Summer Reading
Assignments for Students Entering Grade 5
Welcome to Upper School! All your teachers eagerly await your arrival in September.
Over the summer, you must read three required books: Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo,
The One and Only Ivan, and Lost on a Mountain in Maine by Donn Fendler.
In addition to the required reading, you must complete two different projects. Each
project must be about a different book. When you finish an assignment, place it in your
summer reading folder for safekeeping. I will collect your work when you return in the
fall.
Reading Projects: (Pick one project for each of the two books you’ve chosen for projects.
Remember, you still need to read all three books.)
Choose two main characters from your book and describe them in detail.
1. Write a diary entry that the main character in your book might have kept during
part of the story.
2. Write a different ending for your book.
3. Write a letter to the author of the book.
4. Write a book review.
The assignments should be approximately one page in length. You may type your
assignments or write them in cursive.
When you complete a book, record the information on the Literature Log in your folder,
The first day of school is Thursday, September 4. On the second day of school, Friday,
September 5, the Lower School and Grades 5 and 6 will go on a field trip to Fiver Rivers
Environmental Education Center, where different grades will be participating in various
programs.
Have a wonderful summer!
Summer Reading List
Grade 5
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In addition to the required books, students are encouraged to read more books from this
Grade 5 Reading List.
Time Cat
Alexander, Lloyd
Jason and his magic cat, Gareth, travel through time to visit countries from all over the
world during different periods in history.
Sounder
Armstrong, William
Sounder, a loyal dog with an echoing bark, helps a young African-American boy deal
with life in the 19th century South.
Chasing Vermeer
Balliett, Blue
When a book of unexplainable occurrences brings Petra and Calder together, they find
themselves at the center of an international art scandal. Can they decipher a crime that
has stumped even the FBI?
The House with a Clock on its Walls
Bellairs, John L.
Lewis goes to live with his magician uncle in a mansion that has a clock in the wall. He
learns the clock is ticking off the minutes until doomsday.
The Incredible Journey
Burnford, Sheila
A Labrador retriever, a bull terrier, and a Siamese cat set out through the Canadian
wilderness together to make their way home to the family they love.
Bud, Not Buddy
Curtis, Christopher Paul
Ten-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy on the run, but he's on a mission. His momma
never told him who his father was, but she left a clue: posters of Herman E. Calloway and
his famous band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression!
Castle Carona
Creech, Sharon
A fancy pouch is dropped near some street children who must decide what to do with it.
Danny, Champion of the World
Dahl, Roald
A young English boy and his father have a special adventure together.
Incident at Hawks Hill
Eckert, Allen
A badger helps Ben survive in the wilderness.
Harriet the Spy
Fitzhugh, Louise
Harriet’s favorite hobby is spying on her neighbors. But, when her friends find her diary
and read what she has written about them, they decide to make her life miserable.
Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt
Fritz, Jean
A biography of the larger-than-life-Roosevelt. He has his faults, but he has many more
accomplishments.
Down River
Hobbs, Will
Friends venture down the rapids of the Colorado River.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Lewis, C.S.
Four lonely children explore an old wardrobe and find the fantasy world of Narnia, which
is threatened by the evil spell of the white witch.
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
O’Brien, Robert C.
A widowed mouse, struggling with her own problems, visits the wise and strong rats who
escaped from the laboratory at NIMH.
Island of the Blue Dolphins
O’Dell, Scott
The story of how an Indian girl lives alone for eighteen years on an isolated island in the
Pacific.
Where the Red Fern Grows
Rawls, Wilson
A young boy fulfills his dream of buying two bloodhound dogs and training them to be
champions.
Glory Be
Scattergood, Augusta
It’s the summer of 1964 in Mississippi, and Gloriana Hemphill is excited to turn twelve
on the Fourth of July. Yet, town officials are ruining her summer with plans to shut
down the segregated pool. They claim it’s for repairs, but Glory isn’t convinced.
The Cricket in Times Square
Selden, George
The adventures of a country cricket who unintentionally arrives in New York and is
befriended by Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat.