Book suggestions for 7 year old boy?

[mmasmommy]

DS is 7 and reads well above grade level. Problem is he hates reading, well unless it's Calvin & Hobbes, Garfield, or an Atlas. No matter what books I try he won't read them. Does anybody have any suggestions fo good "boy" books?

 

I was thinking he'd love Indian in the Cupboard, A to Z Mysteries, or Encylopedia Brown but I can't even get him to open them.

[cougarmom4]

:bigear:

 

I'm having a similar struggle with my ds8. He loves reading nonfiction but it's like pulling teeth to get him to read a chapter book.

 

Have you tried the 39 Clues series yet?

Hardy Boys? I got the first one on CD to have ds follow along w/the book and he loved it. (Only now he says they are too long...)

I think it's Christopher Brown that has a whole bunch of sports-related chapter books. (Certainly NOT quality literature...but high-interest types of books for reluctant readers, imo)

 

Also wanted to add that sometimes if I read the first chapter aloud to him he gets more interested in the book and will finish it on his own.

Edited September 16, 2010 by cougarmom4
spelling error

[learninearnin]

I had the same problem with my ds, but he found a few of the Magic Tree House books like Knights at Dawn, Mummies in the Morning, etc. that he really got into.

[Lori D.]

We did required reading during school, usually at or just a little above reading level, and we would do it by reading aloud "popcorn style" ("you read a page, I read a page").

 

For free reading, I didn't try to force any particular books -- just tried to leave as many good books at or just a little below reading level laying around as possible, and allowing our DSs to stay up in bed an extra 15 minutes at night with a pile of books. Neither DS was that interested in reading as the free time choice during the day, and they preferred Calvin & Hobbes, Where's Waldo and other Search & Find books, or Star Wars "exploded view" books of all the spaceships as their choice. They did enjoy receiving magazines in the mail -- what about Cricket, Highlights, Your Big Backyard, Ranger Rick or other subscription?

 

Another idea is to read aloud at lunch a few pages into a book you think DS might like, and then lay it down in an exciting part and not get back to it -- "Oh, I need to go take care of the laundry..." -- sometimes DSs would pick up the book and keep going on their own. :tongue_smilie:

 

One more thought is that your DS might not be "into" mysteries, and Indian in the Cupboard probably looks very long and intimidating at age 7. Below is a list of some more ideas of possible interest. What kinds of things does he like -- sports, animals, fantasy/sci-fi, Legos, realistic/factual things... see if you can find books to match with his interests.

 

And finally, frankly, neither of our DSs really seemed to enjoy solo reading (other than Calvin and Hobbes, etc.) until somewhere after age 10. So your DS may just not be "into" reading as a choice of what to do in free time at this age... If so, then maybe try scheduling a short (10-20 minute) solo reading time during school hours, with DS getting to pick from a book basket with books you think he might enjoy. Key to this idea: make sure they are books BELOW his reading level -- stepped readers, very short books, books with lots of illustrations. If he can finish a book in one sitting (your 10-20 minutes), he (hopefully) gains interest and confidence, and sees that it's not so bad to read. Slowly, later on, start sneaking slightly longer books in there, and eventually you'll have genuine chapter books as some of the selections and he won't even notice!

 

BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

 

 

SOLO READ IDEAS (at or below his reading level):

 

NON FICTION

- Gargoyles

- Giant Squid: Mystery of the Deep (Dussling)

- Tentacles! Tales of the Giant Squid (Redmond)

- Way Down Deep: Strange Ocean Creatures (Demuth)

- Hungry, Hungry Sharks! (Cole)

- Chomp! A Book About Sharks

- Whales: The Gentle Giants (Milton)

- Big Cats (Milton)

- Wild, Wild Wolves (Milton)

- Baby Wolf (Batten)

- Race Into Space" (Arnold)

- Spacebusters (Wilkinson)

- Space Station: Accident on Mir (Royston)

- Space Heroes: Amazing Astronauts (Buckley)

- Hill of Fire (Lewis)

- Volcanoes! (Arnold)

- Pompeii... Buried Alive! (Davis)

- Volcanoes and Other Natural Disasters (Griffey)

- Tut's Mummy: Lost and Found (Donnelly)

- Secrets of the Mummies (Griffey)

- Let's Read and Find Out About Science series

- science books by Gail Gibbons

- Magic School Bus chapter books

- Thornton Burgess nature book series

- Christian Liberty Press nature series

- Ranger Rick magazine

- The Trojan Horse: How the Greeks Won the War (Little)

- The Trojan Horse: The World's Greatest Adventure (Davies)

- Knights (Daly-Weir)

- Gargoyles (Dussling)

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

- Pirates: Raiders of the High Seas (Maynard)

- Antarctic Adventure: Exploring the Frozen Continent (Martin)

