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Some favorites of DD, who is pretty sensitive and loves cats and fairies:

Cobble Street Cousins, Cynthia Rylant; 550/600 Lexile, VERY gentle and sweet. Girly. Her Lighthouse Family books are also great and good for both genders.

Fairy Realm series, Emily Rodda (590 L)--much better than the dreaded Rainbow Magic books

The Night Fairy, Laura Amy Schlitz (630L)--this is that extremely rare thing, a truly quality book about fairies...DD read it in one sitting, completely mesmerized

The Unicorn�s Secret series, Kathleen Duey (420-510L)--nice historicalish detail, gentle, easy

The Cats of Cuckoo Square, Adele Geras (4.1-4.6 BL)--great for the cat-obsessed, seemed to be of nice quality, sequels available

The Fairy Rebel, Lynne Banks (5th grade level?)--Banks also wrote the Indian in the Cupboard, but this one may appeal more to girls

Rumer Godden has many really amazing, special books that can be hard to find. DD really loved The Story of Holly and Ivy, The Fairy Doll, and Candy Floss. The Mousewife is also good, with a rather strong feminist message. Be cautious, though, because many of her adult books are about children and sometimes they get put in the kids' section when they don't really belong there.

Here's some books (with their animals)DD10 has read in the past year+

Guardians of Gahoole (owls)
Redwall (mice)
Warriors (cats)
Artemis Fowl (boy)

He needs a new series and I'm hoping for suggestions. He is sensitive. He did not want to read the Seeker Series because it has a polar bear. He said he likes the smaller animals. I'm not sure why??? Any series suggestions would be appreciated.

I got DS6 a non-fiction book at the library the other day that I thought he would like. He LOVES it (you know the kind of book that they have to bring a flashlight with them so they can read in the car at night)

It's called "The kid who named Pluto: And the stories of other extraordinary young people in science." http://www.amazon.com/Kid-Who-Named...mp;s=books&qid=1297351900&sr=8-1

Stories include the following contributors:
Robert Goddard, who invented the science of rocketry.
Venetia Burney, the girl who named the planet Pluto.
Isaac Asimov, who wrote over 350 books.
Philo Farnsworth, a boy who invented television.
Mary Anning, a girl who was the first to find the fossilized remains of many dinosaurs.
Sarah Flannery, a girl who invented a new secret code.
Truman Henry Stafford, a boy who was a lightning calculator.
Emily Rosa, whose science experiment debunked a medical procedure.
Louis Braille, who invented the Braille system of writing for the blind.

Dear onthegomom,

I wonder if he would like one we just finished around here: Paul Glennon's "Bookweird" (Doubleday Canada 2008, 250 pp). The hero is Norman, an 11 year-old boy, who is obsessed with the Lochwarren book series (a quasi-medieval world of stoats and hares, battling wolves and foxes--somewhat reminiscent of what I think Redwall is like--I haven't read any of those yet).

He nibbles on a page of the latest Lochwarren book, and is transported into it, where all the animals believe him to be a seer, since he is so well-informed about their history! He later falls into his little sister's horse book series, his mum's hard-boiled police procedural, and his dad's Anglo-Saxon epic, before returning to Lochwarren. He interacts with the characters in all of the books, and worries that he is changing the course of the stories.

The premise was to me really very interesting, and the boys each liked the book very much, and are looking forward to the next one (Bookweirder, 2010, 246 pp); the third one is supposed to come out later this year (no word on a title yet, but I'm betting Bookweirdest, aren't you?) I didn't like some aspects of the story (stereotypical view of family life--tween with attitude, somewhat adversarial relationship with the parents at first, constant bickering with annoying younger sibling, etc.), but overall, it was quite a fun read for everyone. There are an irritating number of typos--hope the editing is better in the next ones.

peace
minnie

bump for above

Well, let's see, OTGM...

I haven't read any of them, but I know plenty of kids who like Kenneth Oppel's Silverwing series (bats).

Would he like some of the E. Nesbit books? They're about children, but some have "critters" (the Psammead, the Phoenix, various dragons).

Oldies but goodies are some of the Albert Payson Terhune dog books. (Lad: A Dog is the one most people seem to know).

Is he too old for the Narnia books?

