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So...what's on your 5th graders reading list...


LunaLee
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Getting started for next year, so I have more time to buy used. Here's what I have so far. It's pretty set, but I just wanted to see what everyone else is doing.

 

The Hobbit

The Call of the Wild

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

A Horse and His Boy

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Kidnapped

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Tale of Despereaux

 

And if we don't get to these 2 this year, they'll be first on the list for next:

Swiss Family Robinson

Hatchet

 

Plus the HO MA L2 reading list. It's a lot of reading, but there are worse things to be doing with your time, right? :001_smile:

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This is my son's list of assigned reading for this year:

 

Aesop’s Fables

Bible Selections

Boy of the Painted Cave

Cat of Bubastes

Chi’Lin Purse

Children’s Homer

D’Aulaire’s Greek Myths

Dar and the Spear Thrower

Detectives in Togas

Eagle of the Ninth

Exploring the Ice Age

Gilgamesh the Hero

Golden Goblet

Mystery of the Roman Ransom

Place in the Sun

Tales from China

Tales from India

The Golden Goblet

Theras and his Town

Top 10 Greek Legends: Zeus on the Loose

Tusk and Stone

Twenty Jataka Tales

Well of Sacrifice

Exploring the Ice Age

Horrible Histories: Rotten Romans

How to Be a Roman Soldier

How to Be an Ancient Greek Athlete

The Way of Alexander the Great

Walking the Bible

 

The difficulty level of these varies widely. Some, like the How to Be books, I selected just because I knew my son would love them, even though they aren't at all challenging. Some others (Place in the Sun, etc.) I just happened to find on the cheap at the close-out bookstore and bought because they fit our theme for the year because I thought he'd enjoy them.

 

He's also reading from several issues of Learning Through History:

 

LTH: Ancient China

LTH: Ancient East

LTH: Ancient Egypt

LTH: Ancient Near East

LTH: Mesoamerica (just the Maya articles)

 

In terms of fun reading, he chooses that himself. So far this academic year, he's read:

 

Phoenix Unchained, Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory

Phoenix Endangered, Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory

Ruins of Gorlan, John Flanagan

Sorcerer of the North, John Flanagan

Superior Saturday, Garth Nix

Tiger Magic, Laurence Yep

Tiger’s Apprentice, Laurence Yep

Tiger’s Blood, Laurence Yep

Fire Thief, Terry Deary

Fire Thief Fights Back, Terry Deary

Flight of the Fire Thief, Terry Deary

Seven Paths to Death, Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler

 

He's currently working on The Fellowship of the Ring.

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Love your list! A few other terrific books for 5th grade that our boys LOVED:

 

- The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Aiken)

- From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (Konigsburg)

- My Side of the Mountain (George)

- Sounder (Armstrong)

- Rikki Tikki Tavi (Kipling)

- In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (Lord)

 

 

 

And some wonderful, well-written, for fun books for a 5th grader:

 

- Half Magic; Magic by the Lake, Knight's Castle; Time Garden; Seven Day Magic (Eager)

- The Never Ending Story (Ende)

- The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn (Hoobler) -- and others in the Samurai mystery series

- The Black Stallion, The Black Stallion Returns, Island Stallion (Farley)

- Ben and I (Lawson)

- The Rescuers, Miss Bianca, Miss Bianca in the Orient (Sharpe)

- Basil of Baker Street (Titus)

- Holes (Sacher)

- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (O-Brien)

- Snow Treasure (McSwigan) -- WWII Norweigan children hide the country's gold

- Land I Lost; Water Buffalo Days (Nhuong) -- memories of pre-war rural Vietnam

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Those all sound terrific. My son read several of them last year and he's been reading several of the Harry Potter books on his own this year.

 

We're doing the ancients time period this year, so he's been reading mostly mythology and folk lore of the peoples we're studying from story collections I own, etc. He's also reading more history non-fiction and science on his own this year.

 

Some of the miscellaneous books he's read include:

 

The Zeman Gilgamesh series.

Various bios from Ten Kings.

The Prince Who Ran Away, Anne Rockwell

Buddha, Demi

The Paper Dragon, Marguerite Davol

Becoming Buddha, Whitney Stewart, et al

Buddha, Susan Roth

Ice Mummy, Mark Dubowski

You Wouldn't Want to be Tutankhamen! David Stewart

You Wouldn't Want to be an Egyptian Mummy! David Stewart

A Children's Treasury of Mythology

Arabian Nights

Archimedes Takes a Bath, Joan Lexau

Hercules and Other Greek Myths, Mark Gave

Pegasus, Marianna Mayer

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Great Lists!

 

I forgot about The Wolves of Willoughby Chase! Also, I was thinking about The Hound of the Baskervilles, but maybe I'll save that for 6th grade.

Since we're doing Middle Ages next year I thought I'd add the Susan Cooper series.

 

He saw the Ranger's Apprentice (I think that was the name of it) at the book store and wants to start that series, too. Dang! Too many books...:001_smile:

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Just my opinion on the Rangers Apprentice series (which one of our boys *loved*): The books are what I would call "snack" books -- mediocre/adequate in writing, formulaic in plot, no real themes, minimal character development. The series is very appealing to those pre-teen boys, though, because of the archery and almost "super hero" aspect of the incredible ranger tracking, woodcraft and fighting skills. But, hey, nothing wrong with the occasional snack book during your free time! : )

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Just my opinion on the Rangers Apprentice series (which one of our boys *loved*): The books are what I would call "snack" books -- mediocre/adequate in writing, formulaic in plot, no real themes, minimal character development. The series is very appealing to those pre-teen boys, though, because of the archery and almost "super hero" aspect of the incredible ranger tracking, woodcraft and fighting skills. But, hey, nothing wrong with the occasional snack book during your free time! : )

 

Thanks Lori, I figured as much. It's like the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, books like that I let him read those on "his" time. It's still reading, right.:001_smile: Better than a screen.

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Just my opinion on the Rangers Apprentice series (which one of our boys *loved*): The books are what I would call "snack" books -- mediocre/adequate in writing, formulaic in plot, no real themes, minimal character development. The series is very appealing to those pre-teen boys, though, because of the archery and almost "super hero" aspect of the incredible ranger tracking, woodcraft and fighting skills. But, hey, nothing wrong with the occasional snack book during your free time! : )

 

Agreed, and they are truly addictive. My son has read (and re-read and re-read) all of the ones that are currently available in this country, and I have seriously considered ordering the rest from Australia just because he's so desolate when he finishes each new one.

 

I would never count them for school or consider them educational in any way. They are pure fun reading for him.

 

On the other hand, he has been inspired to learn how to sew in order to make himself costumes based on these books. And he has spent many, many hours happily crafting bows and arrows and other costume accessories from cardboard and scrap wood and so on. This is a mixed blessing for me, since I don't like the weaponry but do like him staying occupied.

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