Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Need more book suggestions for DS6

We did Half Magic. Will try Wrede. I think he is too young for Verne or Wodehouse. Thanks!

I like a lot of the books already mentioned; they were hits with similar DD6.

How about...
The dragon in the sock drawer series
Sid Fleischman--the whipping boy, great horned spoon etc

The Penderwicks.

My ds liked (in addition to what has been said) My Father's Dragon, The Iron Giant, magic School bus chapter books, and choose your own adventure books. He read and re- read lots of graphic novels (to kids on the bus) esp. Secret Science Alliance, Tin Tin, etc.

This year (1st), his interest has gone from science (which he still likes) but currently obsessed with history.

Good luck. I'll be interested to hear what he moves on to.

How about some of the books by Andrew Clements like Frindle, Lunch Money, The Report Card, etc.

Maybe even some Madeleine L'Engle - Wrinkle in Time series.

Sisters Grimm series.

We liked some of the Boxcar Children books and they cover multiple reading levels.

Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown.

Susan Cooper, When the Dark Comes Rising series. Protagonist is 12ish, nothing inappropriate. Great stories with ties to British folklore, Arthurian legend, ect.

Maybe Secret series. Name of this Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch is the first one.

Grace Lin has got some fantastic books. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is set to become a classic and is an excellent fantasy adventure story.

There's the Horrible Histories, Horrible Science, Horrible Geography series too.

You might try if you haven't done so already - Wind in the Willows, Pooh books (they're lovely, innocent, well written, and classics!), Doctor Doolittle, The Little Prince, Alice in Wonderland, Carry On Mr. Bowditch - though an unabridged Wind in the Willows and Alice in Wonderland might be too advanced at the moment.

DS quite enjoyed all ~13 Oz books at that age. Books of Wonder has nice reproductions of the originals that have large type and light illustrations. Some of them are OOP but still easily available at most libraries.

In a similar vein, Michael Hague did nice illustrated versions of both volumes of Carl Sandburg's "Rootabaga Tales".

More on the adventure side... DS also enjoyed all of Ransome's "Swallows and Amazons" books. We did them as read alouds and he has read all of them himself once or twice and will probably read all of them again this summer.

Never heard of these! Great.

He did not like The Penderwicks--a bit of a surprise, as it was DD's fave series in 1st. But it was too sophisticated in terms of stuff about romance, etc. He has read all of My Father Dragon and all the Magic Schoolbus chapter books at our library.


Don't know these, so good!

I think Cooper is too hard and he wouldn't be into Hardy Boys or Drew. He LOVED Alice in Wonderland and we have read Pooh many times. As I recall, Wind in the Willows is really hard. I keep meaning to try him on Oz.

Name of the Book is Secret--not too clever/sophisticated?

I just shelved wizard of oz at the school and it was labeled with the sticker for a 7th grade reading level. Great for a read aloud unless he is reading that high. My 9 year old son just read it this summer.