Recommended Chapter Books for Read Alouds
Recommended Chapter Books for Read Alouds
Sixth/Fifth Grade
1. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar. The best book I listened to all summer. We have it on CD, too with a full cast audio. Scott Hudson is an overworked freshman. His homework keeps him up all night and his gym teacher is trying to kill him. He joins the paper, runs for student council, and tries out for the play, just to be near a girl he likes. He turns out to be the least athletic sports reporter in school history. Worst of all, he finds out his mother his mother is pregnant. So he starts a journal for the unborn baby—a very sarcastic journal. I can’t remember when I’ve laughed so much.
2. Dunk also by David Lubar. We also have this on CD. This is a bit darker than the above book. The summer crowd hasn't quite arrived on the boardwalk in a Jersey shore town when Chad becomes entranced by the comments of the Bozo-the clown in the dunk tank. It occurs to him that if he can become a Bozo, then he can take out his anger on people without anyone knowing who he is. His best friend becomes seriously ill, he discovers that the irritating upstairs renter is the Bozo he admired, and the girl he has a crush on who worked on the boardwalk last summer hasn’t shown up—all these quandaries he needs to come to terms with. The voice in this novel is outstanding.
3. Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko. Twelve-year-old Moose moves to Alcatraz in 1935 so his father can work as a guard . His sister is autistic before there was a term for her condition. Moose and the rest of the kids on the island have to take a boat to the mainland to go to school. It is a time when the federal prison is home to notorious criminals like gangster Al Capone. Moose is depressed because he’s had to leave his friends behind, his father works all the time, and his mother spends all her time with his sister. Again, the novel’s voice makes it worthwhile reading, and your students will learn a little history, too.
4. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary Schmidt. This story is based on an actual occurance. In 1912, the white people destroyed an island community of blacks, whose ancestors had lived on the island for at least a hundred years. When Turner Buckminster arrives in Phippsburg, ME, it takes him only a few hours to start hating his new home. He is the son of the newly hired minister, and every mistake he makes is either commented on or reported to his father. Turner was a brilliant baseball player in Boston, but they throw the ball differently in Phippsburg, so his one strength turns to yet another weakness in the eyes of the town and the town boys bully him. He is miserable until he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, the first African American he has ever met and a resident of Malaga Island, an impoverished community settled by freed slaves. This is a very powerful book.
5. Tadpole by Ruth White. Carolina Collins, ten years old, feels like the "runt" and "nobody at all," in comparison with her three older sisters until her orphaned cousin, Tadpole, comes to stay. Running away from an uncle who beats him, Tadpole hides with Carolina’s family. Everyone in the neighborhood who meets him, finds him absolutely charming. He awakens in the sisters an appreciation for their hard-working mother, and their surroundings. This story takes place in Appalachia in the 1950’s, and will have you wishing you were related to Tadpole, too.
6. Hoot by Carl Hiasson. This was a Newbery runner-up. New kid, Roy hooks up with a teenage runaway and his sister to protect the nesting ground for burrowing owls, which are threatened by construction. I loved this book. Flush was good, too, but not as good as this book.
7. 12 Again by Sue Corbett. I wrote a test for this and the author e-mailed Judy because we were the only site in the entire universe that had a test for her book!!! Irish fairies meet the computer age in this fantasy. Patrick’s mother goes to her dead mother’s house on her 40th birthday and wishes she were younger. She awakes the next morning, and she is—she is 12, and has to go to school with her son. Another great book.
8. Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff. Another runner-up for the Newbery. Twelve-year-old foster child Hollis Woods has run away from the foster family to whom she has related. The mystery of why she left is told through flashbacks. You keep wondering why she would leave a home where she was loved and wanted. Yeah, I loved this one, too.
9. Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay. This won a bunch of awards in England. Saffy’s parents who are both painters, spend all their time in separate studios. The four children are left to themselves. Then Saffy finds out that she is actually a cousin and niece of the people she thought of as her family. Then Grandfather dies and leaves her an angel in his will—only problem is, it’s in Italy. There are two more in this series about Saffy’s siblings, Indigo’s Star and Permanent Rose.
10. Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen. The chapters in this book alternate between the hero and heroine. The girl falls in love with the boy in second grade and he totally ignores her for 6 years, and then decides that she’s not so bad, but by this time he has been such a jerk that she’s not sure she can even stand him anymore. It’s a lot better than I’m describing, and it won the School Library Journal Award.
11. No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman. The hero cannot tell a lie. So, when his teacher asks him to write a book report on the teacher’s favorite book report, our hero tells the truth—that it stinks. This leads to detention until he can write a glowing report, which he refuses to do, ultimately being the cause of the football team’s loss. The dead dogs refers to the book he was supposed to review. There aren’t actually any dead dogs in this. It is a delightful comedy.
12. A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements. New student Mark Chelmsley is branded a slacker by his science teacher. On the school’s annual “Week in the Woods” camping trip, Mark and his teacher become separated after Mark runs away and his teacher chases after him.
13. Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz. There are five books in this series. We have tests for all of them. They are about Alex Rider. He lives with his uncle, and one day he is told that his uncle has been killed in a car accident. It turns out that his uncle worked for MI5, and they now want to recruit Alex. Action-packed. The movie is coming out in October.
