Not Famous Five ... What is it that we need?

[roisin]

Ds2 is almost reading to himself in bed. We were reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and it was so exciting he wanted to read on, so each night he read a couple of chapters in bed.

Please remind me what else is out there (other than Roald Dahl) of a similar length and complexity, exciting - a real page turner, but not too scary (as he's a sensitive little flower).

Michael Morpurgo seems a bit too heavy atm.
I can't face fancy Horrid Henry or Enid Blyton.
Olga da Polga didn't do the trick
He doesn't like books with animals as the characters - like many Dick King-Smith books.
Flat Stanley, young puffins and the like are a bit too short for what we're after.

I'm sure there's an author I must be missing for this stage/phase..?

That's CS Lewis, munnzieb. Lewis Carroll is Alice in Wonderland.

Roisin, ds is really enjoying Martin Jarvis' excellent "simplifications" of Just William stories. All the fun, no tinkering, but made more accessible.
Will definitely try The Thieves of Ostia etc. A friend had Caroline Lawrence come and speak at her school for World Book Day and she was just fabulous.

Marthamoo - thank you! We started the Sally Gardner: Invisible Boy book tonight, and it seems spot on. We took turns reading the first few chapters to each other, then he chose to read on alone. I could hear him upstairs laughing at the jokes, and he kept shouting out "It's really funny mummy!"

Love it!

We read Michael Morpurgo: Cool, which he enjoyed, but he didn't want to read on alone.

Just wanted to post an update and say thanks again to everyone who made suggestions for us on here!

Every evening now as well as spending half an hour reading to each other, he's then been reading to himself for an hour every night

Also as ds2 is reading more widely, and more demanding books, ds1 is recommending books to him and they are discussing their reading together ... I LOVE it!

I can't remember who recommended what, but as well as his school books he's particularly enjoyed books by Sally Gardner, Dick King-Smith, Anne Fine, Eoin Colfer, LOADS of non-fiction, and is currently reading the Amazing Grace books by Mary Hoffman which Batters recommended to me on another thread.