5th Grade Reading List

Books for 5th Grade

By Author Last Name
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

If you need help finding these titles or want to know about other good books, just ask your librarian.

JF Appelt*	The Underneath
	In this southern ballad of the bayou, nature has many layers -- some kind, some cruel, some past, some present. It all comes together under a mean man's porch where a loving family forms between three lonely cats and an abused hound.
JF Applegate	Home of the Brave
	Kek immigrates from his war-torn home in the Sudan in Africa to snow-covered Minnesota. But everything in America is different, and Kek must adapt to new friends, new food and a new life — while not forgetting Africa and the missing mother he left behind.
JF Arnosky	Pirates of Crocodile Swamp
	Brothers, Sandy and Jake, are kidnapped and driven to Florida by their abusive father who is fleeing the murder of their mother. Finding a chance to escape, they run away to Crocodile Swamp to become pirates and live off the land.
JF Beck	The Secret History of Tom Trueheart
	Tom's six older brothers are missing in the Land of Stories and now Tom must set out on a dangerous mission to discover their fates.
JF Blos*	Letters From the Corrugated Castle
	The scene is Gold Rush-era California and Eldora stars in her letters describing her life in San Francisco and on her mother's rancho. Other letters from her friend, Luke, and her adoptive Aunt and Uncle tell more about the reality of the exciting but dangerous life in the mining camps.
JF Bradley	The Lacemaker and the Princess
	Eleven-year-old Isabelle comes from a family of lacemakers. While running an errand at court, she meets Marie Antoinette's daughter Princess Therese and they become close friends. But France is growing angry with King Louis XVI and his family and soon, she may not have the luxury of visiting the princess. Based on a true story of the time before the French Revolution.
JF Broach	Masterpiece
	Marvin can draw intricate pictures. When the Metropolitan Museum of Art plans to recover a stolen drawing, Marvin enlists his friend James to help him catch the thief. By the way, Marvin is a beetle.
JF Buckley*	NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society
	Jackson Jones goes from being Mr. Popular to new nerd the moment he gets braces with headgear that attracts anything magnetic. When the trophy case attaches to him, Jackson knows his life is going downhill fast.
JF Bunting	The Man with the Red Bag
	Six months after September 11, 2001, Kevin, a budding mystery writer, and his grandmother are taking a bus tour. From the moment Mr. Stavros boards the bus, Kevin is suspicious of this man who carries a red bag with him everywhere he goes.
JF Carlson	Attack of the Turtle
	In 1776, fourteen-year-old Nathan Wade wants to help the Patriots win the Revolutionary War but he's too young. Despite his fear of boats, he attempts to pilot a crude submarine that can explode bombs underwater to hurt the British fleet in New York harbor. Will Nathan's nerve and air holdout long enough to complete the mission?
JF Casanova	The Klipfish Code
	In 1942, Norway is under Nazi occupation. Every day is risky for Marit working for the Resistance with her parents. If caught, it means torture or death not only for herself but for her family and fellow townspeople. No one is safe.
JF Clements*	Extra Credit
	Never caring about her schoolwork finally catches up to Abby with the recommendation that she repeat a grade and delay going to junior high next year. Unbelievable! So to change that path it is not only going to take a lot of work, but also a special project.
JF Clements*	No Talking
	It's the boys against the girls. It's a contest and it's tough. No talking, none, for 48 hours. No talking at school, at home, on the bus. And what will the teachers do with so much silence? What about the principal — how can she yell at students who don't talk?
JF Conway	Goodbye Time
	Best friends Anna and Katie love acting, until Katie’s home life falls apart, shutting Anna out. Anna wishes for things to go back to normal.
JF Cooper	My Name is Phillis Wheatley
	Phillis is only seven when she is captured by slavers and taken to America. Her new owners teach her to read and write, amazing everyone with her talent for poetry. Becoming a published poet celebrated in Boston and England isn't enough and the American Revolution has her yearning for her own freedom.
JF Daly	Bettina Valentino and the Picasso Club
	"Mr. Popart" is the new 5th grade art teacher at Bayside Prep. He makes art cool for Bettina and her friends but not everyone likes him.
JF Delaney*	Birdbrain Amos, Mr. Fun
	Amos the hippopotamus sets off on an adventurous vacation down a river in the Serengeti, a huge African plain, in an attempt to entertain his "bored" tick bird, Amoeba, who lives on his head! Amos wants to prove that he is "Mr. Fun." The trip turns out to be unforgettable!
