DS5 enjoys reading but I haven't seem him as excited over any book as he has been with Secret Agent Jack Stalwart Book 1: The Escape of the Deadly Dinosaur. Unfortunately I went on to look at the next couple of books in the series and they seem to be a bit more violent and I'm not sure how much of that I am comfortable with. Do you have any recommendations for exciting action/adventure books that might be appropriate for a 5yo? I'd say he reads on a 3rd to 5th grade level and DH or I would probably be reading with him.

Thanks! This whole matching reading level and age appropriate content is a real challenge as most of you know.

My DD5 likes Stilton books .

The Secret Science Alliance and the Copy Cat Crook by Eleanor Davis. An Amazon review targets it as grades 3-7 but my 4-year-old loves it (I love it too, judging by the number of times I've recommended it on here).

You were the one who posted that! I got it from the library based on your recommendation and DD8 adored it. Thank you!

My boys liked a series called "Cardboard Genius" at that age. I'm sure you know about the My Father's Dragon series, too, but thought I'd mention it just in case.

DS7 loved NERDS (National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society), it was nerdy, silly, and had good action. Stilton was popular, too.

Secret of Droon series? Dd refused to read beyond half of the first book because she likes girls only as protagonists :p

My DS5 is loving the Narnia books right now. There is some violence (occasionally someone dies, but it's always a really bad guy).

My oldest was obsessed with Secrets of Droon at that age -- had to read *every*last*one, in order. There are close to 40 in the series by now, I believe.

Probably a very English book to recommend on an American site but my DD looooved Famous Five - plenty of baddies, hidden gold, smugglers, wrecks and good clean fun

This is one of my son's all time favorite books ! (he's almost 10, but first read it a few years back)

My 5 year old son is a great reader, but he resists books with more than a few lines on each page. If i use a piece of paper to cover up the rest of the words, he will read it, but it seems like he gets tired or intimidated by longer sections of words with smaller letters.

I dont want to push him, and just want him to continue to be a happy reader, but i do want him to have the confidence to read any books he likes.

What do you guys think?

DS6 began reading silently this past year, he really enjoys reading anything to do with science, he also is into superheroes-
and
he LOVES diary of a wimpy kid!

am I absolutely horrible parent to let him read "diary" series?? books are written in a fun way and though a bit mature, DS seems to get it mostly, asks Qs as needed and mostly loves the "potty humor" ie farts and moldy cheese jokes. I know an English Lit might cringe but he's 6!! I want his reading to be fun!

for good measure though, I admit we are reading Snicketts "series of unfortunate events" together. he reads out loud or I do. mostly him. and we talk about what is happening, and it leads to many of his own imaginated adventures.
*is "imaginated" a word ? no. I don't believe so. but hahaaa it is now!

Definitely, I think imaginated is a more concreticized version of imagined which is kind a soft flufftastic word without the encapsification of the realish thought-work.

As to Diary... we ran across a later book, like book 6 and it was a little too "um, I just noticed girls" to hit DS7's list as that is fairly far out of his interest/context.

zen luvIt!

and yah, DS just finishing up diary #1, where yes it does allude to fact the kid has always liked girls etc, but he's not too into them. yet.
hmmmm i just bought him the rest of the series, maybe i will need to hold off on bk#6!!

Well, my 5-year-old is a Captain Underpants devotee, so I'm not going to condemn you for Diary of a Wimpy Kid! It is probably in our future...

I believe any book that excites a reader is a worthy book. Our DS loved Diary of a Wimpy Kid series as well as Big Nate, Geronimo Stilton, Captain Underpants, NERDS, Dragon Breath, etc. We mixed in some finer literature to create a balanced reading diet. There was nothing more rewarding than watching DS jump up and down when a new "fun" book arrived. Nothing except watching him jump up and down (inside) for the meatier books now that he's older.

I just read some of books mentioned here and needless to say DS was very excited when I said "Capt Underpants"!!

Looks like a library visit is in order!

My DS also loved Secrets of Droon at that age!

You might also check out Dragon Slayers Academy books. He loved those too, but they were a little harder to find at our library.

My DD(5) has loved The Indian in the Cupboard and its sequels (has some violence in it though) and the Narnia series. She has also enjoyed many of the Enid Blyton adventure stories.

Yes, our ds enjoyed The Indian in the Cupboard books, too.

My oldest was obsessed with Secrets of Droon about that age -- we got them all, in order of course, from the library. Tony Abbott was our schools "Author Day" author this past year and even at 11, DS was totally starstruck. It was sweet.

My DD just turned 6 a few months ago, and is absolutely in LOVE with the How to Train Your Dragon Series. She also loves Diary of A Wimpy Kid books, the Judy Blume books Super Fudge and Tails of a 4th Grade Nothing (she finished that one today). Also some of the classics such as White Fang are adventurous and she has really gotten into them.

+1 on the Stilton books. They are a huge hit with my kid. I also notice other kids in his school reading them

My older son is kind of like that. What we did was we got him a kindle! He can adjust the font. He makes the font big, so there are only 4-5 words per lines. He just turned 7. His latest favorite is junior novels (for movies). He read Despicable Me 2, Smurfs 2, Turbo, Planes, Monsters University, etc this past summer. (He has not seen those movies.) All on the kindle. He also read Jack Stalwart and some other e-books we check out from the library.

While my DS5 and DS7 love Captain Underpants, I banned it from the house. My biggest problems with Captain Underpants are misspellings, and too many toilet humors. It took some months after banning Captain Underpants to hear my kids speak clean languages again.

If you have not heard of Tom Gates, check it out. Both my boys love it. It is very entertaining to read and clean (no toilet jokes).

Dragon Breath! My DS6 looooved The Dragon Breath series! Good, clean fun. For good measure he also read Diary of a Wimpy Kid, 4 out of 5 Percy Jackson books and the 13 Story Treehouse. Oh, and anything Calvin and Hobbes he can get his hands on. I know it's been said before, but does anyone feel like they have a "Calvin?" My DS identifies with Calvin so closely that he designated one of his favorite stuffed animals to be his version of Hobbes.
Anyway, when I tried to impose my book preferences, he shut down and refused to read at all. So, I'm guiding, and trying to be breezy about the mediocre, slightly too mature kid books.
Right now, he's reading the BFG and we're both happy about it. Roald Dahl seems to hit the sweet spot for adventure and silly.

Both of my boys loved the Ordinary Boys series by William Boniface. (And my younger son is NOT a reader, so this is huge in our house. )

Totally agree about ordinary boy!!! Wish he would write more.

DeHe