Books To Get Your Son Reading (Grade Schoolers)

So you're looking for some books to inspire your middle grade schooler to read, but you don't much want to go down the ever popular 'fart jokes' style of book.
Well you're in luck. There are actually plenty of good books for boys, you just need to know where to look.
Below are some suggestions.

But first some tips on reading with your kids.

Reading out loud is important to your children's reading development, but don't make it into a chore.
Consider choosing a half hour period each day when you read together, but you do most of the reading.

Choose books that you can both enjoy, but make sure they are not beyond your child's abilities.

Take turns reading, but perhaps your child can read a page or two while you read a chapter.
Make this a special together time that your child will look forward to.
When it's his turn to read, remember the three P's - pause, prompt, praise.
Pause, when he doesn't immediately know a word - don't just jump in with either the answer or a prompt.

Having paused, if he doesn't come out with the word on his own, Prompt - suggest sounding out if appropriate, or say "look at the picture - it starts with 'tr-', what do you think it could be?" and Praise any attempt.

The Books *Tashi series by Anna Feinberg. These are like an early chapter book, with two stories per book.

Suitable for about 6+ when you are doing the reading.

Personally I enjoy them as much as my son. *Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osbourne - these are quite overtly educational books, but the element of magic gives them that extra appeal for children. These will also appeal to children as young as six.

*Geronimo Stilton Books - this is another popular series about newspaper mouse Geronimo Stilton and his adventures.

There is also now a spinoff series about his sister Thea Stilton. Aimed at 8-12 year olds.
* How to Train Your Dragon, by Cressida Cowell and its follow on books.

These are probably a little harder and certainly longer than the previously mentioned books, but they are enormously entertaining, and have the advantage of being known for the movie of the same name - though the movie plot is so substantially different to the books as to be almost unrecognizable. One of the great things about all these books is that they belong to series'.
This means that once your kid is involved with the characters and doesn't want to let them go - he doesn't have to.

If once your kids fall in love with any one of these series', there are plenty more books - in some cases dozens, to keep them reading.