Can anyone suggest some good books for my 7 year old who is a bit behind his age group (according to teachers)

[SaucySoy]

He hasn’t really been interested in reading himself up u til now, always preferring picture books, he absolutely loved and still does love to read books from Julia Donaldson.
he said his friends laughed when he told them he likes stick man and highway rat, and someone said to him they are toddler books so now he doesn’t want to look at them, he is not interested in chapter books, we tried some dogman books as they have pictures but not sure he liked the conversational style of it all.

any ideas or recommendations?

Michael morpurgo books ? There are some illustrated ones which are good for age 7. We had the same with DS

Oliver Jeffers does lovely books which are beautifully illustrated

What about Alan Ahlberg Happy Families books. There's some more subtle humour in them that he might enjoy.

Also look out for the jets series
https://toppsta.com/books/series/825/jets

And Corgi Pups books for easier reads that don't look babyish.

The Claude series are also good fun and can appeal to that age group.

Graphic novels are inspiring young boys.

I also suggest finding books that link with his interests. Boys often like fact rather than fiction, but fiction linked to interest is good too.

This is a good tool that he and you can play with, helping to choose by age and interest. https://www.booktrust.org.uk/book-recommendations/bookfinder/

Is it the rhyming he likes?

Roald Dahl Revolting Rhymes?

13 story treehouse series. It’s what transitioned my 6 year old from picture books. You can get the first 3 in colour as well.

Investigators by John Patrick Green (graphic novels like Dog Man)

The Storey Treehouse series by Andy Griffiths
The Boy Who grew Dragons
The Hodgeheg

Authors Tom Gates, Tom Fletcher, Terry Pratchett, Marcus Rashford have a variety of books that may appeal.

Mine love the phoenix comic, not really very educational but very popular

He's only little! We enjoyed our picture books together as long as possible.

Mine liked The Day the Crayons Quit series and the brilliant Oi Frog books.

Will second this. They're brilliant.

13 Storey Treehouse is a good shout.

Look also at Jamie Smart's books.

Jack Stalwart is very popular in my Year 3 class, and is very simple for less confident readers.

Another vote for the 13 story treehouse series!

Tom Gates by Liz Pichon. First non-picture book that DD got really into.

A complete boxset of Mr Men. They are lovely short books, with a bit of humour and pictures. Read one a day together.

I was trying to teach yr1 ds to read during lockdown, and he hated biff, chip and kipper. We switched to Mr Men (and then Little Miss) with me initially getting him to read the easier sentences ("it was a big hat") and gradually moving on to him reading out whole paragraphs. Eventually we took it in turns to read a page each.

Maybe audio books to get him inspired first.

Lightfall series by Tim Probert - graphic novels but a different style to Dogman.

The Ottoline series by Chris Riddell are really accessible and again beautifully illustrated and fun stories, a good intro to chapter books.

Dc1 is dyslexic and really struggled with reading so I read to him chapter books (and he read picture books to me) then one day he picked up the book I was reading to him and started reading 'to see what happens'. He was a very late reader.
The books that got him started tended to be set out differently so the writing wasn't one big paragraph.
He enjoyed flat Stanley, tom gates and diary of a wimpy kid. We also had some Michael morpurgo and similar authors audio books in the car which helped develop vocabulary so he didn't fall behind in that too. So when they read war horse at school we'd do the audio book.
We often watched films of what he was doing at school to get him interested/able to visualise it.
Also comic book strips helped (passed gcse literature never actually having read frankenstein but watching films and using a comic book version).

Just move straight to chapter books like Flat Stanley, Secret island, The borrowers, my side of the mountain, 101 saltations etc he reads the first bit and you read him the rest of the chapter. Increase his portion till he’s doing a fair old chunk and then start leaving the last page for him to read if he likes before lights out.

DS7 has started to read in bed by himself.

His favourites are rhyming books we read together, Dr. Seuss, Julia Donaldson etc. And Horrible Histories Vikings and WWI.

Your son is still young. The best thing you can do is keep reading to him and with him. Discover his interests and have age appropriate books handy.

He might enjoy The Marv books by Alex Falase-Koya. Simple stories with nice illustrations and big font making it easy to read.

I also recommend the Wigglesbottom primary books by Pamela Butchart to encourage independent reading.

My DS loved Horrid Henry.
There is a similar series by an British author could Dirty Bertie which he also loved.

What meanies his friends are! DD, who is 9, is still occasionally partial to snuggling up with me and a picture book.

Dirty Bertie