Stories to encourage 9 year old DS to tackle "harder" books?

[redskyatnight]

9 year old DS is an able but reluctant reader. He likes reading things like joke books, Horrid Henry and the Spy Dogs series. He's very loathe to tackle anything a bit meatier.

He has read all the Harry Potter books and is currently on the last Enid Blyton "Adventure" story - so I think it is mainly a question of trying to find something that he really wants to read.

I still read to him and the books we have read have included: 101 Dalmatians, Swallows and Amazons, the Demon Headmaster, Charmed Life ... I was hoping that one of these might have whetted his appetite but he has no interest in reading more of the same by himself (but would be very happy for me to read it to him!).

When he was on the school reading scheme he read the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Tom's Midnight Garden, Charlotte's web ... he is now a free reader and has reverted to choosing to read BeastQuest.

Basically I guess I am looking for something that will catch his imagination and encourage him to try something a bit more challenging ... Any suggestions?

My suggestion is to give up - he can read, and trying to force him into anything else will probably revert to more damned beast quest.

Buy the rick Riordan stuff (it captured ds1 for the summer he was 8, I think) and then stand well back.). We have learned over time that if we try to steer Ds towards books, he will point blank refuse. He loved Percy Jackson and the other couple of R&R series though, so it was fine for a couple months.

At 9, and reading, you've done your job. Now it's up to him where he takes it. A lot of kids seem to regress and stick to formulaic crap like BQ as a friendly familiar at this point. It isn't an issue.

R&R? Thanks autocorrect. RR. Rick Riordan.

I was going to suggest Rick Riordan too, if he likes fantasy type stuff. Also the Susan Cooper "Dark is Rising" series is good (Over Sea, Under Stone is the first one), or maybe the first three "Earthsea" books by Ursula Le Guin, or The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner.

If he likes adventure type stuff, then I would try Anthony Horowitz, either the Diamond Brothers series or the Alex Rider series.

Darren Shan
Skullduggery Pleasant
David Walliams
Alex RIder series

All loved by my ten year old old who is a very lazy reader

Lemony Snickett? Or Spiderwick Chronicles?

Given what he likes to read, he may enjoy the Jiggy McCue books by Michael Lawrence (Killer Underpants, Toilet of Doom etc).

Find books related to something he is interested in initially, for example my Lego mad son enjoyed the books about the Lego bionicles and all the pokemon stories. He would also read anything about football. I agree with some of the other suggestions, particularly the Alex Rider series. My son loved these - he is now 15 and is still an enthusiastic reader. We started by getting the first book on CD to listen to on a long car journey - he was then motivated to read the rest of the series.

You could try the Willard Price books - Amazon Adventure, Safari Adventure etc. About 2 teenagers who travel the world having adventures while collecting animals for zoos. Think they were written in the 1950s but recently republished and they are very exciting.

My ds is bit similar to yours. He used to be willing to give any book a go but recently has only been interested in Beano annuals and funny books like the Wimpy Kid, David Walliams etc. I talked to him about it on holiday and he said he was put off books when the story didn't start on the first page. I told him it was up to him what he read but he was going to miss out on a lot of fab books if he couldn't persevere beyond the first few pages. He seemed to take that on board and has been reading (and enjoying) a wider range of books in the last few weeks.

DS recently inherited a series called On the Run by Gordon Korman and is really enjoying them. They don't look like fat books but the vocabulary is way more advanced than Beastquest which is still reads too. Also the Goosebumps series is a favourite.

If you have an ereader The Strangeling's Tale is a good read, lots of quests and adventure, good plot, some challenging words to improve reading range. My DCs love it.

Tom gates, wimpy kid, non-fiction, horrible histories

Have you looked at Hugo Cabret? Half of it is told through pictures, like a comic book, and half through text. Boys love it.

I second the Willard Price "Adventure" books recommendation.

I agree he needs to enjoy reading even if he has reverted. I have got the Michael Morpurgo collection from the Book People and a few more too, there are several slim but grown up books that may interest him and then perhaps he may want to approach some of the others. The topics are sometimes too much for my DD who is just 9 but I use Love Reading online to see age suggestions and reviews :-)