4th and 5th Grades
Click on each book to find it in the library catalog. For more reading ideas or to find books to match a particular reading interest, check our list of 110 Books for Every Child or talk to a children’s librarian by calling 217/403-2030 or e-mailing librarian@champaign.org.
The Underneath
(Juvenile Fiction/J/Appelt) by Kathi Appelt.
An old hound that has been chained up at his hateful owner‘s run-down shack, and two kittens born underneath the house, endure separation, danger, and many other tribulations in their quest to be reunited and free.
Seer of Shadows
(Juvenile Fiction /J/Avi) by Avi.
In New York City in 1872, fourteen-year-old Horace, a photographer‘s apprentice, becomes entangled in a plot to create fraudulent spirit photographs. When Horace accidentally frees the real ghost of a dead girl bent on revenge, his life takes a frightening turn.
Happenstance Found
(Juvenile Ficiton/J/Catanese) by P. W. Catanese.
A boy awakens, blindfolded, with no memory of even his name, but soon meets Lord Umber, an adventurer and inventor, who calls him Happenstance and tells him that he has a very important destiny – and a powerful enemy.
The Entertainer and the Dybbuk
(Juvenile Fiction/J/Fleischman) by Sid Fleischman.
A struggling American ventriloquist in post-World War II Europe is possessed by the mischievous spirit of a young Jewish boy killed in the Holocaust.
All the Lovely Bad Ones
(Juvenile Fiction/J/Hahn) by Mary Downing Hahn.
While spending the summer at their grandmother‘s Vermont inn, two prankster siblings awaken young ghosts from the inn‘s distant past who refuse to ”rest in peace.
Heat
(Juvenile Fiction/J/Lupica) by Mike Lupica.
Pitching prodigy Michael Arroyo is on the run from social services after being banned from playing Little League baseball because rival coaches doubt he is only twelve years old and he has no parents to offer them proof.
11 Birthdays
(Juvenile Fiction/J/Mass) by Wendy Mass.
After celebrating their first nine same-day birthdays together, Amanda and Leo, having fallen out on their tenth and not speaking to each other for the last year, prepare to celebrate their eleventh birthday separately but peculiar things begin to happen as the day of their birthday begins to repeat itself over and over again.
Baseball Crazy: Ten Short Stories That Cover All the Bases
(Juvenile Fiction/J/Baseball) edited by Nancy E. Mercado.
Ten stories about the love of baseball, the fear of baseball, and everything in between.
Ways to Live Forever
(Juvenile Fiction/J/Nicholls by Sally Nicholls.
Eleven-year-old Sam McQueen, who has leukemia, writes a book during the last three months of his life, in which he tells about what he would like to accomplish, how he feels, and things that have happened to him.
The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg
(Juvenile Fiction/J/Philbrock) by Rodman Philbrick.
Twelve-year-old Homer, a poor but clever orphan, has extraordinary adventures after running away from his evil uncle to rescue his brother, who has been sold into service in the Civil War.
A Drowned Maiden's Hair
(Juvenile Fiction/J/Schultz) by Laura Amy Schultz.
At the Barbary Asylum for Female Orphans, eleven-year-old Maud is adopted by three spinster sisters moonlighting as mediums who take her home and reveal to her the role she will play in their seances.
Heroes of the Valley
(Juvenile Fiction/J/Stroud) by Jonathan Stroud.
When young Halli Sveinsson plays a trick on Ragnor of the House of Hakonsson, he sets in motion a chain of events that will forever alter his destiny, forcing him to leave home and go on a hero‘s quest where he encounters highway robbers, terrifying monsters, and a girl who may finally be his match.
The Maze of Bones
(Juvenile Fiction/J/Thirty-Nine) by Rick Riordan.
What would happen if you discovered that your family was one of the most powerful in human history? What if you were told that the source of the family‘s power was hidden around the world, in the form of 39 clues? What if you were given a choice: take a million dollars and walk away … or get the first clue? If you‘re Amy and Dan Cahill, you take the clue — and begin a very dangerous race.
Oggie Cooder
(Juvenile Fiction/J/Weeks) by Sarah Weeks.
Quirky fourth-grader Oggie Cooder goes from being shunned to everyone‘s best friend when his uncanny ability to chew slices of cheese into the shapes of states wins him a slot on a popular television talent show, but he soon learns the perils of being a celebrity — and having a neighbor girl as his manager.
Masterpiece
(Juvenile Mysteries/J/Broach) by Elise Broach.
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.
The London Eye Mystery
(Juvenile Mysteries/J/Dowd) by Siobhan Dowd.
When Ted and Kat‘s cousin Salim disappears from the London Eye ferris wheel, the two siblings must work together — Ted with his brain that is “wired differently” and impatient Kat — to try to solve the mystery of what happened to Salim.
The Glitch in Sleep
(Juvenile Science Fiction&Fantasy/J/Hulme) by John Hulme and Michael Wexler.
When twelve-year-old Becker Drane is recruited by The Seems, a parallel universe that runs everything in The World, he must fix a disastrous glitch in the Department of Sleep that threatens everyone‘s ability to ever fall asleep again. Book 1 of The Seems.
Magic Thief
(Juvenile Science Fiction/J/Prineas) by Sarah Prineas.
A young thief is drawn into a life of magic and adventure after picking the pocket of the powerful wizard Nevery Flinglas, who has returned from exile to attempt to reverse the troubling decline of magic in Wellmet City.
The Dodgeball Chronicles
(Juvenile Graphic Novels/J/Knights) by Frank Cammuso.
Artie is a picked-on kid who opens an unopenable locker at Camelot Middle School and ends up in a dodgeball game with the school bullies. Book 1 of The Knights of the Lunch Table.
Rapunzel's Revenge
(Juvenile Graphic Novels/J/Rapunzel) by Shannon Hale.
Rapunzel is raised in a grand villa surrounded by towering walls. Rapunzel dreams of a different mother than Gothel, the woman she calls Mother. She climbs over the wall and finds out the truth. Her real mother, Kate, is a slave in Gothel‘s gold mine. In this Old West retelling, Rapunzel uses her hair as a lasso and to take on outlaws — including Gothel.
