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Students Entering Grade 5: Summer Reading List 

Entering Grade 5

  • Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
    Jess Aaron and Leslie Burke become inseparable friends during fifth grade.. It doesn't matter to Jess that Leslie dresses funny, or that her family has a lot of money -- but no TV. Leslie has imagination. Together, she and Jess create Terabithia, a magical kingdom in the woods where the two of them reign as king and queen, and their imaginations set the only limits. Then one morning a terrible tragedy occurs. Only when Jess is able to come to grips with this tragedy does he finally understand the strength and courage Leslie has given him.
     

  • Extra Credit (2009) by Andrew Clements                                                                                                                                                 Abby will have to repeat sixth grade—unless she meets some specific conditions, including taking on an extra credit project: find a pen pal in a distant country. But when Abby’s first letter arrives at a small school in Afghanistan, complications arise. Letters flow back and forth between the prairies of Illinois and the mountains of central Asia, across cultural and religious divides, through the minefields of different lifestyles and traditions.
     

  • Finding Langston by Lisa Cline-Ransom
    When 11-year-old Langston's father moves them from their home in Alabama to Chicago's Bronzeville district, it feels like he's giving up everything he loves. It's 1946. Langston's mother has just died, and now they're leaving the rest of his family and friends. As Langston struggles to adjust to his new home, he discovers the welcoming Chicago Public Library. There, hiding out after school, Langston discovers another Langston--a poet whom he learns inspired his mother enough to name her only son after him.
     
  • Holes by Louis Sachar
    Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes, five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth is this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment--and redemption.
     
  • Invisible by Christina Diaz Gonzalez
    Some people see them as all the same . . . just five Spanish-speaking kids.  But stuck together when they're forced to complete their school's community service hours, they're sure they have nothing in common.  Then they meet someone who truly needs their help, and they must decide whether they are each willing to expose their own secrets to help . . . or if remaining invisible is the only way to survive middle school.
     

  • The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste                                                                                                                                                              Corrine La Mer claims she isn't afraid of jumbies. They're just tricksters made up by parents to frighten their children. Then one night she sees shining yellow eyes follow her to the edge of the forest. They couldn't belong to a jumbie...Or could they? When a stranger named Severine comes to town, danger is in the air. Corinne must call on her courage and her friends and learn to use ancient magic she didn't know she possessed to stop Severine and to save her island home from the jumbies.       
                                                                    
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
    They open a door and enter a world: Narnia...a land frozen in eternal winter...a country waiting to be set free. Four adventurers step through a wardrobe door and into the land of Narnia--a land enslaved by the power of the White Witch. But when almost all hope is lost, the return f the Great Lion, Aslan, signals a great change...and a great sacrifice.
     
  • Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The LIghtning Thief  (or others in the Percy Jackson series) by Rick Riordan
    Mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking out of the pages of twelve-year-old Percy Jackson's textbooks and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Now, he and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus.
      

  • Save me a Seat by Sarah Weeks
    Joe and Ravi might be from very different places, but they're both stuck in the same place: SCHOOL. Joe's lived in the same town all his life, and was doing just fine until his best friends moved away and left him on his own. Ravi's family just moved to America from India, and he's finding it pretty hard to figure out where he fits in. Joe and Ravi don't think they have anything in common — but soon enough they have a common enemy (the biggest bully in their class) and a common mission: to take control of their lives over the course of a single crazy week.
     
  • Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers by Cecia C. Perez
    When three very different girls find a mysterious invitation to a lavish mansion, the promise of adventure and mischief is too intriguing to pass up. Ofelia Castillo (a budding journalist), Aster Douglas (a bookish foodie), and Cat Garcia (a rule-abiding birdwatcher) meet the kid behind the invite, Lane DiSanti, and it isn't love at first sight. But they soon bond over a shared mission to get the Floras, their local Scouts, to ditch an outdated tradition.
     
  • Stuntboy in the Meantime by Jason Reynolds                                                                                                   
    Portico Reeves's superpower is making sure all the other superheroes—like his parents and two best friends—stay super. And safe. Super safe. And he does this all in secret. No one in his civilian life knows he's actually...Stuntboy! But all this responsibility, plus his parents fighting all the time, gives Portico the worry wiggles, the frets, which his mom calls anxiety. Plus, like all superheroes, Portico has an arch-nemesis who is determined to prove that there is nothing super about Portico at all.
     
  • Unplugged by Gordon Korman
    As the son of the world's most famous tech billionaire, spoiled Jett Baranov has always gotten what he wanted - until he is forced to "unplug" at a wellness camp in the middle of the Arkansas wilderness. As the weeks go on, Jett starts to get used to the unplugged life bond with the other kids. But he can't help noticing that the adults at the Oasis are acting really strange. Jett is determined to get to the bottom of things, but can he convince everybody that he is no longer just a spoiled brat who is making trouble?
     
  • What Was...? Book Series by various authors  Click here for a list of titles in the series.                                                                 The What Was...? series offers informative accounts of key historical and current events. Each topic is brought to life with photos and illustrations that capture the reader's interest and imagination.
     
  • Where Is...? Book Series by various authors Click here for a list of titles in the series.                  
    From historical landmarks to natural wonders, the Where Is...? series goes on a world tour through our globe's most exciting places. These books contain maps and plenty of vivid detail to enable readers to travel to these fascinating destinations in their minds.
     
  • Wish by Barbara O'Connor
    Eleven-year-old Charlie Reese has been making the same secret wish every day since fourth grade. But when she is sent to North Carolina to live with family she barely knows, it seems unlikely that her wish will ever come true. That is, until she meets Wishbone, a skinny stray dog who captures her heart, and Howard, a neighbor boy who proves surprising in lots of ways. Suddenly Charlie is in serious danger of discovering that what she thought she wanted may not be what she needs at all.

If you are having difficulty finding and acquiring a text for summer reading, please click here to email Lori Jolley in the Curriculum Department.