- The Downtown School
- Books for summer reading
-
Reading Suggestions for 4th Graders
Author: Deborah Hopkinson
Title: Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: A Tall,Thin Tale (Introducing His Forgotten Frontier Friend)
Description: In Knob Creek, Kentucky, in 1816, seven-year-old Abe Lincoln falls into a creek and is rescued by his best friend, Austin Gollaher.
Author: Meghan McCarthy
Title: Aliens are Coming!: The True Account of the 1938 War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast
Description: McCarthy tells the true story of the performance by Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater that duped much of the country into believing that Martians had invaded.
Author: Sydney Taylor
Title: All-of-a-Kind Family
Description: Five little Jewish girls, all dressed alike, live in New York at the turn of the century.
Author: Lois Lowry
Title: Anastasia Krupnik
Description: This is the first in Lois Lowry's hilarious series about the unusual Krupnik family.
Author: Ken Mochizuki
Title: Baseball Saved Us
Description: Shorty, a young boy living in a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II, helps form a baseball league.
Author: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Title: The Boys Start the War
Description: Disgusted that a family with three girls moves into the house across the river, nine-year-old Wally and his three brothers declare a practical joke war on the girls.
Author: Roald Dahl
Title: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Description: Charlie finds a gold ticket that lets him into a world of chocolate and fantastic inventions.
Author: E.B.White
Title: Charlotte`s Web
Description: Wilbur,a runty pig, becomes a celebrity with the help of some very special friends.
Author: Carmen Agra Deedy
Title: The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale
Description: In this playful homage to Charles Dickens, unlikely allies learn the lessons of agreat friendship.
Author: Barbara Kerley
Title: The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins
Description: The true story of Victorian artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, who built life-sized models of dinosaurs in the hope of educating the world about these awe-inspiring ancient animals.
Author: Joanne Settel
Title: Exploding Ants: Amazing Facts about How Animals Adapt
Description: Describes examples of animal behavior that may strike humans as disgusting, including the "gross"ways animals find food, shelter, and safety in the natural world.
Title: Fire and Wings: Dragon Tales From East and West
Description: An enchanting preface by Newbery Award winner Jane Yolen introduces this collection of 15 dragon stories from England, Western and Eastern Europe,Korea, Japan, and China.
Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
Title: Freedom on the Menu
Description: The 1960 civil rights sit-ins at the Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, are seen through the eyes of a young Southern black girl.
Author: Louise Borden
Title: The Greatest Skating Race
Description: During World War II in the Netherlands, a boy helps two children escape to Belgium by skating past German soldiers.
Author: Beverly Cleary
Title: Henry Huggins
Description: Enjoy the adventures of Henry and his new friend, a hungry, lost dog he names Ribsy.
Author: H.P. Newquist
Title: Here There Be Monsters: The Legendary Kraken and the Giant Squid
Description: Examine sthe connections between old myths about the kraken--a Scandinavian sea monster--and modern scientific study of the giant squid, and explores representations of the creature in film and literature.
Author: EricKimmel
Title: The Hero Beowulf
Description: One of the oldest stories known to man is brought to vivid life for younger readers in this picture book that introduces a classic confrontation between good and evil as the ancient Danish warrior Beowulf battles the monstrous Grendel.
Author: Rosalyn Schanzer
Title: How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning
Description: The story of how one of the most famous inventions ever created--the lightning rod--came to be made by the energetic, humorous, and genius Ben Franklin.
Author: Cornelia Funke
Title: Igraine the Brave
Description: The daughter of two magicians, Igraine wants nothing more than to be a knight, and when their castle is attacked by a treacherous neighbor bent on stealing their singing magic books, Igraine has an opportunity to demonstrate her bravery.
Author: Bette Bao Lord
Title: In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson
Description: Ten-year-old Shirley Temple Wong has come to Brooklyn from China and finds America very strange, until she discovers baseball.
Author: Angela Johnson
Title: Just Like Josh Gibson
Description: A young girl's grandmother tells her of her love for baseball and the day they let her play in the game even though she was a girl.
