We love Encyclopedia Brown around here too - each "case" is about 10 pages. I don't know if these exist anymore or not, but when I was a kid i loved Choose Your Own Adventure books - at the end of each section, you'd get to pick what your character would do, and the story would be different for each choice.

We're also getting into Ramona and Henry Huggins.

we found "choose your own adventure" books at our local library. I think they've been updated, they look pretty new.

I just got the catalog from Great Potential Press (nice place)

www.giftedbooks.com

and they list what looks like a nice resource called "Some of My Best Friends are Books: Guiding Gifted readers from Preschool to High School" by Judith Wynn Halsted. Haven't actually seen it yet, but the description is interesting.

The Melvin Beederman books by Greg Trine are good. He's a superhero with a sidekick and the books are pretty funny. He might like them because they are fun to read.

DD just finished the "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" (10). She loved it. A large section of the book is depicted/told via wonderful charcoal illustrations (maybe 1/3 to 1/2). One note, there is a "Oliver Twist" take on the main character (orphaned, homeless and resorts stealing). If you think your son won't be disturbed by the plot; I would put on your list to check out. It was a huge hit this summer for my family.

http://www.amazon.com/Invention-Hugo-Cabret-Brian-Selznick/dp/0439813786

Geronimo Stilton - The text is visually interesting and the stories are entertaining.

Thanks everyone, these suggestions look great - I am especially excited about the stephen hawking book, I had no idea he was writing for kids, that is very cool. I described that one to ds and he sounded pretty into it.
And myth-o-mania seems up his alley as well - I am making a nice list for the library!

We have definitely checked out Captain Underpants - They are one of ds's favs! And he has been literally sleeping with various Calvin compilations for the last year or so. I think he could live on comic strips alone, but I really want him to read things with a beginning middle and end, but maybe that's silly at this stage.
I will ask the teacher what she thinks is best or desired for the assignment, too.

Val, I am not at all familiar with Uncle Scrooge, I will google that one for sure....
thanks again everyone!!

More awesome ideas while I was posting and cooking dinner!
Yay! He read a couple of the G. Stiltons, but for some reason he didn't fall in love - you are right, the fonts themselves are pretty varied and interesting so it seemed like it would be a winner for him! (??)

Thanks to all for the websites as well, I am checking those out now -

I think at this age a lot is about reading being fun. I think it is OK to ask him to stretch a bit, but you don't want him to feel that reading is just a chore. I can't remember if he has visual issues. If he has a preference for bigger print and lots of pictures, it may be that it is hard for him to see/track the smaller print.

No visual issues that we know of, just odd tastes at this point, but perhaps there is something up with that. I have only had one complete eye exam for him (regular opt. exam) about a year ago.

He did read and re-read both of the wimpy kid books, but they definitely have tons of pictures. I think everyone is right about breaking up the text into smaller bits.
He also really liked a collection of poems called 'It's raining pigs and noodles', again, lots of pictures!

Uncle Scrooge is an extremely wealthy, extremely miserly duck from Disney. He's Donald Duck's uncle.

His extreme wealth often leads Donald and his three nephews (Huey, Dewey, and Louie) off on great world (or outer space) adventures. The adults usually get the group into trouble, sometimes/often because Scrooge makes a bad decision due to his miserliness. The three nephews are the clever ones in the family, and typically have to save the two grown-ups from their own boneheadedness. You can probably see why these comics appeal to kids.

Side characters include Magica de Spell, a magic sorceress who's after Scrooge's cherished "first dime" and the Beagle Boys, a band of criminals who always dream up cunning plans to steal his fortune.

I've always favored the stories by Carl Barks, who's now seen as a genius in his area. He was able to write on two levels: one that appealed to adults, and one that appealed to kids. His stories were full of caricatures. I will admit that I still read this stuff occasionally.

Don Rosa was another brilliant Donald/Scrooge author.

They're available in editions by a company called Gladstone. Gladstone was, I think, the first publisher to start identifying Carl Barks & Don Rosa/publishing their stories in dedicated volumes.

Val