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    Joined: Jun 2008
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    DD just finished the "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" (10). She loved it. A large section of the book is depicted/told via wonderful charcoal illustrations (maybe 1/3 to 1/2). One note, there is a "Oliver Twist" take on the main character (orphaned, homeless and resorts stealing). If you think your son won't be disturbed by the plot; I would put on your list to check out. It was a huge hit this summer for my family.

    http://www.amazon.com/Invention-Hugo-Cabret-Brian-Selznick/dp/0439813786

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    Geronimo Stilton - The text is visually interesting and the stories are entertaining.

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    Thanks everyone, these suggestions look great - I am especially excited about the stephen hawking book, I had no idea he was writing for kids, that is very cool. I described that one to ds and he sounded pretty into it.
    And myth-o-mania seems up his alley as well - I am making a nice list for the library!

    We have definitely checked out Captain Underpants - They are one of ds's favs! And he has been literally sleeping with various Calvin compilations for the last year or so. I think he could live on comic strips alone, but I really want him to read things with a beginning middle and end, but maybe that's silly at this stage.
    I will ask the teacher what she thinks is best or desired for the assignment, too.

    Val, I am not at all familiar with Uncle Scrooge, I will google that one for sure....
    thanks again everyone!!

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    More awesome ideas while I was posting and cooking dinner!
    Yay! He read a couple of the G. Stiltons, but for some reason he didn't fall in love - you are right, the fonts themselves are pretty varied and interesting so it seemed like it would be a winner for him! (??)

    Thanks to all for the websites as well, I am checking those out now -

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    I think at this age a lot is about reading being fun. I think it is OK to ask him to stretch a bit, but you don't want him to feel that reading is just a chore. I can't remember if he has visual issues. If he has a preference for bigger print and lots of pictures, it may be that it is hard for him to see/track the smaller print.

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    No visual issues that we know of, just odd tastes at this point, but perhaps there is something up with that. I have only had one complete eye exam for him (regular opt. exam) about a year ago.

    He did read and re-read both of the wimpy kid books, but they definitely have tons of pictures. I think everyone is right about breaking up the text into smaller bits.
    He also really liked a collection of poems called 'It's raining pigs and noodles', again, lots of pictures!

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    Originally Posted by chris1234
    Val, I am not at all familiar with Uncle Scrooge, I will google that one for sure....
    thanks again everyone!!

    Uncle Scrooge is an extremely wealthy, extremely miserly duck from Disney. He's Donald Duck's uncle.

    His extreme wealth often leads Donald and his three nephews (Huey, Dewey, and Louie) off on great world (or outer space) adventures. The adults usually get the group into trouble, sometimes/often because Scrooge makes a bad decision due to his miserliness. The three nephews are the clever ones in the family, and typically have to save the two grown-ups from their own boneheadedness. You can probably see why these comics appeal to kids.

    Side characters include Magica de Spell, a magic sorceress who's after Scrooge's cherished "first dime" and the Beagle Boys, a band of criminals who always dream up cunning plans to steal his fortune.

    I've always favored the stories by Carl Barks, who's now seen as a genius in his area. He was able to write on two levels: one that appealed to adults, and one that appealed to kids. His stories were full of caricatures. I will admit that I still read this stuff occasionally.

    Don Rosa was another brilliant Donald/Scrooge author.

    They're available in editions by a company called Gladstone. Gladstone was, I think, the first publisher to start identifying Carl Barks & Don Rosa/publishing their stories in dedicated volumes.

    Val

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    Google Scrooge McDuck.

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    DS8 just read a book that he could not put down. It is one of the first times that I have heard peels of laughter and cackles of evil joy coming from his room as he read. I can't say that I have read it yet, because as soon as my son finished it, my DH snatched to book up. So I am recommending a book sight unseen, which makes me a little bit nervous... but here goes:

    Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper by Michael Reisman

    http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0525479228/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?%5Fencoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

    It is for any young boy who loves science... particularly physics!! DS excitedly jabbered on and on about how one of the good characters would use gravity to bend space in order to get out of trouble or stop the evil character from doing something dastardly. Another time the hero (an 11-year-old boy) manipulated the space/time continuum to send the evil adult villain back in time so that she became a harmless little girl.

    I don't know what reading level it is? 5th through 7th maybe? It has almost 300 pages in it, and DS soared through it solo in about 3 days. I'll try to read it this week sometime and report back.


    Mom to DS12 and DD3
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    Also, DS went through a period of time where he was uninterested in books, around age 7.5 I believe. I had become nervous that there was a mismatch between his reading level and some of the content that he was being exposed to. So I was trying to bring home books from the library that I thought were *safe* for him to read. I realized, after a few weeks of this, that he was turning his nose up to books that held no interest to him, probably because they were safe. He started reading a series of books called, Star Wars Galaxy of Fear, which I do not recommend. They are very, very scary books. But that is what he wanted to read. So I opened the floodgates a little, and allowed him to read more emotionally challenging books, such as Harry Potter, well the first four books at least. All of a sudden, he could not put books down again. I can't remember all of the books that he read this summer, but he was particularly fond of the Guardian of Ga'Hoole books. He read the first 11 books of the series in 11 days (one day per book), and is waiting impatiently for book 12 from the library. I really thought that the Guardian books would have been too much for him. There are young owls who have been kidnapped from their families and vampire bats who feed off of the young owls, draining them emotionally, and somehow make them unable to fly away free and return home. But somehow he wants to process these strong emotions through the safety of a book. Is this a good thing? I don't know? The gifted psychologist that we saw over the summer seemed to think that it was great, and showed emotional maturity. She seemed to feel that books were how we learned to deal with strong emotions from a removed standpoint, a kind of a safety net, so to speak. It makes me very nervous, so I'm not advocating it in any way!

    I don't know if that helps or applies to your DS at all, but I thought that I would throw it out there.

    I did try to ask how scary the Gravity Keeper was, by the way, before recommending it. He said that it wasn't violent and I don't think anyone got hurt in it. One of the good characters in the book had an accident, according to my son, and it was a cliffhanger for part of the book to see if he was okay or not. Just to let you know.


    Mom to DS12 and DD3
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