Book Suggestions for 8 Year Old Son

The best ever book for him to read would be "How to Win Friends and Influence People." by Dale Carnegie.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp...

He sounds bright and old enough to understand it clearly and it just may have an impact on him to help him change his attitude.

For other books, Eragon, Lord of the Rings, Leven Thumps, A Wrinkle in Time, Huck Finn, Percy Jackson, The Hobbit, The Giver, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe... all good fiction for his age that has character building in it. Lot more great ideas here:

http://als.lib.wi.us/MRList.html

The thing that helped my son was meeting other gifted children. He was a big fish in a small pond, but when he started meeting other equally gifted children, he realized 1) that he is not alone and 2) there a lot of talented people out there. Try looking into gifted groups in your area.
C.

Don't have a book suggestion for you, sorry...........But you could have written this about my son, also 8. After years and years of everyone telling him how smart he is, it has gone to his head a little. I started to notice it when he was 6 (and now I'm noticing the same attitude in my 6 yr old first grade daughter). Anyway, I simply explained to him, that yes, you are very smart for an 8 yr old, but the fact is that you are still an 8 yr old and a child. Not even the most intelligent adult in this world knows everything and there will always be someone who is better at something or knows more about something than you. Part of being a true intellect is knowing this and respecting others. People who are truly gifted at something, wheather it be sports or their IQ, don't go around bragging about it because they are so secure in themselves that they do not need to advertise it. Even the true genuises need assistance and friends. I also try to teach my kids that being smart doesn't make you better than anyone else. You're not a better person because you read better than "johnny". We are all equal and we all have strengths and weaknesses. Something that has also helped with the "attitude" - when they do chores that they would get paid for, I doct their pay for a "poor working attitude". I totally agree with Cathy, get him around some other smart kids and give him a humble reality check!!

Out and out moral of the story? "How the camel got it's hump." by Rudyard Kipling

I agree... the character Lucius in Harry Potter is a GREAT "What not to do" person who is constantly bragging and showing off... and even Hermione is a good example of how a very kind know-it-all can have a lot of serious repercussions.

My 8yo is currently in LOVE with Percy Jackson. Which is something of an opposite lesson. In that the heros of the story all have LD issues (adhd & dyslexia).

Any finally... my family actually HAS 3 certifiable geniuses in it (2 dead, 1 from old age, one from an avalanche). We're talking 1 world renowned surgeon & 1 graduated MIT before most people grad highschool and moved onto Phd Astrophysics and was bored of it by 25 and 1 who was hacking into government websites by the 3rd grade. The rest of us are quite slow by their standards but at least halfway bright by normal standards. (Except me, I'm notoriously thickheaded).

My family has a motto that may become useful for your son:

"You don't have to lie, but you don't have to run around shouting the truth, either."

Some that I can think of off the top of my head - Veronica the Showoff (Nancy Robinson), The Report Card (Andrew Clements), The Hundred Dresses (Elanor Estes). Not all exactly about bragging, but about showing empathy to others who might not have as much as someone else. Also Diary of a Wimpy Kid ... Greg gets humbled a few times in that story. on the other side, try Mysterious Benedict Society, about a boy genius who has to work with others as a team to investigate a problem. Good luck!

Pretty much all books published before 1965 are great because the authors' intent was to write about boys and girls who were smart and at the same time, wanted to help others and be kind - while inventing things or solving mysteries. There is nothing wimpy or milktoast about them - but the message is clear - looking down on those less smart, wealthy, adept, sporty, is low behavior. The first 13 Gertrude Chandler Warner Boxcar Children books are a good start (later ones were written by others and lost the depth). Howard Pyle wrote a lot of retellings of classics for children, like Robinhood. I find it great to look in the front or back of good books for more lists of authors and titles for further leads. As well, ask your local librarian. Tell her, "My son has read... (so she knows his level). I want ... for him. But I don't want any brats or arrogant know it alls (like Junie B. Jones - she is not welcome in our home b/c she is a brat and I don't need any more attitude in my home. I explained that more nicely to my daughter - and read her one page of the book and asked if that sounded like literature to her (no), and there has been no problem with no Jones. ) See what the librarian comes up with. pre1965 are a lot of historical fiction for American History as well as biographies of inventors - the biographies tend to be in one section.

Harry Potter, my boys read all the books over and over and over, starting when the first one came out. MANY lessons in humility in all of them!

I had a book of fables when I was little that had many different life lessons in it. maybe look for a book of multiple stories. There are some here: http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.as...

My son's the same way. We're lucky, since he goes to a very small parochial school where the kids are used to advanced kids, and they like to compete with or mimic the smart kids. What helped us a lot was that the principal allowed our son to skip a full grade; even though, he started school early. The school also has our son in high school math. (He's in 8th grade and 10th grade algebra.) They also let him get out of school early to take college courses. This helps a lot, because students usually think a smart kid is just bragging, but isn't really that smart until they actually see them be pushed ahead by the school. This also helped him to stop "bragging" so much, because now he has to "put his money where his mouth is." Another plus is the ethnic make up of the school...It's mostly Hispanic and Asian, so their culture is very different from most Caucasians. I really don't think that smart kids really mean to brag. It's just that they have a lot of pride in themselves.

I love the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books. They have lessons on all sorts of things.