We have been reading a lot this year and I wanted to do a book gift guide for independent readers. I decided to go to my best source, my son. This list may be about books my son can’t put down but they aren’t only the best books for boys they can be for boys or girls. Go ask your child what book they think is the BEST book and come back and leave the title in comments! Let’s keep this list growing.
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Scholastic Year in Sports 2014by James Buckley Jr. is a wonderful series by Scholastic that brings together sports news and stats for a fun non fiction book for sports fans. My son adores this book and absorbs all the facts like a sponge. He loves to wow his dad with the stuff he reads in it and I like how that motivates him even more to read.
LEGO Minifigure Year by Year: A Visual Historyby Gregory Farshtey and Daniel Lipkowitz is a fascinating book filled with Lego history. I love reading this with my son and showing him the Lego I remember from childhood and how far it’s come since the late 70s. Like many of the books in this list it is non-fiction and can be flipped through casually or cover to cover.
NERF: Ultimate Blaster Bookby Nathanial Marunas is missing right now and this is a big deal. My son adores this book and can often be found flipping through it very seriously as he decides which NERF blaster to ask Santa for this year. The book covers NERF history and all the different blasters. I think it’s interesting to read about product development but this isn’t your average bedtime book. I can guarantee you it’s been read like one at our house though and once we find it it will be read over and over again.
5,000 Awesome Factsby National Geographic Kids was a great bookstore find. This book has provided many hours of solo reading for my son. He’s a great reader but prefers to read stories with someone and read facts solo. This book is almost always on the floor next to his bed. It’s filled with fun facts about pretty much everything. The lists are themed and the full color pages are attention getting. Great book for fact junkies.
Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot (Book 1)by Dave Pilkey These early chapter books are about a little mouse Ricky who is not the most popular mouse. He gets picked on at school until he ends up saving Robot’s life and the two of them become best friends! You’d think that with a giant robot as a best buddy a little mouse might let it go to his head. Ricky is a good mouse through and through and as the series continues he and Robot continue to save Squeakyville from all sorts of evil. The books are full color and have a super cool comics throughout and an even cooler flip book in the middle. You can read more about these books on this post .
The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)by Rick Riordan was a huge hit at our house and the only reason we aren’t reading the next book in the series right now is because we picked up Harry Potter. This book is exciting, scary at times, and totally engaging for kids. The author knows how to suck kids in and make them beg for ONE more chapter. What I loved about it was the link to Greek Mythology. It gave me lots of topics to get deeper into with my son as we read the book about Percy Jackson and his other demi-god friends. Great adventure book for kids.
The Complete Harry Potter Collectionby J.K Rowling is a staple at our house. We started reading the series when my son was 5 and spaced out the books reading one every year or so until this year when we read Goblet of Fire and Order of The Pheonix ( still reading this one) one right after the other. I love sharing this series with my son because he can see how much I love these books as well. It’s an effortless way of promoting reading. The world of Harry Potter is so detailed and as children read further into the series they must make connections not only from one page to the next but one book to the next. It’s been a great opportunity to work on comprehension.
Pokemon: Essential Handbookby Chris Silvestri There are a lot of Pokemon books on the market but this one gets the biggest possible thumbs up from my seven year old son. We had to replace his first copy because he read it so much it fell apart. This book is an encyclopedia of all the Pokemon characters. Each description includes a little blurb about the Pokemon and some stats. We have had a blast reading this book together. He memorizes everything about the Pokemon, looks to see which ones are about his height, about his weight and of course asks me to quiz him on all of the above. I can not tell you how much he loves this book. It goes everywhere with him and when he says ” Where is my book?” we know which book he is speaking of. If your child is into Pokemon they will love it.
Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Midnight Visitorby Donald J. Sobol is not a new series. While I never read them as a kid my husband did and was delighted to share them with my son. I was also delighted when he loved these detective books as much as my husband remembers loving them way back when.
Sports Illustrated Kids Big Book of Why Sports Editionby The Editors of Sports Illustrated Kids is another sports fan’s dream. This book has sports history and fun facts that will not only satiate curiosity but will let kids see how much more there is to sports than just the game they see. I love all the obscure facts and honestly I have learned more from this book than all the time spent watching sports with my boys ( I am usually reading in all fairness) and love that it can be read at random, no need to go cover to cover.
What books do your independent readers love? Share the title or link in comments and we will make this list even better!