Capable but reluctant 7 year old boy

[Fabuleuse]

DS is turning 7 next week and never reads fiction on his own for pleasure despite having learned to read long before school! He's in a reading group on his own at school because he is still ahead of the rest in reading skills and comprehension. I was a real bookworm as a child and would like him to get into the habit of reading too. He wants to do our library's summer reading challenge which I've signed him up for.

I think fairly short books are the way to go, and he's a bit sensitive so nothing scary or emotionally demanding. He likes science, inventions, world geography and adventure stories when we read them aloud. Recent books he has loved when read aloud are Charlie & the chocolate factory, Charlie & the great glass elevator, the Jack stalwart books. We've read loads of Enid blyton including Faraway Tree, famous five and secret seven. Also the magician's nephew which he liked but I think some of it went over his head. He likes humour but not really farting/burping/gross humour yet (though I'm sure that delightful stage will come).

So I would love any suggestions to entice him into independent reading! Series or standalone books are fine. So far I've thought of Horrid Henry. He's not fussed on Beast Quest unfortunately which I know are popular.

Adventures on Trains series
Roman Mysteries
Children's versions of Sherlock Holmes (they take out the bits about prostitution etc, and have side notes explaining historical context. General plots the same.)

I advise backing off and just giving as much access to as many books as possible, don't try to encourage him to read specific things.

We used to go to the library as a family, get settled on the good table, choose heaps of books, browse them, hang around for an hour. Do not limit him in any way, if he chooses recipes books, comic books, maps, timetables - it does not matter. We used to get the full twenty books out, then re-browse them at home, read a few, return the ones that were boring, renew the best ones etc etc.

It is completely normal at 7 to be daunted by longer books, it does not matter, just let him choose freely. Let him choose from the adult section too, no book is too young or too old (unless inappropriate of course).

And if he wants to do the reading challenge that is fine, but they are a bad idea IMO, they turn reading into something you do for stickers insteadof the love of it, so I wouldn;t give them too much attention as I don;t think they foster a love of reading really.

Dt are now 12 both are very capable readers however very different Dt 1 is an avid book reader (and spends all his money on books) - Tom Gates, diary of a wimpy kid, David Walliams, rohl dahl etc at 7. Dt2 is not a reader however loves facts, science and some sports so will happily read some books on these subjects, to help with vocabulary teacher suggested audio books in ks2 which also helped. I'd say dt1 writes better than Dt2 in terms of language use however dt2 is still in top set English so managing just fine.
Over the years her teachers and I have taken the view dt2 needs to not realise she's reading for pleasure but more to gain information and I've found changing the way we approach reading has really helped.

Children come to reading in their own way. Have lots of different reading materials around, comics, magazines and non-fiction as wellasshort novels filled with pictures. Keep reading with him as long as he'll let you, we read to ours for years, the only rule being once they were capable of reading themselves we got to choose the books we read to them. They could read whatever Rainbow Fairies crap they wanted but I read them classic children's literature that stretched them. If they wanted to read ahead of me that was fine but not expected.

For a 7yo I'd get a weekly comic or magazine (on subscription). You can't do much better than the Beano in that category, but The Phoenix, Whizz Pop Bang, The Week Junior and Aquila (bit older) are all good.

Non-fiction: the Horrible History books come in different reading levels so be aware of that. DS (8) likes the Usborne lift the flap books, despite the name they are aimed at about his age and cover lots of different topics, we have one about the periodic table which is very popular. Dorling Kindersley books are fab as well. Guinness Book of Records is another one that might be popular. But be guided by what your DS likes.

Graphic novels: Another vote for Dogman, DS (and DH ) adore them. The Hilo books and Zita the Spacegirl books are also fab. We've got a few of The Phoenix Presents... series that are popular with all of ours, and The Amulet series are also fab. Asterix and Tintin are classics but are showing their age with their attitudes to women or people who aren't white.

Get him a book about ancient myths, we have big books of greek, roman and norse myths that are very popular. Feeds the superhero obsessions at that age (going round the Pitti Palace in Florence DS was explaining all the wall paintings to me, they were all paintings of the greek myths, a very MN moment that ). Otherwise Enid Blyton, Mrs Pepperpot, Pippi Longstocking, Paddington and Winnie the Pooh have all been very popular here. Plus the Beano novels and Winnie the Witch longer stories.

It takes a while for even confident readers to build up the stamina to read novels rather than picturebooks. DS (nearly 9) seemed to read nothing but the Beano and graphic novels in the last year or so but has just picked up HP and the Philosopher's Stone and whizzed through it so give it time.

Dinosaur cove series by Rex Stone?

Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series? I know they are old fashioned but they are fantastic well-written stories. I've just finished Pigeon Post for the umpteenth time and it's got the lot; adventure, geography (set in the Lakes) science (gold mining and water divining), bit of mild peril (fighting a wildfire), humour (Timothy the Armadillo aka my username). He's just the right age (as am I - 60 if I'm a day )