Zac Power books for boys

[niccig]

We've been reading Zac Power books to DS for a couple of years - they're about a 12 yo boy who is a spy and has cool spy gadgets and goes on secret missions. My mum in Australia got us into them (they're published there.) We read the more difficult chapter books to DS, but he just read a book from their Spy Camp series. This series and the Test Drive series are designed for younger readers with larger print and shorter sentences. DS is finding it much much more fun to read than the early reader books we have or he has at school. I have to supply the words he doesn't know, but he can read much of it on his own. He just set his alarm clock for 30 mins earlier so he can read before school!

I think most of the spy camp and test drive series are only available on Amazon in kindle format. Some other bookstores may have them in print.

Spy Camp Series
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=zac+power+spy+camp

Test Drive Series
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=zac+power+test+drive&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Azac+power+test+drive

The Classic Series is available in paperback.

Just thought I would share if anyone else has a boy that doesn't like the early readers books.

[blisstwins]

Thanks for the boy recommendation. It is not easy finding things that appeal.

[KrisM]

DS read the regular ones (Prison Island, etc) and really enjoyed them a lot. I wish these others were at the library!

[JustMe]

These sound great! What age/grade level do you think they are for?

[niccig]

These sound great! What age/grade level do you think they are for?

The interest level is through grade 2 maybe grade 3. I know boys of that age are reading them at DS's school.

The Spy Camp series has larger font, shorter sentences and about 50 pages long. Here's a sample of difficulty:


Zac picked up the drum-sticks. There was a GIB logo on them! He saw a message carved into them. "Kick the bass drum pedal". Zac stepped on the bass drum pedal. The skin of the drum opened up. Zac checked that no-one was looking. Then he dived inside the drum. Zac was sliding down a tunnel. Whoosh.

The classic series is smaller font, more complex sentences and about 100 pages long:


Zac checked the reflection in the shop window to make sure no-one from school was standing behind him. It was an old spy trick he'd picked up at spy school. He might have ben proud of his hair, but he still didn't want his friends to catch him queuing up to buy hair products.

DH is reading a kindle book that is another step above this in difficulty, it's 4 books in one. Each book has pictures of all the spy gadgets. You can see all the books here, you're supposed to be able to click on each book and get a sample chapter, but that doesn't seem to work from my mac. http://zacpower.com/home/books.asp

It will depend on your DS's reading level, which ones you want to start with. Occasionally there's an Australian English phrase/word eg. queuing up rather than lining up. Sometimes DH and DS need to ask for my translation :D

DS read several pages this morning. We'll still read early reader books to work on phonograms he doesn't know yet, but DS is right, the early readers are boring. I know he needs to read more to improve his reading, and he's already done more today than he does most days, so I'm hoping we see a jump in progress.

[KDsMommy]

Thanks for the rec! I'm going to see if our library has these for me to read to DS.

[Tondi G]

Oh AWESOME! Thanks for the rec. My DS2 is having some trouble with reading and I was just talking to his teacher about needing to find a series that he would enjoy reading. He loves anything spy related so I am sure he will dig these! AND we have a Kindle so that works too!

Thanks

[niccig]

Oh AWESOME! Thanks for the rec. My DS2 is having some trouble with reading and I was just talking to his teacher about needing to find a series that he would enjoy reading. He loves anything spy related so I am sure he will dig these! AND we have a Kindle so that works too!

Thanks

The kindle may also be a motivating factor. I'm working with 5-8 year old boys in speech therapy and their eyes get huge and their motivation factor increases once I pull out the iPad. It's similar activity that I can do with a deck of /s/ word cards, but the iPad makes it more appealing.