James’ Book Recommendations: Best Books for 8 Year Olds

On Sunday night while I was finishing up yesterday’s fitness post (log your exercise HERE), my 8 year-old son James said he wanted to come work with me on Monday morning and learn how to be a blogger.  I said, “of course!”, but thought he might lose interest by the morning.

Turns out, he was quite serious and showed up to work bright and early, eager to get started!  I was happy to teach him the basics and he’s really a quick learner.  After showing him some simple aspects of how to write a blog post, add photos and link items, he came up with his own post idea- books he would recommend to other kids. So here are James’  recommendations for the best books for 8 year olds.

Best Books for 8 Year Olds

I’m so proud of him.  He chose the books, wrote all the copy (I had to help him edit his punctuation, but he did it himself), chose where to center things, added links, and set up the photos, chose the ones he liked best and added them into the post, and helped create the graphic. He also scheduled the post to go live.

It took ALL day, but below is James’ first post, in his own words! ♥

__________

Hi! Today I am going to show you some of my favorite books.  Say your kid is bored. They ask for something to do.  You can say, “check out these books.”  I bet your kid won’t be bored anymore.

Best Books for 8 Year Olds

Dog Man

written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey, the creator of Captain Underpants

This is one of my favorite books cause it has funny potty humor and there are 4 books out. 1 is about to come out. If you do get this book, my favorite part is page 122-123.

Best Books for 8 Year Olds

Captain Underpants= tra la laa

by that other creator I was talking about

Captain Underpants is one of the best children’s books. Now there are 12 books out each are funny, feature akshin and laffs [the popular way to misspell words].

Best Books for 8 Year Olds

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

written  and illustrated by Jeff Kinney

Now what do we have here? I will tell you, it’s a book full of problems big and little. This person’s name is Greg Heffley. His life is based on the author and illustrator’s life except Greg is stuck in middle school, how common! And one more weird thing, he keeps a journal / diary.

Best Books for 8 Year Olds

Guinness World Records 2018

written and pictures by who knows

This book has tons of world records. Plus you could win a trip to Universal Orlando Resort and the chance to win a world records title.

Best Books for 8 Year Olds

Big Nate

by Lincoln Peirce

Lincoln Peirce has written I don’t know how many books. One of his most popular books is Big Nate. The whole book is funny.

Best Books for 8 Year Olds

The all time favorite:

Captain  Underpants

Best Books for 8 Year Olds

It’s too funny!

Thank you for reading my post.

Best Books for 8 Year Olds

__________

Thank you friends for indulging me here!  Hope y’all have a great day, and maybe a way to satisfy some bored kids! 😉 -M

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Meet Megan

Hi! I’m Megan, mom to a thoughtful teenager and spunky young girl. We call Houston home and recently moved into our dream home. I traded my lawyer hat to become a full-time blogger in 2010. I love sharing my passion for affordable fashion, home decor, organization, & fitness to help inspire you to take care of you!

191 Comments

  1. Hi ! That’s a super post ! You must be proud of your boy ! 🙂
    I look forward to see Jordan first post. :p
    Have a great day !

  2. As a former teacher, I love this on so many levels. Kudos to Mom for taking the time to allow James to pursue an interest. James, I love your enthusiasm, your sweet spirit AND your talent!

  3. I have two grandchildren who love read. Nothing like a good book to read on a rainy day while on vacation. Thank you for your recommendations.

  4. James, you did a GREAT job with your first blog post! I hope we get to see more posts by you! I have a 9 year old boy and your book recommendations were spot on.

  5. This is amazing! When my 6 year old son gets up, he’ll be reading this right away. I think a trip to the library is in our near future 😉 And, what great voice James has in his writing! A natural writer!!

  6. I loved reading your book recommendations James! Thank you! I’m writing to you from Melbourne, Australia. My son is also named James and he is 6 years old. I am just wondering which of these books you think would be best for a beginning reader? He has just started reading chapter books. Thanks for your advice!

