Capable but reluctant 7 year old boy

Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series? I know they are old fashioned but they are fantastic well-written stories. I've just finished Pigeon Post for the umpteenth time and it's got the lot; adventure, geography (set in the Lakes) science (gold mining and water divining), bit of mild peril (fighting a wildfire), humour (Timothy the Armadillo aka my username). He's just the right age (as am I - 60 if I'm a day )

Dinosaur cove series by Rex Stone?

Children come to reading in their own way. Have lots of different reading materials around, comics, magazines and non-fiction as wellasshort novels filled with pictures. Keep reading with him as long as he'll let you, we read to ours for years, the only rule being once they were capable of reading themselves we got to choose the books we read to them. They could read whatever Rainbow Fairies crap they wanted but I read them classic children's literature that stretched them. If they wanted to read ahead of me that was fine but not expected.

For a 7yo I'd get a weekly comic or magazine (on subscription). You can't do much better than the Beano in that category, but The Phoenix, Whizz Pop Bang, The Week Junior and Aquila (bit older) are all good.

Non-fiction: the Horrible History books come in different reading levels so be aware of that. DS (8) likes the Usborne lift the flap books, despite the name they are aimed at about his age and cover lots of different topics, we have one about the periodic table which is very popular. Dorling Kindersley books are fab as well. Guinness Book of Records is another one that might be popular. But be guided by what your DS likes.

Graphic novels: Another vote for Dogman, DS (and DH ) adore them. The Hilo books and Zita the Spacegirl books are also fab. We've got a few of The Phoenix Presents... series that are popular with all of ours, and The Amulet series are also fab. Asterix and Tintin are classics but are showing their age with their attitudes to women or people who aren't white.

Get him a book about ancient myths, we have big books of greek, roman and norse myths that are very popular. Feeds the superhero obsessions at that age (going round the Pitti Palace in Florence DS was explaining all the wall paintings to me, they were all paintings of the greek myths, a very MN moment that ). Otherwise Enid Blyton, Mrs Pepperpot, Pippi Longstocking, Paddington and Winnie the Pooh have all been very popular here. Plus the Beano novels and Winnie the Witch longer stories.

It takes a while for even confident readers to build up the stamina to read novels rather than picturebooks. DS (nearly 9) seemed to read nothing but the Beano and graphic novels in the last year or so but has just picked up HP and the Philosopher's Stone and whizzed through it so give it time.

Dt are now 12 both are very capable readers however very different Dt 1 is an avid book reader (and spends all his money on books) - Tom Gates, diary of a wimpy kid, David Walliams, rohl dahl etc at 7. Dt2 is not a reader however loves facts, science and some sports so will happily read some books on these subjects, to help with vocabulary teacher suggested audio books in ks2 which also helped. I'd say dt1 writes better than Dt2 in terms of language use however dt2 is still in top set English so managing just fine.
Over the years her teachers and I have taken the view dt2 needs to not realise she's reading for pleasure but more to gain information and I've found changing the way we approach reading has really helped.

And if he wants to do the reading challenge that is fine, but they are a bad idea IMO, they turn reading into something you do for stickers insteadof the love of it, so I wouldn;t give them too much attention as I don;t think they foster a love of reading really.

I advise backing off and just giving as much access to as many books as possible, don't try to encourage him to read specific things.

We used to go to the library as a family, get settled on the good table, choose heaps of books, browse them, hang around for an hour. Do not limit him in any way, if he chooses recipes books, comic books, maps, timetables - it does not matter. We used to get the full twenty books out, then re-browse them at home, read a few, return the ones that were boring, renew the best ones etc etc.

It is completely normal at 7 to be daunted by longer books, it does not matter, just let him choose freely. Let him choose from the adult section too, no book is too young or too old (unless inappropriate of course).

Adventures on Trains series
Roman Mysteries
Children's versions of Sherlock Holmes (they take out the bits about prostitution etc, and have side notes explaining historical context. General plots the same.)

My DS is the same age and loves -
Dogman
Diary of a wimpy kid
The wild robot
Bunny vrs monkey
How to train your dragon (different from the films)
Pretty much anything by David baddiel

Tom Fletcher's novels are great. He's my 8 year Old's absolute favourite author (Enid Blyton close 2nd).

The Christmasaurus ones are fantastic

Keep going with the treehouse series - these and captain underpants were the ones that my DS into reading. He was also a very capable reader from a young age but took a long time to get into reading for pleasure. Was probably more like 8/9 when he started to look forward to reading and spending a long time with a good book. So don't panic! Also keep reading to him as much as you can, - DS is nearly 11 and still had a 'bedtime story' until a few months ago! I thnk this really increased his understanding and ability to follow a longer story.

Dick King Smith? There's usually a bit of mild peril, but not too bad.

Harry's Mad might be quite a good one to try first, about a boy who inherits a parrot who can speak.

Tumbleweed is an adventure story, but it's knights and dragons etc so I don't know if it will appeal. The first bit is as an example.

Does it have to be fiction. I used to be an English teacher and I found it was often easier to 'hook' capable but reluctant readers with non-fiction. Eg Horrible histories. Kids encyclopedia and Guinness records books. Or something that ties with their interests - eg Minecraft etc. Reading is reading - the main things is to just get them interested in something.

Tiger Wars series by Steve Backshall

Worth visiting the library really often so he can browse and pick up books without the pressure of finishing them if they don't click.

I find suggestions from The Reader Teacher and the 'tube maps' and 'reading roads' from Mister Bodd's blogs just brilliant for discovering new authors/series to tempt my reluctant reader with.

My son enjoyed Tom Gates, the Kid Normal series, and the Grunts series by Philip Ardagh. Also the Roman Mysteries series though they are a bit more challenging and can be grisly.

He might like WhizzPopBang, children's science magazine including craft activities, puzzles and jokes as well as articles. Mine loved this aged 6-10 and still re-read old issues occasionally

Captain Underpants (can watch the movie and TV series too)

Timmy Failure (by Stephan Pastis of the wonderful Pearls Before Swine cartoon). There's a film of that too.

Diary of a wimpy kid.

Tom Gates

Horrible Histories

My DS is 7, nearly 8 and has loved the Dogman series for the last year, he just keeps re-reading them. Also bunny vs monkey, Tom Gates, Ben Fogle's Mr dog series, investigators series (alligators are investigators), Sam Wu series

Second horrible histories - they’re very accessible because everything is explained, plus there are funny little comic strip style pictures.

Stick with enid Blyton initially. Language is great for this age group. Topics vary but vocabulary suits them.

Recent successes with my DS include the Real Pigeons series by Andrew McDonald (Australian success that's now been published here), the Rabbit and Bear long picture books series and Magic treehouse.

I'll be trying some of the books listed above though!

My son is the same age and Tom Gates seem to encourage him to read a long book alone at night time without it having to be colour pictures/ short enough to finish in one go.

He's also enjoyed reading the short story colour editions of the famous five, adventures of the wishing chair and the magic faraway tree. Each book in the last 2 just covers one of the lands and I think he found it easier without it being such a long book.

He still prefers books with pictures so some other suggestions:

• the secret explorer series
• the worst class in the World Series
• Ricky ricotta
• Investigators
• Mr Penguin

He also loves non fiction books and is currently really enjoying the '100 things to know about...' books.

Cressida Cowell's How to Train Your Dragon series
Enid Blyton's Five Find-Outers series
The Phoenix
Aquila

My DS 7 loves
Horrid Henry
Dirty Bertie
Pokemon
Roland Dahl

They also have the full series on audio book - I had them all on tape back in the day but I'm sure you can download them!