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Speno's Picks for Older Elementary Students

This page is designed to help fourth an fifth grade students--and their parents--find good reading books.  Books listed in this section are developmentally appropriate for 10-12 year olds.  The reading levels of the books vary and are indicated in parentheses (RL).  Starred books (*) are especially recommended. 

A special note for parents: Keep reading aloud with your child throughout the elementary school years.  Books with serious themes that prompt discussion are good candidates for read-alouds.  Click on links for more information on the book or the author.

Literature links:

Books are categorized by genre:

  • Realistic Fiction
  • Humorous Fiction
  • Fantasy and Adventure
  • Historical Fiction
  • Animals
  • Sports
  • Folklore
  • Poetry
  • Non-fiction and Biography
  • Math and Language Puzzles and Games

 

Realistic Fiction

  • Blume, Judy   

    • Just As Long As We're Together

  • Clements, Andrew

    • Frindle  * (RL4)

    • The Janitor's Boy  * (RL4+)

    • School Story  * (RL4+)

    • The Landry News  * (RL4+)

  • Dahl, Roald

    • Danny, The Champion of the World  * (RL5)

  • DiCamillo, Kate

    • Tiger Rising  * (RL4+) 

  • Gantos, Jack

    • Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key  (series) * (RL4)  Joey Pigza is wired.  Joey Pigza has ADHD.  He takes medication, but it doesn't work right.  Just going to the pencil sharpener can lead Joey to disaster.  He wants to be a good kid, but he just doesn't make good decisions.  Can Joey get back on track?

  • Horvath, Polly 

    • The Trolls  * (RL4+)  Melissa, Amanda and Peewee know almost nothing about their Aunt Sally when she comes to babysit for the week their parents go to Paris.  It doesn't take them long to learn Aunt Sally is a great storyteller.  Her story's may be exaggerated at times, but the kids learn important truths about their family's history and some hard truths about life.

    • Everything on a Waffle (RL5) Primrose loses everything: her parents, her house, her sweaters--even a finger and a toe.  But what she finds in the course of this story is beyond value.  As zany cast of characters as ever inhabited one book!

  • Konigsberg, E. L.

    • Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth  * (RL5)  Jennifer says she is a witch.  Jennifer says she can train Elizabeth to be a witch, too.  Is Jennifer telling the truth?  This book is mysterious but it is mainly about friendship.

  • Lowry, Lois                             

    • Anastasia Krupnick (series)  * (RL5)  Anastasia is smart and sassy.  She has strong opinions, and those opinions are changing all the time.  This book is better for older elementary students.  Funny and another great character!

  • Paterson, Katherine

    • A Bridge to Terabithia  *  (RL5)

  • Peck, Robert N.                                   

    • Soup (series) * (RL4+)  Robert's best friend, Soup, is a troublemaker.  The story takes place in the early 1900's, when grown-ups were strict and kids knew how to play pranks.  This book examines the nature of friendship.  Funny and touching.

  • Sachar, Louis                           

    • There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom  * (RL4+)  Bradley doesn't know how to make friends.  He just knows how to get in trouble.  With some help from the school counselor he learns how to be a better friend.  This book is funny but more often sad.  I really felt sorry for Bradley most of the time.  There is a happy ending, though.  (The title is misleading; the book is not really about going in the girls' bathroom.)

    • The Boy Who Lost His Face

    • Holes  * (RL5)

  • Spinelli, Jerry

    • Maniac Magee * (RL5)

    • Wringer * (RL4)

     

Humorous

 

Fantasy & Adventure

  • *Babbitt, Natalie            

    • The Search for Delicious

    • Tuck Everlasting

  • Banks, Lynne R.                      

    • The Indian in the Cupboard (series)  (RL4+)  Think of the adventures you could have if your toy Indian came to life?  This series has already become a classic. 

