The definitive list of books for an 8 year old boy

[MrsHeffley]

Ds8 has read loads(book worm) and we need some recommendations we may have missed before he runs out(he's a nightmare without a book he loves as he's not into toys).He's read;-

everything by Enid Blyton
all the Harry Potters
all the David Walliams
Judy Moody series
both Fart Powders
Spiderwick Chronicals
Humphrey series
Mr Gum series
Invisible children series
Wimpey Kid series
Hamster Massacre trilogy

Currently reading the Narnia books and have got The Borrowers and the Lemony Snickett series.What are the Judy Blume Fudge books like?He's read The Great One series.

TIA

Have to agree that most Morpurgo books have some tragedy in them somewhere, but strangely he is an incredibly jolly and cheerful person when you go to hear him speak.

DD just read Running Wild, which is about a boy whose mother gets swept away in a tsunami but he is riding an elephant which takes him to safety in the jungle. She absolutely loved it. She also liked Kaspar (featuring the Titanic).

yy to Jennings books! Brilliant.

Ds is 7 1/2 & currently loving 'My Family & Other Animals' by Gerald Durrell. Maybe 'The Sword In The Stone' - T H White? Not an easy read but I remember devouring it as a bookworm 8 year old!

Maybe I've got particularly insensitive stoic kids?

DD also hates Michael Morpurgo - again because the animals all kick the bucket (though she loves HP and is entirely untraumatised by all the characters killed off right left and centre )

Has anyone mentioned Diana Wynne Jones? All the Chrestomanci books (start with Charmed Life) but also lots of others.

Also Charlie Bone series and others by Jenny Nimmo (CB is a bit HP-lite but still enjoyable).

Agree Jennings books much better than Just William for an 8 y/o - much less wordy and very very funny.

Morpurgo I really think you need to get the right age and stage. DD - who is nearly 13 - read Private Peaceful recently, enjoyed it but looked quite solemn when she'd finished. She then started War Horse but stopped and picked up Adolphus Tips instead - I didn't ask why but suspect she may have been wisely not overdoing the angst.

Some good books really have to be read young - but anything which can be enjoyed by an adult - don't rush if you're not sure your DC is ready for it. There's so many good books now, keep them for later.

The difference between HP and MM is that its clearly fantasy - its like fairy tales, small children can deal with horrible stuff in them. Part of what they are for, indeed.

I agree Michael Morpurgo books vary loads - there are a lot of them! DS loved Butterfly Lion - War Horse I read to him, and he has a box set which he got for Christmas to start on. They do need to be interspersed with more cheerful reading, though!

DS (just 9) has enjoyed:

How to train your Dragon (all of them)
Temeraire and sequels
Eragon and sequels (probably not yet - they are a bit old)
The Last Dragon Slayer - Jasper Fforde
Dragonrider - Cornelia Funke

...can you spot the theme?!

Not fitting the theme, but

Airman by Eoin Colfer
Phantom Tollbooth
Borrowers
Narnia series
Mr Gum series
Dick King Smith - again, they vary from too young to just about right, but he has just come home from a book fair with "Harriet's Hare"

DS was unimpressed by The Family from One End Street when I tried him on it but I shall try again at some point. I also tried "my naughty little sister" without much success, and Swallows and Amazons - but that was a while ago, so maybe I will try again. I had forgotten about "The Eagle of the Ninth" - I should really steer clear of these threads, they get expensive!

Good luck finding Bottersnikes and Gumbles - you would think someone would reprint it, given the number of parents who would love to buy it for their DC. I don't know where my parents' copy has gone but I suspect DB1 does.

I've tried and failed to get either of my DCs interested in the Phantom Tollbooth. It was one of my favourite books as a child (sniff).

They have both read a lot of Dick King-Smith, but mostly at less than age 8, I think.

DD loved the My Naughty Little Sister books, but I read them to her when she was 3/4/5. Not sure if she'd want to read them herself now. The Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf books went down very well too.

I just remembered another series DS liked when he was around 8 - The Indian in the Cupboard, by Lynn Reid Banks.

Also the Grk series - I think DS was 9 or 10 when he read those, but they were definitely easy-reading for him at that age.

Hermux Tatamoq would be great I should think. He's a mouse who's a watchmaker, but becomes an amateur detective.

Tales of the Dark Forest (Goodknight, Whizzard, Trollogy and Knightmare) are very good.

Artemis Fowl might be ok too, I read the first one at about that age, because the author came into school to talk to us.

I've had another thought, what about The Blood Red Horse, Green Jasper etc? I read those about Year 5 I think, but you may want to flick through first, as parts are on crusade and people do get badly injured and die.

stealthsquiggle - my dd (also 9) is dragon-mad (Eragon, HTTYD etc), and really liked the Dragonsong trilogy by Anne McCaffrey. I hadn't realised that it was written for younger readers until someone suggested it on here, but it went down a storm. (Disclaimer; there is some - very obliquely described - sex in the last book of the three, I think probably it is theoretically aimed at young teens. But nothing inappropriate for a younger reader IMO.)

Chris Riddell's Ottoline books are brilliant, I defy any boy to reject them because they're about a girl. The books he wrote with Paul Stewart (Edge Chronicles) are also worth a try.
Oh, and Asterix and TinTin of course.

Thanks, Takver - Has your DD read Temeraire (Napoleonic wars with added dragons - and Temeraire himself is one of our favourite dragons)?

Wow thanks for all these,some fantastic suggestions!!!Should keep him quiet for a while.Bit worried about my Amazon account too.

Should just add all 3 of my dc loved Chris Riddel's Ottoline books.The pics are fab. Funnily enough he also liked Pippi Longstocking.

DS loved PippiLongstocking as well - his kind of girl (girls being very much divided in his mind into "girly girls" and "interesting girls" - Pippi is "interesting")

And she lives on her own!

No, will add Temeraire to the list!

In fact I have a nice lot more to add to my library list now from todays threads :)

How about the Willard Price Books, Amazon Adventure, South Sea Adventure etc? They are about 2 boys who go all round the world having adventures capturing animals for zoos. Very exciting. They have been recommended on here before and I recently saw the first two are back in print and in Waterstones.

My ds recently read a book I loved as a child 'The Boy with the Bronze Axe' by Kathleen Fidler. Its about Skara Brae, out of print but fab.

Also maybe the Ramona books, my ds didn't seem to mind that they are about a girl.

The Charlie Bone series - a bit Harry Potter-esque but there are loads of them to get through!

MM does have easier intro for younger DC. Look for the Marble Crusher and for the even younger Mudpuddle Farm. Butterfly Lion is often read in school KS2.

Thumbs up to Jennings.

Does he have a Kindle? My daughter who is 7 found these really funny and good pace - Danny Diamond books www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=danny+diamond&x=0&y=0#/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=danny+diamond+paul+davies&rh=n%3A266239%2Ck%3Adanny+diamond+paul+davies

Ha glad I'm not the only one trying to "sneak" in MM I've never read any personally but everyone raves so much that I keep thinking we ought to be reading them! In DS's words "there just rubbish"!!
However he does enjoy
Big Nate Books -Lincoln Peirce (reccomended by Jeff Kinney himself when we met him!)
Tom Gates - L Pichon
The world of Norm - Jonathan Meres
Dark lord - the teenage years - Jamie Thomson

The Hobbit.
Lord of the Rings.