Books for 4-6th Graders
Roger Gibson is a teacher at Theodore Roosevelt School in Manhattan, KS. Every year he has his students write, plan, and produce a significant dramatic work--they've even done operas, composing the music, the lyrics, the play, everything. He's worth listening to and imitating!
Roger Gibson's Recommendations
"The following is a list of books I like to use with kids (4th to 6th graders). Obviously, I don’t use all of them every year, but I choose from this list fairly regularly, and I have sets of most of these titles. I add sets of books, usually two or three, to my library every year, and frequently use the William Allen White list to find good new (fairly) ones. I also make use of browsing at the book store, the TR librarian, other award winners, etc. to keep up to date. The following books I either use in reading groups, have the whole class read, or read to them, depending on the class, time, opportunities for integration, etc. Each year I also read at least two or three books I like from the WAWhite list.
"I know the books on this list are of variable literary quality, but exposing them to the very best literature is not always my objective. Sometimes I am able to justify using lesser quality books. There are others, too, which I am sure I will think of the moment I send this off, but you have to draw the line somewhere!"
Alexander--The Prydain Series, The Towncats
Armstrong (Jennifer)--Black-Eyed Susan
Armstrong (William)--Sounder, Sour Land
Avi--Who Stole the Wizard of Oz
Ayers--Family Tree
Babbitt--Tuck Everlasting
Bulla--The Chalk Box Kid
Buchanan--Gratefully Yours
Byars--The Midnight Fox, The Pinballs, and others
Cleary--Dear Mr. Henshaw
Clymer--The Spider, the Cave, and the Pottery Bowl
Conrad--My Daniel, Prairie Song
Dorris--Morning Girl
Eckert--Incident at Hawk's Hill
Fleischman, Paul--Seedfolks
Fleischman, Sid--The Ghost on Saturday Night, The Whipping Boy
Forbes--Johnny Tremain
Fritz--biographies
Gardiner--Stone Fox
George--My Side of the Mountain
Hahn--Daphne's Book, and others
Hesse--Sable, and others
Hunt--Across Five Aprils
Hurwitz--The Hot and Cold Summer, Aldo Ice Cream, and others
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King Arthur stories
Konigsburg--From the Mixed-up Files
Levoy--The Witch of Fourth Street
Lewis, C. S.--Narnia books
Lowry--The Giver, Number the Stars
MacLachlan--Sarah, Plain and Tall, Skylark
McCaughrean (Homer)--The Odyssey
Mowat--Owls in the Family
Naylor--Shiloh, and others
O'Brien--Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
O'Dell--Island of the Blue Dolphins
Paterson--Bridge to Terabithia
Paulsen--Woodsong, Hatchet
Porter--Treasures in the Dust
Raskin--The Westing Game
Rawls--Where the Red Fern Grows
Selden--Cricket in Times Square
Shura--Chester
Smith--The War With Grandpa
Spinelli--Crash
Snyder--Libby On Wednesday
Speare--Sign of the Beaver
Taylor--Roll of Thunder, Mississippi Bridge
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- This page was last updated Sunday, May 23, 2004
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