Wizards, Sorcerers, and Mages: Book Recs

[SeaConquest]

I'm looking for book recommendations for my 6 year old DS. He is very interested in wizards at the moment. We have not started Harry Potter because I assumed that he is too young to begin the series. I've not yet read the books, so I don't really know.

 

Can you suggest any good read-alouds or books for him to read (he's currently at about a 4th grade reading level, but will listen to any level read aloud) about wizards, mages, etc. Bonus points for quality literature. :)

[AimeeM]

I started the HP series with DD when she was younger than yours, so there's that :) 

I'm not aware of anything that comes close to the awesome-ness that is Harry Potter... but we're complete HP freaks, so a bit biased.

[Aurelia]

Not a self-read at that age, but there's the A Wizard of Earthsea series. And the Black Cauldron series (might be a little scary, though). 

 

The Hobbit, if he's got high-level listening skill (and I'm partial to British narrators, the audio book we have is good.)

 

Wizardology

 

The Wandmaker's Guidebook (make your own wand!)

 

The Sword in the Stone

 

The Wizard of Oz (he's a humbug, but the witches/sorceresses are real)

 

The Last Unicorn

 

 

 

[Pegs]

The Hobbit :)

[Epicurean]

The Sword in the Stone is a must. I love the illustrations in this version.

The Last Unicorn is a fun one (a wizard is a main character).

I haven't read it, but there's a series called The Familiars which tells the story of young wizards from the point of view of their cats.

And of course The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

[MrsWeasley]

Magic Treehouse would be a good independent read.  Book of Wonder, The Witches of Worm, Wizard's Hall, The Dark Is Rising series, and the Oz series come to mind as read-alouds.

[displace]

Secrets of Droon series. There's a secret passage in a boys basement to a fantasy world.

[MistyMountain]

My ds loves listening to Harry Potter. I haven't decided if we will continue past book 3 yet since I know there are more deaths. I know he will want to continue but I might have him wait. I ended up liking them more then I thought I would.

 

Droon would be a good one for him to read. My dd used to like those.

[SeaConquest]

Thank you for the wonderful recommendations. :)

[mumto2]

My dc's loved the Charlie Bone serieshttp://www.scholastic.com/charliebone/books.htm as read alouds.

[duckens]

Dragon Slayers Academy may not be exactly what you are looking for.  (DSA is training knights, whereas Hogwarts is training wizards).  The writing and characters are hilarious.  There is a mixed up wizard, a pig that speaks Latin (Pig Latin), a miserly school headmaster, eels for breakfast/lunch/and dinner, and the best knight in the school  is a girl.  All these wacky  characters surround our hero as he bests dragons and tries to complete his education at DSA.   Each book is ~100 pages.

Beast Quest: Mythical Beasts within the realm have been enchanted/enslaved by a wizard.  The hero must free them one by one, book by book.  Each book is ~ 90 pages.

The Girl, the Dragon, and the Wild Magic is OOP and a higher reading level than the first two series I have posted.  Dd8 has enjoyed the series so far.  (We popcorn read it).  There are 3 total in the series.

ETA:
The Narnia series.
 

[Kfamily]

My younger daughter just finished Magyk by Angie Sage and she loved it! She can't wait to read the next book and there are many more in the series. This is coming from a little girl (well...6th grade...but still little to me... :)) who has read Hobbit, LOTR trilogy, The Last Unicorn and all of the Harry Potter books too.

 

Here it is:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Magyk-Septimus-Heap-Book-1/dp/006223692X

[duckens]

 

SeaConquest says:

I'm looking for book recommendations for my 6 year old DS. He is very interested in wizards at the moment.

Many, many, many apologies for this unrelated post that does not answer your question about wizard books.

 

I have started table-top gaming (think Dungeons and Dragons) with my kids.  They are age 4 & 8.  Some of our nerd friends (age 6 & 8) join us.  The older  3 kids are heavily invested; they are good for ~2 hours of play.  The lag between playing over Christmas Break and waiting until Spring Break about did in one of my players.  

 

My 4yo is good for about an hour of rolling dice and attacking monsters, and then we send her home from the gaming store with dad. 

 

The gaming store provides play space on large tables for us.  We play on Friday afternoons, which is not a very busy time for them.  And I don't have to clean my house.  :)

 

During play, the kids hurl magic spells, wield swords, climb walls, solve problems, and rescue friends.  Tomorrow, there will be werewolves.  *evil grin*

 

It is also my first foray into DungeonMastering, but the kids have been very forgiving so far.  The materials come with everything but dice, although I did make a gold crown to put on a plastic rat for "the Rat King" last week.

 

Currently, we are playing Hero Kids.  I bought the download bundle of 8 adventures for $15. 

 

We have also played Mertwig's Maze.  I adjusted the story for two sons and two daughters of the king that were lost a couple of decades ago so my nascent group of gamers would work together and everyone could win together.

 

There are other sources of RPGs for kids.   Just do a search for "roleplaying  games for   young kids."

 

 

[SeaConquest]

Many, many, many apologies for this unrelated post that does not answer your question about wizard books.

 

I have started table-top gaming (think Dungeons and Dragons) with my kids.  They are age 4 & 8.  Some of our nerd friends (age 6 & 8) join us.  The older  3 kids are heavily invested; they are good for ~2 hours of play.  The lag between playing over Christmas Break and waiting until Spring Break about did in one of my players.  

 

My 4yo is good for about an hour of rolling dice and attacking monsters, and then we send her home from the gaming store with dad. 

