Raising Readers
5th Grade
Bridge to Terabithia
Katherine Paterson
NB Paterson
The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends with a newcomer. They create a hideaway called Terabithia.
Midnight for Charlie Bone
Jenny Nimmo
X Nimmo
Charlie Bone's life with his widowed mother and two grandmothers undergoes a dramatic change when he discovers that he can hear people in photographs talking, and also discovers the unique talents of the people in his family.
Devil's Arithmetic
Jane Yolen
X Yolen
Sixteen year old Hanna Stern was a typical American teenager who ignored her family's heritage until a mystical Passover seder takes her back in time to German-occupied Poland on an emotional journey of life, death and survival.
Dragon Rider
Cornelia Funke
X Funke
After learning that humans are headed toward his hidden home, Firedrake, a silver dragon, is joined by a brownie and an orphan boy in a quest to find the legendary valley known as the Rim of Heaven, encountering friendly and unfriendly creatures along the way, and struggling to evade the relentless pursuit of an old enemy.
The Giver
Lois Lowry
NB Lowry
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.
Hatchet
Gary Paulsen
NB Paulsen
After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.
Holes
Louis Sachar
NB Sachar
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.
The House with a Clock in its Walls
John Bellairs
X Bellairs
A boy goes to live with his magician uncle in a mansion that has a clock hidden in the walls which is ticking off the minutes until doomsday.
The Island of the Aunts
Eva Ibbotson
X Ibbotson
As they get older, several sisters decide that they must kidnap children and bring them to their secluded island home to help with the work of caring for an assortment of unusual sea.
The Island of the Blue Dolphins
Scott O'Dell
NB O'Dell
Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.
Julie of the Wolves
Jean Craighead George
NB George
While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack. She must sleep and eat like they do to survive.
Kokopelli's Flute
Will Hobbs
X Hobbs
Thirteen-year-old Tepary discovers an old flute in a cliff dwelling in New Mexico, and through its power he learns about ancient Native American magic. After blowing on the flute he also faces the problem of turning into a muskrat each night.
Redwall
Brian Jacques
X Jacques
When the peaceful life in and around ancient Redwall Abbey is shattered by the arrival of the evil rat Cluny and his villainous hordes, Matthias, a young mouse, determines to find the legendary sword of Martin the Warrior which, he is convinced, will help Redwall's inhabitants destroy the enemy. First in a series of books.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963
Christopher Paul Curtis
NB Curtis
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
The Wind in the Willows
Kenneth Grahame
X Grahame
The escapades of four animal friends who live along a river in the English countryside--Toad, Mole, Rat, and Badger.