The Episcopal Academy, Newtown Square, PA
FOR STUDENTS ENTERING Fifth Grade - 2009
Summer is a time to continue developing
a life-long enjoyment of reading.
When selecting summer reading material, remember to explore books that will
expand your world!
*The books
that you read do not necessarily need to be from this list.
Consult your local public library for additional suggestions!
Enjoy your vacation and keep reading.
FICTION
:
During World War II, movie fan, eleven-year-old Howie Crispers mounts a campaign to save his favorite teacher from being fired.
Avi Ragweed (Prequel to Poppy)
Unhappy
about his baby sister's illness and the chaos of moving into a dilapidated
old house, Michael retreats to the garage and finds a mysterious stranger
who is something like a bird and something like an angel.
Alexander,
Lloyd The Book of Three
Armstrong,
William Sounder
A young African-American boy learns the pain of humiliation
and anger when his father is given an unjust jail sentence for stealing a
ham from a white man.
The Tuck family is confronted with a difficult
situation when they discover that a ten-year-old girl and a malicious stranger
now share their secret about a spring whose water prevents one from ever growing
older.
Banks,
Lynn Reid Tiger, Tiger
Two tiger cub brothers are taken from the jungle to
ancient Rome, where one becomes the pampered pet of Caesar's daughter and
the other becomes a man-eating "entertainment act" at the Colosseum.
Bauer,
Joan Sticks
With the help of his grandmother, his dead father's
best friend, and his own best friend, a math genius; ten-year-old Mickey prepares
to compete in the most important pool championship of his life, despite his
mother's reservations.
Bell, Ted The Nick of Time
Twelve-year-old Nick McIver tries to help his father and sister send vital information to England about imminent Nazi invasion, until he finds himself transported through time to help his ancestor stop a mutinous captain who is aiding the French fleet and endangering British sailors.
Johnny Dixon, Fergie and Professor Childermass comply
with a strange will left by the Professor's brother, which requires them to
spend the summer at a desolate estate where they encounter a madman bent on
destroying the world.
While vacationing with their widowed
father in the Berkshire Mountains, four lovable sisters, ages four through
twelve, share adventures with a local boy, much to the dismay of his snobbish
mother.
The journal of a 14-year-old girl, kept the last year
she lived on the family farm, records daily events in her small New Hampshire
town, her father's remarriage, and the death of her best friend.
While spending the winter in Miami Beach with
her family, ten-year-old Sally makes up stories and encounters a sinister
stranger.
Mog, a young boy living during the Stone Age,
discovers words and language and teaches his fellow cave dwellers how to talk,
thus altering the course of history.
His family and village swept away by
a tidal wave, Jiya learns to live with the ever-present dangers from the sea
and volcano.
Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is brilliant mastermind,
but even he does not know what he has taken on when he kidnaps a fairy named
Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit. These fairies are dangerous!
When eleven-year-old Gregor and his two-year-old sister
are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle involving
humans, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by
ancient prophecy.
Conrad,
Pam
Stonewords - a Ghost Story
For the 12 days of Christmas, life for Will Stanton
is simultaneously ordinary and woderful as he is drwan through terror and
delight into the eternal conflict between good and evil.
Corbett, Sue Free Baseball
Angry with his mother for having too little time for him, eleven-year-old Felix takes advantage of an opportunity to become bat boy for a minor league baseball team, hoping to someday be like his father, a famous Cuban outfielder.
Corder, Zizou Lion
Boy (book
1 in the series)
A boy with the ability to speak the language of cats
sets out from London to seek his kidnapped parents and finds himself on a
Paris-bound circus ship learning to train lions!
Creech, Sharon Walk
Two Moons
After her mother leaves home suddenly,
thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's
route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother
also left.
A twelve-year-old Polish American girl is boarded
onto an orphan train in Chicago with fears about traveling to the West and
a life of unpaid slavery.
A young English boy describes his relationship with
his father and the special adventure they share together.
Denenberg, Barry Atticus
of Rome: 30 B.C.
In ancient Rome, Atticus, a young slave
purchased by a wealthy and powerful lawyer, finds that he is completely invisible
to the people from whom he must gather information in order to help foil a
plot against the Emperor.
After his family dies of consumption in 1849, twelve-year-old
Lucas becomes a doctor's apprentice.
Moss and Trouble, an Algonquin boy and girl struggle
with the problems of growing up in the Massachusetts area during the time
of the first Thanksgiving.
The incredible adventure of Professor Sherman who
sets off in a balloon across the Pacific, survives the volcanic eruption of
Krakatoa and is eventually picked up in the Atlantic Ocean.
Four children find a magic way to go back into the
time of Ivanhoe and Robin Hood.
Edwards, Julie Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles
With help from an eccentric professor in giving their imaginations special intensive training, three children succeed in locating the last of the great Whangdoodles and granting his heart's desire.
Farley,
Walter The Black Stallion (series)
Young Alec Ramsay is shipwrecked on a desert island
with a horse destined to play an important part in his life. Following their
rescue their adventure continues in America.
Fitzhugh,
Louise Harriet the Spy
A twelve-year-old relates the adventures shared with
Joaquin Murieta and his band of outlaws in the California gold-mining region
during the mid-1800's.
A twelve-year-old learns that father, who repairs
and binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to
life when an evil ruler named Capricorn, freed from the novel "Inkheart"
years earlier, tries to force Mo to release a monster from the story.