14. Beyond the Deepwoods by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. This is a series of seven books of The Edge Chronicles. The first three are about Twig ,who was abandoned at birth and brought up by woodtrolls. Twig longs for adventure and heads for the Deepwoods, which begins a heart-stopping series of “strange creatures, bloodthirsty enemies and a destiny in the skies” with the skypirates. The illustrations and imaginative characters make these books amazing. I highly recommend this series. Still one of my favorites three years later! Littlerock book of the year--2005
15. Lionboy by Zizou Corder. Charlie comes home one day and finds his scientist parents have been kidnapped. So he goes off to rescue them. Charlie has an amazing ability—he speaks “cat”. He teams up with some circus lions to try and rescue his parents, which didn’t happen in this book, while being chased by an evil character who will get a hefty sum if he can deliver Charlie, too. This is the first in a trilogy.
16. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. One night Meggie’s father reads aloud from Inkheart
and the cruel Capricorn escapes from the book and wreaks havoc on the world. At the same time, Meggie’s mother disappears from the living room. Meggie and her father have to put an end to Capricorn and find their wife and mother.
17. Hidden Talents by David Lubar. Martin gets sent to an alternative school. This school is full of problem students. He figures out that each of his new friends has a certain psychic power. I love everything I’ve read by David Lubar!
18. A Teacher’s Funeral by Richard Peck. Peck’s books have great voice, and this one is no exception. It’s 1904 and Russell’s teacher has just died before the start of school. He and his brother, Lloyd are hoping that they’ll shut down the one room school because there’s no hope of finding a teacher this close to the start of school. But the boys’ hopes are dashed when their bossy older sister takes the job. I laughed at their misadventures all the way to the end.
19. Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse. Did you know that the Japanese bombed the Aleutian Islands during World War II? I didn’t either. This book is told in the voice of a teen-aged Aleut. All the Aleuts from the outlying islands had to be evacuated a thousand miles to the mainland because of these bombings. This is a heart wrenching yet very informative book.
20. Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. This was my favorite book of the summer 2005—next to Harry Potter 6! Percy Jackson has been kicked out of every school he’s been in. When he finally figures out that he is the son of a Greek god, all hell breaks loose. The premise of this book is that the Greek gods have ruled since the beginning of time. Now, the Greek gods can be found in the 60th floor of the Empire State Bldg. and Hades is in—Los Angeles. A brilliant book, which will have sequels. I think this book will pique student’s interest in Greek myths, so I’m beefing up easily accessible Greek myths in the library. There is now a sequel—The Sea of Monsters. Tied for Littlerock book of the year--2006
21. After by Francine Prose. Tom Bishop and his friends start to feel that their freedoms are disappearing in their high school because students at a neighboring high school were shot by another student. High school starts feeling like a prison. Then students who don’t follow the rules start disappearing…and dying. This is a powerful novel!
22. Belle Prater’s Boy by Ruth White. Gypsy, the 12-year-old narrator, is all excited when her cousin Woodrow moves in with their grandparents next door. Woodrow's mother, has disappeared without a clue, and Gypsy hopes that Woodrow can tell her what really happened. Instead, like Ruth White’s other title character, Tadpole, Woodrow charms everyone with his down-to-earth witticisms and sense of humor. This is more of a self-discovery book than a mystery, but it’s beautifully written.
23. Shakespeare’s Secret by Elise Broach. Hero, named after a character in a Shakespearean play isn’t as pretty or popular as her sister, and immediately gets teased in her new school, and she never tells her parents about her difficulties. Then her next door neighbor, Mrs. Roth, tells her about the enormous diamond rumored to be hidden in Hero's new house, which leads Hero into a fascinating journey into the history surrounding 15th century England, and a present day missing diamond.
24. Whittington by Alan Armstrong. From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. "So what do you want, Mr. Whittington?" "A place to live," the cat replies to Lady, the take-charge duck asking the questions, as Whittington attempts to sell his skills as a ratter and all-around useful fellow. Once he does and becomes part of the community of outcast animals who look after one another in softhearted Bernie's old barn, readers will settle in with him for a tale of charming animal bravura. Whittington entertains the group daily with the tale of his ancestor, Dick Whittington's cat, and relates the story of Whittington's fourteenth-century escapades as a rags-to-riches British merchant and far-traveling adventurer. The story works beautifully, both as historical fiction about medieval street life and commerce and as a witty, engaging tale of barnyard camaraderie and survival. A third strand, about Bernie's grandchildren, particularly Ben and his troubles and eventual success with learning to read, seems forced and didactic in what is otherwise a very strong story. Final illustrations not available. Anne O'Malley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
25. First Boy by Gary Schmidt
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8–While not as richly layered as Schmidt's Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (Clarion, 2004), this novel touches on similar themes. When Cooper Jewett's beloved grandfather, whose endearment for the 14-year-old is, You're my first boy, dies suddenly, the teen finds himself completely alone. He's never even seen a picture of his parents. Cooper is determined to stay on the New Hampshire dairy farm that he loves, although school, cross-country practice, and endless chores make that decision nearly impossible. The Big Men in black sedans who begin to follow him, ransacking the farm and setting fire to a barn, set off a series of events that ends with him being kidnapped and meeting the president. Senator Wickham, a candidate for the Democratic nomination, wishing to smear the incumbent, uncovers a scandal and believes that the President and the First Gentleman (yes, that's right: a woman president and a nice touch) are the boy's parents. However, since the president refuses to take a DNA test, readers are never certain whether or not Cooper is indeed the First Boy. He just wants to be home with his friends who love him and, in the end, he is able to stay. Cooper's grief, solitude, and loneliness are poignantly and realistically drawn, and secondary characters add humor to this fast-paced tale. At times, but not nearly as often as in Lizzie Bright, the writing reaches the lyricism so compelling in that novel. Like Turner in that book, Cooper learns how memories keep loved ones alive.–Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
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