AMS Summer Reading List: Grade 5

Looking for to give your middle schooler a good read this summer? Look no further.

The Amherst Middle School library has a suggestd reading list that is sure to include a great book to capture your child's imagination. There is also plenty of great nonfiction (NF) and graphic novels (GN) to comb through.

Got a suggestion for a great book? Let everybody know in the comments below! Also, if your student has already read one of these books, tell us what they thought.

Great Summer Reads For 5th Graders

(NF)  Editors of Time for Kids, with Kathryn Hoffman Satterfield: Benjamin Franklin: A Man of Many Talents

(NF) Giblin, James: The Amazing Life of Benjamin Franklin  (E-J 92 FRA)

Bowen, Fred:  Soccer Team Upset

Tyler's hope that his soccer team will be undefeated is dashed when his friend Zack, the team's star midfielder, and two more of the Cougars' best players accept an offer to play for an elite travel team.

Broach, Elise: Masterpiece 

After Marvin, a beetle, makes a miniature drawing as an eleventh birthday gift for James, a human with whom he  shares a house, the two new friends work together to help recover a Durer drawing stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of  Art.

Carroll, Lewis: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and through the Looking Glass. Audiobook on CD:  (CDSW J Carroll)

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 batboy for a minor league baseball team, hoping to someday be like his father, a famous Cuban outfielder.  Includes glossaries of baseball terms and Spanish words and phrases.

Deedy, Carmen Agra: The Cheshire Cheese Cat

A community of mice and a cheese-loving cat form an unlikely alliance at London's Cheshire Cheese, an inn where Charles Dickens finds inspiration and Queen Victoria makes an unexpected appearance.

Farrell, Juliana   Middle School: The Real Deal -- From Cafeteria Food to Combination Locks

This book gives advice about handling the details of Middle School life -- including making and keeping friends.

Funke, Cornelia: Ghost Knight   

Eleven-year-old Jon Whitcroft and new friend Ella summon the ghost of Sir William Longspee, who may be able  to protect Jon from a group of ghosts that threatens him harm from the day he arrives at Salisbury Cathedral's boarding school. Includes historical notes.

NF) Gay, Kathlyn: They Don’t Wash Their Socks: Sports Superstitions  (J 398.355 GA)

Tells about superstitions held by individuals or teams in all the major sports

Gutman, Dan: Nightmare at the Bookfair

When fifth-grader Trip Kindleman, who doesn’t like to read much, is hit on the head by a heavy box and becomes  a character in a series of different books--from a sports story to a science fiction novel to an adventure tale--his view of  reading is changed forever.

GN)  Guibert, Emmanuel: Sardine in Outer Space  (graphic novel series)

Sardine and her uncle travel in space to search for Supermuscleman, the villain who wants to rule the galaxy.

Hale, Bruce: The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse: from the Tattered Casebook of Chet Gecko Private Eye

When hired by a fellow student to find her missing brother, Chet Gecko uncovers a plot involving a Gila monster's  revenge upon the school football team.  Read all of the fourteen laugh-out-loud books that follow. There are many other  books that you might like in the Chet Gecko series.

GN) Hatke, Ben: Zita the Spacegirl: Far from Home

Zita must travel to many stars to find out how to get home.  Will she succeed?

Jarell, Randall: The Bat Poet

When a bat can't sleep, he makes up poems about the daytime creatures he now sees for the first time.

Korman, Gordon: Swindle

After unscrupulous collector S. Wendell Palamino cons him out of a valuable baseball card, sixth-grader Griffin  Bing puts together a band of misfits to get the card back. Also read Zoobreak, Framed, and Showoff.

Lupica, Mike: Comeback Kids sports fiction series

Boys ten to twelve years old participate in either baseball, football, or basketball and work through problems with friends and family in this series.

Martin, Ann M.: A Dog’s Life

Squirrel, a stray puppy, tells her life story, from her nurturing mother and brother to making her own way in the  world, facing busy highways, changing seasons, and humans both gentle and brutal.

NF)  Moffett, Mark W.: Face to Face with Frogs

Learn the difference between toads and frogs and much more in this handsome book.

NF) Nelson, S.D.: Black Elk’s Vision

A simple biography of Lakota-Oglala medicine man Black Elk, from his childhood vision that shaped his life through his battles with the whites and his travels with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show.

Nimmo, Jenny: The Snow Spider (Book 1)

Gifts from Gwyn's grandmother on his birthday open up a whole new world to him, as he discovers he has magical  powers that help him heal the breach with his father that has existed ever since his sister's mysterious disappearance four  years before. Look forward to reading (2) Emlyn’s Moon and (3) The Chestnut Soldier.

Palacio, R. J.: Wonder

Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student. Available as an AMS library e-book.

Paulsen, Gary: Masters of Disaster

Twelve-year-old Henry's grand adventures spell disaster for best chums Riley and Reed, who always seems to land in a pile of "smelly goo."

Ripken, Cal, Jr.: Hothead

Connor Sullivan, All-Star third baseman on his Babe Ruth League team, has a terrible temper and problems at home, but when the sports editor of the school paper threatens to publish an embarrassing story about his tantrums, Connor must make a change.

Ursu, Anne: Breadcrumbs

Hazel and Jack are best friends until an accident with a magical mirror and a run-in with a villainous queen find Hazel on her own, entering an enchanted wood in the hopes of saving Jack's life

Weeks, Sarah: Pie

After the death of Polly Portman, whose award-winning pies put the town of Ipswitch, Pennsylvania, on the map, her devoted niece Alice and Alice's friend Charlie investigate to find out who is going to extremes to find Aunt Polly's secret pie crust recipe. Includes fourteen pie recipes.