JF DiCamillo*	Magician's Elephant
	A fortuneteller's mysterious answer to Peter's question about whether his sister is still alive sets off a chain of adventures involving a magician, an elephant, a policeman, a blind dog and a hunchback sculptor.
JF Donovan	In Memory of Gorfman T. Frog
	It is not unusual to find a frog in a pond. It is unusual, however, for the frog to have five legs. How did that happen?
JF Edwards	Mom for Mayor
	Eric Clark can't believe the park near his house is up for sale. It's all the mayor's idea to make money. But what can a kid do? Maybe he could get his mom elected mayor!
JF Elish	Attack of the Frozen Woodchucks
	No one believes it when he tells them that giant woodchucks from outer-space are attacking the planet, so it is up to Jimmy to embark on an inter-galactic mission to save the world!
JF Fan	Swordbird
	Can the mythical Swordbird arrive in time to save the woodland birds from the evil hawk warlord?
JF Fitzmaurice	Year the Swallows Came Early
	When Groovy Robinson's father is sent to jail, everything in her life stops going exactly as she has planned, and her dreams of becoming a chef are dashed.
JF George*	Cats of Roxville Station
	There is a whole social network that cats must learn in order to survive in the wild. Ratchet learns this after being thrown from a bridge and left to drown.
JF Giff*	Wild Girl
	Lidie is a wild girl who rides horses and lives in Brazil. When she comes to New York to join her father and brother, she has a hard time adjusting to her new life at the stable, and so does a young filly named Wild Girl.
JF Green*	Baseball Great
	Josh joins an elite kids' baseball team coached by his dad's boss, Rocky. Practices are brutal and the team hates him. Josh thinks Rocky is giving steroids to kids and wants to take him down, but what if his dad is guilty, too?
JF Gutman*	Getting Air
	Jimmy: Hotshot teen skateboarder. Mrs. Herschel: 80-year old "extreme" knitter. So, what do they have in common? Neither one has great survival skills — and now the plane they are on has been hijacked and crashes in a thick forest.
JF Gutman*	Nightmare at the Bookfair
	"Dink" Dinkleman HATES to read, until he gets a knock on the head while helping at the book fair and finds himself inside of books having some weird adventures!
JF Haddix*	Found
	The first note says "You are one of the missing" and the second note says "Beware! They're coming back to get you." Why are Jonah and his new friend Chip getting the same anonymous warnings, and why does the FBI have classified information about Jonah's adoption?
JF Hahn	Deep and Dark and Dangerous
	While looking through an old box her mother had brought home from her grandmother's five years ago, Ali finds an old torn photograph. Why did her mother keep this box and never open it? Why won't her mother tell her who is in the picture? Then Ali meets Sissy, a spiteful girl who keeps talking about Tessa — who drowned, mysteriously, many years ago and was never found.
JF Harrar	The Wonder Kid
	No matter what Jesse does, he can't seem to please his father. Bedridden with polio he creates his own comic book superhero "The Wonder Kid" — a brave, strong, smart boy who is everything Jesse longs to be.
JF Henkes	Bird Lake Moon
	When Mitch's parents separate, he and his mom go to live with his grandparents at Bird Lake. He dreams about moving into the abandoned house next door until the family returns to the empty house and mysterious events begin to occur.
JF Hollyer	River Song
	Jessye, living with Nana in the Maori village in New Zealand, also spends time with her single, non-Maori mother in the city. Jessye is determined to uncover family secrets that no one is willing to tell.
JF Hood	How I Saved My Father's Life (and Ruined Everything Else)
	Madeline is convinced she's on the road to sainthood after her prayers are answered when her father is saved from an avalanche. But then he divorces her mother, moves to New York, finds a glamourous new wife, and leaves Madeline's family a mess. Now Madeline needs to come up with another miracle -- one that will fix everything fast.
JF Keep*	Truth and Salsa
	Hayley must live with her quirky grandmother in Mexico for six months, since her father just up and left her and her mom, and now her mom needs a lot of special care! San Miguel is not the beach resort she imagined, but Hayley finds adventures with her neighbor, Lili, and helps some of the migrant workers who call San Miguel their home.
