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Grade 5 - Adventure

Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson - Peter, an orphan, sets sail from England on the ship Never Land, befriending a Starcatcher whose mission is to guard a trunk of magical stardust
Doll bones by Holly Black - Friends from a Pennsylvania middle school embark on a real-life quest to Ohio to bury a doll made from the ashes of a dead girl
The wild robot by Peter Brown - Roz the robot discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island with no memory of where she is from or why she is there
My side of the mountain by Jean Craighead George - A young boy relates his adventures during the year he spends living alone in the Catskill Mountains
A dastardly plot by Christopher Healy - In 1883 New York, while trying to introduce her mother's flying machine to the men-only Inventors' Guild, twelve-year-old Molly uncovers a plot to destroy the World's Fair
The phantom tollbooth by Norton Juster - A journey through a land where Milo learns the importance of words and numbers provides a cure for his boredom
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell - Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance
The adventures of a girl called Bicycle by Christina Uss - Left at the Mostly Silent Monastery as a toddler and home-schooled by a retired nun, twelve-year-old Bicycle rides cross-country to meet a famous cyclist who she hopes will be her first friend
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Grade 5 - Animals

Poppy by Avi - Poppy the deer mouse urges her family to move next to a field of corn big enough to feed them all forever, but Mr. Ocax, a terrifying owl, has other ideas
The tiger rising by Kate DiCamillo - Rob, who passes the time in his rural Florida community by wood carving, is drawn by his spunky but angry friend Sistine into a plan to free a caged tiger
Old Yeller by Fred Gipson - Young Travis faces a test of manhood when his heroic dog is bitten by a mad wolf
Babe : the gallant pig by Dick King-Smith - A piglet destined for eventual butchering arrives at the farmyard, is adopted by an old sheep dog, and discovers a special secret to success
Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien - Having no one to help her with her problems, a widowed mouse visits the rats whose former imprisonment in a laboratory made them wise and long-lived
The cricket in Times Square by George Selden - The adventures of a country cricket who unintentionally arrives in New York and is befriended by Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell - A horse in nineteenth-century England recounts his experiences with both good and bad masters
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Grade 5 - Science Fiction and Fantasy

The wonderful wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum - Dorothy thinks she is lost forever when a terrifying tornado crashes through Kansas and whisks her and her dog, Toto, far away to the magical land of Oz
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins - When eleven-year-old Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle while on a quest foretold by ancient prophecy
The serpent's secret by Sayantani DasGupta - Kiranmala is swept into another dimension, full of magic, winged horses, talking birds (very annoying), and cute princes--and somehow Kiranmala needs to sort it all out, find her parents, and save the world
The city of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau - In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions
A tale dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz - Follows Hansel and Gretel as they walk out of their own story and into eight more tales, encountering such wicked creatures as witches, along with kindly strangers and other helpful folk
Savvy by Ingrid Law - Recounts the adventures of Mibs Beaumont, whose thirteenth birthday has revealed her "savvy"--a magical power unique to each member of her family--just as her father is injured in a terrible accident
A wrinkle in time by Madeleine L'Engle - Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government
The lion, the witch, and the wardrobe by C.S. Lewis - Four English schoolchildren find their way through the back of a wardrobe into the magic land of Narnia and assist Aslan, the golden lion, to triumph over the White Witch
The Borrowers by Mary Norton - A family of miniature people who live in an old country house cleverly "borrow" the things which they need
The lightning thief by Rick Riordan - After learning that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea, Percy Jackson is transferred from boarding school to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods
The Fog diver by Joel Ross - In this futuristic high-stakes adventure, humanity clings to cities on the highest mountain peaks above the deadly Fog, and airships transport the pirates of the skies
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Grade 5 - Historical Fiction

The ballad of Lucy Whipple by Karen Cushman - In 1849, twelve-year-old California Morning Whipple, who renames herself Lucy, is distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a rough California mining town
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The door in the wall by Marguerite de Angeli - A crippled boy in fourteenth-century England proves his courage and earns recognition from the King
Bandit's moon by Sid Fleischman - Twelve-year-old Annyrose relates her adventures with Joaquín Murieta and his band of outlaws in the California gold-mining region during the mid-1800s
Inside out & back again by Thanhha Lai - Through a series of poems, a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama
Echo : a novel by Pam Muñoz Ryan - Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica--and decades later three children find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny
All-of-a-kind family by Sydney Taylor - Portrays the joys and troubles of five high-spirited Jewish sisters as they grow up in New York City
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Grade 5 - Humorous

