# Recommend some children's books for my newphews **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 18, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-for-my-newphews/521801 "2009-12-18T22:20:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-for-my-newphews/521801/1 "2009-12-18T22:20:47Z")
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… ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-for-my-newphews/521801/2 "2009-12-18T22:30:43Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-for-my-newphews/521801/3 "2009-12-18T22:46:20Z")
I remember laughing my ass off reading George’s Marvelous Medicine by Dahl as a kid…and then again as an adult. I also happened to read [this Washington Post article](http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2009/12/a_holiday_guide_to_books_for_k.html?hpid=sec-education) yesterday, which seems right up your alley. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-for-my-newphews/521801/4 "2009-12-19T00:32:27Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-for-my-newphews/521801/5 "2009-12-19T01:10:41Z")
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_. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-for-my-newphews/521801/6 "2009-12-19T01:20:09Z")
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](http://www.pilkey.com/books.php)–especially the Captain Underpants and Ricky Ricotta series–and the works of Jeff Kinney, the [Diary of a Wimpy Kid](http://www.wimpykid.com/) series. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-for-my-newphews/521801/7 "2009-12-19T14:58:54Z")
The _Great Brain_ books, the _Homer Price_ books. Concur with Dav Pilkey. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-for-my-newphews/521801/8 "2009-12-19T15:07:09Z")
I don’t know how easy they are to get a hold of these days, but the Three Investigators series was mine and my brother’s favorite at that age. > **[Three Investigators](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Investigators)** > > The Three Investigators is an American juvenile detective book series first published as "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators". It was created by Robert Arthur Jr., who believed involving a famous person such as movie director Alfred Hitchcock would attract attention. Random House is the U.S. publisher and still has some of the rights to the books. Other rights are possessed by the heirs of Robert Arthur, Jr. and the German publisher Kosmos. The characters known as the "Three Investigato... ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-childrens-books-for-my-newphews/521801/9 "2009-12-19T15:07:48Z")
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!