Book recs for reluctant and non-fluent 9yo boy

[babygemma]

Hi, I'm looking for suggestions for exciting boy-oriented books for my friend's 9 yo son who is not a fluent reader and hates reading. He's public schooled and recently been diagnosed with auditory processing delay due to excessive ear infections during infancy. He struggles mostly with consonant blends and also has comprehension issue. He's going into 4th grade but has been told his LA skills is around 2nd grade level. His mom would like him to enjoy reading and just doesn't know how to do so. They have had several reading sessions in the morning this summer and it's like pulling teeth. He just hates it. Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

[Lori D.]

Calvin & Hobbes comic collections. No joke, that is what kept our younger DS who was delayed in reading interested. Also those Search & Find type books, and the Star Wars books with the "exploded view" of all the space ships and snippets of captions describing everything; while the reading level is way above 2nd grade, I would read to him anything he asked about -- the point was to keep him interested in books and reading material.

 

Back off of MAKING him read at this point, other than 2 short reading sessions (each no more than 10 min.) during school to practice. Do the reading together "popcorn style" ("I read a page, you read a page".)

 

Try implementing some of Dianne Craft's aids for "unblocking" blocked learning gates to make reading (and other school subjects) easier for him:

Ear Infections: Impact on Learning Behaviors

The Biology of Learning and Behavior

 

Keep him interested in the idea of books by doing loads of read alouds and books on tape; scatter reading material all over the house on the topics he finds of interest; let him stay up in bed with books/magazines for an extra 15-20 minutes at night.

 

As an incentive for the school reading, try the Pizza Hut Book It program or a prize bag for every book (or so much time) completed.

 

All that said, our DSs seemed to prefer non-fiction stepped readers while learning to gain reading fluency as their school reading -- volcanoes, giant squids, sharks (or shark attacks!), gargoyles, etc. That type of book didn't seem "babyish" or below them while catching up their reading level to their topic interest level. Below are some titles to consider to "spice up" the school reading time. BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

 

 

 

Hill of Fire -- by Thomas Lewis

Pompeii... Buried Alive! - Edith Davis

Earthquakes -- Jennifer Dussling (photos of 1964 quake in Alaska)

Wild Earth: Avalanche! -- Hopping/Wheeler

Storm Chasers -- Gail Herman

Twisters! -- Kate Hayden

Tornados! -- Deborah Lock

Spacebusters -- Philip Wilkinson

Space Station: Accident on Mir -- Angela Royston

Space Heroes: Amazing Astronauts -- James Buckley

Extreme Machines -- Christopher Maynard

Plants Bite Back -- Richard Platt

The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto -- Natalie Standiford

Dinosaur Hunters -- Kate McMullan

Amazing Sharks! -- Sarah L. Thomson

Giant Squid: Mystery of the Deep -- Jennifer Dussling

Tentacles! Tales of the Giant Squid -- Shirley Redmond

Giant Lizards -- Ginjer Clarke

Tut's Mummy: Lost and Found -- Judy Donnelly

Snake Hair: The Story of Medusa -- Stephanie Spinner

Monster in the Maze -- Stephanie Spinner

The Trojan Horse: How the Greeks Won the War-- Emily Little

The Trojan Horse: The World's Greatest Adventure -- David Clement Davies

Robin Hood: Tale of the Great Outlaw Hero -- Angela Bull

Knights -- Catherine Daly-Weir

Gargoyles -- Jennifer Dussling

Days of the Knights: A Tale of Castles and Battles -- Christopher Maynard

Pirates: Raiders of the High Seas -- Christopher Maynard

Antarctic Adventure: Exploring the Frozen Continent -- Linda MartinSea of Ice: The Wreck of the Endurance -- Monica Kulling

Zepplin: Age of the Airship -- Andrew Donkin

Night Flight: Charles Lindbergh's Incredible Journey -- Sydelle Kramer

Buddy: The First Seeing Eye Dog -- Eva Moore

D-Day Landings: Story of the Allied Invasion -- Richard Platt

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

Civil War Sub: Mystery of the Hunley -- Kate Jerome

USS Monitor: Iron Warship That Changed the World -- Gare Thompson

Finding the Titanic -- Ballard

Spies! -- Richard Pratt

Disasters at Sea -- Linda Martin

Mountain Climbing: Scaling the World's Highest Peaks -- Linda Martin

Movie Magic: A Star is Born -- Anne Cottringer

[EmilyK]

I would echo audiobooks. There are so many good benefits -- many of the skills of following a story, visualizing it, predicting, etc. get covered.

 

Given his challenges I would do high interest books:

--Percy Jackson

--Geronimo Stilton (the early books read by Edward Hermann)

--Magic Tree House

--Mercy Watson

--Spiderwick Chronicles

 

I'll try to think of some more.

[siloam]

Hi, I'm looking for suggestions for exciting boy-oriented books for my friend's 9 yo son who is not a fluent reader and hates reading. He's public schooled and recently been diagnosed with auditory processing delay due to excessive ear infections during infancy. He struggles mostly with consonant blends and also has comprehension issue. He's going into 4th grade but has been told his LA skills is around 2nd grade level. His mom would like him to enjoy reading and just doesn't know how to do so. They have had several reading sessions in the morning this summer and it's like pulling teeth. He just hates it. Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

 

I will third audio books, and also recommend LiPS. My ds has the same issues, for the same reasons, and LiPS is helping him get beyond them, because it teaches them to not only hear the difference better, but to at the same time feel and see the difference between sounds.

 

Heather

[In2why]

If he is reading on a 2nd grade level and is a reluctant boy reader then I would get him the Captain Underpants books. They are pure twaddle but the boys love them, and they aren't too hard or too young.

[Angie in VA]

Add my name to the list of audio books (in addition to reading aloud to him, way past the time he's fluent in reading too, btw!) and

 

I also say comic books (you approve of, of course) help

 

and this post by Milovany

[Joyofsixreboot]

My ds can read, simply won't at a level higher than need be. He loves Captain Underpants, BeastQuest, and DK readers (they're leveled) mostly Star Wars or Pokemon. He will listen to much better stuff on tape or aloud but I don't know how that will work with auditory processing disorder. I've been known to put the close captioning on a favorite show or we used I think it was called tumblebooks (from the library) that read the story and showed the words. Sort of like Reading Rainbow used to do.

[silliness7]

Hi, I'm looking for suggestions for exciting boy-oriented books for my friend's 9 yo son who is not a fluent reader and hates reading. He's public schooled and recently been diagnosed with auditory processing delay due to excessive ear infections during infancy. He struggles mostly with consonant blends and also has comprehension issue. He's going into 4th grade but has been told his LA skills is around 2nd grade level. His mom would like him to enjoy reading and just doesn't know how to do so. They have had several reading sessions in the morning this summer and it's like pulling teeth. He just hates it. Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

 

I have a reluctant boy reader who is a bit delayed as well due to visual issues. I don't know what his reading level is but he works at the same level as his little sister. Last year he was 4th grade and she was 2nd grade.

 

However, when he is really motivated to read a series he goes at it gangbusters. It's hard to find a new series when the old one is over. Last year he read A Series of Unfortunate Events and the Harry Potter series. This summer he read the Guardians of Ga'Hoole. We are currently looking for that next series. I thought it *might* be Prydain Chronicles. He liked the first one but hasn't shown much enthusiasm for starting #2.