He's bilingual and at a German-speaking school, though English is his mother tongue, which may explain why it's taken him longer to learn to read. He's only just started really feeling comfortable with reading this year, and reads a few pages every night but only because I tell him to!
He recently finished the first Tom Gates book, and is now reading David Almond 'My Dad's a Birdman' - both in German. (Am not going to get him reading English books until he's really confident in German, though he does read and write in English too.)
He's coming up to the fourth year of school and I really want to have him keep reading over the summer holidays so he starts the autumn term feeling confident and not struggling. I've just spent the last two hours looking up books and am having real trouble finding things for him - he's interested in spies and war, but the Alex Rider books etc., all seem way too grown up for him. He's quite sensitive and can be anxious, so I don't really want stories where one or both parents have died, which seems to rule out about 80% of children's books!
I've just ordered Roald Dahl's Matilda - I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to him a few years ago, as well as George's Marvellous Medicine. The Twits was one of the first books he read alone and voluntarily picked up and kept reading. We also have the BFG already, might be worth another try.
But what I'd really like is something exciting, that he can't put down - some sort of adventure. I was a very early reader and had read all the Enid Blyton Adventure series by the time I was 7 - I started with the Valley of Adventure when I was about 6 and thought it was amazing. But I'm sort of reluctant to go down the Enid Blyton route; from my adult perspective, the prose seems rather flat, and of course there are a lot of old-fashioned ideas. Am not fiercely against it though, if you think those are the best in that genre? Or are there contemporary equivalents? (I can't find any!) Am after innocent fun and rollocking adventures.
I liked the look of Spy School, but it hasn't been translated into German yet (another hurdle). I really need to order something asap so it arrives before we leave for the summer on Friday.
Sorry this is so long but would be really grateful for your suggestions. Thank you!
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Need book recommendations for my 9yo reluctant reader ds
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Springing · 21/06/2014 16:40
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