books for year two boys - Marina? Roisin? Anyone?

dd (yr 2) is a big fan of the Horrible Histories (in fact, I noticed that they have a Xmas Annual out for stockings) although I find them a bit hard to digest, she seems to love the way the books are laid out.

marina, is My Family and Other Animals ok for this age group? I loved it as a child but thought I must have read it when I was a bit older.

There are a set of books starting with Dimanche Diller (by Henrietta Branford) - they are beautifully written, some quite difficult text - the main 'hero' is a girl though (so not sure if that would suit your boys!) but it follows her life story after her parents drown while sailing round some Greek Islands (leaving her a fortune) and a woman pretends to be her aunt to try and get her hands on it! They are exciting books and dd couldn't wait to read them to find out what happened.

Just to bolster my own recommendation of the Horrible History (etc.) series, ds's reading about early civilisations seems to lodged: he had a nightmare last night where our flat caught fire & we all had to escape to the communal gardens, which we did, conveniently (& clearly rather thrilledly) taking shelter in "two ancient Celtic roundhouses".

Oh and, although they are rather dated in certain respects, I think some boys on here might also like the Willard Price animal adventure books.

Eric Linklater's The Pirates of the Deep Green Sea is a rather barking "nostalgia" read. Came across it while ordering a bink recommendation, Noel Langley's The Land of Green Ginger.
Bink, ds loved Emil and the Detectives

Book People/Redhouse has a box set of Just William at the moment, the original Richmal Crompton rather than the shortened ones for younger readers - but sometimes does the shorter ones too.

Enid Blyton's "The Mystery of ..." series, and the "The [insert thing eg "River"] of Adventure" series are good for year 2 independent readers.

The wildly prolific Alexander McCall-Smith does nice (quite short) detective-y books for this sort of age.

And, on the detective (but also nostalgia) track, there's always the Emil books.

If he likes nonfiction too, ds (now year 3 and a slightly keener on nonfiction than fiction) got deeply into the Murderous Maths/Horrible History/Geography/Science series last year.

dont do the roman mystery ones

crapola

helo
GRK
the greek myths book was good

famous five ds loved them

DD (age 8) enjoyed having The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, Terry Pratchett read to her - not wizards, but certainly magical. Or maybe I enjoyed it and she listened dutifully.

She re-reads Jeremy Strong regularly, but seems to have moved on from Horrid Henry. We tried the Narnia series, but both got bored with the Horse and His Boy.

puddle lol at Peepo!
Still in early chapters of Charlottes web and now fearing continuing reading. I remenber loving it as a child but can't remeber what happens. Could guess given the clues tho...oh dear.
Thanks porpoise, was I misunderstanding him during the whole converstion? he must have thought I wsas pretty dim
I might get them to save for when ds is a bit older or I'll just forget again.

Loving all these suggestions. loads sound just the sort of thing Ds would love. he loves history, real life stuff and comic book stlye.

I tend to buy loads from the book club forms from school, the box sets like Roald dahl and Dick Kingg Smith are graet value and there's always soemthing waiting on the shelves to read.

Puddle

We both get so excited when we go into Waterstones.....sad really!

Can't remember if you have already got Geraldine McCaughrean's Britannia storybook - full of stuff like Hereward the Wake, Robert Bruce, Boudicca, Grace Darling, right up to the Amoco Cadiz
Really excellent book with bedtime-story-sized tales of Britain's past

Oho, if he loves wizards, maybe try him on some Diana Wynne Jones The Worlds of Chrestomanci.
Her novel Howl's Moving Castle was beautifully translated into film by Hirao Miyazaki - two hours long and ds AND dd were transfixed from start to finish

ooo Puddle, got ds the dragonology and Pirateology from that series....ds has to kepp taking them back from his grandad

Marcia Williams v popular in our house puddle - Bravo Mr William Shakespeare might be worth a go

Michale Morpurgo, I believe in Unicorns.....loved this one

Jeremy Strong books are good reads in silly slapstick boy humour kind of way.
Yes, Grk is great. And Stig of the Dump.

We have just done Charlotte's Web. Had forgotten what a magical book it is
Ds enjoyed Stig of the Dump with dh btw, and we might try some Rosemary Sutcliffs too. Maybe Brother Dustyfeet for starters
Oh, and Paul Berna. Mostly o/p now but maybe from the library - great adventure yarns set in postwar France

caroline lawrence
Tinkerboo, think the series you're talking about is Redwall. Great books but probably more for 8years +

The monster shop series good too.

Grrk

Charley Bone....bit of a Harry Potter rip off IMO but ds liked it.

Ditto the Roman mysery series.

DS1 aged 8 keen to start the edge Chronicles but am not sure if way too old!?!?

Does Porpoise mean the Caroline Lawrence novels maybe? These look great, but a school librarian pal thought they were best for nine and up.

Definitely recommend the Astrosaurs, ds has loved those too!
Also successful have been some Michael Morpurgo (The Butterfly Lion and The Wreck of the Zanzibar were recommended to us as suitable for younger readers)
Matilda, by Roald Dahl
If he is making good headway with Harry Potter, have you thought about Just William or Jennings?
And, from here, we've read and enjoyed Varjak Paw and the Grrk books
Ds has My Family and Other Animals coming as his Xmas read and I think we might also try some E Nesbit - Five Children and It, perhaps.