Author: Katrina Saltonstall Currier
Title: Kai`s Journey to Gold Mountain
Description: In 1934, twelve-year-old Kai leaves China to join his father in America, but first he must take a long sea voyage, then endure weeks of crowded conditions and harsh examinations on Angel Island, fearing that he or his new friend will be sent home.
Author: Allen Kurzweil
Title: Leon and the Champion Chip
Description: Employing scientific methods learned in Mr. Sparks' class, fifth-grader Leon competes in a potato chip tasting contest and takes revenge against Lumpkin the bully.
Author: Pegi Deitz Shea
Title: Liberty Rising: The Story of the Statue of Liberty
Description: This inspiring and beautifully illustrated picture book celebrates the visionaries behind the statue and the process by which they carried out the design and building of one of the world's most important monuments.
Author: Susan Cooper
Title: The Magician`s Boy
Description: A boy who works for a magician meets familiar fairy tale characters when he is transported to the Land of Story in search of a missing puppet.
Author: Emily Arnold McCully
Title: Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor
Description: Meet the woman known as "the Lady Edison."
Author: Jane Yolen
Title: The Mary Celeste: An Unsolved Mystery from History
Description: A young girl relates the facts that are known about the unexplained disappearance of the crew on the ship Mary Celeste in 1872, and challenges the reader to solve the mystery.
Author: Jenny Nimmo
Title: Midnight for Charlie Bone
Description: When Charlie Bone realizes that he can hear people in photographs talking, he wonders if he has magical powers.
Author: Amada Irma Perez
Title: My Diary From Here to There
Description: Young Amada overhears her parents whisper of moving from Mexico to Los Angeles. As she and her family journey north, Amada records in her diary her fears, hopes,and dreams for their lives in the United States.
Author: Jack Prelutsky
Title: My Dog May Be a Genius: Poems
Description: Have you ever encountered an underwater marching band, a pig in a bathing suit, a pet orangutan, or a witch in a hardware store? Have you ever sat with a skunk in a courtroom, shopped for a dinosaur, or conversed with a Bupple, a Wosstrus,a Violinnet, or a Celloon? You will have, once you've read this collection of poems.
Author: Margriet Ruurs
Title: My Librarian is a Camel
Description: Library services in 13 countries are described, with colorful photographs and facts about each country.
Author: Neale S. Godfrey
Title: Neale S. Godfrey`s Ultimate Kids` Money Book
Description: Provides an overview of economics and money, including earning, spending, saving, checks and credit cards, banks, and the history of money.
Author: Ivy Ruckman
Title: Night of the Twisters
Description: A tornado hits while Dan and his friend are alone with Dan's baby brother.
Author: Beatrice Hollyer
Title: Our World of Water: Children and Water Around the World
Description: Explore how children from six different countries use water every day.
Author: Sandra Markle
Title: Outside and Inside Mummies
Description: Reveals how today's cutting-edge technology--such as x-rays, DNA testing, and forensics--is helping to teach scientists more than ever about mummies from across the world.
Author: Jeanne Birdsall
Title: The Penderwicks
Description: While vacationing with their widowed father in the Berkshire Mountains, four lovable sisters, ages four through twelve, share adventures with a local boy, much to the dismay of his snobbish mother.
Author: Patricia Polacco
Title: Pink and Say
Description: A powerful Civil War story about interracial friendship.
Author: Avi
Title: Poppy
Description: Poppy the deer mouse urges her family to move next to a field of corn big enough to feed them all forever, but Mr. Ocax, a terrifying owl, has other ideas.
Author: D.Anne Love
Title: The Puppeteer`s Apprentice
Description: In this medieval adventure, a girl named Mouse works in a manor's scullery,dreaming of a different life. But what chance does she have?
Author: Mitali Perkins
Title: Rickshaw Girl
Description: A young girl in Bangladesh knows she must challenge tradition in order to help her impoverished family.
Author: Vivian French
Title: The Robe of Skulls
Description: The sorceress Lady Lamorna has her heart set on a very expensive new robe, and she will stop at nothing--including kidnapping and black magic--to get the money to pay for it.