  7. James! You did a great job! Big Nate and Captain Underpants were both favorites in our house when my boys were younger.

  8. This is wonderful! I rarely, if ever, comment on blog posts but had to chime in here. What a special, smart boy you have and such a great mama to encourage him in this way. You guys made my day!

  9. I love this- Great job James! he couldn’t be any cuter! ?My daughter Melody is also 8 years old (with a very similar sense of humor) and I’ll be sure to share this with her!

  10. Wow – great job James! Loved reading your post! When my daughter (now 25) was your age, one of her favorite things to do in the summer was spend the day at the book store! Her love of reading has helped her so much all through college and now law school! Keep reading and blogging – LOL!

  11. Wow!!! Thank you, James, for your kid’s book recommendations!! Your awesome descriptions and pictures were really helpful. No bored kids here this summer?.

  12. Great post James! My son will be 8 in July and he loves to read as well. He has all of the Dav Pilkey books and I will be sure to recommend Big Nate to him. You should consider doing another post this Summer. Maybe a playroom post or a list of your favorite gift ideas for an 8 year old? Hope you have a great Summer!

  13. Great recommendations, James. I am familiar with many of your books as my 17 year old son has read many of your recommended authors along with the Guinness World Record book (although it was from the year 2000).

  14. Bravo James! I love your post and your work ethic! My daughter loves several of your recommendations too! 🙂

  15. Great job James! My son will love these recommendations. He is starting 2nd grade next year. Any advice for him?

  16. Great blog post, James! My boys both love to read. My oldest son is 18 and he still loves the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books! My younger son is reading the Harry Potter series again. I bet you would like those books!

  17. Wow! I have kids and I didn’t know about those books!! We are all going to the library with your list of best books and check them out!! Great ideas!

  18. Great recommendations James! Maybe you could do a post in the future on your favourite kids’ YouTube channels. Keep up the great work!

  19. Wow!!!!! Great job James. I’m a former 1st and 2nd grade teacher and I love that you wanted to learn how to blog and share your love of a good book and reading with other kiddos.

  20. James, I think your Dad may have some competition in the blogging department! Nice job buddy, we are going to go to the library today with your list of recommendations.

  21. This warmed my heart. As a former teacher, I loved reading my student’s writings, children have such a great “voice” and personality when they write! James, your post was fabulous! I will have to check out some of your book recommendations for my nephew!

  22. Great job James! You did a good job reviewing these books it brought back memories from when my sons were your age. They loved most of those books too especially Captain Underpants and Guinness Book of World Records.

  23. I love this post! Great recommendations – I look forward to checking some of these out. Great job, James!!

  24. Awesome job, James! I can wait to share you list of books with my two boys. I bet they’ll love them as much as you do.
    Can’t wait to read your next post 🙂

  25. Wow! Great job, James! I loved reading your blog post. I’m a first grade teacher and I love your voice in your recommendations! And way to go, mama! I love seeing parents who foster a love for reading and writing and it’s being done in such a fun way! Kuhdos to you! ?

  26. Thank you James for great book ideas! I know my 9 year old LOVES the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. You should check out the Who/What/Where books if you haven’t yet. My 9 year old loves them as they have books such as “Who was George Washington?” or “What is the Eiffel Tower?”

  27. This is an awesome post James! Nicely done! My daughter is 3 so a bit closer to your sister but I will definitely remember these recommendations. You should tell your mom you want to do a monthly post. Tell her it will show her how the internet can be a positive place to learn and grow 🙂 You are one heck of a cool kid!!!

  28. Thanks for the book recommendations! It’s hard for me to know what books my son might like……I was reading Little House on the Prairie at his age. :- ) Way to go, James. Can’t wait for your next post…

  29. Great blog post, James! My daughter is only 1.5 years old but she loves looking at books. I’ll save your recommendations for when she’s older and knows how to read just like you. I bet she’ll love them! Good job!

