Hallee's 5th Grade Book List 🤩

30+ children's books read across a variety of genres, complete with a 5th grader's star ratings

Out of my three kids, Hallee, my youngest, has historically been the least enthusiastic about reading, but I really feel like she found her footing this year in 5th grade. This was the first year that she completed her school’s Reader’s Choice challenge of filling in all the stars on her Genre Tracker! This reading program, which for us was originally called the 40-Book Challenge, is based off the principles and philosophy from Donalyn Miller’s The Book Whisperer.

I think this program is extremely effective in creating a love of reading in kids and growing their reading skills by exposing them to reading across different genres. I highly recommend The Book Whisperer for anyone involved in helping kids pick books (parents, teachers, librarians, etc!); it really changed the way I look at literacy education. As you’ll see from her list, the beauty here is that while some of the books are pure fun/silliness, some are also high-quality literature. I think that mix is just fine. Reading should always be enjoyable!

I’m so proud of Hallee for this year’s list of books she read.

A few notes:

• in her class, books over 250 pages can count for 2 stars; audiobooks only count if the paper book was also read concurrently (in general I believe audiobooks count as real reading, but I accept this as a class rule 😉)

• she loaded up the free choice category with graphic novels (some of which are listed but not quite all)

• some books can obviously be slotted into different genres; this is just how she fit them into her challenge

• 6 of these were chosen by her teacher for their class book club (I was the volunteer book club leader for 5th grade, so you’ve probably seen mention these books in other posts)

• some were part of her history curriculum

• I’ve created a Bookshop.org Book List for Hallee’s pics for convenience! A few books couldn’t be found there so they are listed below with Amazon links.

• I’ve included Hallee’s star ratings. 😄 She can be a bit dramatic with this and I love it.

• Please feel free to share this list with anyone looking for book recs for 5th grade or around that age.

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Hallee’s 5th Grade Book List

Fantasy/SciFi

• The Wild Robot by Peter Brown // 5 stars

• Descendants (Junior Novel) by Eric Geron // 11 stars

• Descendants 2 (Junior Novel) by Eric Geron // 12 stars

• Henry and the Chalk Dragon by Jennifer Trafton // 3 stars

Realistic Fiction

• The Next Great Jane by K.L. Going // 5 stars

• The Babysitters Club: Jessi’s Secret Language by Ann M. Martin // 5 stars

• The Babysitters Club: Kristy and the Snobs by Ann M. Martin // 4 stars

• Pink Hair and Other Terrible Ideas by Andrea Pyros // 12 stars

Historical Fiction

• The Black Stallion by Walter Farley // 5 stars

• Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray // 4 stars

• Toliver’s Secret by Esther Wood Brady // 4 stars

Nonfiction

• Story of the World, Volume 2 by Susan Wise Bauer // 4 stars (we started this in 4th grade)

• America in the Time of Pocahontas by Sally Senzell Isaacs // 3 stars

• If You Lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern // 4 stars

• America in the Time of George Washington // 3 stars

Classics

• Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink // 2.5 stars

• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis // 5 stars

Mystery

• The Treasure Key by Shannon L. Brown // 5 stars

• The Chocolate Spy by Shannon L. Brown // 5 stars

• Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman // 5 stars

Humor

• Frindle by Andrew Clements // 13 stars

• Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl // 5 stars

Poetry

• Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai // 4 stars

• Alone by Megan E. Freeman // 5 stars

Biography/Autobiography

• When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed // 5 stars

• Fine Print by Joann Johansen Burch // 4.5 stars

• Who Were the Wright Brothers? by James Buckley Jr. // 4 stars

Free Choice

• Stargazing by Jen Wang // 4.5 stars

• All the Babysitters Club Graphic Novels // 10 stars (numbers 7, 11, 9, & 3 are her favorites)

• Ghost by Raina Telgemeier // 4 stars

Bonus: Audiobooks! (Hallee did not count these on her genre tracker due to the challenge rules but still enjoyed them in 5th grade):

• All the books in The Penderwicks series (she re-listens to these almost constantly) by Jeanne Birdsall

• Stand Up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim

• From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks

• George’s Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl

• The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

Hallee’s current summer read: The Romeo and Juliet Code by Phoebe Stone (via Amazon because I think it might be currently out of print).

Again you can view almost all of these books and see their beautiful covers over at the list I made on Bookshop.org (any purchase you make there through that link supports both me and indie bookstores- thank you! 🥰).

My next book list will by my son’s (an advanced 6th-grade reader) book list! Subscribe below so you don’t miss it.

Happy Reading!

xo,

Nicole