"Fascinating" books for 7yo

David Melling has written a series of goblin books - they are called Puddle Goblins, Shadow Goblins, Tree Goblins etc.
The goblins are all really disgusting in a way that would massively appeal to most 7 year old boys and the plots are very exciting.

How adorable, and very specific...

Maybe Nina and the Kung Fu Adventure would please him because it's Indiana-Jones-esque, althoughdoesnt exactly his cheese / tropical island / dinosaur criteria!

We had a 7th birthday in our house last week. How about the 'Sam Silver: Undercover Pirate' series? Plus, if he likes them, there are lots to keep him going!

My 7yr old loves his picture dictionary.

Ah, just seen re b'day, ok, DS is 6mo younger than your DS.

He likes the Ottiline books too, but not sure they fit into any criteria... other than the troll!

Another cheese suggestion is Geronimo Stilton series. There are a lot of cheese puns!

re HP- the first two are just about okay, but 3rd onwards, probably quite scary (dementors etc). My son who is about a year younger than yours has stopped me continuing HP2, as he's terrified of the basilisk.

Oh yes, you definitely need Oliver & the Seawigs by the sounds of it!!

I've a feeling The 13-Storey Treehouse might work very well too. It is part of a growing series, each new book sees another 13 storeys added to Andy and Terry's treehouse! it's a lot of fun.

I like the cut of your son's jib. i think he should write the cheese story himself.

Re: Harry Potter, my son is also seven and I had thought that he wasn't quite ready particularly for the later books. But I got him the first one for Christmas because he had started to play the Lego Harry Potter game and it gives away a lot of the plot! He seems to have self-moderated somewhat - he zipped through the first three, ploughed through the fourth and has decided himself he doesn't want to read the later ones for quite a while yet.

No cheese in it, but The Runaway Dinner by Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman is very funny. It involves a sausage called Melvin, IIRC, and some peas called Paul, Percival and Peter? Anyway, much loved in this house.

What about pippi longstocking? I think that's a fascinating book! (Might even have some cheese people)

Just thought of another one that might be good:

The Secret of Platform 13, by Eva Ibbotson. It has witches, trolls, an island, lots of magic and fantasy - it's about magical creatures from a magic island that have come to rescue their prince who got stuck in "our" world as a baby (he's now an 8 year old boy). It's funny and exciting.

I think it would be a read-together one rather than one he could manage by himself at the moment.

Also Oliver and the Seawigs. Oliver ' s parents are explorers and go missing when they visit some strange islands near their home. Oliver tries to find them and discovers that these islands are not quite what they seem ...

Wonderful illustrations plus humour make this a very entertaining quirky read. Be prepared for your son to want a sea monkey though. ..

The Land of Neverbelieve.

Not a chapter book but an amazing picture book for older readers (7 is ideal) to encourage imagination. It's about an explorer who discovers an island that disappears when you leave it. The book is a record of the amazing things the explorer has found on the island. Lots of maps, trees made out of pasta - this is a wonderful book with something different to look at every time you read it. I highly recommend it!

Pirates- what about the Jolly Rogers by Johnny Dudlde, there's two- the Ghostly Galleon, and The Cave of Doom. He'll easily read them himself, and they have nice illustrations.

I'm really struggling with the cheese one!
What about Here Be Monsters which is by ?Alan Snow.
It has trolls (covering another request) AND cheese.... the cheese doesn't have a happy ending
Again- the illustrations are out of this world- it's set in a pseudo-Victorian English town, and they are just so detailed and gorgeous.

number two is Oliver and The Seawigs- really- the tropical islands move...

www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2Fbooks%2Fdp%2F0763622281&ei=QYOhVaO3CLKR7Aa645uYDw&usg=AFQjCNGbZxZVx2Ml1bXY1ATjBZ3zADA2sw&sig2=yXgnjXdJH4EH8Qpfq2Ht3w

It's not a story book, but this book, the Encyclopaedia Prehistorica (from a series of books I think) is amazing. It's a work of art and totally jaw dropping. My 8 yo loves it, he's had it a couple of years.

If he likes Jeremy Strong then try Tom Gates

My 8 year old and 10 year old love this series.

'The Stinky Cheese Man and fairly stupid stories'

Dinosaur Trouble by Dick King Smith might meet that description. DS enjoyed it and is dinosaur mad!

I think Treasure Island might be hard going for a 7 year old - it starts off quite exciting, but then gets a bit too involved and wordy.
Same with Swiss Family Robinson. We have got the ladybird abridged versions of both, and of the Lost World, (by Conan Doyle, not the book of the film and DD (also 7) often starts off enthusiastically reading them, but then a couple of pages in ends up just flicking through looking at the pictures. Or if I read them to her, she gets bored, takes them off me and flicks through looking at the pictures.

Nothing wrong with looking at pictures though! And it has made me think of Dinotopia, which would be fabulous for you to read together, and an absolutely "fascinating book". The pictures are stunning.