Not the spy genre, but my daughter adored the Warriors series by Erin Hunter. And the Wings of Fire books by Tui Sutherland. She was very into any books with animals and complex made-up social systems.

Oh, I just looked at Warriors and he LOVES cats, so that might be a big winner, thank you!!!

A Cricket in Times Square. The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle. My Father's Dragon. I am old school. That's not a book but I enjoyed books my mom liked when she was a kid so don't be afraid to dip into your childhood faves as a way of connecting. I would possibly say From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweller because it is a mystery but the protagonist is a girl although she has the adventure along with her brother. Some kids are more sensitive to gender in books than others. Harriet the Spy is another classic.

He is the perfect age for classic children's literature too. The Everyman's Library has a beautiful collection of books, like Treasure Island, 1001 Nights, Arthurian legends, The Three Musketeers, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Robinson Crusoe, are all engrossing reads for a boy that age. They are even better when you read them together actually- better for you at any rate- pure joy.

Also Roal Dahl books are great at this age.

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil Franweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (love all her books.)

Phantom Tollbooth another great one to read together- more for you than for him, really.

The Hobbit

pink, I somehow missed A Cricket in Times Square. Now I will have to find a child to read that one with!

I can't imagine boys not caring for female protagonists. I have four boys and they have never noticed or cared about the sex of a character. Had one of them cared, I might have been very upset.

I second Ronald Dahl, but not The Witches, it is scary.

The Tale of Despereaux but Kate DiCamillo

Mouseguard graphic novel adventure series

Hatchet by Gary Paulson

Roald Dahl's "Danny, Champion of the World" is wonderful, features a son and his father in a pheasant-poaching scheme. Not at all scary but great fun : ) .

I read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" at that age. Far superior to anything Hollywood has done with it, IMHO. Just IMHO though, YMMV!

All really good suggestions. yes to Diary of Wimpy Kid. These three come to mind. They are very good read alouds.

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles by Julie Andrews

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Really-Great-Whangdoodles/dp/0064403149

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

https://www.amazon.com/Miraculous-Journey-Edward-Tulane/dp/0763680907/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543439013&sr=1-1&keywords=edward+tulane+by+kate+dicamillo

Tales from the Odyssey Part 1 by Mary Pope Osborne. There is a Part 2 also.

https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Odyssey-Part-Mary-Osborne/dp/1423128648/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=DPA2QKTMDQJSC4F6J10M

The Hardy Boys series

Another: David Walliams is a very popular author with kids in Britain. My grandson enjoyed the World's Worst Children That I gave him last Christmas. it was difficult to choose just one. https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=david+walliams&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=241937958904&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13712744918529583221&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007796&hvtargid=kwd-266800023&ref=pd_sl_eyjm0dvy1_e

Has he read any of Blue Balliett's books: Calder's Game, The Wright Three, and Chasing Vermeer are the ones my DS read and enjoyed at that age, also advanced reader. And you can give "accessories" as side gifts like pentominos (he read one of them in his Grade 3 accelerated LA/Math class, and they went to visit FLW Robie House where they also received a set of pentominos).

There's another series, I have to see if I can find it, about a school for advanced children, Dr or Professor somebody. Also a book called Westing Game.

Oly,

Apparently, I offended someone with my last comment where I mentioned it would bother me if one of my sons did not care for books with female protagonists. I feel terribly that my words were so upsetting to someone that he or she felt the need to flag them and have them erased. Perhaps I should have expressed my thinking more clearly, so as not to leave doubt as to what I meant. I hope you don't mind my clarifying what I said.

I do not think it is a good idea to promote gender specific toys or books to children. Boys can enjoy tea parties and girls can enjoy playing with creepy crawlies. If I had a son who rejected a book based on the gender of the protagonist, I would work to understand why he felt that way and find a way to broaden his reading palate. I am hard pressed to see how this is offensive, but I still apologize for disturbing anyone. And I am very sorry for making trouble on your thread Oly.

bpath, Are you thinking of The Mysterious Benedict Society?

Rita, I guess I missed the "trouble" but I feel the same way about gender specific preferences in literature (for children particularly). I mean all of us adults read books about men and women and probably don't discriminate if it is a good book (although I do try to support women writers). He's in an alternative school and there are more girls than boys, so he's got lots of female playmates and I don't think he'd think twice about a girl vs boy protagonist.

Thank you all for some great ideas!! I've ordered a few from the library already for him to try out. BP, his class goes to the public library each week to check out books, so I am unsure of what all he's read. I do have some of the classics on the shelves for him, but I don't think he's quite ready for them. Although he could read and understand them, not sure his head is there right now.

