Novel Explorer (NE) Book List
NOTE: Students may choose books outside of the suggested book lists as long as the book is within their reading level range and can be categorized under the genre of that project/unit.
*The majority of the books suggested on the NE Book List are available for check out in either Ms. Connors’ library or T.H. Rogers’ elementary library. If a student would like to read a novel that is not available at the school, please visit a public library.
**It is the student’s responsibility to find a book in a timely manner within their reading level range and categorized under the genre of that project/unit. However, please know that when we begin a new unit of study I introduce books of that genre for student check out. Students also visit the elementary library at least once a week and Mrs. Hatley has books, under our current unit of study, on display for check out as well. Mrs. Hatley and myself are available to assist with finding novels under a particular genre for students. Students just need to ask for helpJ.
Project Due Dates & Units:
1. Thursday, September 29, 2016 – Unit: Realistic Fiction
2. Thursday, December 1, 2016 – Unit: Historical Fiction
3. Thursday, February 23, 2017 - Unit: Non-Fiction – Informational OR Autobiographies/Biographies
4. Thursday, April 20, 20167 – Unit: Science Fiction OR Fantasy OR Mysteries
Novel Explorer Suggested Book List
1st Nine Weeks
Unit: Realistic Fiction
Title / Author / Book LevelCrash / Jerry Spinelli / 3.6
Eggs / Jerry Spinelli / 3.6
Lemonade Wars / Jacqueline Davies / 4.1
Lemonade Crime / Jacqueline Davies / 4.2
Champ / Marcia Thornton Jones / 4.3
Hatchet / Gary Paulsen / 5.7
The Midnight Fox / Betsy Byars / 4.9
Ramona and Her Father / Beverly Cleary / 5.2
Hoot / Carl Hiaasen / 5.2
Shiloh / Phyllis Reynolds Naylor / 4.4
Flush / Carl Hiaasen / 5.0
Chomp / Carl Hiaasen / 5.3
And Now Miguel / Joseph Krumgold / 4.8
Love That Dog / Sharon Creech / 4.5
The Invention of Hugo Cabret / Brian Selznick / 5.1
How to Steal a Dog / Barbara O’Connor / 4.0
Amber Brown is Not a Crayon / Paula Danziger & J. Galbraith / 3.8
Dear Mr. Henshaw / Beverly Clearly / 4.7
Double Fudge / Judy Blume / 4.5
Frindle / Andrew Clements / 4.8
Bridge to Terabithia / Katherine Paterson / 4.6
Holes / Louis Sachar / 4.6
Joey Pigza Loses Control / Jack Gantos / 5.2
Surviving the Applewhites / Stephanie Tolan / 5.5
The Great Unexpected / Sharon Creech / 5.0
Tales of a Forth Grade Nothing / Judy Blume / 3.3
The Report Card / Andrew Clements / 5.1
How to Eat Fried Worms / Thomas Rockwell / 3.5
Because of Winn-Dixie / Kate DiCamillo / 4.1
Liar & Spy / Rebecca Stead / 3.8
The Great Gilly Hopkins / Katherine Paterson / 5.3
Where the Red Fern Grows / Wilson Rawis / 6.4
Esperanza Rising / Pam Munoz Ryan / 5.5
Liar, Liar / Gary Paulsen / 5.8
Novel Explorer Suggested Book List
2nd Nine Weeks
Unit: Historical Fiction
Title / Author / Book LevelCountdown / Deborah Wiles / 6.0
A Year Down Yonder / Richard Peck / 4.9
One Crazy Summer / Rita Williams-Garcia / 4.6
The Rising Star of Rusty Nail / Lesley M. M. Blume / 3.5
Twerp / Mark Goldblatt / 4.5
One Came Home / Amy Timberlake / 4.3
White Crane / Sandy Fussell / 5.3
Glory Be / Augusta Scattergood / 4.2
This Mean War! / Ellen Wittlinger / 4.5
Number The Stars / Lois Lowery / 5.2
Solder Boy / Dean Hughes / 5.9
Anne of Green Gables / L.M. Montgomery / 5.9
Lunch Box Dreams / Tony Abbott / 5.3
Listening for Lucca / Suzanne LaFleur / 3.8
Dash / Kirby Larson / 4.0
Duke / Kirby Larson / 3.2
City of Orphans / Greg Ruth / 4.3
When My Name Was Keoko / Linda Sue Park / 4.6
Bud, Not Buddy / Christopher Paul Curtis / 5.0
The Mighty Miss Malone / Christopher Paul Curtis / 4.6
A Single Shard / Linda Sue Park / 6.6
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg / Rodman Philbrick / 7.4
Storyteller / Patricia Reilly Giff / 4.1
Once / Morris Gleitzman / 4.2
Brooklyn Bridge / Karen Hesse / 4.2
Out of the Dust / Karen Hesse / 5.1
Sarah Emma Edmonds was a Great Pretender: The True Story of a Civil War Spy / Carrie Jones & Mark Oldroyd / 5.2
Dogs of War / Sheila Keenan & Nathan Fox / 6.0
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate / Jacqueline Kelly / 5.3
Navigating Early / Clare Vanderpool / 5.2
Letters from Rifka / Karen Hesse / 4.2
Search and Destroy / Dean Hughes / 4.7
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane / Kate DiCamillio / 4.5
Novel Explorer Suggested Book List
3rd Nine Weeks
Unit: Non-Fiction – Informational (I) OR Autobiographies/Biographies (A/B)
Title / Author / Book LevelAnimal Masterminds (I) / Catherine Nichols / 4.1