  • B

    • Molly Moon's Book of Hypnotism  (RL5) There's nothing special about Molly Moon.  She's not pretty.  She doesn't get good grades.  She has no family and only one friend.  But Molly Moon discovers that she has a remarkable talent for hypnotism.  With a little help from a mysterious book, Molly sets out to make the world notice her.  She learns some important lessons along the way.  Outrageous plot twists; a rival to Harry Potter.

  • DiCamillo, Kate

    • The Tale of Despereaux * (RL5)  This Newbery Award winner is a fairy tale with a twist.  It is full of memorable characters, not all of whom are likeable.  The main characters: a non-conformist mouse, a misunderstood rat, a compassionate princess and a neglected serving girl.  (http://www.katedicamillo.com/books/tale.html)

  • Fleischman, Sid                        

    • The Whipping Boy  *  (RL4+) The prince is so spoiled he has his servant, Jem, take his own whippings.  When the two boys are kidnapped they at first don't see eye to eye.  Soon, the prince learns humility and comes to respect his whipping boy.  Humorous, with colorful language. 

    • The Ghost in the Noonday Sun  *  (RL5)  Oliver Finch was born at the stroke of midnight, and this makes him special.  So special he is kidnapped and taken to sea in raggedy old pirate ship on a wild goose chase for buried treasure.  Can Oliver help the pirates find the lost treasure?  The story has non-stop adventure and a colorful cast of characters.

  • Jacques, Brian

    • Redwall  (series) * (RL6+)

  • Kaye, M.M.                             

    • The Ordinary Princess

  • Lewis, C.S.                              

    • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (series)

  • Lisle, Janet Taylor

    • The Gold Dust Letters   (RL4)

  • Rushdie, Salman

    • Haroun and the Sea of Stories

  • Rowling, J. K.

    • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (series)  *  (RL4+)

  • Sachar, Louis

    • Holes * (RL5)

  • Snyder, Zilpha Keatly

    • The Egypt Game  * (RL5+)

 

Historical Fiction

  • Avi

    • Midnight Magic  * (RL5+)  This is a historical whodunit set in Renaissance Italy, 1491, with a full cast of characters: an evil count, a wishy-washy king, a conniving queen, a missing prince, a clever princess, a reformed magician and--at the center of it all--his snooping servant.  The plot has more twists and turns than a the Beast.  Read carefully or you'll fall off!

  • Choldenko, Gennifer

    • Al Capone Does My Shirts * (RL5) The title and cover are irresistible--and the story inside does not disappoint.  It's 1935, and 12 year-old Moose Flanagan must adjust to his new home on Alcatraz Island while looking out for his autistic sister, whose condition even the doctors do not understand.  Full of surprises and a delightful window into a fascinating time and place.  (http://www.kidsreads.com/reviews/0399238611.asp)

  • Curtis, Christopher Paul            

    • Bud, Not Buddy  * (RL5)  Bud Caldwell is on the lam!  His latest foster family locked him in the shed with a vampire, and he decides to hoof it across the state in search of his long lost dad.  He has a good idea who his dad is, too, because his mother gave him a clue before she died: a poster of Herman E. Calloway and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression.  The story is set in 1930s Michigan.  There is a happy ending and a lot of humor along the way.

    • The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963

  • Fletcher, Susan

    • Shadow Spinner  * (RL6)

  • Giff, Patricia Reilly                   

    • Lilly’s Crossing  * (RL4+)  It's summer and Lily finds herself at her family's summer home at the beach.  It would be just like any summer except that World War II is heating up.  Her best friend's family moves to Michigan to help the war effort, and her father has been sent to Europe on a top-secret mission.    Lily's stuck with her bossy grandmother, but then a mysterious visitor arrives in Rockaway...

    • Nory Ryan's Song   (RL5)

  • Hesse, Karen

    • Out of the Dust  *  (RL6)

    • Stowaway  *  (RL6)

  • Levitin, Sonia

    • Journey to America   (RL5)

  • Lowry, Lois

    • Number the Stars  *  (RL5)

  • McSwigan, Marie                     

    • Snow Treasure   (RL4+)

  • Speare, Elizabeth G.                 

