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?

Graphic novels and comics like Dogman, Bunny vs Monkey, Investigators and Beano were great for my son as a reluctant reader.

My grandson only started properly trying to read when he got a subscription to the Beano.

Some good detective sort of books and some good stories as well are A Dangerous Game by Malorie Blackman (obviously great author but this is one of her children books), Jummy at the River School by Sabine Adeyinka, it's a nice one about a few things but a kid moving to a new school etc. Anisha, Accidental Detective by Serena Patel.

Also some good ones, Planet Omar: Accidental Trouble Magnet by Zanib Mian. Front Desk by Kelly Yang. When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson & Omar Mohamed, I think it's really heartwarming but still light. The Girl of Ink & Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave is an interesting fantasy novel as well.

Definitely introduce him to loads of different types of books, as one it's good for development, exposes him to new ideas etc and also he may find more of his niche as he goes along. Taking him to your local library as well is always good and they often have good recommendations so you don't have to buy these as well, though I'm sure you already do that. Definitely don't skip over harder books, it's good to read a book that's challenging, that's how we learn and get better, but just help him with that, reading it with him even though it's hard, encouraging him to keep going is always good but still make it fun.

13 story treehouse books are good!

The Claude books are great fun - we loved his and Mr Bobblysock’s adventures

Mr Gum books also were popular in this house

Take him to the library to choose books. Mine loved all the dinosaur books, big cats, reptiles and sharks. Also Greek mythology was a hit and random stories about wolves.

The Worst Witch series got both my two reading.

Yes I would echo this my eldest took a real liking to these when she was learning. They have some surprisingly difficult words as well.

Some good Michael Rosen books for this sort of age.

Have a look at this - Roo and the Great Garden Quest. It's an illustrated chapter book with lots of hand-painted illustrations. There is a picture hunt, and downloadable content too. You can get paperback or Kindle.

Aw I feel bad for him feeling he can't still look at books he loves. Julia Donaldson has written some for older readers - we had one called the snake comes to stay. If he likes the rhymes that's really great because it's an excellent way of learning to read. I suggest some silly poetry books of which I'm sure there are millions - Spike Milligan in particular seems to make kids of this age laugh.

How about something like Dogman or Bunny vs Monkey?

They're graphic novels, so not big chunks of text that might be a bit intimidating.

They're all the rage in DDs Yr 4 class, especially with the boys, so would probably give him a thing to chat about with his friends too.

Sorry, missed that he'd tried Dogman. Has he seen the film? Maybe that would get him into it a bit to make the books more attractive?

The Press Start series were a big hit with my son who was a bit behind too. He also likes the Shifty McGifty chapter books, Max Meow, Pablo and Splash, Murray and Bun, Cactus Kid, The Monster Support Group, Invesigators, Captain Underpants and Duck and Squirrel.

The Sideways School books were a huge hit with my 7 year old - he thought they were hilarious. Nice short chapters.

He also loves Bunny vs Monkey, which he rather grandly refers to as 'my graphic novel', except he always slightly mispronounces 'graphic'! 😀

Horrid Henry
Flat Stanley
Stitch Head series by Guy Bass.

The Mr Gum books. Very funny and silly. Chapters but easy to read.

Horrid Henry you can get early reader ones too which may be suitable.

How about buying him an annual subscription to The Beano for a birthday or Christmas present? I used to really look forward to my weekly comic being delivered.

Murray and Bun were the lightbulb moment for DS1. He really didn't like the comic book style that are popular right now.