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

[LunaLee]

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:

[Chris in VA]

THis (http://wtmboards.com/K8currMar312007/messages/1013.html) is a link for a 6th grade Medieval year list, but maybe it will be useful in some way.
When we get to 5th grade, I'm pretty sure we will be doing Moderns, with SOTW 4. We might go ahead and do this, (http://www.geocities.com/wholeheartorganics/EasternHemisphere.html) which is similar to Sonlight 5.

[Jenny in Florida]

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.

[Lori D.]

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

[mcconnellboys]

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

[Testimony]

In December, he read a Christmas Carol
He read Oliver Twist and Children's Homer last semester. A lot of the ancient books that have been mentioned, he has read.

Blessings,
Karen
www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

[LunaLee]

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:

[Lori D.]

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! : )

[LunaLee]

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.

[Lori D.]

It's still reading, right.:001_smile: Better than a screen.

LOL! :laugh:

[jadedone80]

wow. you guys are all hard core! LOL

We do Sonlight 5 and add ins.

We Loved Tale of Desperaux in our house and am VERY disappointed that they made such a wonderfully sweet book into a movie.

[Jenny in Florida]

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.

[Shari]

We are doing the ancients this year with TOG Yr 1. Here are some of the books on my 5th grader's list:

Egyptian Myths (by Jacqueline Morley -- excellent)
Black Ships Before Troy
Wanderings of Odysseus
In Search of a Homeland: Story of the Aeneid
Archimedes & the Door of Science
Detectives in Togas
D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths

These are just some from the literature list. He has also done a ton of nonfiction reading from Usborne and others.

[sweetbaby]

I couldn't list all of ours but we read from a combination list of Ambleside Online and Classical Homeschooling. We have read just about a little over half to a third of the 5th grade reading.

[Jenny in Florida]

Black Ships Before Troy

Yes, that's a good one. My son read it on our last round with the ancients.

Archimedes & the Door of Science

My son's reading this one this year, too. But it's on his science reading list, along with Galen and the Gateway to Medicine. He's about halfway through Archimedes now and enjoying it.