  30. Hi James, I LOVE your blog post! You have the same taste in books as my son when he was your age. We still have most of those books you mentioned and he is 13 now! I guess they are what you would call classics! When you get a bit older, you should check out a series of novels called “Wings of Fire”. My son started reading those in the fourth grade and he was hooked! I hope you continue to write blog posts because you are super good at it, and I will look forward to reading them! High five dude!

  31. Oh my goodness this is adorable! Tell James he did a wonderful job! How awesome that he wants to learn to work just like Mom! This was so nice of you to indulge him and include him in your blog, what a great example you are setting for your kids!

  32. This was awesome! I’m a middle school teacher and to see your love of reading is very inspiring! Keep it up James! Come back and post again 🙂

  33. Great post James! You did a really good job and your post will be helpful this summer to kids looking for good books!

  34. Great job, James!!! I’m so impressed! love your ideas and I’m excited to share these with my kiddos (they are getting quite bored!)☀️?

  35. Great job, James!!!! I’m impressed!! I love your recommendations and will definitely share these with my kids (they are getting quite bored!)☀️?

  36. Great recommendations James!!! My 3rd grader loves all of these. He wants to recommend you check out the “13 Story Treehouse” series if you haven’t already. It’s one of his favorites. And his name is James too, so you can trust him. 😉

  37. Great job, James! And do you know what?—my 8-year-old grandson (his name is Caisen) had read all these books, except the last one. That must mean you pick out awesome books!! Caisen’s favorites are the Dogman books and he cannot wait for the new one! I will show him your blog post and he will probably want to get that last book you recommended! ????????

  38. WAY TO GO JAMES! Maybe you could put together a list of TOYS for the Holidays!
    🙂 Keep it up James!

  39. James you rock! Such a good job on your first post. I look forward to a future post from you. Have fun this summer!
    Megan, you are an amazing Mom.

  40. Great job, James! You remind me so much of my son when he was your age. I love to follow your sweet family. Awesome job on the post. Enjoy your summer vacation!

  41. My son loves all the books on the list. Great post James!! When he gets a little older, we would recommend the Warriors series by Erin Hunter and the Unwanteds series by Lisa McMann. My son is currently loving both!

  42. Great job, James! You are very talented and have a bright future ahead of you. You always brighten my day when you are in your mom’s Instagram stories. I love how you interact with Jordan and are such a sweet big brother. Keep up the great work!

  43. Way to go James! I loved reading your post. Your personality shines through with your writing style and adorable (I mean handsome?) pictures. Thanks for making me “ laff”.

  44. Great job James !!!! I love all your book recommendations !!!! Kudos on your first blog post hope to see more in future !!! 😉

  45. Great job James!! I have 3 boys (11, 8, 6) and we love ALL those books around here. Especially the Guiness Book! This was fun to read!

  46. Dear James,
    Thank you for sharing your favorite books. I have an 8 year old daughter and I’m going to show this to her and see if she’d like to pick some of your recommendations out for reading over the summer. You did a great job on your first blog post!

  47. James,
    You did a wonderful job on your post! I’m a high school teacher and I’d give you an A on this presentation. Keep reading and writing. Have a great summer!

  48. Great post James! You have a similar taste in books as my 12 year old son, Landon. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is his #1 favorite series and I love it too! I’m looking forward to more of your posts.

  49. Great work James! I loved reading you post, and liked seeing all your hard work on insta stories yesterday! I hope to see more from you on HWH this summer!

  50. What a great blog post! You did such a good job summarizing your descriptions and keeping it short. That’s hard to do! I have read some of these books already, now I want to read the rest! I hope you keep reading and writing about it.

  51. Great job James! I can’t wait to show this to my son Zakk when I get home from work tonight! He and his little brother LOVE Captain Underpants and Dogman too –They are so excited for the new book also! I will have to order them Big Nate, we have never read that one! Thank you for your recommendations — I hope you can write another post soon, I loved reading it! You did such an awesome job! 🙂

  52. This is awesome James! I like that you enjoy reading and are excited about sharing your favorite books! I also love your pictures with the books, so creative 🙂 I look forward to your next post.

