Book list for an eight or nine-year-old boy

I pulled Isaac's "Books I've Read" binder in order to post this reading list, and I had to chuckle when I looked at his entries.  You can easily see what he was into this year as you glance at the list below.  I asked him, "Bud- is this all you read?  Did you forget to write down some other titles?"  He says he probably did, and I think that's true. Oh well.  Here's what we do have:

[Again, these are the books he chose to read this year, in addition to what I assigned for him.  (His Assigned Reading list is posted here.)]

Ben and Me, Robert Lawson
Redwall, Brian Jacques
Mossflower, Brian Jacques
Mattimeo, Brian Jacques
Mariel of Redwall, Brian Jacques
Salamandastron, Brian Jacques
Martin the Warrior, Brian Jacques
The Bellmaker, Brian Jacques
Outcast of Redwall, Brian Jacques
Pearls of Lutra, Brian Jacques
The Long Patrol, Brian Jacques
(oh, look!  something different!)  The Mystery at the Alamo, Gertrude Chandler Warner (Boxcar)
The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier
Frederick Douglass Fights for Freedom, Margaret Davidson
Friday the Arapaho Indian, A.M. Anderson
Marlfox, Brian Jacques
Bull Run, Paul Fleischman
The Legend of Luke, Brian Jacques

I have not read a single Brian Jacques title (nor do I particularly desire to), but Mark did read the first book to proof it before Isaac read it, and we've had several friends (and my two brothers) recommend them to us.   My personal favorite from his list is The Silver Sword- one we've read before as a read-aloud but one he decided to read on his own, too.  It has been republished with the new title Escape from Warsaw if you're unable to track it down by the original title.

I asked Isaac which Redwall book was his favorite and he said: "the two that are really my favorites are The Pearls of Lutra and Salamandastron."  The reason he likes The Pearls of Lutra is that "there are a lot of riddles in the story to figure out."  Salamanastron was a favorite because he really liked some of the characters.  I asked him to describe what the books are about for boys (or parents) who may not be familiar with them.  He said, "Redwall is an abbey that has squirrels and mice and voles and shrews and otters and hedgehogs and there is usually a badger or two.  Usually in the book there's a bad guy (usually a rat, ferret, stote, weasel or wildcat) and he attacks the abbey or sometimes he (Brian Jacques) makes it far away and the "people" of Redwall have to travel to get there and defeat the bad guy."  So, sort of a good versus evil, animals-that-talk type of book, from what I gather.  Lots of adventure and suspense.