for own reading.
Another one for Swallows and Amazons series here!
Also one of my favourites when I was little was 'The Fighting Marshal - The Story of Wyatt Earp' by Jeff Jeffries, although haven't read it recently so don't can't remember how good it actually is!
my son (6 - 7 next month) has finished the harry potter books, he loved them (and got to say I really enjoyed his reports of them over breakfast) - he's now onto Anthony Horowitz - there are two series Alex Rider (teenage James bond type of thing) and The Power of five books (kinda non scary hidden world and portals). Not brilliantly written but he enjoys them.
How about CS Lewis?
Mr Gum books are pretty funny. My 8 y/o son liked them almost as much as I did.
Alan Garner books? Weirdstone of Brasingamen, Elidor......etc. A bit like a kids version of Tolkien.
My 8 year old enjoyed Enid Blyton books, but only when they were read to him or he listened to them as an audiobook. However, he loved reading the [url= http://www.adventureislandbooks.com ]Adventure Island Series by Helen Moss[/url] which are essentially a modern day version of the famous five/Secret Seven books
PS Obviously the Secret Seven were better that the famous five, hence the capitalisation. I challenge anyone to disagree 😉
My kids have read almost everything by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. Muddle Earth is a good start - like a simpler, funny version of Lord of the Rings. There is a second Muddle Earth book (not as good), and if he likes the style can move onto the Far Flung Adventures or Edge Chronicles series.
Not massive Dahl fans but did quite enjoy Giraffe, Pelly and Me.
Mr Gum is ace.
Never really got into the David Walliams books - would they have been so popular if he wasn't famous?
Eldest likes Frank Cottrell Boyce
Phillip Pulman's His Dark Materials
I used to read books as a kid that had two brothers who would get into adventures collecting animals for their wildlife park.
Pig face, those were all I read at that age. Willard Price was the author, and all the books are "**************" Adventure. Eg Safari Adventure, underwater Adventure etc
Brilliant!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28865399
In March 1983, an unconventional series of books held the top three entries of the Sunday Times bestseller list. These were Fighting Fantasy books - stories "in which YOU are the Hero". All that you needed to take part was a pencil, eraser, dice and an active imagination
STL - Member
Alan Garner books? Weirdstone of Brasingamen, Elidor......etc. A bit like a kids version of Tolkien.
Ah yes! I'd forgotten those. I read them as an adult, but really enjoyed them. They can get quite dark, too; the elves are not the same as those in Tolkien, they are much more amoral. There's a sequence where the children are taken through the dwarf mines of Fundindelve, which gets horribly claustrophobic; a struggle to read if you have a real fear of closed-in places.
There's a recent follow-up, too, but it's certainly not aimed at children.
PS Obviously the Secret Seven were better that the famous five, hence the capitalisation. I challenge anyone to disagree
No disagreement here, I read a few of the FF books, then discovered a schoolfriend had the SS books, and I absolutely devoured them; that would be around age 9-10.
This book is currently being talked about on Countryfile: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendon_Chase
Looks ideal.
Another rather exciting book, not really aimed at children, but I read it as a kid, and it's full of real derring-do, is Erskine Childers [i]The Riddle Of The Sands[/i].
Good for historical background to the build-up to the First World War.