Books for 7.5 year old boy

[SoupDragon]

Looking through my lates Book People catalogue and am tempted to get the Cressida Cowell set and also Jack Stalwart by Elizabeth Singer hunt. Wondered if anyone had any good/bad reviews of these?

The site seems to be down at the moment so can't do links! There are some grat bargains on there this month

Cressida Cowell (How to Train Your Dragon etc) is very popular with my 7yo ds. And from an adult perspective it's not as irritating as Horrid Henry etc, which is a plus.

The Cressida Cowell ones are fun but wordier than my 7yo would like - having said that my dd1 at the same age was reading far weightier tomes. You could always flick through them in the library before buying.
My ds1's teacher is reading Stormbreaker (Anthony Horowitz) to the class and he is enjoying this immensely - here beginneth an obsession with spies...

the Jack Stalwart ones are spy books

Ah, I'll look out for them

The Cressida Cowell ones are on our year3/4 reading list. Just got ds, who is about a year older, some Eoin Colfer ones - The Legend of Spud Murphy and the Legend of Captain Crow's Teeth - which he's enjoyed.

Ds is reading the Stormbreaker series atm and loving them very much indeed. But I should point out that they are actually aimed at older children, and there is quite a bit of killing etc in them. Being a rubbish mother I didn't discover this until ds was halfway through the third book in the series, by which stage it was a bit late to start banning them.

I think killing in books is not as bad as on TV etc though... isn't it?

Anyway, am now £50 poorer after visiting the book people (picked up some books for DS2 and his party bags next march too )

We've ordered the Cressida Cowell books for ds Soupy, after hearing them praised on here I think.
Will be interested to hear what you make of Jack Stalwart, I'm ashamed to say I just assumed they were Horowitz rip-offs tbh
Ds's current reading books at school are the Astrosaur series, a calculated effort to please large numbers of little boys with their space travel/dinosaurs combo...

We saw Stormbreaker, which was very enjoyable, but I was astounded it was a PG tbh - not least because of repeated close-ups on Mickey Rourke's mangled face.
Have heard books are really teen reads and assume Charlie Higson's Young Bond ones are too...

Can I suggest one that my ds (7.5) still considers to be 'the best book ever' - Dragon rider by Cornelia Funke.
He also loved Goodnight Mr Tom and I am David (got a bit of a WW2 thing going on right now) although both are real chokers.

Oooh, we've got Dragon Rider. I bought it for DS1 2 Christmases ago as a bedtime story read (ie we read to him) but never got round to it.

Re Horowitz rip-offs, I'm not that bothered if they are really as DS1 hasn't read them anyway. I want to find something to tempt him into reading proper books as he seems to stick with ones that are beneath his ability.

DS 1 is an avid reader and I ordered tyhe Cressida Cowell and Jack Stalwart set yesyerday.
He has just started Johnny and the bomb by Terry Pratchett and is loving it.
Another fab one from hols was Youre a bad man Mister Gum....very Spike Milliganish.
Had himn laughing out loud.
Would also reccomend the Spiderwick Chronicles and Lemonny Snicket.

DS1 (just 8) read the first 2.5 Alex Rider ones, but didn't really enjoy them. I think they are really an older read - not so much in terms of language as in terms of reference/allusion etc. And quite violent.

He enjoyed the Cressida Cowell and also the Roddy Doyle "Meanwhile Adventures" series. He also loved the Lemony Snicket.

I'm having trouble interesting him in fiction at the moment, other than "The Beano" - he is really into large Dr. Who tomes and also dipping into some "Horrible Histories".

We might try "Grrk" which Cod recommended and Roisin seconded.

DS1 just got Grk from library and we are reading it together,good so far.

Loved the Roddy Doyle! Lots of laughs, esp the chapter headings

Reading the Horrible Histories in brief, but I think they will come into their own as he gets older

The WW2 Horrible Histories is grim fare - ds has relished the medieval gore but I'd recommend staying away from the modern ones
Must order Grk - saw the recommendations too.

We've been reading the WW2 one, coincidentally, the last couple of nights. His class topic this term is WW2, which seems a bit old for Y4 - as you say, Marina, a lot of it's pretty grim, even in the Horrible Histories. So might pre-read a bit more. He got a bit upset at everyone dying and betraying each other etc....

I see I spelt "Grk" wrong. So have spelt it right now!

It took me ages to get hold of Grk because I couldn't remember the author, and everytime I went into Ottakars I forgot the title too. And I couldn't bring myself to ask:

"I'm looking for a book recommended by a nutter off the internet called Cod. I don't know who the author is, and I can't remember the title, but it's something about a dog with a silly name like Zrg or similar!"

Hello familiar faces

Horrible Science and Horrible Geography books are, expectedly, less potentially upsetting than the Horrible History series, and the Book People/Red House often do bargain sets of those as well. My 7.5yo ds devours these; also the Murderous Maths series, which is written by Kjartan Poskitt & for my money is the funniest and acutest of all those franchises.

He is not quite so keen on fiction, but is happily working his way through the Enid BlytonTM (I kid you not, that is what is printed on the cover) "Mystery of ..." [Spiteful Letters/Secret Room/Missing Necklace] series. We can also get him to read Roald Dahl and Richmal Crompton.