NERDS : National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society by Michael Buckley - Five unpopular misfits combine their enhanced abilities and use cutting-edge gadgetry to fight evil around the world
Frindle by Andrew Clements - When he decides to turn his fifth grade teacher's love of the dictionary around on her, clever Nick Allen invents a new word and begins a chain of events that quickly moves beyond his control
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Matilda by Roald Dahl - When Matilda is attacked by the Trunchbull she suddenly discovers she has a remarkable power with which to fight back
The great brain by John D. Fitzgerald - Describes the exploits of the Great Brain of Adenville, Utah in the words of his younger brother, frequently the victim of the Great Brain's schemes for gaining prestige and money
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald - From her upside-down house, the eccentric Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle issues to parents her marvelous cures for such common children's diseases as Won't-Put-Away-Toys-itis, Answerbackism, and Fighter-Quarrelitis
Homer Price by Robert McCloskey - Six episodes in the life of Homer Price including one in which he and his pet skunk capture four bandits and another about a donut machine on the rampage
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers - A thirteen-year-old girl gains a much more sympathetic understanding of her relationship with her mother when she has to spend a day in her mother's body
My life as a book by Janet Tashjian - Dubbed a "reluctant reader" by his teacher, twelve-year-old Derek spends summer vacation learning important lessons even though he does not complete his summer reading list
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett - When seemingly unrelated and strange events start to happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, eleven-year-olds Petra and Calder combine their talents to solve an international art scandal
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The fairy-tale detectives by Michael Buckley - Orphans Sabrina and Daphne Grimm are sent to live with an eccentric grandmother that they have always believed to be dead
The name of this book is secret by Pseudonymous Bosch - Two eleven-year-old misfits try to solve the mystery of a dead magician and stop the evil Dr. L and Ms. Mauvais, who are searching for the secret of immortality
Spy school by Stuart Gibbs - Twelve-year-old Ben Ripley leaves his public middle school to attend the CIA's highly secretive Espionage Academy, which everyone is told is an elite science school
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's library by Chris Grabenstein - Twelve-year-old Kyle gets to stay overnight in the new town library, designed by the famous gamemaker Luigi Lemoncello but finds that he must work with friends to solve puzzles in order to escape
The mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart - After passing a series of mind-bending tests, four children are selected for a secret mission that requires them to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened
The Penderwicks : a summer tale of four sisters, two rabbits, and a very interesting boy by Jeanne Birdsall - Four lovable sisters, ages four through twelve, share adventures with a local boy, much to the dismay of his snobbish mother
Out of my mind by Sharon M. Draper - Considered by many to be mentally retarded, a brilliant, impatient fifth-grader with cerebral palsy discovers a technological device that will allow her to speak for the first time
Joey Pigza swallowed the key by Jack Gantos - To the constant disappointment of his mother and his teachers, Joey has trouble paying attention or controlling his mood swings when his prescription meds wear off and he starts acting wired
The season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon - Caleb Franklin and his younger brother, Bobby Gene, spend an extraordinary summer with their new, older neighbor, Styx Malone, a foster boy from the city
Merci Suárez changes gears by Meg Medina - Merci Suárez begins the sixth grade and knows things will change, but she did not count on her grandfather acting strangely, not fitting in at her private school, and dealing with Edna Santos' jealousy
Wonder by R.J. Palacio - Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan
The great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson - An eleven-year-old foster child tries to cope with her longings and fears as she schemes against everyone who tries to be friendly
The higher power of Lucky by Susan Patron - Fearing that her legal guardian plans to abandon her to return to France, ten-year-old aspiring scientist Lucky Trimble determines to run away
Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan - Twelve-year-old genius and outsider Willow Chance must figure out how to connect with other people and find a surrogate family for herself after her parents are killed in a car accident
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin - Ten-year-old Rebecca goes to live with her spinster aunts, one harsh and demanding, the other soft and sentimental, with whom she spends seven difficult but rewarding years growing up
Front desk by Kelly Yang - Ten-year-old Mia Tang's parents are recent immigrants from China and desperate for work and money. When they take a job managing a rundown motel in Southern California, Mia works the front desk and tries to cope