  53. Thanks so much for your post, James! I am a teacher and it makes me so happy to see how excited you are about reading! And I am a Mom and my youngest son is the same age as you and loves many of these books! I am going to have him read this post too and see if he would like to read some of the books you recommended that he hasn’t read yet. Great work!

  54. “Thank you for the book ideas James! These sound super funny and awesome. My mom and I are going to go to the library this week to find them all! Can your next post maybe be about how to deal with a 2 year old sister?!” ~ Carter (age 6, almost 7)

    🙂 Great job Mama! You must be so proud of your boy. I hope we get more James posts in the future!

  55. Love the Guinness book recommendation – my son collected these year after year! So fun to look at! Thanks for sharing James – hope to hear from you more this summer. Keep up the good work!

  56. Well done James! My nephew has a birthday coming up and I think I will use your recommendations and send him some books to read for his birthday.

  57. What a great job James! I think you and my son, Ace would be buddies! He loves the exact same books! In fact, we have ALL of the ones you recommended! We are getting ready to start the Amulet series. Fingers crossed that it’s good too. Well done!!

  58. What a great learning experience, great job James!! My girls are in HS but I have a great niece that I will pass along these recommendations!!

  59. James, that was so awesome! I live in Indianapolis and the quarterback for the Colts is Andrew Luck. He is super smart. He has a book club and recommends books for adults and kids. You remind me of him. I think you have a great future ahead of you. You are also a wonderful brother.

  60. Great post James! Terrific book selections for kids and timely post idea for summer reading. You Rock!

    I absolutely love, love, love this post! Kudos to Mom for taking the time to help him with this and see it through!

  61. James-
    What a great post , thank you for sharing. I hope you keep posting over the summer! I really liked your recommendations and might have to check them out. We love the Captain Underpants Movie on Netflix. =)

    As a new blogger myself, I know how much work goes into one post! Great job doing it all in ONE DAY! =)

    Allie ~ Let’s do Lattes

  62. I love this James! My boys and I will be finding these books you recommended. My almost 7 year old is especially excited. Great job!

    P.S. You’re an awesome mom Megan! I love this so much.

  63. Love this post! My son loves Captain Underpants. I’ll share this with him when he gets home from school. Great job James!

  64. James, what an awesome job!!! And some credits to mom too for taking the time . I have been talking about you with my daughter that teaches gifted kids . Hope to see you soon working on another blog. God bless you all ?

  65. James,
    My kids are in 5th, 3rd, and 1st in the fall. I think they will agree with your book choices. You did a great job on your blog.
    Say, “Hi,” to your mom.

  66. Thank you James. What a great post! Can’t wait to share it with my 8 yo. He is really into the Tiki Ronde Barber football books right now so these will be a nice change. Great idea!

  67. Please tell James two things:
    1 – His post was AWESOME! He did a super job!
    2 – I like to read kid’s books every once in a while, so I am going to use his recommendations the next time I’m looking for one to read. 🙂

  68. Wow, what an eggsellaint (cool way of spelling excellent) post. Thanks for the book recommendations. They are awesome.

  69. James, you are a great writer (like your mom) and a very smart young guy. Two thumbs up for the book recommendations and we all look forward to more of your blog posts!

  70. Hi James!

    I have a 6 1/2 year old nephew who loves to read- just like you! I am an auntie who loves to buy books for him, but, I’m never sure what is funny or cool. Your fabulous blog post is sure to guide me towards great books, and undoubtedly- “ COOL Auntie status”.

  71. Way to go James!! These are a perfect way to spend summer. And who dosen’t like a little potty humor!?? keep up the awesome work!!???

  72. Hi James, you are smart and witty. You did great reviewing your favorite books. Hope you help mom by reading to your sister.

