Grades 3-5

Designed as a companion piece to Indiana’s Academic Standards in English/Language Arts, the following selections of the Indiana Reading List illustrate the quality and complexity of the suggested reading materials for students in Grades 3 – 5. The Indiana Reading List is not required reading nor is it meant to be all-inclusive. Teachers and parents are encouraged to review the selections to ensure suitability for the individual student.

Fiction: Classic and Contemporary

The Best Bad Thing – Uchida, Yoshiko The Best Christmas Pageant Ever – Robinson, Barbara Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile – de Paola, Tomie
A Boy of Old Prague – Ish-Kishor, Shulamith
Cam Jansen (series) – Adler, David
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Dahl, Roald
Charlotte’s Web – White, E.B.
Class Clown – Hurwitz, Johanna
Felita – Mohr, Nicholessa
Freckle Juice – Blume, Judy
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – Konigsburg, E.L.
The Hundred Dresses – Estes, Eleanor
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson – Lord, Bette Bao
Maniac Magee – Spinelli, Jerry
Misty of Chincoteague – Henry, Marguerite
Molly’s Pilgrim – Cohen, Barbara
The Pinballs – Byars, Betsy
Pippi Longstocking – Lindgren, Astrid
Poppy – Avi
The Pushcart War – Merrill, Jean
Ramona (series) – Cleary, Beverly
Shades of Gray – Reeder, Carolyn
Shiloh (trilogy) – Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds
Sounder – Armstrong, William
Stone Fox – Gardiner, John Reynolds
The Stories Julian Tells – Cameron, Anne
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing – Blume, Judy
Trumpet of the Swan – White, E.B.
Velveteen Rabbit – Williams, Margery
Wayside School (series) – Sachar, Louis
Where the Red Fern Grows – Rawls, Wilson
The Whipping Boy – Fleischman, Sid

Historical Fiction

The Courage of Sarah Noble – Dalgliesh, Alice
Journey to Topaz – Uchida, Yoshiko
Lily’s Crossing – Giff, Patricia Reilly
Little House in the Big Woods (series) – Wilder, Laura Ingalls
Number the Stars – Lowry, Lois
Prairie Songs – Conrad, Pam
Sadako and the 1,000 Paper Cranes – Coerr, Eleanor
Sarah, Plain and Tall – MacLachlan, Patricia
The Sign of the Beaver – Speare, Elizabeth George

>Science Fiction/Fantasy

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Verne, Jules
Alice in Wonderland – Carroll, Lewis
Bridge to Terabithia – Paterson, Katherine
The Court of the Stone Children – Cameron, Eleanor
The Cricket in Times Square – Selden, George
The Ear, the Eye and the Arm – Farmer, Nancy
James and the Giant Peach – Dahl, Roald
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh – O’Brien, Robert C.
The Secret Garden – Burnett, Frances
This Place Has No Atmosphere – Danziger, Paula
The Wind in the Willows – Grahame, Kenneth
Wizard of Oz – Baum, L. Frank
A Wrinkle in Time – L’ Engle, Madeleine

Folklore/Fairy Tales/Mythology

The Barefoot Book of Trickster Tales – Walker, Richard
The Crane Wife – Yagawa, Sumiko and Odds Bodkin
D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths – D’Aulaire, Ingri and Edgar
The Days When the Animals Talked – Faulkner, William
The First Strawberries: A Cherokee Story – Bruchac, Joseph
How the Leopard Got His Spots – Kipling, Rudyard
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood – Pyle, Howard
The Olympians: Great Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece – Fisher, Leonard Everett
Saint George and the Dragon – Hodges, Margaret
Tales of Uncle Remus – Lester, Julian
Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears – Aardema, Verna

Poetry

Beat the Story-Drum, Pum-Pum – Bryan, Ashley
From Sea to Shining Sea: A Treasury of American Folklore and Folk Songs – Cohn, Amy
Hand in Hand: An American History Through Poetry – Hopkins, Lee Bennett
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices – Fleischman, Paul
Nathaniel Talking – Greenfield, Eloise
The New Kid on the Block – Prelutsky, Jack
The Random House Book of Poetry for Children – Prelutsky, Jack (ed.)
Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child’s Book of Poems – White, M. and others
Snow Toward Evening: A Year in a River Valley – Frank, Josette

Nonfiction: Science, Social Studies, and Mathematics

African Beginnings – Haskins, James
Animal Defenses: How Animals Protect Themselves – Kaner, Etta
Bizarre Birds – Wechsler, Doug Black Whiteness: Admiral Byrd
Alone in the Antarctic – Burleigh, Robert
Buddy: The First Seeing Eye Dog – Moore, Eva
Castle – Macaulay, David
Caves and Caverns – Gibbons, Gail
Come Back, Salmon – Cone, Molly
Counting on Frank: Level 4 – Clement, Rod
Dive! My Adventures in the Deep Frontier – Earle, Sylvia
DK Guide to Space: A Photographic Journey Through the Universe – Bond, Peter
Dolphin Man: Exploring the World of Dolphins – Pringle, Laurence
Exploding Ants: Amazing Facts About How Animals Adapt – Settel, Joanne
An Extraordinary Life: Story of a Monarch Butterfly – Pringle, Laurence
Fire! Fire! – Gibbons, Gail
How Much Is a Million? – Schwartz, David
The Magic School Bus (series) – Cole, Joanna
Mapping the World – Johnson, Sylvia
One World, Many Religions – Osborne, Mary Pope
The People Shall Continue – Ortiz, Simon
Pyramid – Macaulay, David
Reaching for Dreams: A Ballet from Rehearsal to Opening Night – Kuklin, Susan
Shh! We’re Writing the Constitution – Fritz, Jean
Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest – Jenkins, Steve
Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens – Lauber, Patricia

Biography/Autobiography

The First Woman Doctor –Baker, Rachel
Through My Eyes – Bridges, Ruby
Cleopatra – Stanley, Diane
Where Do You Think You’re Going, Christopher Columbus? – Fritz, Jean
Frederick Douglass: The Black Lion – McKissack, Patricia
Albert Einstein: Young Thinker – Hammontree, Marie
Queen Eleanor: Independent Spirit of the Medieval World – Brooks, Polly Schoer
The Librarian Who Measured the Earth: Eratosthenes – Lasky, Kathryn
Benjamin Franklin – D’Aulaire, Ingri
Ben and Me – Lawson, Robert
Prince Henry the Navigator – Fisher, Angela
The Land I Lost: Adventures of a Boy in Vietnam – Huynh, Qhang Nhuong
Helen Keller: Courage in the Dark – Hurwitz, Johanna
Lives of the Presidents – Krull, Kathleen
Abe Lincoln’s Hat – Brenner, Martha
Charles Lindbergh: A Human Hero – Giblin, James
Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun – Blumberg, Rhoda
The Story of Sacajawea, Guide to Lewis and Clark – Rowland, Della
The Secret Soldier: The Story of Deborah Sampson – McGovern, Ann
Clara Schumann: Piano Virtuoso – Reich, Susanna
Inspirations: Stories About Women Artists – Sills, Leslie
Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims – Bulla, Clyde Robert
On the Day Peter Stuyvesant Sailed into Town – Lobel, Arnold
Walking the Road to Freedom: Sojourner Truth – Ferris, Jeri
Frank Lloyd Wright for Kids: His Life and Ideas – Thorne-Thomsen, Kathleen
The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane – Freedman, Russell
Babe Didrikson Zaharias: The Making of a Champion – Freedman, Russell