Summer Reading: 5th Grade

"Archer has four important role models in his life--his dad, his grandfather, his uncle Paul, and his favorite teacher, Mr. McLeod. When Uncle Paul and Mr. McLeod get married, Archer's sixth-grade year becomes one he'll never forget" (publisher).

"Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847" (OPAC).

"Recent immigrants from China and desperate for work and money, ten-year-old Mia Tang's parents take a job managing a rundown motel in Southern California, even though the owner, Mr. Yao is a nasty skinflint who exploits them" (OPAC).

"Ghost, a naturally talented runner and troublemaker, is recruited for an elite middle school track team. He must stay on track, literally and figuratively, to reach his full potential" (publisher).

"Shy twelve-year-old Nisha, forced to flee her home with her Hindu family during the 1947 partition of India, tries to find her voice and make sense of the world falling apart around her by writing to her deceased Muslim mother in the pages of her diary" (OPAC).

"In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp" (OPAC).

"Twelve-year-old Candice Miller is spending the summer...in the old house that belonged to her grandmother,...when she finds the letter that sent her grandmother on the treasure hunt, she finds herself caught up in the mystery and, with the help of her new friend and fellow book-worm, Brandon, she sets out to find the inheritance, exonerate her grandmother, and expose an injustice once committed against an African American family in Lambert" (OPAC).

"Follows Hansel and Gretel as they walk out of their own story and into eight more tales, encountering such wicked creatures as witches, along with kindly strangers and other helpful folk. Based in part on the Grimms' fairy tales 'Faithful Johannes', 'Hansel and Gretel', 'The Seven Ravens', 'Brother and Sister', 'The Robber Bridegroom', and 'The Devil and His Three Golden Hairs'" (OPAC).

“A young disabled girl and her brother are evacuated from London to the English countryside during World War II, where they find life to be much sweeter away from their abusive mother” (OPAC).

"When eleven-year-old Yumi Chung stumbles into a kids' comedy camp she is mistaken for another student, so she decides to play the part" (publisher).

"The kids in these humorous short stories each have a minor superpower they're learning to live with . . . But what these stories are really about is their young protagonists 'owning' a power that contributes to their individuality, that allows them to find their place in the world, that shows them a potential they might not have imagined" (publisher).

"Max Bretzfeld doesn't want to move to London. Leaving home is hard and Max is alone for the first time in his life. But not for long. Max is surprised to discover that hes been joined by two unexpected traveling companions, one on each shoulder, a kobold and a dybbuk named Berg and Stein. Germany is becoming more and more dangerous for Jewish families, but Max is determined to find a way back home, and back to his parents. He has a plan to return to Berlin. It merely involves accomplishing the impossible: becoming a British spy" (publisher)

"In the 1870s, a Black family undertakes a perilous wagon journey westward for a tenuous shot at freedom in Nebraska" (publisher)

"Spanning over five hundred years, a novel telling the stories of four girls from different generations of a Jewish family, many of them forced to leave their country and start a new life" (publisher)

"A middle-grade nonfiction story of five young cousins who grow closer than sisters as ethnic tensions escalate over three summers in 1980s Bosnia" (publisher)

"A deep-dive exploration into the many theories and discoveries surrounding the possibility of extraterrestrial life beyond Earth" (publisher)

"At the turn of the new year in 1948, Amil and his family are trying to make a home in India, now independent of British rule. Both Muslim and Hindu, twelve-year-old Amil is not sure what home means anymore. The memory of the long and difficult journey from their hometown in what is now Pakistan lives with him. And despite having an apartment in Bombay to live in and a school to attend, life in India feels uncertain. Nisha, his twin sister, suggests that Amil begin to tell his story through drawings meant for their mother, who died when they were just babies. Through Amil, readers witness the unwavering spirit of a young boy trying to make sense of a chaotic world, and find hope for himself and a newly reborn nation" (publisher)

"Oliver and Nathan, determined to get to the bottom of their new homeroom teacher's fishy behavior, discover Mr. Aidact is actually an AI robot from a secret experimental program." (publisher)

“A nonfiction graphic novel that explores the people and technology that made the moon landing possible” (OPAC).

“Looks at the cave rescue of the twelve young players of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach in northern Thailand.” (OPAC).

"Eugene Yelchin recounts growing up in Cold War Russia" (OPAC).

"Answers to unusual questions, using mathematics. First two questions, as examples: How many birds would it take to pick you up and fly with you?; and, How many bees does it take to make one jar of honey?" (OPAC).

"A collection of anecdotes from the childhoods of famous activists, including Emma Watson, Martin Luther King Jr., Malala Yousafzai, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Harvey Milk, Dolores Huerta, Rosa Parks" (OPAC).

"This book brings to life the stories of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four African-American women who lived through the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the movement for gender equality, and whose work forever changed the face of NASA and the country" (publisher).

"The author shares her childhood memories and reveals the first sparks that ignited her writing career in free-verse poems about growing up in the North and South" (publisher).

"A book for middle-school-aged children about previous extinctions and possible threats to humans, from volcanoes, to asteroids, to pollution and diseases" (publisher).

"Pick a date--any date!--flip to that page, and take an instant trip through history--no time machine required! This treasure trove of historical facts from The HISTORY channel takes you on a journey through the most incredible events that have shaped our world. (Psst. Check out what happened on your birthday!)" (publisher)