 

The gaming store provides play space on large tables for us.  We play on Friday afternoons, which is not a very busy time for them.  And I don't have to clean my house.  :)

 

During play, the kids hurl magic spells, wield swords, climb walls, solve problems, and rescue friends.  Tomorrow, there will be werewolves.  *evil grin*

 

It is also my first foray into DungeonMastering, but the kids have been very forgiving so far.  The materials come with everything but dice, although I did make a gold crown to put on a plastic rat for "the Rat King" last week.

 

Currently, we are playing Hero Kids.  I bought the download bundle of 8 adventures for $15. 

 

We have also played Mertwig's Maze.  I adjusted the story for two sons and two daughters of the king that were lost a couple of decades ago so my nascent group of gamers would work together and everyone could win together.

 

There are other sources of RPGs for kids.   Just do a search for "roleplaying  games for   young kids."

 

 

 

Please excuse my ignorance, but what are tabletop and role playing games exactly? I mean, what do you do? I am completely clueless.

[Tanaqui]

Off the top of my head here:

 

Wizard's Hall

Lavender Green Magic

Charmed Life (and the rest of the Chrestomanci books)

Akata Witch (if you're okay with a little violence)

The Un-Magician (now reprinted as Magic Zero)

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Starry River of the Sky

The Conch Bearer

Tuesdays in the Tower

Un Lun Dun (a bit thinky)

The Worst Witch

The Magic Circle books by Tamora Pierce

The Menagerie

The Darren Arkwright books

So You Want to be a Wizard (I was too old to wait up for a Hogwarts letter, but I *did* say the Oath and try to talk to trees)

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm (I'm torn as to whether it's more sci-fi or more fantasy)

The Gifts trilogy by LeGuin

Earthsea

City of Fire by Lawrence Yep

Shield of Stars

 

 

I'm not checking each book right now, but I'm pretty sure none of them are thematically more difficult than the first four or so Harry Potter books (after which the series took a turn for the darker).

[Rosie_0801]

Please excuse my ignorance, but what are tabletop and role playing games exactly? I mean, what do you do? I am completely clueless.

 

Typically there is a Game Master who is part story teller, part referee and also controls the non-player characters like monsters and (in the case of games not involving small children, guys with hoods over their faces who sit in shadows in seedy taverns.) 

 

Each player has a character sheet that says what attributes and skills they are.

 

The GM says stuff, the characters decide what they are going to do, and roll the dice when they need to use a skill or bash something to see if they do a good job of it, flunk it, or die. Note: It's a great idea to have first aid skills. They are pathetic as far as healing goes, but useful for not quite dying. ;)

 

 

It's like a cross between a board game and Choose Your Own Adventure with friends and Doritos.

[duckens]

 

SeaConquest asked:

Please excuse my ignorance, but what are tabletop and role playing games exactly? I mean, what do you do? I am completely clueless.

Rosie explained it very well!

 

 

It's like a cross between a board game and Choose Your Own Adventure with friends and Doritos.

I consider this as storytelling we do together, guided by the limits of our abilities (see below) and a little luck (the dice). 

 

The Game Master (aka GM)  starts by introducing an adventure.  In this game, I read a script for most of it.  The adventure we started today (a Hero Kids module) began after the kids' characters were returning from the local swimming hole.  They encountered a runaway wagon being driven by a young girl. 

 

First task: Stop the wagon.

 

The kids jump into the wagon.  This takes "Agility."  Each character has a different agility level.  In our current game, if you are a higher level, you roll more dice.  Here are the number of dice my kids rolled.

 

H: 1

G: 4

E: 1

C: 3

To land in the wagon without getting hurt, you had to roll a 6 (on a 6-sided die).  Otherwise, your character was considered injured (bruised).  Two of my kids made it, and two got hurt.  The hurt ones "X"ed off one of their three health boxes.  (We play with M&Ms, so they got to eat one of their three M&Ms).

 

The next test was Strength to stop the wagon.  For the size of our group, the kids had to roll a 6 to avoid injury.

H: 3

G: 1

E: 1

C: 1

 

Two succeeded at this task, and two were injured by stones and pebbles that were kicked up by the horses.

Now that the wagon was stopped, the kids learned that the girl was taking her brother to the healer in town.  He was injured by wolves attacking last night.  She asks the characters to go to her home to help her parents fight off the wolves if the wolves return tonight.

 

After resting a bit, the injured kids healed enough to receive one replacement M&M.  E had double injuries, so she drank a "Healing Potion"  (She ate a chocolate covered raisin) and received full healing.

And so the adventure begins....

-----------------------------------

When fighting the wolves, Everyone has an "Attack" level.  Everyone has a "Defense" level.

H: 2

G: 3

E: 2

C: 2

The wolves they were attacking had a Defense level of 2.   When G attacked, he rolled 3 6-sided dice.  I (the GM) rolled only 2 dice because my wolves each had a defense level of 2.

 

H: 6 was highest of the two dice H rolled.

Wolves: 5 was highest of the two dice I rolled.

 

H won, and the wolf was injured.

-----------------------------------------

There is also conversation during this game.  (Our group is not very good at this. I'm glad we practice it!).  The kids had to talk to the girl in the wagon.  They had to talk to her parents.  They had to knock on the door and talk to the Wise-Woman, who advised them about werewolves.

--------------------------------------------

Strategy, too.  My gamers came up with a plan to first destroy the egg sacks in the spider nest.  They decided the person with the best abilities with a bow-and-arrow should do this, rather than risking a miss that would alert the spiders before necessary. 

 

[displace]

I was in a bookstore browsing yesterday and saw a series that looked really good called Dragon Masters by Tracey West.  It looked great and has good reviews on Amazon, though we haven't yet read them.