Fifth Grade Summer Reading List
Students Entering Fifth Grade
All students entering Fifth Grade must read Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. In addition, fifth grade students must choose three books from the list below. Please remember that each chosen book must belong to a different category. Email book reviews to Mrs. Spurgin, lspurgin@mustardseedschool.org. Your review will be posted on our fifth grade blog for other classmates to read! Parents are encouraged to read and talk about these books with their child.
Note: This list was updated on June 10, 2011.
Adventure & Survival
The Giant Rat of Sumatra by Sid Fleischman
Running Out of Time by Margaret Haddix
Shark Beneath the Reef by Jean Craighead George
Brian’s Winter by Gary Paulsen
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
Black Star Bright Dawn by Scott O’Dell
Call it Courage by Armstrong Sperry
Fiction
The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
All Alone in the Universe by Lynne Perkins
Loser by Jerry Spinelli
The View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg
Flying Solo by Ralph Fletcher
S.O.R. Losers by Avi
Joey Pigza Loses Control by Jack Gantos
A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence
Harriet the Spy by L. Fitzhugh
Biography/Memoir
Sky Pioneer: Amelia Earhart by Corrine Szabo
How Angel Paterson Got His Name by Gary Paulsen
It Came From Ohio: My Life as a Writer by R.S. Stine
Tomboy of the Air by Cummins
Out of the Darkness by Walter Dean Meyers
Sacagawea by St. George
The Trouble begins at 8: A life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West by Fleischman
Historical Fiction
Toliver’s Secret by Esther Brady
Moonshiner’s Gold by John Erickson
Shades of Gray by Carolyn Reeder
Slave Dancer by Paula Fox
Soldier’s Heart by Gary Paulsen
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
Titanic Crossing by Barbara Williams
Stepping on the Cracks by Mary Downing Hahn
The Fifth of March by Ann Rinaldi
Monkey Island by Paula Fox
Folklore & Fantasy
Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by E. Cameron
Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
The People Could Fly (anthology) by Virginia Hamilton (editor)
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
Babe, The Galant Pig by D. King-Smith
Martin’s Mice by D. King-Smith
The King’s Equal by K. Paterson
The Chronicles of Prydain (series) by Lloyd Alexander
Informational Books
Around the World in 100 Years by Jean Fritz
The Cod’s Tale by Mark Kurlansky
Black Hands, White Sails by Patricia McKissack
The Great Fire by Jim Murphy
Give Me Liberty: The Story of the Declaration of Independence by Russell Freedman
We Were There Too! by Phillip Hoose
Blizzard: The Storm that Changed America by Jim Murphy
An American Plague by Jim Murphy
Let it Shine! by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Remember by Toni Morrison
Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley by Walker