FOAK: Books for (bright) 7-yr-old

Someone on here will know.

A friend of mine is in the process of adopting two children, one of whom
is seven and at the top of his class in reading. He loves to read but has
come from foster-parents with no books at all. Said friend has given him
Asterix the Gaul from his own childhood (which he loves) but he's getting
through them very quickly. What says the FOAK? is he too young yet for
Harry Potter? Narnia? What suggestions do those with 7-9 yr-old boys have?

Being childless I'm at a loss

tia

Derek

 

IANASTNYOB, but try the Cherub series by Robert Muchamore. Maybe Elly
will pop up and confirm if it's the right age group or not....

 

The Machine Gunners.

Watership down

--


Nige,

'Candygram for Mongo'

R1

 

Any of the Biggles books. They taught me that it's cool to be
invincible and that Germans are the enemy. They also made me think
that killing animals was perfectly acceptable as long as you did it
with a clean shot and that black people are here to serve.

 

Much as it pains me to agree with Nige

In Sci-Fi: Anything by Nicholas Fisk

There are also the Digger / Truckers / Wings / Carpet People Pratchetts

--
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Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Ken, is that you?

 

At that age I was given a relatively free hand with a library card. I
read some fiction but I was more interested in non-fiction. I suggest
your friend takes both children to the library frequently as the one
that is less interested in books at the moment may be able to discover
their niche.

My lad, now 19, was 7 when the 1st Harry Potter book came out and began
reading them straight away. By the time he was 12 he was more interested
in reading about sport but still read HP when a new one came out.

Reading is a very personal thing. Both children need to be encouraged to
read but to develop their own interests.

 

Harry Potter is that old already? Blimey...

 

Proust.

 

Now who's going to clean up this keyboard

 

Do you think he read Biggles books when he was a kid? I'm more
inclined to think that he sneaked looks at his dads porn stache
whenever his parents were out shopping.

 

My son is 8 and an avid reader. We're doing Enid Blyton, the (Sea,
River, Castle etc.) adventure series and he's lapping it up.

HTH.

 

Famous Five
Swallows & Amazons
Secret Seven
etc

 

Me too, but i've a few nieces and nephews who are good readers.

Suggestions are :

Roald Dahl :
James and the giant peach
George's marvellous medicine
Danny champion of the world
Matilda
Charlie and the chocolate factory
Charlie and the great glass elevator
The witches

Any of the Invisible Detectives books by Justin Richards

Adventure books by Willard Price

Next : Horrible Histories

Cheers,

Paul.

 

Also Arther C Clarke's Dolphin island is a great kids read.
http://www.amazon.com/Dolphin-Island-Arthur-C-Clarke/dp/0441152201

 

These were what I was reading, and The Hobbit, but it really is very
personal to the child - if he likes Asterix has he tried Tintin, for
example? What else has he enjoyed reading?

 

That would be my solution too. What you also have to remember is that having
a reading age in advance of your actual age (like my youngest) doesn't
equate to emotional maturity. In other words he may be able to read
something and understand the words but miss the whole point of the book.

--
Malc

Rusted and ropy.
Dog-eared old copy.
Vintage and classic,
or just plain Jurassic:
all words to describe me.

 

I've spoken to Elly, and she suggests:

All the Harry Potters

Anything by Roald Dahl

The Hobbit

As Catman suggested, the Pratchett kids books: Truckers/Diggers/Wings
and I'd add the Johnny and The Bomb/Only You Can Save The World ones

Possibly the Lemony Snicket books

Anything by Michael Morpurgo

Followed by the Alex Rider books when he's done that lot.

I think the library ticket job is a great suggestion: that's how I
started and I cleaned them out - but it didn't cost anything, that's
the real biggie when you have a kid who is a voracious reader.

 

From memory of childhood:

Arthur Ransome for escapism

Spike Milligan, for silly poetry.

Roald Dahl, for everything.

Enid Blyton (don't laugh) for a grounding in sentence construction and a
very simple prose style that sets the grounding for much more.

Narnia stories, yes, absolutely. Ditto Harry Potter.

Animal Farm, because I loved it at that age, as did my kids, and even at
that age children can sense the essential injustice of the situation.

Ronald Welch's historical kids' books, if they're stil in print. (fx:
Googles> Good Lord: I never knew that was a pseudonym.

<Pause>

I shall now look at the other suggestions (haven't done that yet,
deliberately)

OK, yes, Terry Pratchett's junior stuff. Watership down.