Saturday, October 20, 2018

Great Books for All Kinds of Boys (updated 2018!)


Back in 2013 I made a booklist called "Great Books for Boys: Beyond Wimpy Kid" that was really popular with parents. I don't do a lot of booklists, partly because we are a small library and prefer one-on-one help when you come in (let's face it, it's hard to hide in the stacks here) and because there are soooo many available on the Internet.
However, I think this booklist resonated with parents of boys because "Wimpy Kid" was so popular and their sons were clamoring for more but not knowing where to look outside of non-fiction. In the 5 years since then, I personally think there have been many great books, both fiction and non-fiction, published for boys in all sorts of genres. And more importantly, I've found that many boys don't mind reading books with a girl as a main character, despite what we adults tend to think. I have also heard from many parents that their sons are spending too much time on the computer and gaming, and they really want to get them reading QUALITY books. Luckily, there are more books than ever for ALL KINDS of boys - AND - feel free to use this for girl readers as well!

So, without further ado, here is my list - more of an addendum to the 2013 list as it only features books published between 2013 and 2018. You can always find the original list here:

Great Books for Boys 2013

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 Early Chapter Books

JF Angleberger          Inspector Flytrap series / Angleberger, Tom
JF Dillard                   Extraordinary Warren: a super chicken / Dillard, Sarah
PJ Cummings             Notebook of Doom series / Cummings, Troy
PJ Here's Hank          Here's Hank series / Winkler, Henry & Lin Oliver
PJ Holub                   Heroes in Training series / Holub, Joan
JF Meisel                   Stinky Spike and the Royal Rescue / Meisel, Peter
JF Milway                 Pigsticks and Harold series / Milway, Alex
JF Pennypacker         Waylon! One Awesome Thing series / Pennypacker, Sara
JF Priebe                   Adventures of Henry Whiskers / Priebe, Gigi
JF Shurtliff                Rump: the (Fairly) True Tale of Rumplestiltskin (also, Grump, Jack & Red) /                                        Shurtliff, Liesl
JE-ER Snyder           Charlie & Mouse / Snyder, Laurel
PJ Tarshis                 I Survived series / Tarshis, Lauren
JF Urban                   Weekends With Max and His Dad / Urban, Linda




 Middle Grade Fiction (4th-6th)

YA Alexander            The Crossover series / Alexander, Kwame (crossover, gr. 6 & up)
JF Anderson              Ms. Bixby's Last Day / Anderson, John David
JF Brown                  The Wild Robot / Brown, Peter
JF Connor                  The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle / Connor, Leslie
JF Gidwitz                 The Inquisitor's Tale / Gidwitz, Adam
JF Gibbs                    Spy School series / Gibbs, Stuart
YA Gratz                   Refugee / Gratz, Alan (crossover, gr. 5 & up)
JF Griffiths                13-Story Treehouse series / Griffiths, Andy
YA Moore                 Stars Beneath Our Feet / Moore, David Barclay (crossover, gr. 5 & up)
JF Moore                  King of the Bench series / Moore, Steve
JF Patterson              Max Einstein: the genius experiment series / Patterson, James & Chris                                                    Grabenstein
JF Peck                     The Best Man / Peck, Richard
JF Russell                 The Misadventures of Max Crumbly series / Russell, Rachel Rene
JF Ryan                     Echo / Ryan, Pam Munoz




 Graphic Novels

J Graphic Annable     Peter & Ernesto: a tale of two sloths / Annable, Graham (Gr. 1-4)
JGraphic Blabey         The Bad Guys series / Blabey, Aaron (Gr. 2-5)
JGraphic Chmakova   Awkward (Berrybrook Middle School series) / Chmakova, Svetlana (Gr. 5-9)
JGraphic Hatke          Little Robot / Hatke, Ben (Gr. 1-4)
JGraphic Hayes          Patrick Eats His Peas & other stories / Hayes, Geoffrey (Pre - Gr. 2)
JGraphic Pilkey         Dogman series / Pilkey, Dav (Gr. 1-4)
JGraphic Science       Science Comics: Dinosaurs (et al.) / Reed, M.K. (Gr. 4-7)
JGraphic Sell             The Cardboard Kingdom / Sell, Chad (Gr. 4-7)
JGraphic Tobin          Plants vs. Zombies series / Tobin, Paul et al. (Gr. 3-5)
JGraphic Winick        Hilo: the boy who crashed to Earth series / Winick, Judd (Gr. 3-6)




 Non-Fiction

J031.02 National       5,000 Awesome Facts (About Everything!) 2 / Nat Geo
J385 Floca                 Locomotive / Floca, Brian
JE 550 Gladstone      When Planet Earth Was New / Gladstone, James
JE 571.3 Jenkins       Creature Features: 25 animals explain why they look the way they do / Jenkins,                                    Steve and Robin Page
J579.3 Mould            The Bacteria Book / Mould, Steve
J793 Isaac                 101 Things For Kids To Do On a Rainy Day / Isaac, David
J794 Stone                Pass Go and Collect $200: the real story of how Monopoly was invented /                                              Stone, Tanya Lee
J796.323 Coy           Hoop Genius: how a desperate teacher and a rowdy gym class invented                                                  basketball / Coy, John
J811.6 Alexander      Out of Wonder: poems celebrating poets / Alexander, Kwame et al.
J811.6 Harris            I'm Just No Good at Rhyming: and other nonsense for mischievous kids and                                         immature grownups / Harris, Chris
J973.46 Brown         Aaron and Alexander: the most famous duel in American history / Brown, Don
various                     Who Would Win? series / Pallotta, Jerry




And a few newer Picture Books that break traditional gender stereotypes:

JE Demont             I  Love My Purse / Demont, Belle
JE Haack                Prince & Knight / Haack, Daniel
JE Newman            Sparkle Boy / Newman, Leslea
JE Pearlman           Pink is For Boys / Pearlman, Robb



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