reading comprehension books recommendations anyone?

[amayzon]

DS could do with a bit of a leg up with his written english. His handwriting is fine, but the quality of what he actually writes could be better IYSWIM?

He is 8 and in year 3. I'd be happy to leave it as he is still young and things can change, but his confidence is low and he's beginning to say out loud to me and his teacher that he's "rubbish" at English. Can anyone suggest any books that I could buy which might help him to write better? Is there any fun equivalents to Horrible Histories that might even make it fun??

I tried the Schofield and Sims books, and while I found their other books excellent, I didn't think the comprehension ones were that great.

I love the Scholfield & Sims ones personally (well written, erudite & intellectually demanding IMO) however I am not sure they are wildly popular with children. They seem much more challenging than my son's reading comprehension texts/work at school. Even true for those which are apparently age appropriate.

Collins do a range which my son prefers. Less challenging - with questions that need some verbal rather than written answers. They are a series of books for 7 plus, 8 plus & so on. I think they are called Collins Primary Focus?

OP do you want to focus on his reading comprehension or actual content?

I don't know! He reads fluently and I am sure he understands it all. His written answers aren't very good though and, his speaking is not as good as you would expect. he was a late speaker (age 3) and he has just never caught up and now its impacting his writing.

The teacher has flagged his writing as being weak but she has not offered to help resolve it...

I got DD book 3 of the KS2 Schofield and Sims comprehension ones and some of the passages were . The fiction and poetry were fine but I didn't like the non-fiction and some of the questions were odd - on a couple of occasions I couldn't figure out what they were expecting her to write!

By repeating the the words in the question in his answers ds found the structure helped improved his work. E.g. Why was John so unhappy? John was so unhappy because ....

This focussed his answers so improved his responses.