Gliori, Debi Pure
Dead Magic (book
1 in the
series)
The Strega-Borgia children, their mysterious new nanny,
and a giant tarantula use magic and actual trips through the Internet to bring
peace to their Scottish castle after the childrens' father is kidnapped.
Haddix,
Margaret Running Out of Time
When a diphtheria epidemic hits her 1840 village,
thirteen-year-old Jessie discovers it is actually a 1995 tourist site under
unseen observation by heartless scientists. It's up to Jessie to escape the village and
save the lives of the dying children.
Haven, Paul The Seven Keys of Balabad
Oliver Finch, who lives with his father in Balabad, tries to deal with his boredom when a five-hundred-year-old sacred carpet is stolen and one of his friends disappears, causing Oliver to hunt down members of the Brotherhood of Arachosia and reveal a secret that is centuries old.
The story of the founding sire of the Thoroughbred
breed and the mute Arabian boy who cared for him.
Hesse,
Karen Out of the Dust
Fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of
living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of
the Depression.
Nick and Marta are both suspicious when their biology teacher, the feared Mrs. Bunny Starch, disappears, and try to uncover the truth despite the police and headmaster's insistence that nothing is wrong.
Hobbs,
Will
While accompanying an elderly rancher on a
trip into the San Juan Mountains, Cloyd, a Native American boy, tries to help
two orphaned grizzly cubs survive the winter and, at the same time, completes
his spirit mission.
When Linka, a jaunty mouse, brings a
watch into his shop to be repaired and then disappears, Hermux Tantamoq is
caught up in a world of a dangerous search for eternal youth as he tries to
solve the mystery of what happened to Linka.
When eleven-year-old Primrose's parents
are lost at sea, she learns about human nature and the unpredicatliblity of
life while living in a small fishing village.
In the years before the Civil War, Bright
discovers that her parents are providing a safehouse for the Underground Railroad
and helps to save a runaway slave named Marcus.
Jacques,
Brian
Redwall (book
1 in the series)
The forces of good and evil compete in this animal
fantasy and adventure series.
Kerr,
P.B. The
Akhenaten Adventure (book
1 in the
Children of the Lamp series)
When
twelve-year-old twins Philippa and John discover that they are descended from
a long line of djinn, their mother sends them away to their Uncle Nimrod,
who takes them to Cairo where he starts to teach them about their extraordinary
powers.
Greg records his sixth grade experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but when Rowley grows more popular, Greg must take drastic measures to save their friendship.
Kjelgaard,
Jim Snow Dog (series)
Gripping
story of a dog in the wilderness whose path crosses those of a black wolf
and a man.
When the principal asks a fifth-grader to write a
letter regarding the purchase of a new drinking fountain for their school,
he finds that all sorts of chaos results.
In Rome in the year 79 A.D., a group of children from
very different backgrounds work together to discover who beheaded a pet dog
-- and why!
Young
apprentice to the Master Wizard attempts to subdue the evil he once unleashed
on the world. Fantasy.
Meg
and friends search for Meg's father who disappeared while doing secret work
for the government.
Levine,
Gail Carson The Two Princesses of Bamarre
Lewis,
C.S. The
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia series)
Four
children find their way through the back of a wardrobe into the magic land
of Narnia to assist Aslan, the golden lion, in his battle with
the White Witch.
Lisle,
Janet Taylor Afternoon of the Elves
As
Hillary works in a miniature village, allegedly built by elves, in Sara-Kate's
backyard, she becomes more and more curious about Sara-Kate's
real life inside her big, gloomy house with her mysterious, silent mother.
Maguire,
Gregory The Good Liar
Now
an old man living in the United States, Marcel recalls his childhood in German-occupied
France, especially the summer that he and his older brother Rene befriended
a young German soldier.
Archie Stringweed learns on his tenth
birthday that he is about to inherit the family curse of cowardice unless
he fights the powerful hurricane that will take his bravery.
Emily
Rose has felt comfortable growing up in Connecticut with her African American
mother and her French American father. When they visit her great-grandmother
in Texas, Emily Rose discovers new and exciting parts of her own black heritage.
Rounded
up into forced labor in a Nazi work camp, friends look out for each other in
a survival story of hope.
Nimmo, Jenny Midnight
for Charlie Bone
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.
Sacajewea,
a young Indian woman, accompanied by her infant and cruel husband, experiences
joy and heartbreak when she joins the Lewis and Clark Expedition seeking a
way to the Pacific.
In Aagaesia, a teen-age boy of unknown
lineage named Eragon finds a mysterious stone that weaves his life into an
intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power; with dragons, elves, and
monsters.
Park,
Linda Sue When
My Name Was Keoko
With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister
face the increasingly oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan during World
War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely.
While
on a camping trip, Brennan finds a skull and becomes involved with the fate
of a young Apache Indian who lived in the 1880's.
Pickney,
Andrea Davis Hold Fast to Dreams
Pinkwater,
Jill Mister Fred
The
children of a sixth grade class suspect their new teacher of being a telepathic
space alien.
Pitts,
Paul Racing
the Sun
Being an American Indian is not something twelve-year-old
Brandon wants to advertise. Then his
Navajo grandfather moves into the lower bunk of his bedroom.
Polacco,
Patricia Pink and Say
A talking cat, intelligent rats, and
a strange boy cooperate in a Pied Piper scam until they try to con the wrong
town and are confronted by a deadly evil rat king. With an awful and evil
secret to be unearthed, the wisecracking companions are unlikely heroes.
A boy turns life in London upside down when he appears
at the house of a lonely old couple and insists he was a rat!