suggestions please for ds (8), his reading level is about age 12, but we're running out of suitable material..

I would really really recommend the Pongwiffy stories by Kaye Umansky - fantastic also for reading aloud - start with Pongwiffy, A witch of dirty habits then I don't think it matters what order they are read in.

Also stuff by Sally Gardner like "The Invisible Boy", "The boy with the lightning feet" etc.

My Ds1 is similar and races through whatever I get him - sometimes I get tapes and cds of things like Enid Blyton from the library and he listens to them instead of reading - that slows him down a bit and makes the more difficult stories accessible.

Ds1 also likes Just William, Michael Morpugo, Philip Pullman ("I was a rat" is very good) and other suggestions that have been made here.

The second Artemis Fowl is called Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident, I think. My ds (also 8 and a good reader) has enjoyed all of the Artemis Fowl, Alex Rider and Harry Potter books, plus others that have been mentioned here.

How about Hugo Pepper, by Chris Riddell and Paul Stewart? (there are others in this series too).

Tom's midnight garden
Any micheal morpurgo
Narnia
Philip Reeve's Buster Bayliss books
Geromino stilton series
Alistair Fury books (jamie Rix)
The unluckiest boy in the world (Andrew Norriss)
Molly Moons incredible book of Hypnotism (Georgia Byng)

Ooo loads of these are good - I particularly loved Just William, Ursula Le Guin and Alan Garner - in fact I still read all regularly.

Has anyone suggested...

Swallows and Amazons series - classic and brilliant

Anything by John Wyndham - these are adult books but easy enough for a child to read. Start with Chocky, which is about a child.

Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories are great, also lovely for reading together.

Not sure if they are still in print but Monica Dickens Worlds End series - about a group of kids who set up house on their own.

He's probably just about old enough for The Hobbit, although it's quite scary so not if he's prone to nightmares.

The Bagthorpe series by Helen Cresswell - very, very funny. Start with Ordinary Jack.

How about E Nesbit stories? the one about the Bastables are especially funny (Treasure Seekers etc)

He might also like Helen Cresswell's Bagthorpes Saga which again is very funny

I think Philip Reeve is rather specially good - and he does the drawings for Kjartan Poskitt - in one of the Urgum books there is a quite gorgeous 6mm-sized miniature of a Spiny Pant-Eater, which had my two in unbreathing hysterics.

I'm at home now so I can scan the shelves:

Mark Haddon's Agent Z books
Norman Hunter's Professor Branestawn - slightly old-fashioned language though.
Emily Rodda's Deltora series-upon-series
the Dr Who novelisations
Erich Kastner's Emil books (Emil and the Detectives etc.)

This is a very useful thread - reminded me of things I haven't yet got hold of, like Astrosaurs.

Robert Muchamore is a good one. It is a series of child spy books for children.

Enid Blyton?

I don't object to her, think she writes a cracking good story, but there are those who hate.

Rosemary Sutcliffe: 'Eagle of the Ninth'

Anthony Horowitz: you could start off with things like 'The Devil and His Boy' and move on to the Alex Rider books which my ds (8) and several of his classmates are obsessed with. Also Harry and the Wrinklies (can't remember the author, but there are a couple in the series); Measle and the Dragodon (ditto), CS Lewis The Narnia Books; Christ Riddle, or whatever they're called the sub-Disc world series; The Hobbit; Caroline Lawrence Roman Mysteries, as already suggested.

Also the Horrible Histories and Horrible Science Books. And yes, Harry P. of course.

Ds is revisiting Reeve's Night of the Living Veg bink, and loving it - he has decided he likes comedy thrillers best right now, so I'll look out for more of Reeve's books
And I am going to get him some more of the Anthony Horowitz novels aimed at slightly younger children - The Falcon's Malteser, I Know What you Did Last Wednesday, etc
Funny though, ds loathed Lemony Snicket - he is not usually so vociferous about stuff he doesn't enjoy. He thought they were rubbish "and that was clearly not his real name", errrr, no indeed (Joshua Doder appears to be a pseudonym if you look at the bibliographic details inside the front cover btw)

The first 10 Roman Mysteries are on offer from Book People atm at a really good price by the way.

