"Just-right books" make reading more fun and less frustrating.
Have your child try the "five-finger test" to select a book.
1. Choose a book you would like to read.
2. Look at a page in the middle.
3. Put one finger down for every word you can't read or don't understand. If you have five fingers down, the book may be too hard.
4. If you have fewer than fingers down, the book is "just right"! Read it.
Your child may want to read a book that is "too hard" based on this test. That's okay.
Just make it a book that you read aloud to him/her, or that you read together (perhaps alternating pages or chapters; or s/he reads, but you sit alongside to answer questions or help with challenging words).
Novels for 4th and 5th graders
Almost to Freedom
Cabin Faced West
From the Mixed Up Files from Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
Little House on the Prairie
On My Honor
Snow Treasure
Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Cinderella
Hatchet
Matilda
Sarah Plain and Tall
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Where the Red Fern Grows
The Best School Year Ever
Cricket in Times' Square
Island Book 1: Shipwrecked
Mouse and the Motorcycle
Shiloh
A Taste of Blackberries
The Whipping Boy
Bridge to Terabithia Dare to Dream: Coretta Scott King and the Civil Rights Movement
Little House in the Big Woods
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Small Steps
War with Grandpa
Because of Winn Dixie
Dear Austin
Gentle Ben
How to Eat Fried Worms
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
A Picture of Freedom
Secret School
Stargirl
The Best School Year Ever
Dear Mr. Henshaw
The Great Gilly Hopkins
Loser
Rascal
The Sign of the Beaver
Stone Fox
Caddie Woodlawn
Double Fudge
Holes
Johnny Tremain
Ole Yeller
Return of the Indian
Snow Treasure
Summer of the Swans
Call it Courage
Homer Price
Julie of the Wolves
Out of the Dust
Sadako
Sounder
There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom!
A Wrinkle in Time