Around the World in a Hundred Years: From Henry the Navigator to Magellan (I) / Jean Fritz / 5.9
The Diary of a Young Girl (I) / Anne Frank / 5.9
Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade (I) / Melissa Sweet / 4.0
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, & Treachery (I) / Steve Sheinkin / 8.4
The Great Fire (I) / Jim Murphy / 6.9
Stephen Biesty’s Cross-Sections Castle (I) / Stephen Biesty / 5.2
The Boy Who Hardnessed the Wind (I) / William Kamkwamba / 5.0
On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein (I) / Jennifer Nerne / 4.5
Barnum’s Bones: How Barnum Brown Discovered the Most Famous Dinosaur in the World (I) / Tracey E. Fern / 8.6
Odetta: The Queen of Folk (A/B) / Stephen Alcorn / 5.6
Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing (A/B) / Leonard S. Marcus / 7.8
El Deafo (A/B) / Cece Bell / 2.7
Under a Red Sky (A/B) / Haya Leah Molnar / 5.4
Alicia Alonso: Prima Ballerina (A/B) / Carmen T. Bernier-Grand / 3.6
Come See the Earth Turn (A/B) / Lori Mortensen / 7.1
Sitting Bull: Lakota Warrior and Defender of His People (A/B) / S.D. Nelson / 5.6
Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal (A/B) / Vaunda Micheaux Nelson / 5.6
The Adventures of Mark Twain by Huckleberry Finn (A/B) / Robert Burleigh & Barry Blitt / 5.9
Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America (A/B) / Andrea & Brian Pinkney / 7.5
I, Galileo (A/B) / Bonnie Christensen / 7.4
Jubilee!: One Man’s Big, Bold, and Very, Very Loud Celebration of Peace (A/B) / Alicia Potter & Matt Travares / 3.7
Chuck Close: Face Book (A/B) / Chuck Close / 6.0
Paiute Princess: The Story of Sarah Winnemucca (A/B) / Deborah Kogan Ray / 8.6
Sir Charlie: Chaplin, the Funniest Man in the World (A/B) / Sid Fleischman / 7.4
Novel Explorer Suggested Book List
4th Nine Weeks
Unit: Science Fiction (SF) OR Fantasy (F) OR Mysteries (M)
Title / Author / Book LevelWhales on Stilts (SF) / M.T. Anderson / 4.3
Found (SF) / Margaret Peterson Haddix / 5.0
The Wrath of Mulgarath (SF) / Holly Black / 4.5
The Journey (SF) / Kathryn Lasky / 4.5
The Wells Bequest: A Companion to the Grimm Legacy (SF) / Polly Shulman / 4.0
Circus Galacticus (SF) / Deva Fagan / 6.7
Eager (SF) / Helen Fox / 4.5
The Search for WondLa (SF) / Tony DiTerlizzi / 4.6
A Wrinkle in Time (SF) / Madeleine L’Engle / 4.7
The Giver (SF) / Lois Lowry / 5.7
The True Meaning of Smekday (SF) / Adam Rex / 4.5
Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper (SF) / Michael Reisman / 4.7
Pi in the Sky (SF) / Wendy Mass / 4.6
Fallout (SF) / Todd Strasser / 4.5
The Tail of Emily Windsnap (F) / Liz Kessler / 3.5
The Hero Revealed (F) / William Boniface / 4.9
The Creature Department (F) / Robert Paul Weston / 5.3
Kenny & the Dragon (F) / Tony DiTerlizzi / 4.7
The Magician’s Elephant (F) / Kate DiCamillo / 4.5
The Borrower (F) / Mary Norton / 5.9
The Cats of Tanglewood Forest (F) / Charles de Lint / 5.0
The Shadows (F) / Jacqueline West / 2.5
Dragon Rider (F) / Cornelia Funke / 4.9
Artemis Fowl (F) / Eoin Colfer / 5.9
The Unlikely Adventures of Mabel Jones (F) / Will Mabbitt & Ross Collins / 5.2
Sidekicked (F) / John David Anderson / 6.0
The Peculiar (F) / Stefan Bachmann / 4.6
School for Sidekicks (F) / Kelly McCullough / 5.7
The Iron Trial (F) / Holly Black & Cassandra Clare / 5.0
Savvy (F) / Ingrid Law / 8.5
The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity (M) / Mac Barnett / 4.1
The Puzzling World of Winston Breen (M) / Eric Berlin / 4.2
The Water Castle (M) / Megan Frazer Blakemore / 4.3
The Fairy-Tale Detectives (M) / Michael Buckley / 4.5
The Fall of the Amazing Zalindas (M) / Tracy Mack / 5.2
The Mysteries Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (M) / Trenton Lee Stewart / 5.7
The London Eye Mystery (M) / Siobhan Dowd / 4.8
Treasure Hunters (M) / James Patterson / 4.6
Three Times Lucky (M) / Shelia Turnage / 3.9
Edison’s Gold (M) / Geoff Watson / 5.7
Something Upstairs (M) / Avi / 5.1
The City of Ember (M) / Jeanne DuPrau / 5.1
Chasing Vermeer (M) / Blue Balliett / 5.4
The Westing Game (M) / Ellen Raskin / 5.3
The Wright 3 (M) / Blue Balliett / 5.7
The Mystery of the Cupboard (M) / Lynne Reid Banks / 4.9
Midnight Magic (M) / Avi / 4.7
The Calder Game (M) / Blue Balliett / 5.4
The Worst Class Trip Ever (M) / Dave Barry / 4.7
Book Scavenger (M) / Jennifer Chambliss Bertman / 5.3
The 39 Clues: A maze of Bones (M) / Rick Riordan / 3.4
For more book suggestions, please visit the resources below. You can check the book level at: www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/
Resources:
http://www.bookworm4kids.com/index.html
http://kids.santaclaritalibrary.com/upper-elementary-schoolers/reading-lists/