Suggested Summer Reading
for 4th and 5th Grade
Series:
Cleary
McDonald
McKissack
Scieszka
Sobol
Various authors
Various authors
Various authors
Ramona
Judy Moody, Stink
Scraps of Time
Time Warp Trio
Encyclopedia Brown
39 Clues
Dear America
American Girl
Fiction and picture books:
Adler
Cam Jansen: the Mystery of the Gold Coins – Cam Jansen
accidentally discovers two gold coins while searching for her
missing science project.
Birney
Friendship According to Humphrey – Observations of life in a
classroom shared by the classroom pet – a hamster named
Humphrey.
Byars
Black Tower - Herculeah Jones gets involved in dangerous
mystery when she goes to visit old Mr. Shivers Hunt, resident
of the forbidding Hunt House.
Cole
Food Chain Frenzy - Arnold is not happy when his class goes on a
food chain field trip the day his cousin Janet comes to school
with him.
Christopher Catch That Pass - Jim can be the star linebacker on the team if
he can only conquer his fear of being tackled.
Creech
Love That Dog – Jack overcomes his doubts about writing
poetry as he writes about his feelings for his beloved dog.
Curtis
Watsons Go To Birmingham – 1963 - The ordinary routines of
the Watsons, an African-American family living in Flint,
Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit
Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
DiCamillo
Because of Winn-Dixie – When ten-year-old India Opal
befriends a big, ugly dog her feelings about her move to a small
town in Florida drastically change.
Draper
Buried Bones Mystery - After the neighborhood basketball
court is vandalized, Ziggy and his friends form a club called the
Black Dinosaurs and build a clubhouse in Ziggy’s backyard where
they discover some buried bones.
Farmer
Casey Jones’s Fireman: the Story of Sim Webb – Sim follows
his engineer's order to increase the train's power so that the
mysterious whistle blows even though he knows it is very
dangerous.
Hoffman
Boundless Grace – Grace is invited to visit her father and his
new family in Africa.
Kadohata
The Best Dog In Viet Nam – A young soldier’s experiences with
his dog in Viet Nam.
McKissack
The Dark Thirty: Southern Tales of the
Supernatural - A collection of ghost stories
with African American themes, designed to
be told during the dark-thirty--the half hour
before sunset--when ghosts seem all too believable.
O’Donnell
Blackbeard’s Sword: The Pirate King of the Carolinas –
When members of the Royal Navy decide to capture
Blackbeard they fear they may get trapped.
Polacco
Thank you, Mr. Falker – Trish’s trouble with learning to read
makes her feel dumb until she gets a new teacher who helps her
understand and overcome her problem.
Roy
Fireworks at the FBI - KC and her friend Marshall help the FBI
solve the mystery of who hacked into the witness-protection
program.
Sachar
Sideways Stories From the Wayside School – humorous stories
about the wacky characters at the Wayside School
Non-Fiction
Aliki
Fossils Tell of Long Ago - Explains how fossils are formed and
what they tell us about the past.
Braun
Booker T. Washington: Great Educator – His life told in a
graphic format.
Gikow
Extreme Sports: a Chapter Book – Tells about extreme sports
such as motocross and skateboarding, and about noted athletes
who participate in
Them.
Hubbard
Catching the Moon: the Story of a Young Girl’s Baseball Dream
- A picture book biography about an event in the childhood of
African American baseball player Marcenia "Toni Stone" Lyle
Alberga, the woman who broke baseball's gender barrier by
becoming the first female roster member of a professional
Negro League team.
Johnston
Dealing with Anger - A discussion of anger, including
suggestions for ways to deal with it directly, turn it into
something productive, and avoid its destructiveness.
Kuklin
How My Family Lives in America – A view of multicultural
traditions practiced in the United States.
Palotta
Hershey’s Chocolate Multiplication Book – Basics of
multiplication demonstrated with photographs of chocolate
bars.
Pfeffer
Dolphin Talk: Whistles, Clicks, and Clapping Jaws – Describes
the extraordinary way in which dolphins communicate with each
other.
Rau
History of the Computer – How the invention of the computer
and continuing advancements in computer technology have
changed our lives.