2008 SUMMER READING LIST
Entering Grades 4 through 6
“Quick Picks”

Quick Picks for Students Entering Grade 4

Avi.  The Secret School    
Ida looks forward to going to a real high school so she can have a chance at a better life.  Then the teacher of her one-room schoolhouse must leave and it looks like she’ll have to work on her family’s farm forever.  Can Ida come up with a plan to keep the school going?

Birdseye, Tom.  Just Call Me Stupid       
Patrick is in fifth grade and he still can’t read.  The teachers don’t know what to do, and the kids tease him.  Then Celina moves into the house next door, and things start to change for Patrick.

Byars, Betsy.  The Summer of the Swans
In the Newbery Award winning book The Summer of the Swans, Sara's life is turned upside down when her mentally retarded brother disappears. Her brother Charlie loves to go to the lake and watch the swans. Late one night he gets out of bed to follow them and becomes lost in the dark. What follows is a desperate search for the young boy and an unexpected friendship.

Manes, Stephen.  Make Four Million Dollar$ by Next Thursday!
Jason wanted to become a multi-millionaire more than anything else. Then he finds a book with unusual directions on how to do just that. If he follows all of the directions precisely, can his dream come true?

Quick Picks for Students Entering Grade 5

Avi.  The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
A mystery aboard a passenger ship on the long voyage across the Atlantic

Gutman, Dan.  The Kid Who Became President
What would you do if you were President?

Konigsburg, E.L.  From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
The adventures of two children as they run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

O' Dell, Scott.  Sing Down the Moon
The tragedy of treatment of the Native American People, from the point of view of a Native American girl.

Quick Picks for Students Entering Grade 6

Collier, James Lincoln.  The Winter Hero
Anxious to be a hero, a young boy relates how he becomes involved in Shays' Rebellion, which was begun by farmers in western Massachusetts against unfair taxation levied by the Boston government.

Greene, Bette.  Summer of My German Soldier
The story of an unlikely friendship between a Jewish girl and a young German soldier during World War II.

Pullman, Phillip.  The Golden Compass
Lyra begins an extraordinary adventure and is put in unspeakable danger. With the help of Lorek Byrnison, the armored bear, she journeys to a world where living souls are separated from their soul mates.

Spinelli, Jerry.  Maniac Magee
This is the story of Jeffrey Lionel Magee who wanders into Two Mills Pennsylvania. What is truth, and what is myth?

Taylor, Mildred D.  The Land
Prequel to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, this novel tells of the early life of Paul Edward Logan. Son of a white landowner and a slave, he decides that owning his own piece of land is the only way to live with dignity.  2002 Coretta Scott King Award.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit  
In a world of fantasy called Middle-earth live those charming creatures called Hobbits. This is the story of Bilbo Baggins, the far wandering Hobbit who discovered the One Ring of Power and brought it back to the Shire.  (Prelude to the Lord of the Rings).

Tolkien, J.R.R.  Lord of the Rings
This three volume epic, set in the imaginary world of Middle-earth, depicts strange beings and peace-loving Hobbits in high and heroic adventure.