Book suggestions for 5th grade boy

[Debbie7452]

My reading hating son who also loved the wimpy kid books will spend an hour pouring over the Guiness Book of World Record books. Because the categories are broken up into small sections he forgets that he's spending a lot of time reading!

The Redwall books are great and there's a lot of them. One trick to get a child on board and interested in a series of books when they don't care to read is to start the first one as an audiobook (tape or CD) once they are "into" the story they will be more likely to want to read the rest of them.

Good Luck!

 

[mamacatnv]

Must be book fair season My DD 10 came home with the second and third in the Diary of a Wimpy kid series yesterday from the book fair. She finished one before bed. She also likes the Captain Underpants series and is on the 3rd Harry Potter Book

One of the boys in DD's class is reading the original Hardy Boys series.
Are Goosebumps still around? DS loved those back in the day.

 

[PollyannaMom]

What about "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing"?

Also, boys sometimes go for non-fiction books. You could try biographies for kids or the science behind / history of sort of things.

 

[2TxAgs]

My nonreader son enjoyed the Gary Paulson books as a 5th grader - Hatchet, Brian's Winter, Brian's Return. They're of the 'kid survives on his own in the wilderness' genre. I loved Swiss Family Robinson at that age. Also, My Side of the Mountain is another good one. We listened to that on tape on a trip one time, and watched the movie as well.


Good luck!

 

[barb383]

My 10 year old just finished The 39 Clues and is excitedly waiting for book 2 to come out this month. It's an easy read and you can play on the web site looking for clues. He loved Harry Potter and finished all them and is now into this

 

[suzct]

I am the mystery reader in my DD class this Friday. We need to bring 2 or 3 books to read to the class. I was thinking a Thanksgivig theme would be good , but also want something they'll really enjoy.
Any suggestions?
Thanks I appreciate the input.
SuzCT

 

[lurkernj]

I also have a 5th grade boy and he doesn't enjoy reading...most of the time. Lately he is reading, and enjoying, a rather inappropriate book called "the Day my Butt went Psycho" by Andy Griffiths. I mean "laugh out loud" enjoying. The book is about a butt that comes to life and is trying to take over the world. There are superheros in it called the buttkicker, buttkisser, and buttsmacker. There are many references to explosions(diarrhea) and other butt related disgustingness. He is a 10 year old boy and this amuses him. His teacher actually asked him to bring it in so she could check it out as it might get other boys reading. It's a rather thick book for a kid who doesn't like to read, but he's foraging ahead. There are two sequels "Zombie butts from Uranus", and "Butt Wars". I don't even need to tell him to read before bed, he looks forward to it .

He also enjoyed the Wimpy kid books and the Bone series.

 

[melafive]

In our house the rule is read at 8 lights out at 9. If they don't read lights out at 8. Both my boys read but my 8 year old usually just magazines and stuff like that. I just wanted to second the butt wars book though. That was a huge hit for my 10 year old. He also really liked the diary of a wimpy kid. Recently he just finished the series Animorphs and really enjoyed that as well.

 

[trustknoone]

My DD10 devours all books. One thing you might want to try that she really enjoys are the series of Uncle John's Bathroom readers. Sounds like a weird suggestion but they are like short story books of all sorts of things. I'm sure your son would find them interesting and they are educational. There is a kids series with lots of silliness and an adult (no not that kind of adult) series that is a more fact filled series. We take them everywhere with us and we all read them. If he hasn't read Harry Potter they are great, also Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson. She also likes Time for Kids: Almanac for quick reads. Terry Pratchett also has the Discworld series and a kid's discworld series that is really great, actually Terry Pratchett doesn't write anything we wouldn't read.

 

[shelly3girls]

He also loved The 39 Clues by the same author.

DD loves this book and she always picks books that boys tend to like.

 

[blondemom]

My 5th grade boy is not a great reader either. He loves the Wimpy Kid series. We also found books in the "Rotten School" series. There are quite a few of them. They are silly stories with sillier titles ("The Big Blueberry Barf Off" "The Great Smelling Bee" "Shake Rattle and Hurl") - you get the picture. My son LOVES this series. They make him laugh out loud. Good luck!

 

[mamacatnv]

The other series I forgot that my DD also loves is: Geronimo Stilton

 

[mismom]

My son is currently reading Alex Rider series. He loves them and reads them in a couple of day
He also love the diary of a wimpy kids as well!

 

[mjantz]

I'm also the mother of a difficult to get to read 5th grader. He's currently reading 'Silverfin: A Young James Bond Novel' for school but he does seem to be really liking it. Next up he's planning on reading a Dr Who book. They're geared towards young readers. Just don't get the Torchwood books which are connected but are really not for kids (the TV show isn't either!)

I also want to echo the idea of manga. DS likes the following:

-One Piece
-Naruto
-Bleach
-Hikaru No Go

We've had a lot of success checking these out of our local library but he wants to start buying them. If there's a comic book store nearby go there & pick the brains of the employees. They can steer you in the right direction & keep you away from stuff that's not appropriate. Keep in mind that, especially in Japan, comics are not just for children & you will find nudity & language in some manga. My experience has been that the more adult ones are wrapped in plastic but always check & ask.