Looking for classic "boys books" that DS will love as he gets older

[mrsgboring]

I grew up with one sister in a very girly household and know nothing very much of boyish literature. I'm doubting that DS will want me to read Noel Streatfeild etc. So I'm reading ahead with adventure and fantasy type books I think DS will like as he gets older.

Currently reading Swiss Family Robinson, have just reread all of Narnia. Anyone any other suggestions?

Thanks

or the one when he gets the lecturer on drinking songs to the Temperance meeting...

I think my favourite (on the same theme) would be 'What delayed the Great Man' which I think is in one of the early ones as well.

My beyond favourite is the one where a woman who writes high-whimsical verse for children moves into the village for a tranquillity cure, with the model for her poems (her son), who the grown-ups think is an exquisite darling but is actually a Fiend of vainglory: "Mother wrote another beautiful thing yesterday: it's about a boy going to sleep and every verse ends, 'Augustus, Augustus, is saying his prayers.' Mother's prostrated again today, of course."
[I quote from memory, before anyone corrects me!]

and William finagles the son into declaiming to the whole village, at the fete, in mass public: "Oh Damm and Blarst"

I loved the one where William discovers he can ring the neighbour's doorbell from his own garden and spends a happy afternoon driving the unpleasant neighbour to distraction - to the point of assaulting the vicar.

This is all really helpful, thank you.

Have just ordered the Just William box set, and shall be setting out to our lovely local independent bookshop with a long list tomorrow.

thanks for the link littlelapin! will be ordering mine for DS - he's only 7 1/2 mo but might as well get them now so I can read them to save for later

The Redwall Series.

Down with Skool etc.(Molesworth stories) by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle - also a bit dated but screamingly funny.

I would have said Bottersnikes and Gumbles but it's out of print and collectible so old copies are viciously expensive. You might be able to find it in the library, though

The Deptford Mice series are wonderful, but rather dark.

I remember my DB loved Flat Stanley. And he was a boy who didn't read much.

Also some by Gerald Durrell - The Fantastic Flying Adventure and The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure stick in mind especially. I think these would be suitable for about 5-8 yo. They have beautiful illustrations.

Ooo Gerald Durrell - I thought of him a few weeks ago and then immediately forgot. Didn't know about the two titles you mention, though, Cies, so will look into it.

And Molesworth - yay. I must have been more boyish than I thought: read him too.

Not heard of Deptford Mice or Bottersnikes and Gumbles [intrigued]

The Coral Island by RM Ballantyne- one of my favourite books as a child, but quite boys own IYSWIM.
Phantom Tollbooth
Fattipuffs and Thinnifers

I used to love Leon Garfield (Holborn Jack esp), when I was a big ol' tomboy - b/w age 9 & 12. But they can come across as a bit thin in comparison with the much more substantial writing (for which I credit JK Rowling) there is for children nowadays.

Also loved H Rider Haggard (King Solomon's Mines, Allan Quatermain, She), but find the ingrained colonial-ness quite hard to take now.

Then of course for older yet there is classic sci-fi like John Wyndham.

If you're looking for classics then...

Robinson Crusoe
Treasure Island
Children of The New Forest
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Tom Sawyer
Huckleberry Finn
Tales of King Arthur
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
Around The World In 80 Days
The Jungle Book
Kidnapped
White Fang
The Call of The Wild
The Railway Children
Anything by C.S Lewis
The Mouse and His Child
The Just So Stories
Brian Jacques Castaways of The Flying Dutchman and it's sequels.

All of these should be suitable.

Fabulous, Falcon, that's great. Are you a librarian? (I am but not children's)

I'm not a librarian though I'd love to be, just a bibliophile who has always been obsessed with books.

When I was 7 I received a box with about 20 children's classics in it and many of those I posted above were in it, it still remains one of my favourite gifts.

I almost forgot Goodnight Mr Tom, that's an incredible book and one a boy is almost sure to love.

I second the Molesworth books - has anyone said A Kestrel for a Knave yet ?

Michael Morpurgo
Emil and the Detectives

Good choices - and not just for boys, a lot
of these are what I've been reading to my
9 year old daughter recently (or she's been
reading herself).

Peter Pan, and the recent sequel Peter Pan
in Scarlet are about the only books containing fairies she likes(they are not exactly nice fairies!).

I think I need to get Just William. I somehow missed these as a child but love Martin Jarvis doing them on the radio.

We have just started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to DS1, who is 5 and he is EXACTLY the right age for it, demands a chapter all the time.

We did Fantastic Mr Fox and the Very Hungry Crocodile about 3 months ago, and they were good, so Roald Dahl is on our list.

Can't remember the author (Amazon will know) but a boyish book which might appeal in the next 6 months or so to your DS is Tiger Time For Stanley and/or Stanley Loves Sharks - about 5 years old, very well written. Also Naughty Bus is good fun for young children.

oh and Flat Stanley books !

Alastair Fury Series by Jamie Rix - some were out of print but I think they are being reissued.