Anyone have suggestions for a 10 year old who likes comic mischief? He's a huge fan of diary of a wimpy kid series but his reading level has moved beyond that. He's also really enjoyed the wild robot series, Matilda, and the skunk and fox books.
Thanks in advance!
Edit: thank you all for your great recommendations. I'm going to check them all out with him tonight!
He wrote a decent number of books aimed at kids. There are the Tiffany Aching books in Discworld for a start, as well as non discworld books like Only You Can Save Mankind or the Bromeliad books.
I wouldn't stop a 10yo from reading any of the discworld books if they're enjoying them, mind. There's lots to find funny anyway, and we all had to start building our "reference vocabulary" somewhere.
Former (Dutch) teacher here! Diary of a wimpy kid is easy reading for a lot of kids and I always found that the really engrossing books could help them move on to their actual reading level. For my students who liked comic mischief in class, I could always get them hooked to reading with The Saga of Darren Shan.
Don't let the 'horror' genre fool you: the story is dark and funny. Based on the books you named I think your kid might love it!
There is a large selection of Japanese light novels that are being translated into English. This is where a lot of the original source material for anime comes from. The anime is often created to sell the books, in fact.
There's a lot of stuff that won't be appropriate until they hit 13yo or so, but my nephew, a voracious reader, started reading LNs around 10.
Spice & Wolf is a personal favorite that might be a good fit. They will miss out on the romantic subplot but that's only a small part of the story
My boys of that age enjoy the Percy Jackson book series, Harry Potter, and Wings of Fire. We also read them LOTR which they loved, but they haven't reread it themselves yet.
Gary Paulson's book's are good for that age range. Most of his work is more serious in tone and survivalist (stuck in nature survivalist not doomsday bunker survivalist). Harris and Me is more biographical comedy.
O. Henry was my favorite author at that age, and still something that I revisit. It is written in an older dialect which can be a put off for some people.
That's a good age for mythology. Greek mythology is the easiest to find kid appropriate translations of but Norse mythology is full of daring rogue stories.
The Dangerous Book for Boys is a fun reference book.
Seconding the mythology recommendation! My nine year old loves d’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths and was stoked to find a new podcast called Greeking Out by National Geographic Kids. She’s been listening to it practically everyday, and we just picked up the companion book from the library this weekend.
I've tried to get him to start those but he hasn't been interested. When he was younger one of the movies terrified him and I think he's still scarred from that 😂
The Pilkey books are more of his favorites but he's read them all several times now and I think his reading level is ready for the next step. We'll check out the other ones you mentioned thanks a ton!
You betcha. Mine are in the reading level yours is leaving, but we've just started with my old Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys/Tom Swift/ Boxcar Children and so far they're interested.
Heck, how about The Animorphs? There's a /c/ on here for it somewhere.
Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians is exactly what you're looking for! It was written for grades 5-7 and it's chock full of comic mischief, super powers, great morals, and a gripping story. I read it as a young adult and loved the entire series.