Entering Fifth Grade

Choose 1 Required Reading Fiction

Required Reading may be read together as a family. If you can not locate a required book, complete the required reading response with a different book you read this summer.

The Losers Club

by Andrew Clements

Just Grace

by Charise Mericle Harper

Words with Wings

by Nikki Grimes

Choose 1 Required Reading Nonfiction

Required Reading may be read together as a family. If you can not locate a required book, complete the required reading response with a different book you read this summer.

Nothing stopped Sophie : the story of unshakable mathematician Sophie Germain

by Cheryl Bardoe

Plants Can't Sit Still

by Rebecca E. Hirsh

Summertime Sleepers: Animals that Estivate

by Melissa Stewart

Other Reading Suggestions from Authors

HELLO UNIVERSE

by Erin Entrada Kelly

Six kids, pulled from their regular classrooms into a new “special classroom” for kids who learn differently. One Friday afternoon their teacher Ms Laverne brings them to room 501, the ARTT (A Room to Talk) room, a space without any adults and she tells them they will be Sometimes, it feels like you are alone. Virgil and Valencia are both struggling with this feeling. Virgil talks to his Lola and his best friend Kaori, but the most important thing in his life is his guinea pig, Gulliver. When the local bully, Chet, inadvertently throws Gulliver down a well. Virgil goes in the well to save Gulliver and becomes stuck. Valencia is feeling alone and reaches out to Kaori after finding her business card at a grocery store. Kaori believes that she is psychic, and has a feeling that something is going on with Virgil. Will they be able to find Virgil? Will Virgil and Valencia be able to stop feeling alone?

HARBOR ME

by Jacqueline Woodson

Six kids, pulled from their regular classrooms into a new “special classroom” for kids who learn differently. One Friday afternoon their teacher Ms Laverne brings them to room 501, the ARTT (A Room to Talk) room, a space without any adults and she tells them they will be meeting here every Friday afternoon because she wants them to have a space to “talk about the things kids do when no grown ups are around.” It is in the ARTT room where these students discover a safe haven to share their struggles and to find support. It is a space where phones are away and hurtful words are not allowed. Issues of identity, bullying, racial profiling, immigration, incarceration and more are shared. As each story unfolds Amari, Haley, Holly, Tiago, Estaban and Ashton learn that life can change in an instant and is full of so many beginnings and endings, and they discover courage, hope and strength in the community they’ve created and the bonds they’ve made.

Trees can't tell jokes, but they can certainly tell stories. . . .

Red is an oak tree who is many rings old. Red is the neighborhood "wishtree"—people write their wishes on pieces of cloth and tie them to Red's branches. Along with her crow friend Bongo and other animals who seek refuge in Red's hollows, this "wishtree" watches over the neighborhood.

You might say Red has seen it all. Until a new family moves in. Not everyone is welcoming, and Red's experiences as a wishtree are more important than ever.

Aven Green loves to tell people that she lost her arms in an alligator wrestling match, or a wildfire in Tanzania, but the truth is she was born without them. And when her parents take a job running Stagecoach Pass, a rundown western theme park in Arizona, Aven moves with them across the country knowing that she’ll have to answer the question over and over again.

Her new life takes an unexpected turn when she bonds with Connor, a classmate who also feels isolated because of his own disability, and they discover a room at Stagecoach Pass that holds bigger secrets than Aven ever could have imagined. It’s hard to solve a mystery, help a friend, and face your worst fears. But Aven’s about to discover she can do it all . . . even without arms.

On the island, everything is perfect. The sun rises in a sky filled with dancing shapes; the wind, water, and trees shelter and protect those who live there; when the nine children go to sleep in their cabins, it is with full stomachs and joy in their hearts. And only one thing ever changes: on that day, each year, when a boat appears from the mist upon the ocean carrying one young child to join them—and taking the eldest one away, never to be seen again.

Today’s Changing is no different. The boat arrives, taking away Jinny’s best friend, Deen, replacing him with a new little girl named Ess, and leaving Jinny as the new Elder. Jinny knows her responsibility now—to teach Ess everything she needs to know about the island, to keep things as they’ve always been. But will she be ready for the inevitable day when the boat will come back—and take her away forever from the only home she’s known?

