Books for 7 - 9 year old boys

[kimdonovan]

My son loves to read but there just too few stories for confident readers at the top end of the 5 ? 8 year old age band. He has devoured chapter books for younger boys, such as Horrid Henry, Dinosaur Cove, Beast Quest and Too Ghoul for School, but when he tried books aimed at 9 ? 12 year olds, it was too big a jump. For the last twelve months he has been treading water reading stories below his reading ability (or re-reading Roald Dahl books!)

As a children?s writer myself, I also knew that some of the content of these older books would be inappropriate and outside his frame of reference. I asked other mums whether they had the same problem and they said they did. So, I wrote St Viper?s School for Super Villains to help plug the hole in the children?s book market. My story is set in St Viper?s, a secret school hidden inside a volcano where super-powered kids learn the art of being super villains. In this school, being bad is good. And World Domination is lesson one.

My reason for starting this thread is to ask whether you feel the same way?
Thanks!
Kim

Personally I'm not too keen on world domination; I have enough trouble keeping myself in check, so no, I don't feel the same way. OTOH my school is surrounded by cows so inside a volcano would be quite a novelty.

Are you sure you started this thread to ask us how we feel about villainous children and not to plug your book?

How old is your son, I'm guessing 7 or 8 as that is the intersection of the 2 age ranges you have mentioned? If he is a good reader I'm sure he will read your book quite quickly and then need more. Maybe some MNs can give you some other ideas. I'd recommend Mr Stink.

Erm, sounds a little odd. Is it meant to be serious, or more humorous?

Sounds a bit like like Harry Potter meets Despicable Me!

I'm not convinced there is a shortage of books neither. My 7 year old dts read every day, and haven't run out of books yet! One has jsut started on Secret seven, the other is reading the Spud from outer space. Winnie the witch is great for this age too, the Anholt & Robins take on fairy tales, Captain Underpants, horrible Histories, Jeremy Strong, David Walliams, etc, etc!

See, I knew someone would have some good ideas. Also the Clarice Bean books are really funny, the 3 non picture books. My boys were reading them aged 7 and loving them. DS2 aged 12 still rereads them now.

DS aged 9 yo loved David Walliams books. He's now reading his 2nd book of the Alex Rider series.

oh yes, Alex rider. Fleabag monkey face.

I didn't know Clarice Bean appealed to boys too! We just rehomed our set since dd has outgrown them :(

the Astrosaurs series was a big hit when DS was 8 or 9.
the 'Adventure' series by Enid Blyton followed
the Dark is Rising series, Susan Cooper
and a series of novels from periods in history, ancient Egypt, Romans etc..'my story' or some such..I am sure another poster could tell you the details
that spiderwick ones....good reads (just the right side of scary/nightmarish) and wonderfully illustrated
C.S.Lewis?

:o at this thread's shameless self-promotion!
No, I don't agree.

Oh I know what you mean, timetosmile. There is a whole set of different ones all in the format ....(my story), like - Pompeii - a Roman Girl's Diary AD 78 (My Story)

Those do look really good.

We never had a problem finding books for DS to enjoy at that age I must admit. The Hiccup books were a big favourite, Jiggy McCue, Mr Gum, Paddington, Michael Morpurgo, the Eion Colfer books for younger readers. We also read the Arthur Ransomes together at that time too.

Forgot the Phantom Tollbooth...

My 8 year old son adores the two Origami Yoda books, Diary of a wimpy Kid series, Agent Alfie series, Tom Gates series and the How to Train Your Dragon series.

and David Walliams too, especially Billionaire Boy.

He wasn't an avid reader until I gave him the first diary of a wimpy Kid book during the Easter holidays but since then he's read about 30 books (and is asking me to buy more).