3rd Grade Book List:
FRINDLE by Andrew
Clements
Is Nick Allen a
troublemaker?
He really just likes
to liven things up at school -- and he's always had plenty of great ideas. When
Nick learns some interesting information about how words are created, suddenly
he's got the inspiration for his best plan ever...the frindle. Who says a pen
has to be called a pen? Why not call it a frindle? Things begin innocently
enough as Nick gets his friends to use the new word. Then other people in town
start saying frindle. Soon the school is in an uproar, and Nick has become a
local hero. His teacher wants Nick to put an end to all this nonsense, but the
funny thing is frindle doesn't belong to Nick anymore. The new word is
spreading across the country, and there's nothing Nick can do to stop it.
JAMES AND THE GIANT
PEACH by Roald Dahl
James Trotter loses
his parents in a horrible accident and is forced to live-miserably-with his two
wicked aunts. Then James is given some magic crystals that give him hope. But
when he accidentally spills these crystals on an old peach tree, strange things
begin to happen. A peach starts to grow and grow until James is able to climb
inside and escape his awful aunts! And through this adventure, he makes some
interesting friends, including Grasshopper, Earthworm, Miss Spider, and Centipede,
and finally finds a place where he belongs.
HOLES by Louis Sachar
Stanley Yelnats is
under a curse. A curse that began with his
no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since
followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys'
detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build
character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide
and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more
than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging
holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the
truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and
redemption.
NERDS by Michael
Buckley
NERDS combines all the
excitement of international espionage with all the awkwardness of elementary
school, and the results are hilarious. A group of unpopular fifth graders run a
spy network from inside their school. With the help of cutting-edge science,
they transform their nerdy qualities into incredible abilities! Their enemies?
An array of James Bond–style villains, each with an evil plan more diabolical
and more ridiculous than the last. Publishers Weekly raved: “Buckley has a
flair for exaggerated humor.” School Library Journal said: “Funny, clever, and
thoroughly entertaining.”
SPACEHEADZ by Jon
Scieszka
Michael K. just
started fifth grade at a new school. As if that wasn’t hard enough, the kids he
seems to have made friends with apparently aren’t kids at all. They are aliens.
Real aliens, who have invaded our planet disguised as school children and a
hamster. They have a mission to complete: to convince 3,400,001 kids to BE
SPHDZ in order to save the world! But with a hamster as their leader,
"kids" who talk like walking advertisements, and Michael K. as their first
convert, will the SPHDZ be able to keep their cover and pull off their
assignment?
BECAUSE OF MR.
TERRUPT by Rob Buyea
Rob Buyea, a teacher
and first time author, has written Because of Mr. Terupt. It is a beautiful
book about a class of fifth graders and their new teacher. The book is told by
seven students. They write about their experiences with a special teacher. The
students share the impact that tragedy has on their young lives. The
experiences are sad, touching and life changing. Jessica, one of the students,
tells Mr Terupt early in the book that she likes happy endings. This book does
have one.
Because of a bet, Billy is in the uncomfortable position of having to eat fifteen worms in fifteen days. The worms are supplied by his opponent, whose motto is "The bigger and juicier, the better!" At first Billy's problem is whether or not he can swallow the worm placed before him, even with a choice of condiments from peanut butter to horseradish. But later it looks as if Billy will win, and the challenge becomes getting to the worm to eat it. Billy's family, after checking with the doctor, takes everything in stride. They even help Billy through his gastronomic ordeal, which twists and turns with each new day, leaving the outcome of the bet continually in doubt.
WONDERSTRUCK by Brian
Selznick
In a return to the
eye-popping style of his Caldecott-award winner,The Invention of Hugo Cabret,
Brian Selznick’s latest masterpiece, Wonderstruck, is a vision of imagination
and storytelling . In the first of two alternating stories, Ben is struck deaf
moments after discovering a clue to his father’s identity, but undaunted, he
follows the clue’s trail to the American Museum of Natural History, in New York
City. Flash to Rose’s story, told simultaneously through pictures, who has also
followed the trail of a loved one to the museum--only 50 years before Ben.
Selnick’s beautifully detailed illustrations draw the reader inside the
museum’s myriad curiosities and wonders, following Ben and Rose in their search
for connection. Ultimately, their lives collide in a surprising and inspired
twist that is breathtaking and life-affirming
SAVVY by Ingrid Law
Mibs Beaumont is
anxiously awaiting her 13th birthday because, in her family, 13th birthdays
bring about big changes. The Beaumonts always get their savvies--their
supernatural powers--on their 13th birthdays. But this year, Mibs' dad is in
the hospital and it looks like her savvy isn't coming. Ingrid Law has written a
tale that is sure to appeal to kids of all ages. I loved the idea that all kids
have their own savvy, even if it isn't as splashy as the ability to move
mountains.
THE FOURTH STALL by
Chris Rylander
Do you need something?
Mac can get it for you. It's what he does—he and his best friend and business
manager, Vince. Their methods might sometimes run afoul of the law, or at least
the school code of conduct, but if you have a problem, if no one else can help,
and if you can pay him, Mac is on your side. His office is located in the East
Wing boys' bathroom, fourth stall from the high window. And business is
booming.
Or at least it was, until
one particular Monday. It starts with a third grader in need of protection. And
before this ordeal is over, it's going to involve a legendary high school crime
boss named Staples, an intramural gambling ring, a graffiti ninja, the nine
most dangerous bullies in school, and the first Chicago Cubs World Series game
in almost seventy years. And that's just the beginning. Mac and Vince soon
realize that the trouble with solving everyone else's problems is that there's
no one left to solve yours.
FEVER CRUMB by Philip
Reeve
Fever is a foundling,
adopted as an infant girl and educated by the Order of Engineers, all male, who
live in the head of a giant statue. But she has other memories, too--ones that
aren't hers, that arise on her first assignment outside the head. Who is Fever
Crumb, and why do people want her dead? This prequel to Philip Reeve's Mortal
Engines quartet, set in a future London that bears the traces of our own in its
language ("Who gives a blog?") and technology, introduces a new
series. Yet smart, original, and full of memorable images--of paper boys, and
movable fortresses, and a head full of bald engineers--Fever Crumb also stands
alone. –
THE SHADOWS (BOOKS OF
ELSEWHERE, VOLUME 1) by Jacqueline West
After being forced to
move into an old Victorian household with her Math nut parents, 11-year-old
Olive discovers an amazing secret, stuffed into a dresser drawer is a pair of
spectacles that allows Olive to climb through the pictures on the walls and
into another world that is strangely similar to the real world, right down to
the houses and neighbors. However, Olive quickly realizes there are a lot of
hidden secrets contained within the old house like why a mysterious cat follows
her around, why none of the pictures on the wall can be moved and who is the
child Morton who lives inside the mysterious world known as Elsewhere. This
first book in the Books of Elsewhere series, weaves a dark tale of mystery,
adventure and a battle against a darker power that is determined to turn the
lights out on Olive’s world for good
The following books might be more “girly” than some of
the boys would like…but they are fantastic books you should definitely share
with the girls!
WHEN YOU REACH ME by
Rebecca Stead
A WRINKLE IN TIME by
Madeleine L’Engle
BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE
by Kate DeCamillo
BREADCRUMBS by Anna
Ursu
11 BIRTHDAYS by Wendy
Mass
So, how did I do??
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