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I need exciting books for 8 year old boy


Moxie
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There's a whole bunch of books similar to that in the "stepping stones" series, search for it on amazon. They have Jekyll and Hide, The Three musketeers, Robin Hood, and more. They are late 2nd grade to early 3rd grade reading level I think so not sure if that might be too easy.

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My boys also enjoyed a lot of the non-fiction, true-life adventure from upper-level "stepped" readers at that transition age -- such as:

- Ice Mummy: Discovery of a 3,000 year old Man (Dubowski)

- Civil War Sub: Mystery of the Hunley (Jerome)

- USS Monitor: Iron Warship That Changed the World (Thompson)

- Dinosaur Detectives (Martin)

- Giant Squid: Mystery of the Deep (Dussling)

- Finding the Titanic (Ballard)

- Race Into Space (Arnold)

- Moonwalk (Donnelly)

- Buddy: The First Seeing Eye Dog (Moore)

- Zepplin: Age of the Airship (Donkin)

- Sea of Ice: The Wreck of the Endurance (Kulling)

- Pompeii... Buried Alive! (Davis)

 

Two other books (at a 4th or 4th/5th grade reading level) with real life adventures / escapes / spies etc.

- Great Escapes of World War II (Sullivan)

- True Adventure Collection (Dowswell and Fleming)

(this is a collection of 3 books: "True Survival Stories", "True Stories of Heroes", and "True Spy Stories")

 

Below are a number of other ideas.

* = "popcorn" book (fun and adequately written, but without deeper themes)

Hope you find something that fits! Warmest regards, Lori D.

 

 

 

 

classic adventure

- Great Illustrated Classics series

(Treasure Island; Three Musketeers; Sherlock Holmes; Count of Monte Cristo; Tom Sawyer; Call of the Wild; Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde; Man in the Iron Mask; King Solomon's Mines; etc.)

 

 

historical adventure

 

gr. 3 level

- The Sword in the Tree (Bulla) -- Medieval England

- Viking Adventure (Bulla) --

- A Lion to Guide Us (Bulla) -- 1600s orphans trying to reach new Jamestown colony

- Pocahontas and the Strangers (Bulla)

- The Matchlock Gun (Edmonds) -- Colonial US

- The Courage of Sarah Noble (Dalgliesh) -- Colonial US

- Phoebe the Spy (Griffin) --American Revolution - true story

- The Secret Valley (Bulla) -- 1849 Gold Rush/pioneers

 

gr. 4 level

- Detectives in Togas; Mystery of the Roman Ransom (Winterfeld) -- Ancient Rome

- The Kite Fighters (Park) -- 1400s Korea

- Caddie Woodlawn (Brink) -- pioneer times US

- The Sign of the Beaver (Speare) -- Colonial US/Native American

 

 

biography adventure

- The Story of Thomas Alva Edison (Davidson)

- Helen Keller (Davidson)

- Louis Braille (Davidson)

- Robert Fulton, Boy Craftsman (Henry) -- inventor of steam engine as a boy

 

 

real life adventures

- Henry Huggins (series) (Cleary)

- Call it Courage (Sperry)

- The Toothpaste Millionaire (Merrill)

- Dolphin Adventure; Dolphin Treasure; The Dolphins and Me (Grover) -- scuba diver and dolphins

- Follow My Leader (Garfield) -- blinded boy gets a guide dog

 

 

fantasy adventure

 

gr. 2/3 level

- Dragon Slayer Academy (series) (McMullan)

- Moongobble and Me (series) (Coville)

- Magic Treehouse (series) (Osborne)

- Toots and the Upside Down House; Toots Underground (Hughes)

- The Littles (series) (Petersen)

 

gr. 3 level

- The Borrowers (series) (Norton)

- Charlie & the Chocolate Factory; Great Glass Elevator (Dahl)

- Pippi Longstockings; Pippi in the South Seas (Astrid)

*- Time Warp Trio (series)

* - Sword of the Samurai: Adventure Stories from Japan (Kimmel)

 

gr. 4 level

- Land of Oz; Ozma of Oz (Baum) -- lively sequels; skip Wizard of Oz (dull/long)

- Mrs. Piggle Wiggle (series) (MacDonald)

- Peter and the Star Catchers (Barry)

 

gr. 4/5

- The Reluctant Dragon (Graham)

* Dragon War; Dragon Steel; Dragon Cauldron; Dragon of the Lost Sea; (Yep)

* Tiger Apprentice (series) (Yep)

 

 

 

fantasy adventure with talking animals

gr. 3 level

- Catwings (series) (LeGuin)

 

gr. 3/4 level

- The Mouse and the Motorcycle (Cleary)

- Mr. Popper's Penguins (Atwater)

- The Cricket in Times Square (Selden)

- Charlotte's Web; Trumpet of the Swan (White)

- The Mouse and the Motorcycle (McCleary)

*- Varjak Paw (Said)

*- Warriors (series) (Hunter)

 

gr. 4 level

- Ben and I (Lawson)

- The Rescuers, Miss Bianca, Miss Bianca in the Orient (Sharpe)

- Basil of Baker Street (Titus)

- Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis)

 

 

 

fun tall tale adventure

gr. 3 level

- The Bears on Hemlock Mountain (Dalgliesh)

- The Whipping Boy (Fleischman)

- McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm (Fleischman)

 

gr. 4 level

- By the Great Horn Spoon (Fleischman)

 

 

dragons

- Raising Dragons (Nolen) -- gr. 2-3

- Dragon Slayer Academy (series) (McMullan) -- gr. 2/3

- The Dragon's Child (Nimmo) -- gr. 3

- My Father's Dragon -- gr. 4

* Dragon War; Dragon Steel; Dragon Cauldron; Dragon of the Lost Sea; (Yep) -- gr. 4/5

- The Reluctant Dragon (Graham) -- gr. 4/5

- How to Raise and Keep a Dragon (Nigg) -- gr. 4/5

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Matchlock Gun, Caddie Woodlawn (about a tomboyish girl--has 2 brothers), Magic Treehouse books, Hardy Boys, Hank the Cowdog, Bunnicula, Cricket in Times Square, Stone Fox (beware of ending), Chet Gecko, Boxcar Children (dd says many boys in her 3rd grade class love them), Encyclopedia Brown, Castle in the Attic (she says that's a great one, and so is the sequel, Battle for the Castle), the old Magic Schoolbus books, Robert Fulton by Marguerite Henry, Walk the World's Rim, Johnny Tremain, Wishbone books, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach, and The Twits, and The BFG. (Roald Dahl)

 

Some of the above are great read alouds if they are too hard for him to read.

 

Ooo-I forgot--Mary Pope Osborne's Odyssey series (dd says he'll LOVE those! lots of gore.)

And finally, the ever-creepy,....CORALINE!!!

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