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Desperately Seeking decent books for 7yo boy

26 replies

crazy88 · 02/12/2013 20:26

Ds1 is nearly 7, is a very capable reader but is not that keen on reading alone. I need to find him some decent, accessible, imaginative chapter books that are not too long, preferably about ordinary kids having 'adventures'. He has read the first 4 books in the "magic tree house" series and really enjoyed them but has stalled now so needs some variety.

My local library consists of about 3 shelves of Rainbow Fairies books Angry, a few (to me) soppy-looking books about animals, and an assortment of negative and patronising books clearly aimed at boys e.g. Horrid Henry, Dirty Bertie, Captain Underpants etc. Hmm

We have tried Beast Quest/Dinosaur Cove but ds1 finds the unusual names of dinosaurs and beasts etc confusing.

Oh, and I tried Waterstones and WH Smith and it was basically the same things. Also had a look on Amazon but unless you know what you are looking for it is pretty time consuming.

Find it very frustrating actually. I was into Secret Seven at his age but had hoped to find something more up to date (I.e. with less dodgy "circus-folk" etc).... To coin a phrase, am I being unreasonable?? Any recommendations??

OP posts:
AnAdventureInCakeAndWine · 15/12/2013 21:50

DS loved the Alfie the Werewolf series by Paul van Loon at that age (Birthday Surprise / Full Moon / Silvertooth / Wolf Wood / The Evil Triplets / Werewolf Secrets). They are about an ordinary boy who discovers on his seventh birthday that he's actually a werewolf, and the scrapes this gets him into. Obviously(!) there's a fantasy element, but he lives in a normal suburban house in a normal town and goes to a normal school so it's probably more relate-able than Beast Quest and so forth. And from a practical point of view they are a good length with nice short chapters to keep drawing the reader on.

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