FBA for Reluctant Readers

The Dragon of Doom (Moongobble and Me series). Bruce Coville.

Bruce Coville's Moongobble and Me series is one of my favorites for the second-third grade level. It's filled with Harry Potter-esque magic but at a much more accessible reading level. A loner boy in a small town becomes the apprentice to a fumbling, awkward magician and they go on adventures in the efforts to prove that he is indeed a good magician. The book is fantastic for a read-aloud in second grade (my students begged me to read all books in the series!) and it's a great "hook book" for reluctant readers in grade two. A mom recently came to me and said that her son, who never could find a book that really hooked him, was actually up at 5:30 a.m. devouring this book. That's my favorite part of being a librarian--hooked another one!