There is also the issue of font size - lots of kids your DS's age prefer books with lots of white space and larger size font and this isn't necessarily a vision issue. It's very common for this age to be resistant to books without pictures. Might want to try getting non fiction picture books from the subject sections, they can be dense and complicated but still have pictures so you might get a better understanding of comfort level. The magic school bus original picture books are a good example of this - although there are plenty of books with more content beyond, but many of us here found these good starter books, especially for boys because of the tons of content.
DeHe
