5th Grade Summer Reading Selections
*Indicates a more challenging choice
5th Grade Summer Reading
Selections
*Indicates a more challenging choice
REAL LIFE AND HISTORICAL FICTION
Appelt, Kathi - The Underneath
An old hound that has been chained
up at his hateful owner's run-down shack, and two kittens born underneath the
house, endure separation, danger, and many other tribulations in their quest to
be reunited and free.
*Avi - Blue Heron
Maggie
finds strength in a heron as she discovers a change in her father and his new
family.
Avi – Crispin: The
Cross of Lead
Falsely
accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century
England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a
dangerous secret.
Birdsall, Jeanne -
The Penderwicks : a summer
tale of four sisters, two rabbits, and a very interesting boy
While vacationing with their
widowed father in the Berkshire Mountains, four lovable sisters, ages four
through twelve, share adventures with a local boy, much to the dismay of his
snobbish mother.
*Creech, Sharon – The
Wanderer
Thirteen-year-old Sophie and her cousin Cody record their transatlantic crossing
aboard the Wanderer, a forty-five foot sailboat, which, along with uncles and
another cousin, is en route to visit their grandfather in England
*Curtis, Christopher Paul
– Bud, Not Buddy
Ten-year-old
Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression,
escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be
his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
*Cushman, Karen –
Rodzina
A twelve-year-old Polish American girl is boarded onto an orphan train in
Chicago with fears about traveling to the West and a life of unpaid slavery.
*Farley, Walter
- Black Stallion
The first in the series of horse stories.
Gantos, Jack – Joey
Pigza Swallowed the Key
To the constant disappointment of his mother and his teachers, Joey has trouble
paying attention or controlling his mood swings when his prescription
medications wear off and he starts getting worked up and acting wired.
Giff, Patricia Reilly –
Lily’s Crossing
During a summer spent at Rockaway Beach in 1944, Lily's friendship with a
young Hungarian refugee causes her to see the war and her own world differently.
Paulsen,
Gary – Harris and Me
Sent to live
with relatives on their farm because of his unhappy home life, an
eleven-year-old city boy meets his distant cousin Harris and is given an
introduction to a whole new world.
*Rawls,
Wilson - Summer of the Monkeys
Jay spends
his country summer trying to catch escaped monkeys to earn money.
Uchida, Yoshiko - Jar
of Dreams
Growing up
in California during the depression, Rinko feels left out because she is
Japanese
Bruchac, Joseph
– Skeleton Man
After her parents disappear and she goes to live with her “great uncle”,
Molly must rely on her dreams about an old Mohawk story for her safety and even
her life.
Bruchac, Joseph- The
Return of the Skeleton Man
Sequel to
Skeleton Man. When Molly attends a conference at Mohawk Mountain House Molly
begins to fear that she’s being watched by the same man who tried to kill her
last year.
Clements, Andrew
– Room One: A Mystery or Two
Ted Hammond, the only 6th grader in his small Nebraska town’s
one-room school house, searches for clues to the disappearance of a homeless
family.
DeFelice,
Cynthia –
The Missing Manatee
While coping with his parent’s separation, 11 year old Skeet spends most of his
spring break in his skiff on a Florida river where he finds a manatee shot to
death nd begins looking for it’s killer.
Johns, Linda
–
Hannah West in the Belltown Towers: a mystery
Budding sleuth, Hannah West, the 12 year old adopted daughter of a single mom,
decides to investigate when a thief targets the paintings of one of Seattle’s
hot new artists just before the HONCHO charity auction.
*Roberts, Willo Davis -
View from the Cherry Tree
Rob has seen a murder, but no one believes him except the murderer.
*Springer, Nancy
–
The Case of the Left-Handed Lady
Pursued by her much older brother Sherlock Holmes, 14 year old Enola, disguised
and using false names, attempts to solve the kidnapping of a baronet’s 16 year
old daughter in 19th century London.
*Alexander, Lloyd – The High King Series
(from The Chronicles of Prydain)
The series includes the adventures of Taran, the Assistant Pig Keeper in
Prydain, who sets out with various warriors to save his country from evil.
Bellairs, John - House
with a Clock in its Walls
A boy goes to live with his magician uncle in a mansion with a clock in
its walls that is ticking off the minutes until doomsday.
*Christopher, John - City of Gold and Lead
Boys who escaped the Tripods in the White Mountains are training for a very
important athletic contest. Part of the Tripods Series.
Lasky, Kathryn – The
Capture
Soren, a barn owl that is
captured and taken to a special school for orphaned owls, is befriended by elf
owl Gylfie and together the two set out to discover what is really going on at
St. Aegolius Academy.
Levine, Gail
– Ella
Enchanted
In this Cinderella based story, Ella struggles against a childhood curse
that forces her to obey any order given to her.
Milway, Alex - The
Mousehunter
Emiline, a mousekeeper who
works for the wealthy Isiah Lovelock, is given the opportunity to join the hunt
for the legendary pirate Mousebeard.
*Riordan, Rick - The Lightning Thief
(Percy Jackson series)
The escapades of the Greek gods and heroes get a fresh spin in the first book in
the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, about a contemporary 12-year-old New
Yorker who learns he's a demigod.
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NON- FICTION
Dash, Joan – A
Dangerous Engine
A biography of eighteenth-century printer, scientist, revolutionary, and
diplomat, Benjamin Franklin.
*Freedman, Russell – Out
of Darkness
A biography of the nineteenth-century Frenchman who, having been blinded
himself at the age of three, went on to develop a system of raised dots on paper
that enabled blind people to read and write
Gutman, Dan –
Baseball’s Biggest Bloopers
Stories of
baseball players who made errors that people are still talking about.
*Montgomery, Sy – The
Tarantula Scientist
Describes the
research that Samuel Marshall and his students are doing on tarantulas,
including the largest spider on earth, the Goliath bird-eating tarantula.
*Murphy, Jim –
Blizzard! The Storm that Changed America
Presents a history, based on personal accounts and newspaper articles, of the
massive snow storm that hit the Northeast in 1888, focusing on the events in New
York City..
Nelson, Kadir - We are the Ship
Imagine listening to baseball legends Willie Mays and Ernie Banks
swapping stories about their Negro League days as they sit in the stands,
munching on peanuts and watching Ken Griffey Jr. launch a curve ball into the
stratosphere.
Holm, Jennifer - Babymouse (series)
An imaginative mouse dreams of being queen of the world, but will settle
for an invitation to the most popular girl's slumber party.
Kinney, Jeff - Diary of a Wimpy Kid
(series)
Greg records his sixth grade
experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized
weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but
when Rowley grows more popular, Greg must take drastic measures to save their
friendship.
*Indicates a more challenging choice
awp 05/09