Thanks again and please post more if you think of them!

The Book of Virtues is chalk FULL of classic literature stories that are referenced in other books, movies...The Animal Ark series is excellent, Box Car Kids is another series that my kids enjoyed.

The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. Might be a little bit older for him but keep in in mind for next year! My son LOVED these books and I enjoyed them also.

My son enjoyed a series called Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians. There is also the Geronimo Stilton series, that maybe too young.

I loved mysteries as a kid and I remember reading a series called Encyclopedia Brown, where the solution was on a final page so you could see if you could figure it out from the same clues the Encyclopedia Briwn gathered.

Another series I remember devouring was Danny Dunn.

Just a warning about the Harry Potter books - they get scarier as the series progresses. My DD was fine with the first one, but had to quit not long into the 3rd one and even by then it was too late and she had bad nightmares for awhile. Even tho she was a voracious reader, she never did go back to Harry Potter.

ETA: I think it was at grade four or five that she discovered Gordon Korman. IIRC, his books are fairly gender neutral.

Rita I didn't mean that either and I heartily agree. But kids have their tastes and their ideas and some are more rigid in their thinking despite parental encouragement and opinions. I work with young kids and I hear all the time from parents who are trying to encourage their kids to be open minded in all sorts of ways and yet they develop their own ideas. Not just on books. I'm glad to know your grandson is diverse in his taste Oly. Finding those special books that kids will love is a fun endeavor but sometimes all you can do is expose them to a wide variety of options. That's the most important thing, keep the books flowing. But I'm a daughter of a librarian and such a book fanatic that I might need to move to a bigger house just to have room for my books. I still collect and read kids books too, among others. My taste is for outdoorsy fiction which is why I love Gary Paulsen's books but I didn't know if maybe they were just a bit too much for that age. Most kids read them in about 5th grade but different readers develop at different rates. I also love Jean Craighead George's books like Julie of the Wolves and My Side of the Mountain but that's my taste not necessarily your grandson. Most kids start with those around 4-5th grade. I read Julie of the Wolves to my urban 4th graders but they liked The Watsons Go To Birmingham and Number the Stars better. Ya just never know.

Theo Boone, Kid Lawyer series by John Grisham was one my son liked. I remember liking Encycolopedia Brown!

Rita, yes, Mysterious Benedict Society. Thank you.

And I'm glad you mentioned The Phantom Tollbooth, one of my favorite books ever.

The Newbery Award winners (and honor books) lists are a good resource for excellent children's books. Gone-away Lake, Bud Not Buddy, Ella Enchanted, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Incident at Hawk's Hill, Charlotte's Web, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, My Side of the Mountain, Island of the Blue Dolphins, A Wrinkle In Time, The Westing Game, The Sign of the Beaver, and The Graveyard Book are just some of the ones I've read and remember fondly.

Wow, you all are a great resource for this! I will keep this list because I think he will grow into some of them in the future, and enjoy some of them now. I looked up the 1st Warriors book, read the opening paragraph and thought, "Oh no, he's not going to like a story about a cat killing and eating a mouse." Then I kept reading and when I saw it was all a dream and how wonderfully descriptive the actions of the cat were upon awakening, I think it will be something he loves. He's pretty sensitive, so I think I'll read the first page or two and make sure, but I think he'll love it.

Yes, Harry Potter is going to be okay for the 1st book and even though he's never read it, it's amazing how much he knows, just from his classmates' references. But I can tell when it's getting a bit too much for him because he'll get up and deflect with something and we'll talk about it, then get back to reading. So I suspect it will be a few years before he goes beyond book 1. I want to get it read, because I'm worried his dad will show him the video and I want him to have his own imagination in charge of the images in his mind. But it may be too late because there are visual references to so much of it around, that it's probably a lost cause.

I think I'll try the Encyclopedia Brown series now, too. I got him a set of encyclopedias when he was younger so he even knows what they are! He found a little mini dictionary in a drawer here and I had to ask if he even knew what a dictionary is. He did, but I suspect that there's a generation coming that won't know either.

Thanks again, everyone. This is a wonderful list!

The Geronimo Stilton books were a big hit with my son, I think in 3rd grade maybe 4th. A fan of literature might cringe, but OTOH the books are very popular and they do actually impart a ton of information on a wide range of subjects, and have positive messages. Plus, if he likes them, there are a zillion of them, pretty much all paperback so they don't break the bank.

The other series that he and i both loved and read together was The Series of Unfortunate Events aka Lemony Snicket. They are avail. in lovely hardbound volumes so they make a nice gift, too. I suppose they could be creepy or scary in a way, but really they are humorous. Very clever and great vocab.

