Posted by Lori D. on 21:33 Mar 9
In Reply to: Good books for a 9 year-old boy posted by Dani in Ohio
3rd-4th Grade
Realistic Kids
- The Toothpaste Millionaire (Merrill)
- Henry Huggins (series) (McCleary)
- Boxcar Children series
- Encyclopedia Brown series (Sobol)
Adventure -- Talking Animal
- Charlotte's Web (White)
- Trumpet of the Swan (White)
- Rikki Tikki Tavi (Kipling)
- The Cricket in Times Square (Selden)
- The Mouse and the Motorcycle (McCleary)
Adventure - Fantasy
- Land of Oz; Ozma of Oz (Baum) -- lively sequels; but skip Wizard of Oz (dull/long)
- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series (Betty MacDonald)
- Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (Dahl)
- Great Glass Elevator (Dahl)
- My Father's Dragon (Gannett)
Adventure -- Tall Tale
- Pippi Longstockings; Pippi in the South Seas (Astrid)
- The Bears on Hemlock Mountain (Dalgliesh)
- The Whipping Boy (Fleischman)
- McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm (Fleischman)
- Adventures of TinTin (Herge)
Historical Fiction
- The Sword in the Tree (Bulla) -- Medieval England
- Viking Adventure (Bulla)
- Riding the Pony Express (Bulla)
- Skippack School (de Angeli) -- Colonial U.S.
- The Matchlock Gun (Edmonds) -- Colonial US
- The Courage of Sarah Noble (Dalgliesh) -- Colonial US
- Twenty and Ten (Bishop) -- WWII French children hide Jewish children
- The Little Riders (Shemin) -- WWII occupied Europe
- Number the Stars (Lenski)-- WWII Dutch girl helps her Jewish friend
Biography
- Phoebe the Spy (Griffin) --American Revolution - true story
- The Story of Thomas Alva Edison (Davidson)
- Helen Keller (Davidson)
- Louis Braille (Davidson)
- Robert Fulton, Boy Craftsman (Henry) -- inventor of steam engine as a boy
- Land I Lost; Water Buffalo Days (Nhuong) -- memories of pre-war (rural Vietnam)
4th-5th Grade
Adventure -- Tall Tale
- By the Great Horn Spoon (Fleischman)
- Just So Stories (Kipling)
Fantasy/Magic
- Half Magic; Magic by the Lake, Knight's Castle; Time Garden (Eager)
- Seven Day Magic (Eager)
- The Father Christmas Letters (Tolkien)
- The Secret of Platform 13 (Ibbotson)
- The Borrowers (series) (Norton)
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Fleming)
- Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis)
Adventure - Talking Animal
- Mr. Popper's Penguins (Atwater)
- Ben and I (Lawson) - Ben Franklin's story, as told by the mouse Amos
- Basil of Baker Street (Titus)
- The Rescuers; Miss Bianca; Miss Bianca in the Orient (Sharpe)
Adventure -- Kids
- From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (Konigsburg)
- In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson (Lord)
Historical Fiction
- The Sign of the Beaver (Speare) -- Colonial US/Native American
- Detectives in Togas; Mystery of the Roman Ransom (Winterfeld) -- Ancient Rome
- A Single Shard (Park) -- 1100s Korea
- The Kite Fighters (Park) -- 1400s Korea
- The Door in the Wall (de Angeli) -- Medieval England
Biography
- Naya Nuki: The Shoshone Girl Who Ran -- friend of Sacajewea
- Behind Rebel Lines (Reit) -- teen girl disguised as a boy / Union spy in Civil War
5th-6th gr. level
Tall Tale
- Holes (Sachar)
Adventure - Fantasy
- The Phantom Tollbooth (Juster) -- boy journeys through a mathematical land
- The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Aiken) -- Victorian-like setting
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll)
- The Never Ending Story (Ende)
- Momo (Ende)
- The Hobbit (Tolkien)
- Wrinkle in Time; Wind in the Door; Swiftly Tilting Planet(L'Engle)
(but NOT the 4th book -- Many Waters -- adult themes; not well written)
Historical Fiction
- Snow Treasure (McSwigan)-- WWII Norweigan children hide the country's gold
- Case of the Baker Street Irregular (Newman) -- 1890s boy helps Sherlock Holmes
Adventure - Talking Animal
- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (O'Brien)
Adventure - Realistic Kids/Animals
- The Black Stallion, The Black Stallion Returns, Island Stallion (Farley)
- My Side of the Mountain (George)