JF Kehret*	Stolen Children
	Amy has no idea when she takes a simple babysitting job that it will turn into a kidnapping nightmare! She soon realizes that the kidnappers will return the young child when they get their ransom, but they have no intention of returning her.
JF Kehret*	Trapped
	Pete the Cat wonders why he's taking such a chance. He could be in his sunny spot at home right now, or looking up c-a-t words in the dictionary. Hot on an illegal trapper's trail, the horrible man has catnapped Pete — and plans to shoot him in the head. Pete has to rely on his wits — or his frantic family finding him.
	Back to Top
JF Mass	11 Birthdays
	Amanda’s eleventh birthday is terrible and she can’t wait for the day to be over. There’s just one problem. She keeps waking up in the same day! She’ll have to live the day over and over again until she gets it right.
JF McDowell	Carolina Harmony
	The year is 1964, when Carolina, forced to leave her beloved Auntie Shen's home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, seeks refuge in the old mountain ways.
JF Miller	Miss Spitfire, Reaching Helen Keller
	Annie is half-blind herself and just out of her teens. She has been hired as Helen's teacher, but six-year-old Helen has been allowed to run wild since losing her sight and hearing as a baby. To reach her, Annie will need to live up to her childhood nickname of Miss Spitfire.
JF Morrison	Wind Tamer
	Armed with a mysterious key and an ancient sword, Archie prepares to battle the tornado force that would put a curse on him forever.
JF Myers	Wart
	Wart wants to play great basketball and be a part of the popular group, and a new teacher makes it all happen. His friends are convinced the teacher used some sort of magic. He doesn't believe it.
JF Nimmo	Griffin's Castle
	Dinah is determined to do anything it takes to stop moving around and stay at the home she has named Griffin's Castle. The stone animals from the nearby castle leave their perch and come to her aid but as time passes Dinah begins to wonder who is actually in control.
JF Nitz	Saving the Griffin
	While visiting in Italy, Kate and Michael stumble upon a real baby griffin. Naming him Grifonino, they vow to help him return to his home. This is not an easy task when their secret gets out and a scientist and greedy paparazzi threaten Grifonino's safety.
JF O'Connor	Greetings From Nowhere
	Aggie isn't expecting anyone to need a room at the rundown motel she has lived in for the last forty years. Then along comes Kirby and his mother who need a room because their car has broken down, a family on an adventure, and a man and his lonely daughter.
JF O'Connor	How to Steal a Dog
	Georgina knows they need money to be able to quit living in their car, so she comes up with a plan to steal a dog and collect the reward money.
JF Paratore	Mack McGinn's Big Win
	Mack McGinn and his family always win. Now they are playing in the big league — living, working and competing in Avalon, the most exclusive neighborhood in town. Mack tries his best to fit in, but when it comes time to decide what is really important and true, Mack makes his biggest triumph yet.
JF Pearsall	All Shook Up
	If you think your parents are embarrassing, consider yourself lucky. You can be ME and be absolutely mortified at having a Dad who does Elvis impersonations as his "real job." Did I also mention that I'm in middle school and I happen to be the "new kid" trying to fit in?
JF Priestley*	Tales of Terror from the Black Ship
	One dark and stormy night, Ethan and his younger sister are taken ill and their father goes to town to get the doctor. A stranger comes knocking and the children let him in. While they wait for their father to return, the stranger regales them with deliciously scary tales of the sea.
JF Primavera*	The Secret Order of the Gumm Street Girls
	The only thing the girls on Gumm Street have in common is that they all hate each other — until they discover a pair of ruby slippers, and must join forces to keep them away from the sinister Cha-Cha, who resembles a certain wicked witch!
JF Runholt	The Mystery of the Third Lucretia
	It's not unusual to see an artist in a museum copying a famous work of art, but it's suspicious when Kari and Lucas see the same guy in three different museums copying another Rembrandt painting.
JF Salisbury*	Night of the Howling Dogs
	Dylan is heading to Hawaii for a weekend of camping with his boy scout troop. Unfortunately, Louie, the oldest and scariest member, is coming. Dylan has already had an encounter with Louie, long before now. Disaster strikes and Dylan must rely on very unlikely sources to survive.
