My son will be turning 8 in the summer.
In no specific order – My son likes Aliens, ghosts, planets, space travel, spacecraft, cool stuff on earth like volcanoes and deep sea, submarines, interesting mysteries, and puzzles, math.
Prefer shorter novels or novels with short chapters, or short stories. Some illustrations would be a bonus. He loves suspense revelation or some kind of mystery in his stories.
Till now he liked reading some scholastic stuff ( I don’t remember names), the Goosebump series, Some Harry Potter ( he didn’t like Harry Potter) , Michale Crichton books he has read with some assistance, Project Hail Mary Audiobook, he has read several national geographic books.
I would love to introduce him to great ideas, good prose ( style and vocabulary), and something to make him think.
by teahousenerd
13 Comments
Has he read the [The 39 Clues](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/ba35ad13-39fc-4549-b966-7ff24eacc87d) series? It might be right up just alley!
Also, [Orion Lost](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/69c1e806-478a-44cf-8769-8e413d93ea95) is a fun sci-fi he might enjoy with a cool surprise twist.
The Phantom tollbooth,
Allan Dean Foster pip and flinx stories starting with for love of mother not,
The Magic Treehouse series
The Hardy Boys series
first, I highly recommend getting him to a children’s librarian! There’s so many wonderful, well-written and stimulating books for that age.
The Tripod books I think are good for that age. There are some great puzzle books–Westing Game, of course. Also the Mr. Limoncello’s Library books. The Wright 3 and Chasing Vermeer. These might be long for him right now, but Laura Ruby’s York books. Same with Ben Gunterson’s books. Warren the 13th is a good series. Book Scavengers.
Space: Jenni Holm’s Lion of Mars. Jasmine Warga’s A Rover’s Story. Great graphic novels like Zita the Space Girl, Cleopatra in Space, Astronaut Academy, and Sanity and Tallulah.
He might really get into adventure stories. City Spies, The Emperor’s Riddle, some of Katherine Rundell’s books. And there’s always Hatchet.
Have fun!
“Enders Game” is a great book. Its a space, kid military, alien book. I enjoyed it very much.
My Side of the Mountain – Jean Craighead George
Hatchet – Gary Paulsen
Far North – Will Hobbs
20000 Leagues Under the Sea – Jules Vern (i had an abridged copy at that age that i loved)
He might like the Danny Dunn series.
The Wings of Fire series by Tui T Sutherland. The first 6 or 7 they have graphic novel versions as well.
Not in his likes but great for kids – the Roald Dahl books. They don’t really fulfill a genre and very readable for an eight year old.
I think these might be a gift for next year or the year after, but the Animorph books are amazing! they are about a group of kids who get shape-shifting powers from an alien and can transform into any animal they’ve touched. they get these powers to fight in a secret war against parasitic body-snatcher aliens who are infiltrating Earth.
besides lots of cool animal facts and aliens, the series provokes a lot of thought about morality and the difficult decisions you have to make while fighting for survival. it tackles some heavy subjects (in a way appropriate for 5th graders), but I’m sure you’re best equipped to know if your son can handle them.
If he likes Goosebumps, two good series to check out are American Chillers and Michigan Chillers. They are similar spooky stories and children’s “horror” books. The American Chillers series is one book in every state. The Michigan Chillers books take place in different cities in Michigan.
He might like the **Animorph’s** series
The **I Survived** series
Sounds like he might enjoy the Jack Stalwart books. Super fun at that age, a boy about that age becomes a spy, has tons of cool gadgets, and travels instantly to places all over the world.