h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Robin Jarvis anything of his. Phillip Pullman - Northern Lights.

My 9 Year Old Son ( Dayne ) , has had the reading age of an adult and vocabulary of an adult since the age of 6 , He used to read a lot , and still reads comics , He reads motoring magazines and football mags , He has a big big problem with concentration , Though he did get great results on his SATS being 3 years ahead on all sections,

My problem is finding things for him to read, He still prefers books with lots of pictures , and they aid his concentration , He has read Sue Townsend , Terry Pratchett , C.S.Lewis , Roal Dahl and others , I'm getting him the Swallows and Amazons Series , Any suggestions / experiences welcomed ?

Robin Jarvis. anything he has written - and there is a lot out there, for instance the Depford Mice series. Phillip Pullman, Northern Lights. Fantastic book.
JK Rowling's Harry Potter books. Children adore Harry Potter. Skellig can't remember the author but a memorable book. Hardy Boys lighthearted adventure series.

Thanks I will check out your suggestions, the problem being despite be able to read plain text and even understand it , he stiil prefers something with lots of pictures and colour, His creative writing ability is extraodinary , I just wish Wendie and I had his genius,

Diana Wynne Jones is the best writer for children I've ever read. I would most strongly recommend "The Homeward Bounders" but all of her books are excellent. Some are more suitable for older children, like "Fire and Hemlock"* or "Hexwood" but all are worth reading. The only trouble is they're difficult to find in bookshops, and not all of her books are currently in print. Amazon have a good selection, though.

Readers of fantasy novels will also enjoy her 'Tough Guide to Fantasyland' - a guidebook to all the cliches of fantasy novels. After reading it, you'll never be able to read David Eddings again.

* I like this one because the hero is called 'Mr Lynn'

My son really liked her Book 'Power of three'. I haven't seen the others. The ones that you say are for older children, how much older? Older because of the difficulty of the language/plot or adult /teen in their subject matter. My son is age 11 and I find it quite hard to find new books that are interesting to him, but not for teenagers. Many of them start talking about relationships and sex and so on and he just isn't interested in all that yet. Still Wizards not women! Goblins not girls!

The very Hungry Caterpillar was my little sister's favourite - I had to read it over and over and over and over......you get the picture!

Eleven is probably an OK age. The themes and complexity of the story are what makes them more grown up. There's definitely no sex in them, but some violence (Hexwood has some quite violent scenes).

I'd strongly recommend you read them yourself. Not just to vet them but because you'll really enjoy them. For an eleven year old boy, I'd recommend 'A Tale of Time City', 'Archer's Goon', 'Homeward Bounders', 'Charmed Life' and 'Witch Week'. 'Fire and Hemlock' and 'Hexwood' are more suitable for slightly older children, but it probably depends on what he's used to reading.

Quite frankly, there's lots in 'Fire and Hemlock' that went over my head, so I don't think age has an awful lot to do with it.

I think I might have to write a user page on DWJ. There's not enough room here to do her justice.

When I was ten I enjoyed a book called I am David by Anne Holm. Nicholas Firsk is a good childrens sci-fi writer, Grinny and Trillions are two of his books that spring to mind. My nine year old niece Simone quite likes the Goosebumps books.

Also you could try The Thief of Always by Clive Barker (it is a childrens story so not too gruesome).

Ursula Le Guinn's Wizard of Earthsea books may be worth trying too. I think I was twelve when I read them so 11 is probably ok. They can be a little heavy going I guess. As I said in my above comment, Nicholas Firsk may also be worth a try. One of my favourite quotes came from his book Trillions (about lots of aliens invading earth)
"Mina thought of men as spiders think of flies."

Another book you may try is The Machine Gunners (can't remember the author). The BBC made this into a tv series when I was a teenager. It's about a group of children in the second world war who find a German aircraft that has been shot down and try to protect the pilot.

Have ordered Tough guide to fantasyland because it was in stock and ordered Homeward bounders and Grinny. So thank you Jim and Smurf. Will come back again when he has read those! I will read them too, I read Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman recently and really enjoyed it.

I've just bought my son some of the Mini Treasures collection. There is a wide range and they make good bedtime stories for younger children.

Another good range are the DK first words selection. Lots of nice bright pictures and clear writing. Also the pages are easy to turn for a child who's just learning.

You will have to sort out a page in the guide for him. Let him put his creative writing here!

So The new harry potter is out! Review coming shortly!!

Hi to everyone here who I haven't spoken to lately. Hi Smurf. How are things?

Things are going great here. Our Callum was given the complete set of Thomas the Tank Engine for his birthday in June and over the bank holiday weekend we took him to see the "real" Thomas at our local steam railway. He loved seeing the choo choos and it was fun riding on a steam train. The older children there obviously enjoyed seeing the characters "in the flesh" as it were.

We used Thomas The Tank Engine videos to kick my son's Teletubbies habbit.

He now reads the books - he has just turned three and has memorised the stories from the videos - it is spooky to watch him turn the pages and 'read' them almost word for word (and doing the sound effects).

Anyone know of a good ABC book?

CF

I can help you there. We were given three different ABC books. My personal fave is by The National Trust. As well as the letters there are lovely pictures of lots of National Trust properties with little bits of detail about them (set aside from the main part of the book). Also, on each picture there are lots of objects that begin with the letter and it's fun trying to find them all. You can also hunt the acorn. The book I guess would be good for 3 years and up.

For a good ABC book for younger children, say 1 year up, I'd go for the one published by DK (Dorington Kingsley I think that stands for). The pictures are big, bright and very eyecatching. The DK books would be our Callum's favourites (he's almost 15 months), as well as his Spot books.

I believe you can also get alphabet flash cards that are published by Ladybird. Some people recommend the LetterLand series of alphabet books but I'm not too keen on those.

Sounds like a good day out! Have you got the brio toys of thomas? They are fun. and early learning do the hats I think too dont they?

I quite liked letterland. I think that it is quite a good way to remember the letters and it is find finding all the hidden w's for instance in the pictures... It is good that the words quite carefully make the correct sound for the letter, ie Wicked water witch. Watch out because not all of the alphabet books do. There are also quite a lot of tie in books, flash cards, wall friezes. etc.