Rising Fifth Grade Summer Reading List for School Year 2020-21
Mandatory Book for all rising fifth graders this summer to discuss at the beginning of the year:
Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler E.L. Konigsburg Level S Bored with her life, twelve-year-old Claudia Kincaid is ready for a big change. In fact, she wants to run away from home. But she doesn't like discomfort. She doesn't even like picnics. So an old-fashioned, knapsack kind of running away is out of the question. Instead of running from somewhere, she decides to run to somewhere, some place comfortable, and preferably beautiful. Where else, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City? Fare on the train from the suburbs takes three weeks of skipping hot fudge sundaes. Taking Jamie, the second youngest of her three brothers, the quiet one with the largest cache of money with her, Claudia's life is immediately changed in a big way. Nights she and Jamie take baths in one of the museum's fountains and they sleep in royal beds in the museum's collection, despite the "Please do not step on the platform" sign. Every day they check out by 4:30 and reenter the museum around the back at 5:30. To remain inconspicuous, Claudia and Jamie join school- group tours by day, and when the museum closes, stand on the toilets in the bathroom stalls out of view from the guards checking for strays. But she and Jamie's vacation from their "real" life turns into an adventure when Angel, a sculpture rumored to have been carved by Michelangelo, arrives. Will they solve a mystery that even the experts can't solve?
Suggested Reading List:
On Grade Level
Frindle Andrew Clements Level R Fifth grader Nick Allen knows just how to make school more cool. In third grade, he transformed Miss Deaver's room into a tropical paradise with some paper palm trees and a sandy beach. In fourth grade, he taught his classmates to mimic the high-pitched calls of blackbirds. But now, in fifth grade, clever Nick has come up with his most ingenious idea yet. After learning about the origins of words, he decides to change the word "pen" to "frindle." At first, it seems like a harmless prank, a way to annoy his dictionary-obsessed teacher. Then the whole class starts using the new word, and the joke spreads across town like wildfire. Suddenly Nick finds himself in the middle of a media frenzy over "frindle." Will Nick emerge from the controversy a troublemaker or a hero?
Shiloh Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Level R
When 11-year-old Marty Preston finds a young beagle up in the hills behind his home near Friendly, West Virginia, he is convinced that the poor pup is in trouble. Certain that the dog is being abused by his owner, Judd Travers, Marty names him "Shiloh" and immediately feels that he will do anything to save the dog from further harm. When the dog runs away from Judd to Marty's house, Marty is faced with a number of ethical dilemmas: Should he tell his parents? Should he return the dog to the abusive Judd? Should he steal food to feed the mistreated pup? Marty finds that there is a fine line between telling the truth and lying by omission. He struggles to stand on the principles he knows are right, even if they go against the law. As Marty's half-truths begin to pile up, however, the villainous Judd comes closer and closer to finding Shiloh, who Marty has hidden in the woods. Then when Marty discovers that Judd is poaching, he blackmails him and makes a deal to work for Judd to pay for the dog, but this is not what he tells his parents. In the end, readers will rejoice when Marty and Shiloh are allowed to be together.
The One and Only Ivan Katherine Applegate, Patricia Castelao Level S
Inspired by the true story of a gorilla who spent 30 years alone in a cage at an indoor zoo in a mall, this beautiful book imagines what that gorilla might have felt and said about his life. Ivan does not dwell on his memories as does his friend Stella, an elderly elephant in the cage next door. Still, he remembers his life with his family in the jungle, the death of his sister, and his early days being raised by Max, the owner of the animal show. He also has memories from his long, lonely interment with only a television, a stuffed animal, and a stray dog who sneaks into his concrete cage to sleep on his chest for company. Ivan loves to paint. He can remember making designs on his mother's back as a young ape, and now Max sells the pictures that Ivan creates each day. The custodian's daughter also loves to paint and shares her supplies with Ivan, giving him new ways to express his experiences. Yet life at the animal show is becoming increasingly distressing. Stella has an infection on her foot that Max ignores because he is low on money. When he purchases a baby elephant to revive interest in the show, both Stella and Ivan are concerned about how he is treating this gentle youngster. Encouraged by Bob, the stray dog, and inspired by Stella, Ivan begins to imagine rescuing not only the baby elephant but himself. Perhaps his painting is the key. Maybe he can use it to change the animals' lives forever. These unforgettable characters overflow with pain and love in an ultimately hopeful story about the healing power of art.
