Spy books for 8yr old?

[Laquila]

My son has suddenly become very interested in the idea of James Bond (no idea how!), particularly the gadget side of it. Are the Young James Bond books any good/suitable for that age? To be honest I don't like the idea of him reading about too much violence - so far it's mainly been Ninjago, Enid Blyton and Star Wars! Actually he loves the Greek myths too so he's not a stranger to a bit of gore and drama.

He read the first Artemis Fowl book (as a graphic novel) and quite enjoyed that - are the Young JB ones aimed at a similar age? Does anyone have any other recs for slightly gentler kids spy books?...!

Operation Gadgetman!

Thank you, I'm googling as we speak!

Ahhh Malorie Blackman! ❤️👍

Spy Dog and Spy Pups - my DD loves them and they are very popular with children that age.

I've heard the young James Bond are excellent. I can't remember whether the content is for slightly older children though.

He can send a letter to Mi5 too. They get loads of job applications from children wanting to be spies - there was a news things about it a few weeks ago. There's a photo of some of the ones they've received on their Instagram account.

Not quite spy but there are children's versions of Sherlock Holmes.

Jack Stalwart series. A little more childish than James Bond, but its aimed for kids around your son's age. My kids loved them.

I was going to say Jack Stalwart too, my two loved them!

Definitely go for the Jack Stalwart series. My 8yr old was engrossed with them

Thanks so much everyone!

I've ordered a set of Jack Stalwart, Operation Gadgetman, and the first in the Little Badman series (Humza Arshad), which I had on a screenshot of a Twitter recommendation form a nice librarian, which I just found in my photos!

@Snorkelface we will definitely be writing to Mi5, thank you!

@PragmaticWench are those the Anthony Horowitz ones? I think I've read those. Actually I don't think they're of a younger Sherlock so maybe I'm getting confused...I'll Google!

My son is also into espionage and loves James Bond. He's 8. I read the young Bond books a long time ago and they're just too dark for him for now (he'd love it but I don't think he's ready).

I'd recommend Artemis Fowl, Jack Stalwart, Spy Dogs, The Accidental Spy, Emil and the Detectives, the Violet books by Harriet Whitehorn, The Secret of the Night Train by Sylvia Bishop and the Adventures on Trains series by M G Leonard and Sam Sedgman.

Oh, and he adores the Falcon's Malteaser etc. by Anthony Horowitz.

Alex Rider books
Cherub series
Gallagher girls

I've read the Alex Rider books and they are way too dark and worldly for my 8 year old.

Suppose it depends on the reading age of the child 🤷‍♀️, maybe leave Cherub and Alex rider until he's 10 or so then.

I'd say they're similar to the Young Bond books though, so if he's read them and you're happy it should be fine. Maybe read the first one yourself though to see.

Actually the Cherub series is more suitable for 10/11 so I wouldn't get them quite yet :). The Robin Hood series by the same author is what I was initially thinking of for 8yr olds.

@5566rfghh

Suppose it depends on the reading age of the child 🤷‍♀️, maybe leave Cherub and Alex rider until he's 10 or so then.

Not trying to brag but my son is not quite 8 and has a reading age of 12 yet is in no way emotionally ready for a lot of books aimed at 12+ readers.

He's 8 next month.

I was going to recommend Alex Rider until I saw that he’s 8. They are really brilliant books and really heavy on the gadget side of things if that’s what your son likes but my memory tells me they are quite dark.
I read them years ago now but I’m sure one of them had a plot that involved illegal organ harvesting and another about lethal injections aimed at school children.

Update: he's really enjoying the Jack Stalwart series! (although I wasn't impressed at Jack telling us he liked soft, quiet girls, as "loud girls were always annoying" 🙄)

And the sequel to a book he's really enjoyed, called Planet Omar, also seems to be themed around superspies, so we've bought that one too. Thanks very much for all the input.

Yes. That wasnt great. Lines like that are good teachable moments though!

I get called stupid for doing this, but I try to alternate the protagonist in the books my son's reads. So if the main protagonist is a boy, then the next books will be a girl and so on.

@Fiddliestofsticks it was certainly teachable here!! Ridiculous 🙄

Who on earth is calling you stupid for attempting to diversify your kids' reading?! That's even more ridiculous! It's interesting, actually, that so few of the recs we've had on this thread have been for girl spies - I'm going to go and look into the ones that've been mentioned though!

If you want a female protagonist, look into Skullduggery Pleasant.

I've struggled to find girl spy characters, but lots of whodunnits with girls as the main character. My son loves a bit of a whodunnit so those are great.
If yours wants to branch out from spies into mysteries, I'd recommend The Sinclair's Mysteries, The Uncommoners (mystery with a bit of fantasy), The Mr. Lemoncello books, secret of the night train, the london eye mystery, Adventures on Trains (first one is The Highland Falcon Thief). They're all great!

Apparently it was "virtue signaling" to make sure he read books with strong female characters, and more importantly, at least 2 female characters who talk to each other about more than boys. It's actually surprisingly hard to get that. His 2 favourite books (The Explorer and The Polar Bear Explorer's club) both only have one girl character. Very strong character, but everyone else is a boy.