  73. Great book selections and wardrobe choice for your shoot! Have a great summer,?? Hook ‘em!

  74. Diary of a Wimpy Kid is the best. Great job James from a fellow Houstonian. So proud of you!

  75. James-I love this post! My son is 9 and really doesn’t like to read, which is disappointing because I read a book a day 🙁 I showed him your post and now he wants to read these books since it was recommended by you! Thank you! (Megan-you need to have James do more posts!)

  76. James, the newest Dogman is on pre order on Amazon and is due right before Christmas! Awesome book reviews. Also, look into his Catboy series. And Bid Nate has over 30 books out now. I have all of these in my classroom. Your next series should be The Last Kids on Earth or Amulet. Enjoy!

  77. James – Thank you for your recommendations! My nieces are 10 and 8 and would love the suggestions you made! I think you did a great job on your first post and hope to read more of them in the future!

  78. I love this!! Great job James!! I have a few 8-year old boys that I will be buying these books for! Great work!

  79. Thanks James! My 9 year old really enjoyed reading your recommendations. He has read most of the books on your list. Going to Barnes & Noble this week for Big Nate books:)
    P.S. pages 122 and 123 are his favorite too!!

  80. James,

    These are are very good recommendations. I am very impressed with your first post. I can tell you put in a lot of thought and work into this. I look forward to many more posts from you! Hope you are having a fun summer!

    Mom in Alabama 🙂

  81. Good Morning Fellow Texan!

    My Granddaughter is spending the week with me and I showed her James’ blog and all of the books that he is reading. G She has read many of them. I went ahead and ordered the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series for her.
    Right now she is reading My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish which is a cute story!. Way to Go James
    God Bless!
    Judy !

  82. These look like awesome books! Thank you so much for your recommendations. I’m heading to Amazon right now.

  83. Great book recommendations, James! I will be sure to pass these ideas along to my kids before our next trip to the library. Also, great first blog post!

  84. James, what a great list! I have two boys, they are 13 years old and 10 years old. We’ve loved those books too. My 10 year old still loves to see the new Guinness Book of World Records that comes out every year. It is fascinating! My 13 year old is now into history and historical fiction books. Their recommendation to you is to keep reading every day! Even if it is for only 20 minutes.

  85. My 7 year old daughter LOVES Dog Man and Captain Underpants books too! It looks like she has the same taste in books as you do James, so we will have to head to the library to look for these other ones!! Thank you for the great recommendations!!!

  86. This was so adorable and absolutely so impressive! James also is a funny kid. Love “what do we have here??””

    I have a 5 year old son and will keep these books in my mind when he gets a little older!

    Great job James! Would love to see more guest posts from you!

  87. Wow, James! You are a natural! And I must say, the great “voice” you use as a writer reminds me of your dad’s blog posts! Great job! My son is 7 and loves Dog Man and Captain Underpants, so I am going to check out some of the other books you recommended. Be sure to keep us all posted if you find a new book or series! Happy Reading (and be sure to convince your mom that you need to post again this summer – you certainly proved yourself to be a great member of the HWH team!)!

  88. This is really great, James! I loved your book reviews and hope that you will be able to do more! Keep up the fantastic work!

  89. Kudos to James for a well thought out and well written post. Love that he is promoting reading to other kids. And, so great how his humor shines through. You must be one proud mama!

  90. How adorable (and funny…”by that other creator I was talking about” hahaha) Thanks for the tips, James! I will have to check out Dog Man for my little girl. 🙂

  91. This was absolutely precious! I loved seeing his excitement on spending the day with you & learning the ins and outs of being a blogger on your Insta stories.

    xoxo, SS

    Southern and Style

  92. Thank you so much James for this really nice post ! Well done ! I have noticed some books, especially the « Diary » one, I know it exists also in french and in german.
    Love from a french family in Berlin !???

  93. Comment by my son Andrew:
    I like all of your picks! I have them all, but I will look for the Guinness one. Have you read the Weird But True collection? It has some fun and cool facts!

  94. Hi! Thanks for sharing! So good, Sally my daughter only knows a few words in English and Sinne these books are Not available in German, she will have to pass. Beautiful idea though ??

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