Medium:
The Lion Witch and Wardrobe C.S. Lewis Level T Air-raids over London during WWII compel four siblings, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy to be sent away from the city to the house of a kindly but remote Professor "who lived in the heart of the country." There is much to discover in the country: woods, mountains, owls, eagles, maybe even hawks and snakes. But the children will soon discover that the Professor's large house, staffed by three servants, holds even more mystery. It is a house filled with unexpected places, including a room which holds nothing but a large wardrobe, which Lucy opens one rainy day, never dreaming that the wardrobe is a passageway into Narnia. A once peaceful world inhabited by Fauns, Dwarves, Giants, and Talking Beasts, Narnia has been frozen into perpetual winter by the fiendish White Witch who rules over it. Before long, Edmund steps into the wardrobe, and, in spite of himself, into Narnia, where he has a chilling encounter with the seductive White Witch. Soon, all of the children become embroiled in an adventure that includes themes of betrayal, forgiveness, death, and rebirth. This is the first installment of C.S. Lewis' renowned series, The Chronicles of Narnia. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, first published in 1950, has been enchanting the hearts and imaginations of millions for generations, with its story of four siblings who, with the help of a Lion named Aslan, must overcome their own failings to become heroes of a better world.
The Liberation of Gabriel King K.L. Going Level T Gabriel King was a born chicken. He's afraid of spiders, corpses, loose cows, and just about everything related to the fifth grade. Gabe's best friend, Frita Wilson, thinks Gabe needs some liberating from his fears. Frita knows something about being brave: She's the only black kid in school in a town with an active Ku Klux Klan. Together Gabe and Frita are going to spend the summer of 1976 facing down the fears on Gabe's list. But it turns out that Frita has her own list, and while she's helping Gabe confront his fears, she's avoiding the thing that scares her the most.
The Big Field Mike Lupica Level U
Fourteen-year-old Hutch feels threatened when Darryl becomes the shortstop and Hutch is relegated to second base. He tries to work through his insecurities about both Darryl and his remote and silent father, who was once a great ballplayer too.
Reach Books:
When You Reach Me Rebecca Stead Level V When You Reach Me follows a sixth-grade protagonist, Miranda. She lives with her single mother who has a kindhearted boyfriend, Richard. Miranda's best friend Sal, whom she knew since she was a small child, had recently started ignoring Miranda after he had been punched in the stomach by another boy, Marcus.
Holes Louis Sachar Level V
This winner of the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award features Stanley Yelnats, a kid who 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 warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime, punishment, and redemption.
Maniac Magee Jerry Spinelli Level W He wasn't born with the name Maniac Magee. He came into this world named Jeffrey Lionel Magee, but when his parents died and his life changed, so did his name. And Maniac Magee became a legend. Even today kids talk about how fast he could run; about how he hit an inside-the-park "frog" homer; how no knot, no matter how snarled, would stay that way once he began to untie it. But the thing Maniac Magee is best known for is what he did for the kids from the East Side and those from the West Side. He was special all right, and this is his story, and it's a story that is very careful not to let the facts get mixed up with the truth.
Hoot Carl Hiaasen Level W Roy Eberhardt is new to his small Florida community of Coconut Cove. Unfortunately, Roy's first acquaintance in Florida is Dana Matherson, a well-known bully. Then again, if Dana hadn't been sinking his thumbs into Roy's temples and mashing his face against the school-bus window, Roy might never have spotted the running boy. And the running boy is intriguing: he was running away from the school bus, carried no books, and here's the odd part, he wore no shoes. Sensing a mystery, Roy sets himself on the boy's trail. The chase introduces him to potty-trained alligators, a fake-fart champion, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes with unnaturally sparkling tails.
The Lightening Thief Rick Riordan Level W
Percy Jackson has ADHD, dyslexia, and a taste for trouble, so he's stuck going to a private school in upstate New York for hard-to-handle kids. If he doesn't get his life into shape, this could be the sixth school he's expelled from. Then one day, Percy's world is turned upside down. His math teacher turns into a terrifying monster who tries to kill him, he finds out his best friend is half human and half goat, and he discovers the truth behind the father he never knew: his father is the Greek god Poseidon. Now Percy is on his way to yet another school, a training camp for half-bloods on Long Island, where he finds himself at the center of a fierce battle between Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades. If he can find Zeus's missing lightning bolt within ten days, disaster will be averted. But can he do it? Follow Percy's mythic adventures as he travels from this world to the Underworld to Mount Olympus in a heart-pounding modern odyssey that was a #1 New York Times bestseller.