Books for 5y/old boys

[martini]

All books in 5-8 section of local bookshop seem to be either aimed at girls e.g. pink & princessy or Horrid Henry. Am I alone in my dislike of HH?

Can anyone recommend something different? Or tell me why HH is any good - to me seems to be full of negative role models and negative messages about reading for boys.

DS likes action adventure plots

Captain Underpants! Very funny. Very boy-oriented, but still, great fun.

Oh, and we're reading Little Vampire Does Kung Fu (or words to that effect) by Sfar. I am a big fan of Sfar - he does comic books really, but lots of them are child-friendly. In a similar line, Jeff Smith's Bone series is very child-friendly.

the sprinter books are good
ds1 (4) loikes horrid henry - but i agree with you

I hate horrid henry but ds 4yrs loves it.I keep saying " you know he's really a naught boy don't you",ever fearful he'll copy the behaviour

DS has only read one HH so far and instantly started being v silly! He likes ASterix & Tin Tin although some Tin Tin needs heavy editing due to v non PC content e.g. guns/ bad racial stereotypes etc.

Will check out sugeestions - keep 'em coming.

My kids love him too and run around the house singing "na na na na nana" which is quite annoying.

As for books for boys my DS (almost 5) loves Harry and his Bucketful of Dinosaurs books, the Books For Children website is very good too.

My ds who is 5 loves the famous five and the secret seven. In fact anything enid blyton-currently reading the naughtiest girl in the school. Not sure who is enjoying it the most out of the two of us!

What are Sprinters? Is it a series? Who publishes?

sprinters
books by famous authors aimed at emerging readers. short chapters, some line illustrations
ds1 likes the finger eater
nie short stories - can be read in maybe 2 or 3 sittings (ds1 is a bit younger than your ds but worth a try i think)

also if you are reading to him, he may enjoy books by jeremy strong. Bit old for my ds1 at the minute but 5 year olds may be ok with it
hundred mile an hour dog etc

Chipkid - I know people are v disparaging about Enid B but I grew up with her and thought she was okay. Sexual stereotyping went over my head at age 6.

Have to say after half an hour wading through HH synopses was longing for a bit of good old ebthusiastic innocent EB.

walkers starters are also nice
may be able to read them himself

Thanks Posycal - they look v good. AM also going to look on Amazon for some retellings of classic tales such as Robin Hood/ King Arthur etc which think he'll like. he thinks knights are really cool atm.

He can read quite a lot himself but its still mainly us reading to him.

Posts crossed - have just spotted Robin H on Walker site.

yeah some of the EB stuff is so not politically correct it is actually quite refreshing. At 5 I think it does little harm-the subtleties are well over my DS's head. It really makes me laugh though!

My dd (a real tomboy who eschews fairies with a vengeance!) loves the seriously silly story collection from The Book People; we also have the animal ark series (altho the heroine is a girl) and the magic kitten series (same problem I think!).

She really loves non fiction books - Kingfisher young Knowledge and DK EyeWonder series which are great as she can dip in and out.

She too loves Enid Blyton. Dh has bought her Biggles but a little over her head at the monent