Author: Karen Cushman
Title: Rodzina
Description: Rodzina,big for twelve and secretly scared to death, boards an orphan train headed west.
Author: Katrin Tchana
Title: Sense Pass King: A Story From Cameroon
Description: Deep in the forest lives a child called Sense Pass King, because she has more sense than even the King.
Author: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Title: Shiloh
Description: When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty tries to hide it from his family and the dog's real owner.
Author: Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Title: Snowflake Bentley
Description: A biography of a self-taught scientist who photographed thousands of individual snowflakes in order to study their unique formations.
Author: Judith St. George
Title: Stand Tall, Abe Lincoln
Description: Growing up poor in the backwoods of Kentucky and Indiana,Abraham Lincoln lost his mother before he was ten. But Sally Johnston, who married Abe's father a year later, brought a library of books to their log cabin home and turned young Abe's life around.
Author: Mark Kurlansky
Title: The Story of Salt
Description: The story of the only rock we eat, including its origin, the other discoveries madebecause of it, and tales of salt and the people who have been involved with itthrough the ages.
Author: Sara Pennypacker
Title: Stuart Goes to School
Description: Worried about his first day at a new school, eight-year-old Stuart wears his magic cap eand hopes that it will help him.
Author: Chris Gall
Title: Substitute Creacher
Description: The trouble making students of Ms. Jenkins' class arrive at school one day to discover a substitute creacher has come to put a stop to their monkey business!
Author: Kate DiCamillo
Title: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread
Description: The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.
Author: Michael McCurdy
Title: Trapped By the Ice!: Shackleton`s Amazing Antarctic Adventure
Description: The true tale of the 1915 expedition by Sir Ernest Shackleton to cross the polar ice cap which turned out to be a two-year saga of survival for Shackleton and his crew.
Author: Douglas Rees
Title: Uncle Pirate
Description: Wilson is one of the most bullied fourth-graders at the chaotic Very Elementary School until his long-lost uncle, Desperate Evil Wicked Bob--a pirate--and his talking penguin arrive and begin making everything ship-shape, one classroom at a time.
Author: Walter Wick
Title: Walter Wick`s Optical Tricks
Description: Presents a series of optical illusions and explains what is seen.
Author: Jan Adkins
Title: What if You Met a Pirate?
Description: This large format, full color picture book presents pirate history and pirate lore,pirate ships and equipment, and pirate life.
Author: Amy Hest
Title: When Jessie Came Across the Sea
Description: Thirteen-year-old Jessie, a Jewish immigrant, works for three years to earn money to bring her grandmother to America.
Author: Pam Munoz Ryan
Title: When Marian Sang
Description: Young readers are introduced to one of opera's most important singers, known for her historic 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial which drew an integrated crowd of over 75,000 in pre-Civil Rights America.
Author: Jeff Belanger
Title: Who`s Haunting the White House?: The President`s Mansion and the Ghosts Who Live There
Description: Isthe White House really haunted? The author includes eyewitness accounts ofghost sightings.
Author: Aliki
Title: William Shakespeare and the Globe
Description: Tells the story of the well-known playwright, William Shakespeare, and of the famous Globe Theatre in which many of his works were performed.
Author: Rosemary Wells
Title: Wingwalker
Description: During the Depression, Reuben and his out-of-work parents move from Oklahoma to Minnesota, where his father gets a job as a carnival wingwalker and Reuben has a chance to overcome his terror of flying.
Author: Betty G. Birney
Title: The World According to Humphrey
Description: Humphrey,pet hamster at Longfellow School, learns that he has an important role to play in helping his classmates and teacher.
Author: Grace Lin
Title: The Year of the Dog
Description: Frustrated at her seeming lack of talent for anything, a young Taiwanese American girl sets out to apply the lessons of the Chinese Year of the Dog, those of making best friends and finding oneself, to her own life.
Author: Harriet Ziefert
Title: You Can`t See Your Bones With Binoculars
Description: Text and illustrations, including x-rays, provide a guided tour of the human skeleton, encouraging the reader to find and feel each bone as it is described.
