They’re ages 8 & 10 (though the older one has some developmental disabilities) and the only real info I can get on their reading habits is that they like Roald Dahl.
Given their ages and general reading level, what other good books might they like? WARNING: My sister is very churchy, so has a natural knee-jerk impulse against anything that might be seen as “controversial”, “immoral”, “anti-God”, etc. It’s tread lightly territory here (I woudn’t risk Harry Potter, for example), so that’s the one stipulation…
I think if they’re allowed to read Roald Dahl, HP should be fine. Between Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and The Witches, you’ve pretty much gotten more “immoral” than anything HP serves up.
My kids were into the Magic Treehouse books when they were 7-8. Neat series - probably too easy for the 10 year old though. A brother & sister travel through time and complete quests. Sometimes it more fantasy destinations than historical.
Oh dear- I was going to suggest either Odd and the Frost Giants or The Graveyard Book- both by Neil Gaiman, but as one involves Norse gods and the other involves ghosts I think your sister would nix them (although the protagonists are very moral).
Nation by Terry Pratchett is also very good…but again, probably not up your sister’s alley (tribal gods).
Looking at that list it is quite scary how quickly it goes from “Where the Wild Things Are” to “A Boy Called It”… kids grow up so fast.
What about something like “the Dangerous Book for Boys”- a sort of old fashioned compendium to everything fom tying knots to making a kite to mnemonics for remembering the planets…it might be a bit British though.
Hardy Boys, Heinlein juveniles, A Wrinkle in Time (I forget the author), Tom Sawyer, maybe a collection of folk stories if you can find it…Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, John Henry, Johnny Appleseed
maybe some other short stories, like O. Henry’s classic The Ransom of Red Chief.
IMO the closest thing written in modern times to Roald Dahl’s classics are Lemony Snickets’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. If they haven’t read those yet, they desperately need to.
If the 10yo has developmental disabilities, Magic Treehouse might be great for both of them as well, as muldoonthief suggested. Some kids love Encyclopedia Brown around that age also (I just read one to my second-graders, and on our next library visit the better readers raided the shelves checking out all the other Encyclopedia Brown books).
There are some pretty decent chapter books with pictures in them. Consider the works of Dav Pilkey–especially the Captain Underpants and Ricky Ricotta series–and the works of Jeff Kinney, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.
My 9YO is thoroughly enjoying the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney; I also understand that, though she has only read one of them, the Captain Underpants books are very popular among her peers (she is in 4th grade). As far as more “classic” stuff goes, she enjoys the Ramona Quimby books as well, though those may be more geared towards girls.
I’ll second O. Henry’s The Ransom of Red Chief. I can remember it making me LOL as a kid!
My middle daughter was probably 9 or so when she read the first Harry Potter book; yes, they became progressively darker as the series progressed (and your sister may object to them on a religious basis), but the first couple ones were pretty “light”.
There’s also a Clive Barker book (yes, that Clive Barker) called The Thief of Always that has been popular with every kid in that age group that I’ve read it with.
To me, just about anything that’ll get a kid reading is good!