Ok, folks. Give me your suggestions for 5th grade recommended reading.
Yes, I’ve read the many lists on the Internet. I don’t want those lists. Don’t link me to those lists. I want what’s on your lists.
What are your must-reads for a 5th grader? Captain Science is an avid reader, he’s fairly well-read for his age, and his reading ability is probably on a high school level or so. We’ve missed out on a lot of those classics, though, and I want him to have those before the year is over.
Here are some I can think of off the top of my head:
Where the Red Fern Grows
My Side of the Mountain
Hatchet
A Secret Garden
Bridge to Terabithia
Indian in the Cupboard
Island of the Blue Dolphins
The Westing Game
Shiloh (he likes books about dogs)
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Chronicles of Narnia
Silverwing series
Gregor the Overlander series
The Golden Compass series
(we like series’…)
(Ever try to pluralize “series”?? It looks weird, no matter what I do and I haven’t had enough coffee to care.)
He’s read and loved Narnia. I worry about some of the darker aspects of the Golden Compass series, though I don’t know if Captain S would find it as troubling as I did. I haven’t read the Overlander or Silverwing series, but I’ll check those out!
Is Lord of the Rings anywhere near his level?
I always loved those, I think I read them in 6th grade or so.
If not not, then very soon. I’m going to have him read The Hobbit this year and go from there.
Black Stallion Series
If he likes mysteries, The Hardy Boys. They may be a bit easier for him, but good relaxing reading.
Narnia series
Lord of the Rings
Oliver Twist
I loved the Walter Farley books and own several! Maybe I’ll have him read The Black Stallion next.
Lydia liked…
Walter Farley books (The Black Stallion)
The Sign of the Beaver
The Hobbit
Treasure Island (actually I think this was 4th but still a great book)
Stickeen by John Muir (a dog book)
Call of the Wild (7th grade level but since he reads so well….)
Lydia loved My Side of the Mountain and Hatchet!
I remember really enjoying The Sign of the Beaver. I think he might have read Treasure Island, as we had a collection of classics Nana bought for him. Call of the Wild definitely belongs on there! White Fang, too.
If Liam needs online buddies to discuss Westing Game with let me know. I bet you could get a dozen mama age people to have a book club with him.
I was so upset I couldn’t convince William to read that. He said there were too many people to keep track of. 
A series is nice because if he likes the first one he can continue, if not he can move to something else.
Wrinkle in Time
Book of Three
Dragonwings
Warriors by Erin Hunter (I haven’t read these myself as they were pleasure reading)
Also
Martian Chronicles
Ben and Me (a little easy but it’s a nice alternate view on history)
Treasure Island
Does William have an email address? Maybe he and Liam could become pen pals!
He doesn’t have his own email. Plus he’d be an awful pen pal. He doesn’t really see the point of conversing with others most of the time.
The Westing Game is my most favorite book EVER. I got my daughter to read it this past week finally. I love love love that book!
Here’s my tentative list for Ari. I have no idea how many he’ll read this year, but I’m just making a running list of everything I think of. Actually, this isn’t the running list. This is what I’ve put in order so far. Some of the stuff is there because it coordinates with SOTW 1, but most of it is just…there:
Tuck Everlasting
Boy of the Painted Cave
Summerland
My Side of the Mountain
Tales of Ancient Egypt
The View From Saturday
The Golden Goblet
I, Robot
The Egypt Game
The Giver
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
Miranda the Great
The View from Saturday
Have Spacesuit, Will Travel
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Edgar Allen Poe tories
The Bat Poet
Tales from Africa
Homesick
Sherlock Holmes stories
I devoured about every Newbery award winner I could at that age. My school library had a poster of the winners and some runners-up and I consulted it to find new books
The best books I read in 5th grade were the Lord of the Rings, but I read those sneakily under the table when I was supposed to be doing other work.
I do remember starting to cry when Gandalf died, and then not being able to explain to my teacher what was wrong ’cause I wasn’t supposed to be reading then.
These are the books I read in child lit, so they’ll probably be interesting for him.
Tales of Brother’s Grimm
Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass
The Jungle Book
Huck Finn
Anne of Green Gables
Wind in the Willows
Peter Pan
Sword in the Stone
A Wizard of Earthsea
Silverwing
Charlotte’s Web
Tuck Everlasting
Sword in the Stone, A Wizard of Earthsea and Silverwing are each the start of a series! Here’s a few more I’d add to the list:
Gulliver’s Travels
Don Quixote
Pride and Prejudice
Tom Sawyer
Oliver Twist
Moby Dick
The Raven (poem by Edgar Allan Poe)
Has he read any E.L. Konigsburg? I know you have Island of the Blue Dolphins, but any Scott O’Dell books are good.
