NatYoung17 Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 Hello! I'm hoping to get some recommendations for chapter books for my (soon) 8yo son. He's outgrown the Magic Tree House series, but I'm having a hard time finding something for him that's worth reading...? He doesn't like mysteries or spooky stuff... Funny would be good, as long as it's well written... Any suggestions? TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 HAs he tried the WHo Was series? My son loves those. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tm919 Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 Here are some favorites of my daughter: 1. Right after "MTH level": Catwings, My Father's Dragon series. My daughter also liked A Light in the Attic/Where the Sidewalk Ends at this level, for humor. 2. A little further on my daughter, who is an animal lover, loved: Bless this mouse (it's at MTH grade level, but the content -- such as mouse reproduction! -- puts it slightly beyond that imo), Charlotte's web, Flora and Ulysses (funny to children and adults alike), the Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. To go between 1 and 2, you might find the Special Read-aloud editions (BIG with bigger pictures) or if those aren't available, large print editions helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternalsummer Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Encyclopedia Brown is kind of mysteries but they are funny mysteries, not scary ones. DS went from MTH into the Warriors books, about tribes of feral cats. It definitely kept him occupied (there are a bunch of them, and they are long for the reading level) but in warning, they are quite violent. It's all cat violence, so not really scary exactly, but I am somewhat tired of telling the kids to quit pretending to be cats and jump on each other and scratch and growl and etc. They *love* them though. He really liked Arthurian tales books and Robin Hood (the easiest version, I forget the writer's name) at that stage, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SebastianCat Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Look at Sonlight's Reader package for grade 2 and grade 3, and also the Read Alouds from Core A. I would look for the Henry Huggins books or anything by Beverly Cleary, anything by E.B. White, the Boxcar Children series, the My Father's Dragon series, anything by E. Nesbit, the Baseball Card adventures by Dan Gutman, or the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faithr Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Wayside school series by Louis Sachar. They are hysterically funny. My kids loved them. He might like the Henry Huggins books by Beverly Cleary too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmos Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Thornton Burgess. Dozens of short easy chapter books about animals (Blacky the Crow, Buster Bear, Chatterer the Red Squirrel). Great for kids who don't like scary. Your library probably has several of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Frindle by Andrew Clements Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NatYoung17 Posted March 31, 2016 Author Share Posted March 31, 2016 Thanks so much for all the suggestions, we'll check them out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noreen Claire Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 They aren't exactly chapter books, but my son (just 7, reads well above his age) has been burning through the Graphic Revolve graphic novels put out by Stone Arch Books. We find them through the library, searching for the terms 'graphic revolve'. They are introductory level graphic novels of great works of literature, like Robin Hood, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Dracula, etc. They are quick, easy, and he's looking forward to reading the unabridged versions as soon as he's at that reading level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanin Posted April 16, 2016 Share Posted April 16, 2016 Melvin Beederman: Superhero is about a kid superhero who is not very good at it :) He always catches the bad guys though! The series is really funny, maybe 2-3rd grade level? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted April 16, 2016 Share Posted April 16, 2016 *cracks knuckles* Honestly, making booklists is my favorite pastime :) To compose this list, I diligently compared the AR reading level of each book with the average reading level of the Magic Tree House books - about second to third grade, though there are a few outliers that come in at a fourth grade reading level. You shouldn't take reading levels too seriously (among other things, different leveling systems wildly disagree with each other), but it's all right as a starting point. I did not put them in order, but the "harder" books are, as a rule, towards the bottom of the list. Now, I know some boys that age are afflicted with weird feelings about reading books with female protagonists. This shouldn't be encouraged, and so I haven't edited out books with female protagonists. However, in deference to the possibility of cooties, I have italicized those books with male protagonists. Many of these, perhaps most of them, are series, btw. Ruby Lu, Brave and True Amazing Greek Myths of Wonder and Blunders Freddy Ramos Takes Off Calvin Coconut How Tia Lola Came to Stay The Stories Julian Tells The No. 1 Car Spotter Anna Hibiscus Nikki and Deja Keena Ford EllRay Jakes is Not a Chicken Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream Astronaut Academy Seaglass Summer Sasquatch Escape Alvin Ho Bobby vs. Girls (Accidentally) The Year of the Dog The Grand Plan to Fix Everything Dragonbreath Misadventures of the Family Fletcher When Life Gives You OJ Yang the Third and Her Impossible Family (some books in this series have male protags) I Want to Go Home! The Children of Noisy Village There we go! That's fairly comprehensive! Of course, if you could maybe clarify by what sort of books you consider "worthwhile" or "well-written" I could maybe make a more targeted list...? