AIBU to wonder if there are any exciting books for 7yr old boys that aren't violent and about good vs evil?

[withinacceptabletolerances]

Ok not the best AIBU but I'm getting frustrated with my 7yr old autistic DS and the books available to him. He's an advanced reader, reading on his own for enjoyment. Great. But emotionally and socially he's v immature and regularly confuses fantasy and reality. All the books he chooses from the library or we try to buy him involve fighting, quests to defeat evil overlords or some other violence. So when he plays with friends or his brother, he lapses into these fantasy worlds and unsurprisingly starts being violent. So an example was pretending to be a beast from Beast Quest and intentionally scratching with his 'claws'. So aside from helping understand the difference between fantasy and reality, we clearly need better reading material. (We disciplined him for the scratching before anyone points that out).

Soooo I know I'm not BU, but can anyone recommend any exciting books for him that don't involve violence? He's read Beast Quest, How to Train your Dragon, various Ninjago/Star Wars books, Harry Potter 1&2(which were fine but no 3 is quite dark)..... Help mumsnet!

My Brother Is A Superhero? I think there's a series.
We've been doing this as an audiobook and it's gone down well with our 7 yo

Read less “books for boys” and try some “books for girls “.

Percy Jackson - Dd and Ds liked this series.

Carpet people! Yes! We've got those on my DH's Pratchett shelf ( he has his own shelf in our house). I say books for boys but obviously you don't read books with your penis so I just mean books that might appeal to a 7yr old boy..

If Narnia - which is great at 7 - start at the beginning with The Magician's Nephew. One of the best books ever.

I really, really wouldn't give any seven year old Goodnight Mr Tom. It is peculiarly nasty in places and likely to linger in the imagination.

My Side of The Mountain has been reported as tremendously appealing.

Mine loved the 'Daisy and the Trouble with...' books - they are funny and silly, but they deal with quite a lot of everyday scenarios and were a great way to open up conversations about Daisy's behaviour etc which my boys really liked.

They also like the 'Sam Wu definitely isn't afraid of' series.

Also The Land of Roar and The Return to Roar. Great imaginative, adventure stories

Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce.

Not Goodnight Mr. Tom! Child abuse and dead babies do not make good reading for 7 year olds!

The Mr Gum books are brilliant and the audio versions are so funny as well.

Whilst I'm here.... anyone else with a bright ASD (or NT) kid that gets completely absorbed in fantasy to the point that it's hard to shake them out of it? It's mainly just irritating, but sometimes like with the Beast Quest example it can have more serious consequences... Any ideas how to bring him back to earth sometimes?!?

The Jack Stalwart (spy) series and the 2 Jack Beechwhistle books. My son loved those.

Just William series are brilliant... Though quite a few 'don't try this at home' type adventures in there. But it's all jolly japes really.

I always think of them as a novel version of Dennis the menace

How to train your dragon were very popular in this house.

The day the crayons quit
The owl who was afraid of the dark

All I can say is do not ever let him play Minecraft. If that becomes his 'specialist subject', then heaven help you!

The boy who grew dragons series is lovely. No good vs evil or violence.

And the flying Fergus books by chris Hoy are about friends and bikes and teamwork.

My DS likes The Bolds series by Julian Clary. They are surreal but very funny. Although your DS may start scanning the neighbours to see if any of them might be animals in disguise.

DD loves Adventures of Mr Penguin. She also likes Dotty Detective.

Our latest discovery is children's version of Sherlock Holmes.

I like all books by Jeremy Strong. Especially the 100 mile an hour dog.

Tips for calming child with ASD: look up the zones of regulation. I use them a lot with children at school. It's all about identifying feelings and knowing how to get back to 'green'. The child has a 'green box filled with sensory toys/ things that help them calm. You could direct e.g. Jack, how are you feeling? (Present chart). Yes you're in the red... go and get your green box for 4mins (have sandtimer). The eventual aim being that the child does this independently.

I've just read that you said about bringing back to reality from fantasy world not just general calming. Sorry. Could still be useful.

Ds loved Cue for Treason at that age. Older books seem to have a better balance between adventure and violence. Violence tends to be slapped or threatened, whereas with fantasy it can be quite extreme for the age.

I'd recommend (some of them might be a little old for him at present) authors:
Enid Blyton
Geoffrey Trease (often historical like Cue for Treason)
Noel Steatfield (she wrote some adventures like the Children of Primrose Lane (WWII) and The House in Cornwall, and ds also enjoyed ones like Party Frock and Tennis shoes)
Monica Edwards
Malcolm Saville (Lone Pine adventures are his best known, but you might like the Nettleford series for more gentle adventures)
Violet Needham (start with The Black Riders)
Arthur Ransome
Ds also liked Naitabal Books there's about 8 of them, we got directly from the author (I think he's got a website, he also sells old books) and are about a group of children with a secret society. Beware though, they have a secret language which you might need to learn!

My DD is 7 and loves reading, and it will absolutely capture her imagination - currently all games and conversation seem to relate to Harry Potter. But to be fair I think she knows its not a real world and is very miserable that it doesn't exist in real life so maybe not quite the same as your son. (She has said wouldn't it be cool if there was a theme park - I think next birthday is sorted!!!)
I tend to roll with it most of the time - but we do tend to use physical activity as a distraction - out on bikes, scootering etc. Also dinner table we get to a certain point and say that's enough - now lets talk about other things. Also now they're back in school there's a bit less time. Tonight she was so zonked she just wanted to watch pokemon and I reminded myself that September plays havoc with everything and this time its going to be twice as bad having been away from school for so long.
No answers - but I need to save this thread for the book ideas (she wants Harry Potter 4 but I want her to try some other genres and get a bit older before moving up to the next couple of books)

The Henry Huggins and Ramona books by Beverly Cleary.