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!

What about some Judy Blume? Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing or Superfudge?

Mine went through all the classics, Narnia (it has battles but not so high-energy, more chivalrous?), Oz series, Wombles, all Dick King Smith, Peter Pan, Secret Garden, Railway Children. Swallows and Amazons is a big series. Also things like Gulliver's Travels, Treasure Island? Wordsworth Classics do them cheap.

Mine loved Treehouse but they do read them very fast, but they are lovely.

Maybe How to Train your Dragon would encourage more scratching? Depends if he identifies with the dragons or the people!

Oh, the worst witch series too.

DS adored the books by Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve. He borrowed Cakes in Space from the library and they were his favourite books for the next couple of years, until he discovered Percy Jackson.

-Abel's Island
-The Borrowers
-The Secret Garden
-Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing
-Stuart Little
-Sideways Stories From Wayside School
-My Fathers Dragon Books
-The Robber Hotzenplotz

Wind and the Willows too as someone said above

The work of Kate di Camillo.

Another vote here for The Explorer by Katherine Rundell. She's written a few other great books, but The Explorer is def the one that stands out as having the most appeal to a 7 year old. Its about 4 children who survive a plane crash in the Amazon.

I would strongly recommend the Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones. Beautifully written, amazing stories, usually male protagonists. They're fantasy in that they're about a parallel, magical but theres no fighting beasts (that I recall!) I'd day they hit the mark perfectly for being child friendly content while appropriately challenging reading.

I used to love going to the "old" library in 5he town, Willard Price was the main author I discovered there as a small child. Loved his books.

My dc both obsessed by Percy Jackson series but that maybe just a little too old for now. I'd say that an advanced reader would probably be able to access them by year 3. If you want to avoid violence, you might want to swerve these though as there are a fair few monster fights. They also reference quite a few if the darker themes of Greek mythology? But they would prob go over the younger readers head.

Kids really love these books though, so if you get confident helping him manage imitation and separating fantasy from reality then these would be a must read I a year or two.

My 7 and 9 yr old also loved the little house books - very exciting (wolves, fires, sickness, storms etc) but also a lot of good messaging. Some bits for discussion around indigenous people though word of caution.

They also loved the Nima Island books (and so did I )

That should say Nim's Island

Mr Gum
Roald Dahl
Little house in the prairie series

My son loves the ‘violent’ books but also peruses the cutaway diagrams in the Brambly Hedge anthology!!

I would expose him to gentler female led books too like Worst Witch, Ballet Shoes.

@withinacceptabletolerances

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?!?

Yup, here. He can’t hear us when he’s deep into bloody Eragorn even if we’re standing right next to him telling him repeatedly it’s time for school.

Dirty Bertie books.
(How Horrid Henry gets so much praise is beyond me. Dirty Bertie is WAY better.)

Anything by Katherine Rundell. DD discovered her via The Explorer and has since devoured several other titles. Loved The Wolf Wilder in particular.

Ross Welford's books are great. Time Travelling with a Hamster was a huge hit here.