JF Schwartz	4 Kids in 5E & 1 Crazy Year
	Too many kids and not enough classrooms are how Giovanni, Destiny, Willie and Maximo all end up in room 5E. Their teacher, Miss Hill, has some sneaky ways of getting them to write about themselves. All of them will see some big changes in their lives this year.
JF Seidler*	Gully's Travels
	Gulliver, a Lhasa Apso, loves New York and his cultured life with Professor Rattigan. Every year he travels to Paris. Then one day he discovers something has happened to his master while he is left in Queens.
JF Selznick	The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures
	Orphaned Hugo believes that if he fixes the robot, the robot will write down the message his father left for him. But what about the grumpy old toymaker that hires Hugo to work in the toyshop? How come he knows about the robot?
JPB Sherman	Triple Chocolate Brownie Genius
	Michael's not the typical popular school president — he's a slacker and orders pizza for the cafeteria three times a week. When he eats one of his mom's brownies and a nanochip loaded with information, he suddenly becomes the most hated school president and a genius.
JF Snyder*	William S. and the Great Escape
	Their older brothers flush Jancy's guinea pig down the toilet. Using the running-away money that William has carefully saved, and taking their two youngest siblings with them, Jancy decides it is time to run away from their abusive family.
JF Spinelli	Eggs
	David can see the Easter egg from far away, and even though he didn't want to take part in the hunt, he wants at least one egg. As he gets closer, he sees that the egg is on top of a pile of leaves, and under those leaves lays a girl, and on that girl's mouth rests the egg. As he takes the egg he asks her, "Are you dead, yet?"
JF Stanley*	The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy
	Franny is an average girl at a special boarding school full of perfect students. But when her grades and looks mysteriously improve and her behavior changes until she isn't quite herself anymore, Franny investigates to find out how this is happening.
JF Stewart	The Mysterious Benedict Society
	Because four children, Stinky, Reynie, Kate and Constance, pass several tests, they are given the opportunity to meet Mr. Benedict. Their mission is to save the world. Calling themselves the Mysterious Benedict Society, the children enter the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened to foil an attempt to brainwash the world.
JF Stone	Deep Down Popular
	Jessie Lou's dream has finally come true! She is best friends with the once super-popular Conrad. Will they still be friends when his leg is cured?
JF Tarshis	Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree
	Even though logic is what seems to rule in quirky Emma-Jean's life, she does have a kind heart that wants to fix the problems of others. She means well, but treats friendship and social interactions with a scientific analysis that makes seventh grade seem like a simple math equation...but perhaps it should be viewed from another angle.
JF Urban	Crooked Kind of Perfect
	Zoe Elias has big plans to become a child prodigy like Vladimir Horowitz. One problem: she doesn’t have a piano. When her dad buys a brand new organ, the Perfectone D-60, her dreams change.
JF Weatherill	Wild Magic
	Mari and her brother Jacob along with all of the children of Hamelin follow the Pied Piper into the mountain of wild magic where they will remain until the Beast is released from his spell.
JF Wedekind	A Horse of Her Own
	Jane is the only girl at summer camp who doesn't have her own horse. When Beau, her favorite school horse, is sold, Jane fears her chances of winning the summer competition are gone forever.
JF Whelan*	Locked Garden
	In the summer of 1900, Verna and Carlie move with their father to live on the grounds of a towering asylum so he can treat the mentally ill. Even under the watchful eye of their aunt, the girls find adventure, mystery, and a beautiful locked garden.
JF White*	Little Audrey
	On a golden day in May, Little Audrey's life changes forever. Life in the small coal mining camp has always been hard for Audrey, her three sisters, and especially their mother. And it only gets worse before their life can be better.
JF Wiles	Aurora County All-Stars
	In Aurora County, only ONE baseball game matters: the annual contest between the All-Stars and the Raleigh Redbugs, which just happens to be scheduled at the exact same time as the once-in-a-lifetime pageant celebrating Aurora County's 200th Independence Anniversary.
JF Wilson	100 Cupboards
	Henry's parents are kidnapped and he is sent to live with his crazy Aunt and Uncle. He discovers that one wall in his attic room is covered with cupboards that lead to other worlds.
JF Zimmer	42 Miles
	JoEllen lives in two worlds separated by 42 miles — a city girl when living with her father and a country girl when living on a farm with her mother.
*Try other books by this author too!

Compiled by Santa Clara County Library
Children's Services Librarians
2008-2010

Return to Kids' Booklists