Got Boys? Stone Fox - any similar books?

[meliss8599]

One of my incredibly-hard-to-motivate students LOVED Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner and was so excited to read and practice various reading strategies with it. I am beyond thrilled b/c he's never showed this must interest in learning so I am trying to find similar books to pique his interest.

I have to find out what exactly in the book enthralled him--was it the adventure, the suspense, the Native American involvement, the similar age of the main character, etc. So far, Googling hasn't helped and Scholastic's "similar" book recommendations seem way off. It seems like Shiloh might be comparable.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[leebee]

I am not familiar with the book or author, and have no idea of the age/ability of the student you mention, but I work in special ed, with middle school kids. My current 6th grade ELA group is composed of boys and girls, most of whom have some sort of attention-deficit related learning disability, and are at least one level below grade level. ALL of them are enthralled with the "Spy X" series. They come in asking to read, and will do horrible things like write paragraphs or do grammar worksheets just to be able to get to the book! We read aloud (I have three groups with 2 or 3 kids in each), each doing a page or two. The kids just eat up these books. They will even write about the book, doing chapter summaries, predictions, etc. Today one of the kids told me she thinks we should go back to having vocabulary words for each chapter; I was floored! The best part is that they have recall and comprehension for these books; everyone got either a 90% or 100% on the AR test for the books. Even my almost-13 yr old who reads at a 2.6 grade level got a 90% on the test, and loves this series. (Interestingly, we tried it with the 5th grade group and it fell flat; we abandoned the first book after 4 chapters and went back to a "traditional" reading format).

 

[Boston Tea Party]

http://www.guysread.com/

Perhaps this might help.

 

[laughinplace199]

Shiloh, Sign of the Beaver, The Incredible Journey, or Because of Winn Dixie would be my suggestions. How old is the boy you are talking about?

 

[Magic Mom]

Hatchet by Gary Paulson

 

[Cindy B]

Stone Fox is pretty standard curriculum here from the 2nd to 4th grade (depending on school or class).

Hatchet may be too hard. Because of Winn Dixie could be too girly- depending on the child.

I work with a 4th grade student right now who loves Dan Gutman's books. He isn't really an "adventure writer" but more of a funny humorous writer.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

I was going to say Shiloh.

If his parents read to him, Where the Red Fern Grows might be a good summer read aloud.

ETA - I've never read this, but Tornado by Betsy Byars popped up as a similar book. It looks like it might be more the same level and had some good reviews.

 

[meliss8599]

Thanks for all the suggstions. The "Guys Read" website looks great! We just read Sign of the Beaver in one of my other guided reading groups and the kids were really into it so I may introduce him to that one as well. For those who asked, he's a fifth grade English Language Learner (ELL) reading at about a third grade level.

 

[IDoDis]

Thanks for all the suggstions. The "Guys Read" website looks great! We just read Sign of the Beaver in one of my other guided reading groups and the kids were really into it so I may introduce him to that one as well. For those who asked, he's a fifth grade English Language Learner (ELL) reading at about a third grade level.

Then Sign of the Beaver is going to be too hard for him. Make sure to have him reading at his level. It's a lot harder than reading Stone Fox.

I teach special ed and my reluctant readers love the Hank Zipzer series of books that are written by Henry Winkler (aka Fonzie from "Happy Days). Winkler has dyslexia and that comes out in his books. The books are hilarious and a lot about him when he was growing up. They are not adventure books though...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_11?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=hank+zipzer&sprefix=hank+zipzer%2Caps%2C160

 

[Cindy B]

The Hank Zipzer is a great idea. My students liked those as well.
A to Z mysteries is pretty good too. My students thought the Magic Tree House was too "BOOOORIIING!"

 

[Mkrop]

Our 3rd graders are currently obsessed with The Kingdom Keepers series, although I think they enjoy them more if they been to the parks.

39 Clues.

Percy Jackson

 

[TwingleMum]

My boys love Percey Jackson.

 

[padams]

Around the age that my DSs read Stone Fox, they liked the Indian in the Cupboard and Wayside School series.