Milknhoney Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 He'd rather just read his four favorite series over and over. And over and over. I get that - I read my favorites over and over again too. But he needs to find new favorites. Grow. Expand his horizons. All of that. I really like Amazon's "people who liked this also liked..." feature for myself. I've found so many great new authors that way. But no such luck with ds. I find stuff that looks like something he would like, get it from the library, and then he takes one look at the cover and says, "No way!". Sometimes I force him to at least read the first chapter before giving up. Still can't find anything to hook him. Here're his favorites: Left Behind Young Trib Force Series Mysterious Benedict Society series Peter and the Starcatchers series Kingdom Keepers series Hardy Boys If you know of any books that someone who liked these books would like, please suggest! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmstranger Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 My 12yo son used to be pretty picky, but now, he's voluntarily reading Anne of Avonlea. Go figure! In his pickier days, he loved and read many times the Gregor the Overlander series. This year, he found The Ranger's Apprentice and The Brotherband Chronicles that he really enjoyed. To get him reading different things, I would set up the first book in a series (he loves books that are in a series) as a read aloud and then he'd get hooked with the story and read the rest of the series on his own. He did this with Calpurnia Tate and another series that I can't remember now. I've also looked at websites like Sonlight to find some of their more "fun" literature books and I grab those from the library and hope he'll try them. I read him the reviews from Good Reads and ask him to give it a try. After having success with a few books, he's more willing to try new things now. I know it's frustrating. I'm happy I have one kid reading nonstop now because his brother is getting to the "picky" stage! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmstranger Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 I forgot to mention audio books! In public school, his teacher suggested The Mysterious Benedict Society for him and he flat out refused to touch it. I grabbed in audio from the library and we all loved them! If I had not wanted to "hear" the others, he would've finished reading the series on his own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenecho Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 John Grisham has a series for kids called Kid Detective I think. My kids loved it. Sounds like something a Hardy Boys fan would like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 Sounds like you are looking for books for free reading, rather than classics or good books which you can assign for school ;) ). Some fun "popcorn" reading: like the Hardy Boys - Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series - Samurai mystery series (Hobbler) - Case of the Baker Street Irregulars (Newman) -- and sequels by Newman (not the newer authors) - From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (Konigsberg) - Chasing Vermeer (Balliette) - Sugar Creek Gang series (Hutchens) -- Christian author like the Mysterious Benedict Society - The Candymakers (Mass) - The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Mr. Lemoncello's Library series (Grabenstein) - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Fleming) - Walls Within Walls (Sherry) - The 39 Clues series (Riordan) like Peter and the Starcatchers - Peter Pan in Scarlet (McCaughrean) - How to Train Your Dragon: How to Be a Pirate (Cowell) - The Secret of Platform 13 (Ibbotson) - Dragon Keeper Chronicles series (Paul) -- Christian author like Left Behind (the sort-of alternate future aspect of the apocalypse) - City of Ember, People of Spark, Diamond of Darkhold (duPrau) - The True Meaning of Smek Day (Rex) - The Tripod series (Christopher) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elastimom Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 Hi! My son (13yo) liked: Keeper of the Lost Cities series Ranger's Apprentice series Michael Vey series Vampirates series Insignia series (by S.J. Kincaid) The Missing series (by Haddix) Hope that helps :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 My 9 1/2 yr old just devoured The Lost Planet and then The Stolen Moon (same series). I mean...devoured them. He said they were very very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milknhoney Posted May 17, 2016 Author Share Posted May 17, 2016 Thanks everyone! Some of these suggestions look very promising. I've got them all on my library reading list now. Some of these have already been rejected, but since they only got half a glance I think I'll check them out again. I think I'll try the read aloud idea. During the school year our read alouds are more formal literature slightly above his own personal reading level. But we're finishing up this week. So maybe for our summer break I'll keep up the read aloud practice but with more "fun" books. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cintinative Posted May 17, 2016 Share Posted May 17, 2016 Does he like fantasy? My son liked the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander and he also liked some of the books you mentioned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald Stoker Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 Would he like some vintage series, like Tom Swift? or The Mad Scientists' Club? Or some of the Enid Blyton series, like The "X" (Castle, Island, Circus, Mountain, etc.) of Adventure books? The Great Brain series? The Just William series? The Bagthorpe series? (I am revisiting my childhood with this list, though I am sparing you all of the "nurse" series, since he is a boy....) https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Swift-Megapack-Complete-Novels-ebook/dp/B007ZTN08S?ie=UTF8&keywords=tom%20swift&qid=1463844115&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Mad-Scientists-Club-Complete-Collection/dp/1930900511/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463844031&sr=1-1&keywords=mad+scientists+club http://www.amazon.com/Enid-Blyton-Adventure-Collection-Books/dp/B002RAUTAM http://www.amazon.com/John-D.-Fitzgerald/e/B000APM5M6/ref=pd_sim_14_bl_3?_encoding=UTF8&refRID=05EWMN5NQF0PYCZZCP0B http://www.amazon.com/Just-William-Richmal-Crompton-Collection/dp/0330391445?ie=UTF8&keywords=just%20william&qid=1463844164&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Jack-Bagthorpes-Helen-Cresswell/dp/0192753991/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463844238&sr=1-1&keywords=ordinary+jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 My 11yo son is not a huge reader, in that he generally chooses hands-on sorts of activities in his free time over reading, but he generally enjoys reading when he does do it (and I require that he read literature for school). He loved these books this past year: The Golden Goblet The Lanternbearers My Side of the Mountain (great for the adventurous type of kid) He also loved the Boys of Wartime series, but they're more 4th or 5th grade level, I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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