    • The Sign of the Beaver  * (RL5)

  • Whelan, Gloria

    • Goodbye, Vietnam 

  • Wilder, Laura Ingalls               

    • The Little House on the Prairie (series)  * (RL4)

  • Willis, Patricia 

    • Danger Along the Ohio  (RL5) 

 

Animals

  • Avi

    • Poppy  (series) * (RL6) 

  • DiCamillo, Kate

    • Because of Winn-Dixie  * (RL4)  A lot of exciting things happen to India Opal Buloni in the summer of her 10th year.  She meets many strange but interesting people and learns some important lessons about life...all because of the dog she found at the local grocery store, Winn-Dixie!

  • Gipson, Fred                             

    • Old Yeller

    • Savage Sam

  • King-Smith, Dick                      

    • Babe, the Gallant Pig

  • Kjelgaard, Jim                          

    • Big Red (series)

  • Naylor, Phyllis                          

    • Shiloh

  • Obrien

    • Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of N.I.M.H. * (RL6)

  • Selden, George                         

    • A Cricket in Times Square

    • Tucker’s Countryside

  • Taylor, Theodore                      

    • The Trouble with Tuck

  • Wallace, Bill                             

    • A Dog Called Kitty

  • White, E. B.                             

    • Charlotte’s Web

    • Stuart Little

    • The Trumpet of the Swan

 

Sports

  • Christopher, Matt                     

    • Many titles

  • Slote, Alfred                             

    • Many titles

 

Folklore

  • Evslin, Evslin, and Hoopes         

    • The Greek Gods

  • Hamilton, Virginia                     

    • The People Could Fly

    • Other Titles

  • Heaney

    • Irish Legends and Tales

  • Kimmel, Eric                            

    • Iron John

    • Many fairy tales

  • McGovern, Ann                       

    • Aesop’s Fables

  • Osborne, Mary Pope               

    • American Tall Tales

    • Other anthologies of legends, myths and folklore

  • Pinkney

    • The Tales of Uncle Remus

 

Poetry

  • Hoberman, Mary Ann               

    • The Llama Who Had No Pajama

  • Hopkins, Lee Bennett              

    • Many titles

  • Korman and Korman                

    • The Last Place Sports Poems of Jeremy Bloom

  • Lewis, J. Patrick                      

    • Doodle Dandies

  • Prelutsky, Jack                         

    • The Random House Book of Poetry

    • Other titles

  • Silverstein, Shel            

    • Where the Sidewalk Ends

    • Other titles

 

Non-Fiction and Biography

  • Fritz, Jean

  • Spinelli, Jerry                           

    • Knots in my Yo-Yo String

  • Blumberg, Rhoda                      

    • Incredible Journey of Lewis and Clark

    • Great American Gold Rush

  • Brenner, Barbara                     

    • If You Lived in 1776

  • Conrad, Pam                            

    • Prairie Visions; other titles

  • Denenberg, Barry                     

    • Stealing Home: The Story of Jackie Robinson

  • Freedman, Russell                    

    • Lincoln

    • Children of the Wild West

    • The Wright Brothers

    • Many Titles

  • Fritz, Jean                                

    • Around the World in A Hundred Years

    • Many other titles

  • Jones, Charlotte                        

    • Accidents May Happen: Mistakes that Worked              

  • Miller, Brandon

    • Buffalo Gals

     

    Math, Puzzles, Games

     

  • Anderson, Karen                      

    • The Kids’ Big Book of Games

  • Burns, Marilyn                         

    • Math for Smarty Pants

    • The Big Book of Think

    • Math Wizardry

  • Fixx, James                              

    • Solve it!

  • Sachar, Louis                           

    • Sideways Math

  • Shannon, George                      

    • Stories to Solve

  • Steig, William                           

    • CDB!

  • Treat, Lawrence                      

    • You’re the Detective

    • Crime and Puzzlement