m0mmaBuck Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 (edited) I have difficulty finding books that my son enjoys reading. He reads at a 3rd/4th grade level but just really doesn't enjoy reading. He doesn't really care for talking animals although he did read all of The Littles series. He has read every Star Wars book written for youth/juvenile readers. He read all of the Junie B. Jones books last year. He didn't like the Boxcar Children series or the Magic Treehouse. He was OK with the Magic School Bus books, but they aren't a favorite. He does like non-fiction books, particularly with military or history-related themes. He has also enjoyed a few nonfiction but set in a historical time period books (WWII, Civil War, Revolutionary War in particular). Any suggestions would be appreciated. ETA that I know someone posted RE: an 8 yo girl but her interests are different than my son' s... He's not a Harry Potter/magic/Science Fantasy lover. Michelle Edited January 6, 2010 by m0mmaBuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubermomto5 Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 have you tried encyclopedia brown? they are short mysteries with lots of humor. my new 8 yo got the mad scientists club for christmas and is really enjoying it. we also really enjoyed 'owls in the family' which we did as a read aloud several years ago but is natural history and funny too. written in the 50's i think? calvin and hobbes, though a comic, is also a winner for getting them interested in reading more. my son read those often over the past year and it got him over the hump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lulubelle Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 My son is 7 and is a history buff. I found a Davy Crocket book from the library and he really liked it and is on to Daniel Boone and will be doing Abe Lincoln next. They are books from a series by Aladdin Paperbacks, The Childhood of Famous Americans Series. They have a dark blue cover. It may be worth a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 Our DSs did not really enjoy solo reading that much until after age 10. Until then, it was mostly search & find books, Star Wars "cross section" books, and Calvin and Hobbes. Older DS still likes non-fiction, but also really enjoys detective/mysteries (I think because they are more "factual"). And younger DS is still very picky about what he will read on his own. We read the great lit for kids either together during school "popcorn style" ("you read a page, I read a page"), or as read alouds. I let them read what they wanted during their solo reading time, though I continually left large variety of books laying around, hoping they would stumble over something they would like. ;) Below are a few ideas for solo books. Patience and persevere as you wait for your DS's reading interests to kick in! Warmest regards, Lori D. DETECTIVE - Jigsaw Jones series (Prellar) - Third Grade Detectives series - Invisible Inc. series - Encyclopedia Brown series (Sobol) - Roman mysteries (Lawrence) TRUE ADVENTURE - American Adventures (part 1, and part 2) (Greenburg) - Great Escapes of World War II (Sullivan) - True Adventure Collection (Dowswell and Fleming) NON FICTION - Eyewitness series (these are at a 5th-8th gr. reading level, but our DSs loved flipping through them and enjoying the photos, illustrations and captions) - books by David Macauley (Pyramid; Roman City; The Way Things Work; etc.); also at a 5th-8th grade reading level, but very factual and loads of illustrations - books by Holling C. Holling (Seabird, Paddle to the Sea - *older* Cornerstones of Freedom series (many by Conrad Stein), most are at a 3rd/4th grade level. Each title begins with "The Story of...": The Declaration of Independence The Supreme Court The Liberty Bell The Constitution The War of 1812 The Oregon Trail The Erie Canal The Trail of Tears The Alamo The Barbary Pirates Old Ironsides The California Gold Rush The Homestead Act Fort Sumter The Underground Railroad The Gettysburg Address The Surrender at Appomattox The Pony Express The Transcontinental Railroad The Golden Spike The Little Bighorn The Rough Riders The Story of the Panama Canal The Roaring Twenties The Story of the Great Depression The Women's Movement The Story of Pearl Harbor The U.S.S. Arizona D-Day The Battle for Iwo Jima The Montgomery Bus Boycott The Saigon Airlift The Story of the Vietnam War Memorial The Story of the First Man on the Moon BIOGRAPHIES - Photobiography of Abraham Lincoln - Lewis and Clark (In Their Own Words series) - Mr. Blue Jeans: A Story About Levi Strauss (Weidt) - Mark T-W-A-I-N! A Story About Samuel Clemens (Collins) - Story of Thomas Alva Edison: Wizard of Menlo Park (Davidson) - Thomas Edison; The Great Inventor (Jenner) - CLICK! Story of George Eastman (Mitchell) - We'll Race You Henry Ford (Mitchell) - Bully For You, Teddy Roosevelt (Fritz) - George Washington Carver: Man's Slave Becomes God's Scientist (Collins) - The Great Houdini: World Famous Magician (Kulling) - Little Sure Shot: Annie Oakley (Spinner) - The Wright Brothers (Reynolds) - First Flight: The Wright Brothers (Jenner) - First Flight: Story of Tom Tate and the Wright Brothers (Shea) - Louis Braille (Davidson) - Helen Keller's Teacher (Davidson) - Helen Keller (Davidson) - Say It With Music: Story About Irving Berlin (Streissgut) HISTORY STEPPED READERS at gr. 3/4 level - The Trojan Horse: How the Greeks Won the War (Little) - The Trojan Horse: The World's Greatest Adventure (Clement Davies) - Pompeii... Buried Alive! (Davis) - Robin Hood: Tale of the Great Outlaw Hero (Bull) - Joan of Arc (Corey) - Days of the Knights: A Tale of Castles and Battles (Maynard) - Pirates: Raiders of the High Seas (Maynard) - The Titanic: Lost and Found (Donnelly) - Titanic (Dubowski) - Tut's Mummy: Lost and Found (Donnelly) - To The Top! Climbing World's Highest Mountain (Kramer) - Sybil Ludington's Midnight Ride (Amstel) - Saving the Liberty Bell (Figley) - Prisoner for Liberty (Figley) - Washington Is Burning (Figley) - The Battle for St. Michaels (McCully) - An American Army of Two (Greeson) - The Star-Spangled Banner (Welch) - Allen Jay and the Underground Railroad (Brill) - Flight of the Union (White) - The Daring Escape of Ellen Craft (Moore) - Escape North! Story of Harriet Tubman (Kulling) - Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express (Coerr) - Bronco Charlie and the Pony Express (Brill) - Clouds of Terror (Welch) - The Copper Lady (Ross) - Fire at the Triangle Factory (Littlefield) - Sea of Ice: The Wreck of the Endurance (Kulling) - Zepplin: Age of the Airship (Donkin) - Buddy: The First Seeing Eye Dog (Moore) - Flying Ace: Story of Amelia Earhart (Bull) - Vanished! Mysterious Disappearance of Amelia Earhart (Kulling) - D-Day Landings: Story of the Allied Invasion (Platt) - Race Into Space (Arnold) - Moonwalk (Donnelly) - 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) - Finding the Titanic (Ballard) - Great Black Heroes: Five Brilliant Scientists (Jones/Garnet) - Great Black Heroes: Five Brave Explorers (Hudson/Garnet) - Great Black Heroes: Five Famous Writers (Jones/Garnet) - Great Black Heroes: Five Bold Freedom Fighters (Hudson/Garnet) - Great Black Heroes: Five Notable Inventors (Hudson/Garnet) - Antarctic Adventure: Exploring the Frozen Continent (Martin) - Spies! (Pratt) - Disasters at Sea (Martin) - Dinosaur Hunters - Mountain Climbing: Scaling the World's Highest Peaks (Martin) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 - Billy and Blaze series (Anderson) - The Toothpaste Millionaire (Merrill) - Thorton Burgess nature series historical fiction titles from: - Sonlight 2, 3 and 4 Cores - Veritas grade 1, 2, 3 book lists historical fiction by Clyde Bulla (3rd grade reading level) (Riding the Pony Express; Viking Adventure; A Lion to Guard Us; Pocahontas and the Strangers; The Sword in the Tree; The Secret Valley) books by Jean Fritz (4th grade reading level) - Brendan the Navigator - Then What Happened Paul Revere? - Can't You Make Them Behave, King George? - What's the Big Idea Ben Franklin? - Just a Few Words Abe Lincoln etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyK Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 A strategy that has worked for us at that reading level is listening to a lot of books on tape, especially before bed (and now sometimes when doing things like building lego). It helps to get into a book or series, know how names are pronounced, etc. Right now he's listening to The Boy Who Ran for President/ Was President and it is actually sort of educational as well as funny. Other favorites he's read and listened to: Roman Mysteries series (listed above too) Snow Treasure Geronimo Stilton series (lower reading level but continues to be fun) Einstein Anderson series Roald Dahl books Some favorites he has just read, may not be available on audio: Ordinary Boy series Hatchet Avi historical fiction (just read one set on a civil war sub) Wimpy Kid series Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m0mmaBuck Posted January 7, 2010 Author Share Posted January 7, 2010 Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!!! I knew there would be some great suggestions here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lionfamily1999 Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 I started a book blog for ds (he's 8). There's only one completed entry so far, but he's reading like a maniac now. He loves telling me narrations, so I can post them :p (yes, I've fallen behind). His first wow-I-love-reading book was "The Phantom Tollbooth." It's not much, but I hope it helps ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tess in the Burbs Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 My son also prefers history to stories and really enjoyed, The Castle in the Attic http://www.amazon.com/Castle-Attic-Elizabeth-Winthrop/dp/0440409411 there was a sequel but the first one was his favorite. The Poppy series kept him engaged and he wanted to read more of those We found lots of good historical novels at the library for his reading level. Just had to look hard. I didn't find searching the library computer much help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 Our Hero, General Grant looks fun, and several other of Pollard's syllable divided books also look good for boys with these interests: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/syllabledividedb.html If you want the "real" book, you can usually find these old books for cheaper than you would think, I've found many for around $10 at ABE books or Alibris. Syllables ending in a vowel are long, ending in a consonant are short, hence U-lys-ses and O-hi-o. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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