The Roman Mysteries is also excellent for this age and definitely Lemony Snicket - DD1 loved them at 8. She also has some Eddie Dickens but I have not read them myself so not sure how suitable for 8 (she is 10).

There's a slightly simplified version (adapted by Martin Jarvis) of Just William called "Meet Just William" that Marina told me about - that's much more accessible. There are four or so books in the series.

Philip Reeve's Larklight, and its sequel Starcross.

Kjartan Poskitt's Urgum (..the Axe Man, ..the Seat of Flames etc.) series - not very serious, great fun. Other things by Poskitt too - Murderous Maths series etc. A History of Pants, I think, too.

All the Jenningses. Molesworth if it suits his sense of humour.

Ds's recent reading has been the above, plus: all-the-Harry-Potters (beware: once they start, they get hooked, and it is Basically Impossible to restrain them from those later darker books); Carl Hiaasen's Hoot; Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

He's reading Watership Down at the moment, courtesy of tip from Dino.

Most of these I get from the library - I haunt the "new books" stand at the front.

Sorry, did remember when writing that you had mentioned Jeremy Strong.

What about the classics like The Phoenix and the Carpet, Tom's Midnight Garden, Stig of the Dump, Charlotte's Web etc?

A wizards of Earthsea... fantastic book, but the later ones are more serious in tone and might be a little scary for him

A winkle in Time by Madeline l'enegle (sp?)

The alan Garner goods, The owl Service is a good one, and the Wierdstone of Brisingamen is also good.

The hobbit.

That's interesting about the Just William series as I was about to get those for my 6 year old. He is an avid reader too and is devouring books faster than I can get him. His reading level is about that of a 9 year old so no Harry Potter for him yet! He is working his way through the Little Wolf series at the moment at a book every two days. I suggested the Just William series to him and he was intrerested, but now I am wondering if the language will be too difficult. He reads the Famous Five, but prefers it to be read to him (I think it is just a bit too wordy for him still).

DS is 7 and we are reading Harry Potter together at the mo. We (me and DH) read to him for a bit and then he finishes the chapter (and more if he thinks we aren't paying attention). If he reads well he is definitely ready for them, the first 4 anyway. I would say the last 3 are a bit dark although DS is pushing to read no. 5 having just finished no. 4 and I am in two minds at the mo.

Have you read all the Jeremy Strong books? They are quite fun but won't take long.

I bought DS some of the Cressida Cowell books for his birthday - How to be a Pirate, How to train your Dragon, and all that sort of thing. They look like fun too. (Are they what you are talking about Clumsymum)?

The Anthony Horowitz books, Alex Ryder series is aimed at children of 12yo but if he could read them why not now?

Definitely Horrible Histories if he haven't read those. DS loves them as well.

Narnia should go down well as well and the more difficult Roahl Dahls.

I'd second the Grk books and also the Cressida Cowell ones; there are five or six now, beginning with "How to train your dragon", "How to be a pirate" and "How to speak Dragonese".

DS1 (now 9) enjoyed Lemony Snicket at 7 and 8, and also Harry Potter. He hasn't really enjoyed Michael Morpurgo as many of the plots are very sad - boy goes blind, old man reminisces on losses of war etc. But maybe he's just been unlucky with his choices.

Some of the younger Philip Pullmans are good - "I was a rat", "The scarecrow and his servant" etc.

Harry Potters, Narnia, Anthony Horowitz, that lovely series by Michel Paver(sp) starting with 'Wolf Brother', The Hobbit, Marjory Blackman books.
Seeing the Lord of the Rings films about a hundred times has meant that my 8yo DS2 has coped very well with reading the books.

Another little series of 3 books, which I read as a child and both my dds really liked were
the Carbonel books by Barbara Sleigh

or
Michael Morpurgo series

Has anyone suggested
the Just William series ?