I love many of the suggestions above. I first read Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card at about that age. There are several Asimov short story compilations that might also be good choices, depending on taste.
On a simpler, shorter note, I love the Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman. The McBroom stories are also super short and funny… more of an afternoon read than literature, but fun with good vocabulary.
Randomly joining (I’ve been reading your blog since the secular blog thread on WTM):
Interstellar Pig
the Slave Dancer
The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be by Farley Mowat
Redwall
Sing Down the Moon
Bum Voyage (out of print travelogue written by a 10 yr old boy in 1960 who is dragged across Europe by his mother)
the Wizard Children of Finn (also out of print)
He loved Redwall!
I think Call of the Wild and Jungle Book would be good choices. The Black Stallion as well, then he could watch the movie, which was very well done. He hasn’t finished the Madeline L’Engle books either. And what about the Little House books? Sure it’s a girl, but a good read.
Any of the following authors/ series:
Madeleine L’Engle, the Time series; some of her other books are more for adults
Beverly Cleary (may be a bit on the easy side for him)
Frances Hodgson Burnett
CS Lewis (Narnia series)
Oz books by Baum
Dragons of Pern, Anne McCafferty
Tom Saywer– I’d personally hold off on Huck Finn until a little older
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry and its sequels
Judy Blume, especially Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself, the Fudge/Sheila books, and Blubber, which may be the best book written on bullying in that age group
The Once and Future King
Watership Down
Tuck Everlasting
Almost anything by Louis Sachar
Marilyn Sachs
The Anastasia series by Lois Lowry
Harry Potter series if he hasn’t already read them
Lord of the Rings if he’s up for it– maybe start with The Hobbit?
Celtic Fairy Tales and More Celtic Fairy Tales, they’re both published by Dover so cheap
Jack London
James Fenimore Cooper
Le Petit Prince in translation– or, if he’s going to do French, hold off on this one because it’s one of the first books most FSL kids do
Blackbriar
Possibly the thrillers by Lois Duncan– most of them center on ESP and aren’t especially violent, and there’s no sex in any of them
Oh, I can’t believe you’re the first one to mention Harry Potter! I think those books will be classics. Anyone else agree?
I think some people haven’t mentioned them because they know Captain S has read that series.
Oh geez, how could I forget Johnny Tremain and Swiss Family Robinson? And to read together, Oliver Twist or Great Expectations or Davy Copperfield– those are a pain in the butt for anyone to read on their own.
And again, these may be on the easier side, but anything by CS Adler or EL Koningsberg are good. As is anything on the Newbury list.
Migraine brain striking, so this may be a bit sketchy:
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
The Tom Swift books
Hardy Boys books
Encyclopedia Brown
The Chocolate War (almost anything by Robert Cromier)
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t (Judy Blume for boys!)
I <3 Madeleine L'Engle
Paul Zindel
Wow, I think almost every book I was going to mention has been covered!
The ones I didn’t see:
Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry (I think)
The Cay by Theodore Taylor
Sniper, also by Theodore Taylor–not a classic but very exciting
And then if he likes dog books, The Trouble with Tuck and Tuck Triumphant are also by Theodore Taylor. (I did a reading “thing” on Theodore Taylor in 6th grade.)
I second Scott O’Dell.
I have a 5th grade girl. Here are a few that she’s really enjoyed that I didn’t see suggested above:
Inkheart (series)
Shadow Children (series)
Lord of the Flies
If he likes Greek mythology, the Young Heroes series by Jane Yolen
If he likes pirates, True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
” adventure, Safari Adventure by Willard Price
We second:
The Redwall series
The Sword In the Stone by TH White
Swiss Family Robinson
Narnia series
The Hobbit
Treasure Island
You’re welcome to check what we did last year in ancient history or what we have planned for this year, Middle Ages: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/cahsmom
Happy reading!
Two more I thought of today at the library:
Susan Cooper’s “The Dark is Rising” series
Joan Aiken’s “Wolves of Willoughby Chase” and the rest of the series (http://www.joanaiken.com/pages/wolves_chronicals.html
Gotta reads:
Any of the old Landmark series of history books (i.e. PT109, Battle of the Bulge, etc.)
Amos Fortune, Free Man
Little Britches series
Red Badge of Courage