- Spies! (Pratt)

- Disasters at Sea (Martin)

 

 

ANIMAL ADVENTURE

- Balto and the Great Race (Kimmel)

- The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto (Standiford)

- Barry: The Bravest St. Bernard (Hall) -- Swiss Alps rescue dog

- Buddy: The First Seeing Eye Dog (Moore)

- Jumbo (Worth) -- famous PT Barnum circus elephant

- Five True Dog Stories (Davidson)

- Five True Horse Stories (Davidson)

- Nine True Dolphin Stories (Davidson

- Man O'War (Mckerly) -- undefeated racehorse of the 1920s

- A Horse Named Seabiscuit (Duvowski) -- famous racehorse of the 1930s

- Horse Heroes (Petty)

- Silver (Whelan) -- daughter of an Alaskan "musher" gets a sled dog puppy

- Pioneer Cat (Hooks) -- pioneer girl and her cat travel west in a wagon train

 

 

 

REAL LIFE ADVENTURE

- Billy and Blaze series (Anderson)

- Light at Tern Rock (Sauer)

- Dolphin Adventure; Dolphin Treasure; Dolphins and Me (Grover)

- Stone Fox

- Follow My Leader (Garfield)

- Billy and Blaze series

- The Toothpaste Millionaire (Merrill)

- Henry Huggins (series) (McCleary)

 

 

MYTH

- The Blind Men and the Elephant (Backstein/Mitra)

- Sim-Chung and the River Dragon (Schecter)

- The Warrior Maiden (Schecter)

- A Grain of Rice (Pittman)

- Flying Horse: The Story of Pegasus (Mason)

- Snake Hair: The Story of Medusa (Spinner)

- Monster in the Maze (Spinner)

 

 

FANTASY

- Aladdin (Mistry)

- Dragonslayer Academy series (McMullan)

- Moongobble and Me series (Coville)

- Toots and the Upside Down House (Hughes)

- Flat Stanley series

- The Littles series (Peterson)

- Henry and Mudge series

- Poppleton series

- Mr. Putter and Tabby series

- Catwings series (LeGuin)

- Magic Tree House series (Osborne)

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

- My Father's Dragon

- My Father's Dragon (Gannett)

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

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

 

 

 

FUN TALL TALE

- The Bears on Hemlock Mountain (Dalgliesh)

- The Whipping Boy (Fleischman)

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

 

 

HUMOR

- riddle series (Puppy Riddles, Ribbit Riddles, etc.) by Hall & Eisenburg

- Three in a Tree; Four on the Shore (Marshall)

- Fox series (Marshall)

- Fly on the Ceiling (Glass)

 

 

MYSTERY/DETECTIVE

- Nate the Great series (Sharmat)

- Aunt Eater series (Cushman)

- High Rise Detectives series

- Invisible Inc. series

- Inspector Hopper (Cushman)

- Detective Dinosaur

- Jigsaw Jones series (Prellar)

- Geronimo Stilton series

- Boxcar Children series (Warner)

- Third Grade Detectives series

- Encyclopedia Brown series (Sobol)

 

 

 

HISTORICAL FICTION

- Robin Hood: Tale of the Great Outlaw Hero (Bull)

- The Minstrel in the Tower (Skurzynski) -- Medieval England

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

- Viking Adventure (Bulla) -- Vikings

- Robinson Crusoe Reader (Cowles) -- adaptation of the classic story

- A Lion to Guard Us (Bulla) -- Jamestown/US Colonial

- Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims (Bulla)

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

- Hannah (Whelan) -- blind pioneer girl

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

- Riding the Pony Express (Bulla)

- Twenty and Ten (Bishop) -- WWII French children hide Jewish children

- The Little Riders (Shemin) -- WWII occupied Europe

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

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

- The Story of Thomas Alva Edison (Davidson)

- Helen Keller (Davidson)

- Helen Keller's Teacher (Davidson)

- Louis Braille (Davidson)

- Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie (Roop)

- Little Sure Shot: Annie Oakley (Spinner)

- Joan of Arc (Corey)

- The Daring Escape of Ellen Craft (Moore)

- Dinosaur Hunter (Alphin)

- The Great Houdini: World Famous Magician (Kulling)

- The Girl Who Struck Out Babe Ruth (Patrick)

- Flying Ace: Story of Amelia Earhart (Bull)

- Vanished! Mysterious Disappearance of Amelia Earhart (Kulling)

- The Wright Brothers (Reynolds)

[Guest mrsjamiesouth]

The first books my son picked up to read on his own were the Wimpy Kid Diaries. Your son is a little too young at 7 for those I think.

If he is above reading level how about Sherlock Holmes, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and Swiss Family Robinson. You could get the easy version of these for him. My son loved these and he is not a big reader at all.