Ideas for "boys books" that are not gruesome

I've recently finished reading The No 1 Car Spotter by Atinuke (I've written a review No 1 Car Spotter). I can recommend that. We have also recently bought Captain Pugwash and J loves anything by Dr Seuss.

I would also suggest checking out the Book Trust's web site website. There has recently been a three-for-two promotion of some of their recommendations in W H Smiths - bought some for J there.

I let DS1 read up to HP 4 before I stopped him. I had read them all by then and that was about right. He is in Yr 6 now and is just finishing off book 7 and finding the last 3 OK. Apart from anything else he wouldn't have got the boyfriend/girlfriend stuff back in Yr 2 even if he got the plot twists and the darker stuff.

Beast Quest he read all of them by himself after I found the first couple so badly written I refused to read them. However, it seems they sacked the earlier writers as they improved later in the series and they got a bit better They are not in any way gruesome or inappropriate just a bit crap. DS also read them in an hour.

DS1 liked the Sir Gadabout books at that age - I did too. Very slapstick although quite easy text.

DS2 is in Yr 2 and likes Humphrey the Hamster and the Spy Dog series. Not challenging reads but good harmless stories.

You could try looking at this website for ideas. They sort them by age and if you sign up they let you down load extracts so you can get a feel for a book without having to read it all.

DS2 just reminded my of The Big Big Book of Tashi

Love Perfectstorm's suggestions to

I love the Brothers Lionheart. It was absolutely my favourite book as a child.

Not so popular anymore - but try Leon Garfields books - adventurous historical fiction, mainly boy lead characters.

oh and WHsmiths has 3 for 2 on all childrens books at the moment .

my ds 8 who doesn't like reading but loves to be read too, is into Steve cole books, astrosaurs, cows in action, slime squad. We have them all and they are right up ds street (he does have SPLD and ASD). He thinks they are the best thing ever.

He wanted to like beast quest but really didn't get into them.

Steve cole all the way here.

The Jack Stalwart series by Elizabeth Singer-Hunt is a hit in our house. He's a child spy that has to travel the world solving mysteries and finding the stolen artefacts. Good use of geography and language too. (eg In France, the Mona Lisa has been stolen, there's a list of French words with pronunciations and translation).

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Black Hearts in Battersea, The Farthest Away Mountain, The Phantom Tollbooth, the Children Of Green Knowe, the Silver Sword (tough themes, being about child refugees after WW2, but hapy ending in spades), Stig Of The Dump, Box of Delights, I Am David (is another tough theme, but gently done, and again with a happy ending), The Wizard of Oz (much zanier than the film!) The Sword In The Stone, Swallows and Amazons series I LOVED as a kid, and the Lemony Snicket books are only gruesome in a Roald Dahl way - beautifully written, very intelligent, and there are over a dozen!

I think the later HP books are really very dark, yes. They'd have given me nightmares at his age. When he is older there is a trilogy by a New Zealand guy called the Halfmen of O that I loved as a kid.

I think Little House in the Big Woods is fine for boys, actually, because it's frontier life and so not exactly girly! I knew boys who read it on the sly.

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and the rest of the series if he likes that one.

could someone advise what age the enid blyton adventure series is appropriate for ? first time ive heard of it ? wondering if i could read it to my five year old ds x

£70 for bottersnikes and gumbles .

I need to brave the depths of my parents' house in search of my their copy.

Mr Majeika

My dcs loved these books when they were younger

Thanks, Takver - will do. I paid over the odds for copies of the "fell farm" books out of sheer nostalgia - and they (of course) meant nothing to DS at all

I'd recommend the Greene Knowe books by Lucy Boston - I loved (re) reading them too. And the Box of Delights/Midnight's Children by John Masefield.

stealthsquiggle, have a look on abebooks - I've found that I can usually find good condition copies of all my old favourites for not too much, I reckon to pay around £2.00 to £2.50 or so per book including postage.

more suggestions - thrown up by Amazon - Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf, and Lizzie Dripping.

These threads always end up costing me money

in a fit of nostalgia, I now need to go and buy (or at least add to a wishlist) The Phantom Tollbooth and Professor Branestawm and probably My Friend Mr Leakey as well.

What about the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer? Adventure, but not at all gruesome.

Agree tho re Michael Morpurgo. I love him but somethign liek Private Peaceful would be a bit grim for a 6yo. Yr 7s are reading it at my school.

OTOH lots of his animal ones are great.

The Phantom Tollbooth is a brilliant book.

I have rescued my childhood copy from my mum's bookshelves

'Professor Branestawm' and other books by the same author, Norman Hunter

'My friend Mr leakey' here

'Green Smoke' here

I've said it before & I'll say it again - Jennings series

Hmmm, tricky. DS, who has just turned 8 but at the end of Yr 2 had a reading age of 12+, is a voracious reader too and absolutely devours the Beast Quest books, although TBH he can read them in about an hour so they're not very good value!

He has also read all the Harry Potter and the Percy Jackson ones - his tastes definitely run towards the magic/adventure stories. I just had a look on his shelf to see if there was anything milder that might suit and found Jack Stalwart - a child secret agent.

Does he like dragons? I too would add the 'how to train your dragon' series to excellent suggestions like Mr Gum (which is a whole series) and the classics like Swallows and Amazons. Good Luck finding Bottersnikes and Gumbles - last time I tried it was out of print (and DH was for some reason deeply traumatised by it as a child and therefore doesn't want it anyway ) - the others we liked as DC were the Lone Pine books by Malcolm Saville.

DS liked astrosaurs and the cow ones - I thought they were really badly written but if your DS is consuming books at speed some "junk" won't do any harm - Jack Stalwart books fall into the same category IMHO.

Be a little careful with Michael Morpurgo - DS found some of them quite harrowing.