looking for fun fictional books for 8 year old son - fairly easy reading.....

[spackcat]

Hi, I am looking for some suitable fiction books for my 8 year old son. He is not a very fluent reader at the moment although he is improving, so I thought it would be a good idea to get some good quality story books for him to read at home. They need to be fairly easy reading so it encourages him not to give up too easily but not too easy either - it would be great if they are humorous also. Look forward to hearing your ideas!

---

MNHQ Update
This is an old thread, but if you've landed here while on the hunt for similar recommendations, our guide to the best books for eight-year-olds has been recently updated. It includes a wide range of options, from best-sellers to lesser known gems, and has been complied using recommendations from Mumsnet users. We hope it’s helpful!

Ask in the library for the Boys Rule series. Might be just what you'd like.

Just IMO, I'd say KermitFrau's suggestions are both reasonably the right age, might be too old, in fact main characters in C'Underpants are 4th graders so age 9-10. But they are not good for non-fluent readers. Plus Captain Underpants is very American DS is 1/2 American and struggled with plot line in CU because of cultural differences (refers to the school principal, cheerleaders for the football team, kids watching games from the bleachers, announcments made over school PA system, etc.)

Horrid Henry is culturally British and amusing enough, but I suspect too difficult just now for OP's son.

Have you looked on the book people website? They have quite a few sets designed to encourage new readers.

According to dd (9) these are good

My 8yr old ds loves Horrid Henry books.

Give us more specifics on reading ability, spackcat, what level(s) in whatever reading books he's currently bringing home from school?

Or just take him to the library and let him try to see what he can find. Our library has a dedicated shelf for young readers, although the technical level varies a lot among the books on this shelf, so might have to search thru to find the right books for your ds.

Does anyone else think that there are many more books for early independent reading girls than boys? Admittedly DS is not a footie buff, which leaves out a lot of books. Not so bad now that DS can read fluently, but for a while I felt like I had to search hard in the library to find not-too-difficult books that DS could still read (and would want to try to read) independently. I'm convinced that DS only became a fluent reader because of all the books we got from library for him, though, so it seems to me like a very valuable thing to do.

Younger DD is now starting to read independently - not only will she take a stab at reading anything, there just is a noticeably larger selection in the library of books she might like.

DS1 enjoyed "Jack Stalwart"

Has anyone mentioned the Beast Quest series. Rip roaring and an easy read.

Usborne do a series about a young wizard "Oliver Moon"

Kind of aimed at the pre-Harry Potter age group, but really funny (Wizard is useless and makes loads of mistakes) and popular with junior school boys

Hi all! Thanks so much for all your suggestions, I will take note and have a look for the books mentioned and there might be some good xmas ideas there too! Thanks again everyonex

the Beast quest series were the ones that turned my 8 yr old not confident reader into a reading fanatic! Thoroughly recomend them.He polished these off at a few days each and is now nearly finished 'How to speak Dragonese' which he is loving. I also got him one of the Astrosaurs series and Jeremy strong but neither of these have grabbed his attenion.

My DD is 8 and though she can read pretty well now she isn't too keen and prefers boyish books - Captain Underpants and Horrid Henry were the first 'full length' books she ever read. She also seems to be enjoying some Jeremy Strong books from the school library at the moment.

Following DH telling me he wasn't too keen on reading and learned from the Beano... I got her the annual last year, she loved it and now we get it delivered weekly. I think its helped encourage a reading habit.