The Bunnicula series is likely too young for him, as is probably the Freddy the Pig series. Still, there are lots of both of them--and sometimes it's fun to read younger stuff.

Several of the Oz books might suit. There are some talking animals in the Tolkien books, too.

Would adult books like Animal Farm or Watership Down or The White Bone be too intense for him?

Does he like horses? There are lots of horse series, not all of them girly--I remember liking Mary O'Hara's books (My Friend Flicka is the first one). The Walter Farley Black Stallion series is very good.

Lots of animals in Rudyard Kipling, of course, though those are not series books.

Farley Mowat is grand (The Dog who Wouldn't Be, Owls in the Family).

The Cressida Cowell series that kcab mentioned earlier on this thread is fun (Vikings and dragons).

We all liked Christie Harris's Mouse Woman series. You might look for other volumes of folk tales, too (Aesop, Anansi, etc.).

Sheila Burnford's "The Incredible Journey" is great, but not part of a series. Other great talking-animal but non-series books are Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and The Voyage of QV66. Oh, and there's Lloyd Alexander's Time Cat, which is good.

Of course, the Tintin books all have Snowy (the dog).

Hmmmmmmmmmmm..........

ETA: Someone I know recommends Avi's Poppy series (I don't know them myself).

Another thought I had, though not quite in the same vein as most of the rest of these, are the James Herriot books.

Oh, I know, JP Martin's Uncle books (elephant).

My DS loved the Olympus series, loves anything Stephen Hawking and pretty much hates everything else! He thought Harry Potter was stupid and Artemus Fowle more so.

Every time I think I've found something, it's a bust! It's very frustrating as he really likes to read, but he's just to damn picky. I finally quit trying so hard and started on the classics. Surprise, he likes them, he's reading the Call of the Wild right now. He loved Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.

Thank you. I'm going to go thru these and see what I can find.

BWBShari-I know what you mean by not trying so hard. I wish he would take more effort with this. I certainly have tried to promote that.

Books help him relax and not be bored so that helps me, so I keep trying. It's so nice when he has a huge series to read and he is more content.

He Loved these too- Stephen Hawking, Avi's Poppy series, Kenneth Oppel's Silverwing. He has had interest in dragons. He read the Cowell books, but I think there is a new one.

He doesn't like dogs, and has never read horse stories. He won't go near oZ, alice in wonderland, narnia, Harry Potter,- something scared him with these I think.

He is just starting to learn about war this year and is excited. I'm not sure if I would want more of this or not. He needs things that are not too scary.

I have not previously contributed to this thread, but I have read it with interest and ordered many of the books from our local library system over the past year or so.

I wanted to thank whomever recommended "The Familiars," by Adam Jay Epstein on this board. DD6 devoured it.

http://www.amazon.com/Familiars-Adam-Jay-Epstein/dp/0061961086

I remember it being mentioned as "...similar to Harry Potter, but not so scary."

It was a great read for dd6 who really loves the more sophisticated story line of Harry Potter, but can't get past her fears. And she's not just afraid of "He Who Shall Not Be Named." She's worried about Harry breaking rules, concerned that he will get kicked out of Hogwarts, etc. Basically, she does not easily handle reading about stressful situations or people in peril, physically or emotionally.

That being said, she is entering a new fascination with spies and spying and asked for me to get her some "spy books." I did put "Harriet the Spy" on hold and ordered an earlier mentioned math decoding book (she is a mathy kid).

Any other thoughts?

Thanks so much!

Hi, Irisheyes,

My kids liked these:

Mordecai Richler, Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case;

and

Janice Eaton Kilby, The Master Detective Handbook: Help Our Detectives Use Gadgets and Super Sleuthing Skills to Solve the Mystery and Catch the Crooks.

There are, of course, lots of kid detective (as opposed to spy) books: would she be interested in Nancy Drew or Trixie Belden or that sort of thing? Or in a more spy-ish vein, the MT Anderson ones are quite fun (Whales on Stilts, Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen, Agent Q, etc.). My boys also really liked John Fardell's Seven Professors books--kind of James Bond for kids.

A historical spy story my kids liked was "Popinjay Stairs" by Geoffrey Trease (set in the reign of Charles II; Samuel Pepys is one of the characters! Fun and very well-researched.)

Hope that helps a bit!