Battle of the Books

5th Grade Book List

Al Capone Does My Shirts

• By Gennifer Choldenko• Historical Fiction• A twelve-year-old boy

named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.

Brian’s Winter

• By Gary Paulsen• Fiction• Companion book to:

Hatchet and The River. • Instead of being rescued

from a plane crash, as in the author's book Hatchet, this story portrays what would have happened to Brian had he been forced to survive a winter in the wilderness with only his survival pack and hatchet.

Candy Floss

• By Jacqueline Wilson• Fiction• Floss, who spends 5 days a week with her Mom the weekends with her Dad at a greasy spoon cafe, has to decide whether to go to Australia with her Mom, or stay home with her Dad.

The City of Ember

• By Jeanne DuPrau • Fantasy• In the city of Ember,

twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.

Esperanza Rising

• By Pam Munoz Ryan • Historical Fiction• Esperanza and her

mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.

Elijah of Buxton

• By Christopher Paul Curtis• Historical Fiction• Eleven-year-old Elijah

Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American South in 1859, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom.

Each Little Bird That Sings

• By Deborah Wiles• Fiction• Ten-year-old Comfort

Snowberger learns about life's surprises in this funny, poignant, and very Southern coming-of-age story.

Flush

• By Carl Hiaasen• Fiction• With their father jailed for

sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home.

Go Big or Go Home

• By Will Hobbs• Science Fiction• Brady Steele watches in

awe as a fireball comes crashing through the roof of his house. Brady immediately calls up his cousin, Quinn. They both love all things extreme, and this is the most extreme thing ever!

Gregor the Overlander

• By Suzanne Collins• Fiction• When eleven-year-old

Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle involving men, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by ancient prophecy.

How Angel Peterson got his name

• By Gary Paulsen• Nonfiction• Author Gary Paulsen

relates tales from his youth in a small town in northwestern Minnesota in the late 1940s and early 1950s, such as skiing behind a souped-up car and imitating daredevil Evel Knievel.

Island of the Blue Dolphins

• By Scott O’Dell• Left alone on a beautiful

but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends eighteen years, not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.

The Magician's nephew

• By C.S. Lewis• Fantasy• When Digory and Polly

try to return the wicked witch Jadis to her own world, the magic gets mixed up and they all land in Narnia where they witness Aslan blessing the animals with human speech.

Maniac Magee

• By Jerry Spinelli • Fiction• After his parents die,

Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries.

My Side of the Mountain

• By Jean Craighead George

• A young boy relates his adventures during the year he spends living alone in the Catskill Mountains including his struggle for survival, his dependence on nature, his animal friends, and his ultimate realization that he needs human companionship.

Peter and the Starcatchers

• By Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

• Humorous Fiction• Peter, an orphan boy,

and his friend Molly fight off thieves and pirates in order to keep the secret safe away from the diabolical Black Stache and his evil associate Mister Grin.

Rules

• By Cynthia Lord• Fiction• Frustrated at life with an

autistic brother, twelve-year-old Catherine longs for a normal existence but her world is further complicated by a friendship with an young paraplegic.

The Shakespeare Stealer

• By Gary Blackwood• Historical Fiction• A young orphan boy is

ordered by his master to infiltrate Shakespeare's acting troupe in order to steal the script of "Hamlet," but he discovers instead the meaning of friendship and loyalty.

Surviving the Applewhites

• By Stephanie S. Tolan • Fiction• Jake, a budding juvenile

delinquent, is sent for home schooling to the arty and eccentric Applewhite family's Creative Academy, where he discovers talents and interests he never knew he had.

There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom

• By Louis Sachar • Fiction• An unmanageable,

but lovable, eleven-year-old misfit learns to believe in himself when he gets to know the new school counselor, who is a sort of misfit too.

Walk Two Moons

• By Sharon Creech • Fiction• 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.

The Watsons go to Birmingham--1963

• By Christopher Paul Curtis

• Historical Fiction• The ordinary interactions

and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African-American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.

Where the Red Fern Grows

• By Wilson Rawls • Fiction• A young boy living in

the Ozarks achieves his heart's desire when he becomes the owner of two redbone hounds and teaches them to be champion hunters.