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted April 16, 2016 Share Posted April 16, 2016 Oh, and of course, your son is not too old for picture books :) Many picture books are very well-written at quite a high reading level because they assume an adult will read it to the child. They can be a good way for a child who is perhaps a little intimidated by longer books to get in some quality reading time. Plus - pictures! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted April 16, 2016 Share Posted April 16, 2016 He might like The Twits. I also thought of Jacob Two-Two meets the Hooded Fang - I suppose it might qualify as a mystery but mostly it is just funny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted April 16, 2016 Share Posted April 16, 2016 Oh, and of course, your son is not too old for picture books :) Many picture books are very well-written at quite a high reading level because they assume an adult will read it to the child. They can be a good way for a child who is perhaps a little intimidated by longer books to get in some quality reading time. Plus - pictures! Yes, my daughter at the moment is refusing chapter books on principle - but she will willingly read picture books with more and better text than many of the chapter books for her reading level. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abcmommy Posted April 16, 2016 Share Posted April 16, 2016 One of mine loved Nate the Great at that age. Chet Gecko books were a big hit McBroom's Wonderful one acre farm and sequels Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
displace Posted April 28, 2016 Share Posted April 28, 2016 Branches series by ? Scholastic? I think. There are series on superhero chickens, dragons, others. Great pictures and stories, but idk the reading level vs MTH. Droon series (?) is a bunch of magical traveling adventure books as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted May 22, 2016 Share Posted May 22, 2016 (edited) Animals - Billy and Blaze series (Anderson) - Buddy, the First Seeing Eye Dog (Moore) - Barry, the Bravest St. Bernard (Hall) - The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto (Standiford) - Balto and the Great Race (Kimmel) - Five True Dog Stories (Davidson) - Seven True Horse Stories (Davidson) - Nine True Dolphin Stories (Davidson) - Follow My Leader (Garfield) - Dolphin Adventure; Dolphin Treasure (Grover) - Horse Heroes (Petty) - Chester Cricket series (Selden) Humorous - riddle series by Eisenberg and Hall (ex: Ribbit Riddles, Bunny Riddles, Puppy Riddles, etc.) - Commander Toad series (Yolan) - The Bears on Hemlock Mountain (Dalgliesh) - Flat Stanley series (Brown) - McBroom's Wonderful One Acre Farm and sequels (Fleischman) - The Whipping Boy (Fleischman) - Henry Huggins series (Cleary) - Miss Pickerell series(MacGregor) - Time Warp Trio series (Scieszka) - Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (Kinney) - Fly on the Ceiling (Glass) - Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares (Murphy/Walz) - Pippi Longstockings; Pippi in the South Seas (Astrid) - Calvin and Hobbes comic collections (Watterson) - Squish series (Holm) - Owly series (Runton) Fantasy or Talking Animals - Catwings (series) (LeGuin) - Dragonslayer Academy series (McMullan) - The Littles series (Peterson) - Moomintrolls series (Jannson) - Dragon Breathe series (Vernon) -- humorous Myths / Fairy Tales - Flying Horse: The Story of Pegasus (Mason) - Snake Hair: The Story of Medusa (Spinner) - Monster in the Maze (Spinner) - The Blind Men and the Elephant (Backstein/Mitra) - Sim-Chung and the River Dragon (Schecter) - Peach Boy (Hooks) - The Warrior Maiden (Schecter) - A Grain of Rice (Pittman) - Aladdin (Mistry) - Tales of Robin Hood (Claybourne) - Robin Hood: Tale of the Great Outlaw Hero (Bull) - The Tall Book of Christmas (Smith) - Reader's Digest: World's Best Fairy Tales (Sideman) Real Life - Billy and Blaze series (Anderson) - Light at Tern Rock (Sauer) - Follow My Leader (Garfield) - The Moffats series (Estes) - Grandma's Attic series (Richardson) History Adventure - Robinson Crusoe Reader (Cowles) -- a simplified retelling; this was a *favorite* of our DSs at that age - The Minstrel in the Tower (Skurzynski) - The Arrow and the Apple (Buff) - Robin Hood: Tale of the Great Outlaw Hero (Bull) - Marco Polo (Graves) - Phoebe the Spy (Griffin) - Wagon Wheels (Brenner) - The Courage of Sarah Noble (Dalgliesh) - Chang's Paper Pony (Coerr) - Silver (Whelan) -- daughter of an Alaskan "musher" gets a sled dog puppy - Pioneer Cat (Hooks) - Snowshoe Thompson (Levinson) - The Big Balloon Race (Coerr) - The Little Riders (Shemin) -- WWII occupied Europe Biographies - The Story of Thomas Alva Edison (Davidson) - Helen Keller (Davidson) - Helen Keller's Teacher (Davidson) - Helen Keller: Courage in the Dark (Hurwitz) - Louis Braille (Davidson) - Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky - The Wright Brothers (Reynolds) - Little Sure Shot: Annie Oakley (Spinner) - Robert Fulton, Boy Craftsman (Henry) - Dinosaur Hunter (Alphin) - The Great Houdini: World Famous Magician (Kulling) Stepped Readers - Non Fiction - Gargoyles (Dussling) - Days of the Knights: A Tale of Castles and Battles (Maynard) - Pirates: Raiders of the High Seas (Maynard) - 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) - Mountain Climbing: Scaling the World's Highest Peaks (Martin) - Greg's Microscope (Selsam) - Hill of Fire (Lewis) - Race Into Space (Arnold) - Dinosaur Hunter (Alphin) - Giant Squid: Mystery of the Deep (Dussling) books by Clyde Bulla: - Viking Adventure - The Sword in the Tree - A Lion to Guard Us - The Secret Valley - Riding the Pony Express Edited May 22, 2016 by Lori D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 At eight, for a reluctant reader I would not hesitate to allow graphic novels for the text to sink in, provided I could track it. Just a thought, for easy reading. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is drivel, yes, but if it gets your kid to fall asleep with a book in his hand... he can slowly work up to less drivel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternalsummer Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 mine likes graphic novels too; we have one about the Red Baron that is a favorite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.