7 year old boy book recs don't like popular books

[Anonymous]

My kid who likes silly/funny books and is less interested in fantasy LOVES the My Weird School books. The series follows the kids from 2nd to 4th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all. I will look into all of these.

It seems some may be harder on the lexile level than he is used to. The problem is, he is not a book lover, yet. He has never read a book on his own free will. So when something is even a little harder than he is used to and he sees a couple words he doesn't know, he just doesn't want to do it. Makes it very hard to find books. When I take him to the library he just picks out a bunch of pictures books OR huge chapter books meant for upper elementary kids. And then won't read any of them once he is home. I have just been forcing him to read dragon masters because it is on level and easy to find.

Does he not read the picture books? There are a lot of high quality / high lexile picture books if that's what he prefers. A lot of young kids have don't have the stamina yet to meet their "reading level" when reading chapter books. You can ask the librarian for funny picture books, like Dragons Love Tacos or This is Not My Hat. Graphic novels are also great.

For reference, my middle schoolers are huge readers, but they always picked the worst books at the library when they were younger. They would read a few pages and be done. I really had to pick the books for them from the library until 4th/5th grade. They never liked those easy reader books or the Magic Tree House / Junie B Jones type books - they just liked picture books (there are plenty at higher reading levels), graphic novels, the very occasional forced chapter book- again, it was not until 4th grade when they started reading a chapter book by choice, even though they were "good" readers. I would ask your librarian for recs rather than this board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let him browse a bookstore for at least an hour. Nothing beats finding a book that way

Browsing a library is better. And free.

Scholastic Branches has lots of early chapter book series. He might like Eerie Elementary, Notebook of Doom, or Press Start

Or you can browse / search by genre: https://shop.scholastic.com/parent-ecommerce/series-and-characters/branches.html?p=1&n=20

I know you said no non-fiction, but how about joke books? National Geographic has a series called Just Joking. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GW7PHN8?binding=paperback&searchxofy=true&sr=1-8

NP but thanks for these recs! The animal jokes one looks perfect for my DS.

Also thanks OP for starting this thread, I'm looking for the same kinds of ideas.

With my DS (not a big reader frankly) the Press Start and Choose Your Own Adventure series have been a hit. He also likes the Eva Owl graphic novels and Dory Fantasmagory. And enjoys mythology, lots of books with stories and pictures. And nonfiction on the topics he's interested in. It's mostly hit or miss.

He also still likes to read picture books, we get a lot because of younger DD. I think the fully text books (versus pix on almost every pg) feel less "satisfying" to him because they seem to progress slowly. Assume that will change with time as long as he develops some love of reading now.

[Anonymous]

Can you guys recommend some picture books that have good story and are appropriate reading level for 2nd grader? When we go to the library they just pick random stuff based on the cover and it is almost always a miss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you guys recommend some picture books that have good story and are appropriate reading level for 2nd grader? When we go to the library they just pick random stuff based on the cover and it is almost always a miss.

Our library in Fairfax County had a section for longer picture books that was great for older kids. There are many fairy tale picture books that are good for that age (and bonus often have amazing illustrations). Also The Quiltmaker's Gift and Blueberries for the Queen.

[Anonymous]

My DC really likes Big Nate, seems funny and silly