Books for 7 year old boy to read

[Jemster]

I need to get some books for ds who is 7 but I'm really not sure what to get for him. He's doing well at reading at school but the books they give him don't seem to interest him so he's losing interest. He loves Horrid Henry but since he's started acting like him I'm not that keen!
Any ideas please for books for him to read himself & books that I can read to him? How do you know what age a book is aimed at?

Roald Dahl - James & the giant peach , fantastic Mr fox
Beast Quest
Diary of a wimpy kid
Secret Seven / famous five
Dr Seuss
The Lets Read series

'Oliver and the Seawigs' by Phillp Reeve and Sarah Macyntyre is great.

It's highly illustrated is a really funky way with 'two tone' illustrations (so black white and shades of blue). So it's a fiction book but is broken up with great illustrations that make the pages less daunting. We love it!

Jack Stalwart books. He is a secret agent and each book is an adventure in a different country. They suit children from about 7. Reasonably short chapters. There are also some facts about each country

I have had same issue with my ds (also 7) I've been getting him comics! I know they're not the same as books but he loves reading them and if it gets him reading then it's fine by me! I read to him before bed harry potter / narnia / the hobbit most recently! Hope this helps!!

Ds is 7 and loves the Mr Gum books. You're a bad man Mr Gum had him crying with laughter. He also loves Roald Dahl books, especially James and the Giant Peach and The Twits.

My ds is 7 and loves horrid henry and the diary of a wimpy kid books - also likes reading comics too. We have an older dd but the only Roald Dahl book we have is Matilda which he doesn't want to read as about a girl! Will be trying some of the other titles though like fantastic mr fox and the twits. Thanks for the other suggestions - will have a look at Jack Stalwart and Mr Gum ones.

Books by Jeremy Strong are also very good. DS(10) has enjoyed them for a number of years, very funny.

You could borrow some audio books from the library first to try out some authors, that's how we discovered the Jeremy Strong books

My ds likes the Stinky & Jinx - My Hamster is a... series of books (detective, pirate, spy, genius, etc) by Dave Lowe.

Thanks for all the ideas. Do you tend to read to your 7 year old or just leave them to read on their own at bedtime? I think ds would prefer me to read to him & I'm not sure he'd have the concentration to read for very long on his own.

Mr Gum was a huge hit here.

In our house we do a bit each. I dread the end of bedtime stories tbh but I still love someone reading to me. Atticus Claw is the current favourite.

Yy to Mr Gum.

They are brilliant. DS loves them and so do I. In fact he's even leant them to my mum and she loves them too!

The Hiccup series (How to train your dragon) by Cressida Cowell. They are hilarious.

DS has also just got into Captain Underpants, which I just don't get but my DH thinks are hilarious

We still read to DS who has just turned 10. We read a mixture of books to him. I have just finished reading him Phoenix and the Carpet, DH is reading said Captain Underpants. We sometimes read a book that DS has already read. I think sometimes it's just an excuse to revisit our childhood books

DS obviously reads himself, have to say in the last couple of years he has stopped reading to us, but will carry on reading his books in bed, once we have read to him

My ds is 8 and also loves all the horrid Henry books. He also likes diary of a wimpy kid, Roald Dahl books, Enid Blyton famous 5, Secret 7 and adventure series and Mr Gum. He's read a couple of David Walliam's books which he quite liked ie awful auntie and demon dentist.

We are reading Danny the champion of the world another Roald Dahl book, also he is going through a dragon stage so we have read dragonory and knights and dragons which are both short story books and how to train your Dragon. He does read his own books but we also read to him every night. I saw some of the mr gum books in my l I cal charity shop, I wished I had bought them now !

Do you get The Magic Treehouse books in the UK? They usually come in boxed sets of 4 but they follow a chronological narrative where a brother and sister go into a tree house, find a pile of books and as they are looking at one about Ancient Egypt for instance, the treehouse spins, and they find themselves having and adventure in Ancient Egypt. There are clues they have to pick up along the way etc. Its the same reading level as Horrid Henry.

Also the Jack Stalwart series is great - its UK based so should be available to you. He is a 9 year old spy who is trying to solve cases book by book (there are 13) but also trying to track down his older brother Max (12) who also as a spy has gone missing. Very exciting. Very boy orientated.

Books that you could read to him, until he reads well enough to manage for himself:

For slightly older children I sometimes recommend what I call "Value Added" books, that is they have an aspect in addition to just reading a story.

The best one is Arthur Ransome's "Coot Club" set on the Norfolk Broads in 1930. All the places in the book are actual locations, and can be found on the Ordnance Survey 2-1/2inch map of the Broads. All the villages, rivers, lakes, pubs and windmill pumping stations can be seen on the map. Apart from some railways being closed, and there now being more main roads, little has changed. It also gives interesting insights to the social history of the '30s: the children want to contact friends in a nearby village, and say if they post a letter in the morning, it will get there by the second post in the afternoon! When they buy provisions at a riverside shop, the shop-boy carries the goods down to their boat for them.

Another book in a 'real' place, is "Watership Down". The rabbits' home threatened by development is actually on the outskirts of Newbury, in Berkshire. There are several web sites about the locations, and even guided tours sometimes to places featured in the book.