When Minnie wakes up in hospital asking for her favourite toy, Wed Wabbit, Fidge promises to bring it to her. But when falling down the rabbit hole involves your little sister's favourite toys coming to life, you just know it'll be funny. Prison food is warm milk with skin and yoghurt with bits in ('wevolting'), her sparkly pink teddy bear elephant is in fact a self-help guru and wonderland is in fact the land of the Wimbly Woos, populated by, you guessed it, Wimbly Woos, a strange, brightly coloured creature shaped like a dustbin. And this is where cynical and sarcastic Fidge finds herself... she's not overwhelmingly delighted to say the least, but she soon realizes that she's going to have to get used to Wimbly Land if she's ever going to see her little sister again-because Wimbly land is in danger and if she doesn't save it, she's going down with it. PS. It's really a red rabbit, but Minnie can't say R's.

Twelve-year-old Charlotte Lockard and eleven-year-old Ben Boxer are separated by more than a thousand miles. On the surface, their lives seem vastly different—Charlotte lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, while Ben is in the small town of Lanester, Louisiana.

Charlotte wants to be a geologist and keeps a rock collection in her room. Ben is obsessed with Harry Potter, presidential history, and recycling. But the two have more in common than they think. They’re both highly gifted. They’re both experiencing family turmoil. And they both sit alone at lunch.

During the course of one week, Charlotte and Ben—friends connected only by an online Scrabble game—will intersect in unexpected ways as they struggle to navigate the turmoil of middle school. The New York Times-bestselling novel You Go Firstreminds us that no matter how hard it is to keep our heads above troubled water, we never struggle alone.

Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly writes with an authentic, humorous, and irresistible voice. This engaging and character-driven story about growing up and finding your place in the world is for fans of Rebecca Stead and Rita Williams-Garcia.

Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic memory. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. Always. And there's no delete button. She's the smartest kid in her whole school-but NO ONE knows it.

Most people-her teachers and doctors included-don't think she's capable of learning, and up until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lessons again and again and again. If only she could speak up, if only she could tell people what she thinks and knows. But she can't. She can't talk. She can't walk. She can't write.

Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind-that is, until she discovers something that will allow her to speak for the first time ever. At last Melody has a voice . . . but not everyone around her is ready to hear it.

The city of Ember was built as a last refuge for the human race. But now with terrifying blackouts sweeping through the streets, Lina and Doon know it’s only a matter of time before the lights go out and never come back on again. When Lina finds part of an ancient message, she and Doon explore long-forgotten parts of their dying city as they race to solve the mystery. If they succeed, they will have to convince everyone to follow them into danger and an exciting new world. But if they fail? The lights will burn out and the darkness will close in forever.

Ally has been smart enough to fool a lot of smart people. Every time she lands in a new school, she is able to hide her inability to read by creating clever yet disruptive distractions. She is afraid to ask for help; after all, how can you cure dumb? However, her newest teacher Mr. Daniels sees the bright, creative kid underneath the trouble maker. With his help, Ally learns not to be so hard on herself and that dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of. As her confidence grows, Ally feels free to be herself and the world starts opening up with possibilities. She discovers that there’s a lot more to her—and to everyone—than a label, and that great minds don’t always think alike.

Willow Chance is a twelve-year-old genius, obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions, who finds it comforting to count by 7s. It has never been easy for her to connect with anyone other than her adoptive parents, but that hasn’t kept her from leading a quietly happy life . . . until now.

Suddenly Willow’s world is tragically changed when her parents both die in a car crash, leaving her alone in a baffling world. The triumph of this book is that it is not a tragedy. This extraordinarily odd, but extraordinarily endearing, girl manages to push through her grief. Her journey to find a fascinatingly diverse and fully believable surrogate family is a joy and a revelation to read.

Jamie Grimm is a middle schooler on a mission: he wants to become the world's greatest standup comedian—even if he doesn't have a lot to laugh about these days. He's new in town and stuck living with his aunt, uncle, and their evil son Stevie, a bully who doesn't let Jamie's wheelchair stop him from messing with Jamie as much as possible. But Jamie doesn't let his situation get him down. He practices the craft of stand-up every day on friends, family, and the willing customers at his Uncle Frankie's diner. When Uncle Frankie mentions a contest called The Planet's Funniest Kid Comic, Jamie knows he has to enter. But are the judges only rewarding him out of pity because of his wheelchair, like Stevie suggests? Will Jamie ever share the secret of his troubled past instead of hiding behind his comedy act?

Moose Flanagan isn’t growing up where most kids grow up. He is a resident of The Rock, also known as Alcatraz, the infamous prison where his father works as an electrician. In an effort to help his sister, Natalie, who has autism, Moose gets help from an unlikely—and notorious—new friend.

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