Beverly Cleary's books, eg the Mouse and the Motorcycle are also great.

One more: Al Capone Does my Shirts. Really good and you could never guess what it is about from the title.

The Andrew Clements books (Frindle, for example) were fun, but now I can't remember the grade level. 2? 3?

My kids are just barely past that age. The "Treasure Hunter" books by James Patterson (yes, THAT James Patterson) are goofy and entertaining and slightly educational. My kids also liked the "How to Train Your Dragon" series. It's much sillier than the films and not much like them. Lemony Snickett mentioned above is also a must, but can turn kids into language geeks. Anything Beverly Cleary. And of course, "The Hobbit".

It's also a good age for the Borrowers (Mary Norton) and Great Brain (John Fitzgerald) series. The Great Brain would even make my dad laugh when I was a kid, and he pretended very hard to hate all kids books. You need an adult handy to explain to modern kids what some of that old timey stuff is, though.

And then there's Percy Jackson and all the related books by Rick Riordan. Kids sure do like those.

More fabulous suggestions. Thank you all!

Oakley, my gs (3rd grade) tested middle school level reading, too, but the teacher cautioned us that while he can read the words and get some of the concepts, that often advanced readers reading higher level books don't actually "get" a lot of the ideas and information. She told us to strike a balance between his reading level and his interest level, as well as what he actually understands. Too much one way or another can lead to boredom with reading. I thought that was good advice.

Thanks, Oly. During the summer I asked his mom who's a teacher, what type of books he likes so I could get him one to read over the summer. She said during his down time, aka no school, he isn't really into reading. :)

"Hoot", "Flush", "Stomp" and "Scat" by Carl Hiaasen (who also writes very entertaining adult books), my daughter loved everything by him. Hoot was also made into a movie, which she also loved.

Our kids liked Astrid Lindgren, The Children of Noisy Village, https://www.amazon.com/Children-Noisy-Village-Astrid-Lindgren/dp/014032609X and Sea Crow Island, https://www.amazon.com/Seacrow-Island-Review-Childrens-Collection/dp/1590178688/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543699152&sr=1-12&keywords=Astrid+Lindgren

Also, DS was really into the non fiction books about the Ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks at that age.

And the Artemis Fowl series --- may be a bit too advanced.

lakeaffect, I think someone else recommended those to me, so they're definitely going on my list! I'll check out his adult books, too.

Great thread! I'm saving it.

I am a voracious reader and hoped that DD would get the gene. Despite enjoying bedtime storytelling and library excursions, she showed no interest in solo reading. By the time she was eight, I was in utter despair and decided to take an unorthodox approach. I purchased Stephen King's Carrie and casually dropped hints that it was "kinda scary." She perked up, finished it a day and asked for Pet Semetary. Today she cannot be anywhere without a book in hand!

Omigosh, nannygoat, I couldn't read those books NOW at age 70!!

Perfect example of the art and frustrations of parsing kids' taste in literature. Oddly, I remember being "forced" to read some books in third grade for a book report, and I really didn't want to. They were biographies and I couldn't imagine how Ralph Bunche and Galileo could have had interesting lives, (I know!). I learned the lesson of stretching myself when it came to reading, and picking "outside the box" books and giving them a chance. Also not judging a book by its cover, since Ralph Bunche in a grey suit didn't convey the amazing achievements of the man, and nothing says, "dead boring old guy" like a painting of Galileo. I became a fan of both men though, after reading the books.

I scratch my head when I think of some of my choices back then, I was all over the board. Still am I guess.

Kids are weird! a while back my then 8-year old was very interested in how cities form. (It was video game related. He's into authenticity.) So after some not-very-thorough googling, I bought him Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. The kid had moved on to a new game design by then but the older kid (11) read that book AND the sequel.

Children absolutely crave authenticity and knowledge. I was not much of a reader as a young girl as people kept giving me books that were about princesses and enchanted forests. Once I got my hands on meatier books, history and science to start with, I was all in, much to my parents' relief.

One of my sisters used a subscription to Sports Illustrated for Kids to encourage her son to read. It doesn’t always have to be a book that captures their interest and gets them reading. And although some of us prefer a paper book, since kids are brought up on tech they might take to an e-book easier.

It's important to let them read what appeals to them, even if it is literary junk. :)

Growing up my brother would not read until he met a kid who got him into comic books. Luckily my mom loves comic books (not all moms were back then!) and had no problems with it. He got into reading that way. Henry Huggins, Encyclopedia Brown, Frodo? Nope. It took Peter Parker.

Interesting you bring up the late Stan Lee because I read that he started a charity devoted to literacy. What a guy!