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My kids and I loved Where the Red Fern Grows - we did a group read with it (taking turns reading) and, oh boy, not a dry eye in the house.
The Incredible Journey, Old Yeller and Sounder are also well worth reading. My kids love dogs and these stories really pull at the heart strings. The movie versions of these classics are nothing by comparison to the books - not a bad thing for kids to learn, IMO.
Lately, the survival type stories: My Side of the Mountain, Hatchet and (soon) Island of the Blue Dolphins have appealed to them. Hunger Games series, too.
The Phantom Tollbooth is an excellent read for both kids and their parents. It's not necessarily an easy read for kids so I would suggest parents read it with their kids.
Aesop's Fables - so simple, so quick, but very thought provoking.
I'd cite Robert A Heinlein; although many of his works spill over into adult venues, I first started reading him back in Junior High during the early Sixties.
Starship Troopers is probably the best example; it devotes a considerable amount of attention to man's capacity for violence (the murderer in the ranks is, perhaps not suprisingly, named Dillinger), and Farmer in the Sky is the first work in which I encountered the word "ecology" -- nearly a decade before the word was popularized.
My kids and I loved Where the Red Fern Grows - we did a group read with it (taking turns reading) and, oh boy, not a dry eye in the house.
The Incredible Journey, Old Yeller and Sounder are also well worth reading. My kids love dogs and these stories really pull at the heart strings. The movie versions of these classics are nothing by comparison to the books - not a bad thing for kids to learn, IMO.
Lately, the survival type stories: My Side of the Mountain, Hatchet and (soon) Island of the Blue Dolphins have appealed to them. Hunger Games series, too.
The Phantom Tollbooth is an excellent read for both kids and their parents. It's not necessarily an easy read for kids so I would suggest parents read it with their kids.
Aesop's Fables - so simple, so quick, but very thought provoking.
You can add Steinbeck's The Red Pony to that list -- and Flight was required reading when I was a high school sophmore. -- also Maureen Daly's Sixteen.
Remember, the OP asked for suggestions for fifth graders - that's ten and eleven year olds. Some of these otherwise excellent suggestions are better suited to teenagers.
I am the OP, and I want to thank everyone who has responded. Sorry I have not returned to this thread for a little while, but I just finished writing down all the recommendations, and I deeply appreciate the time other posters have taken. Just some random comments of my own:
I know a woman, Renata Zerner, now in her 80's, who wrote a memoir about her experiences in Nazi Germany entitled Dance on the Volcano: A Teenage Girl in Nazi Germany. Her family, although not Jewish, was anti-Nazi and the principle interest of the book is the exreme lengths they had to go to hide that fact. I read only excerpts to the fifth graders (as I thought the entire thing might be too tedious for them) and then had the author come speak to the class and answer questions. Her visit was a smash hit. That was almost two years ago, and I am planning a repeat for this spring.
Remember, the OP asked for suggestions for fifth graders - that's ten and eleven year olds. Some of these otherwise excellent suggestions are better suited to teenagers.
The earliest Heinlein short stories (now in collections) were originally written for Boy's Life magazine. They are easily understood by 5th graders. Another good writer for children is Anne McCaffrey - Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums. All three are categorized for 5th to 8th grade readers. Another good one if you can find it, is Two Little Savages by Ernest Thompson Seaton (I think). It was written around the turn of the century for Cub and Boy Scouts.
I liked "a wrinkle in time" by Madelyn L'engle when i was young, but really like all her books.
I was in the 4th grade, in the 1960s when opportunity for women was limited to secretary, nurse, teacher, or homemaker. In this book was the first time I saw where a female could be a scientist and have that kind of career. And the little girl Meg felt like she didn't belong but she bravely took on the adventure to rescue her father and take care of her little brother. It opened my eyes kind of. Girls can do things!
All books mentioned are good. My son was in the 4th grade and loved Where the Red Fern Grows. He loved Judy Bloom when younger and Starship Troopers when older.
My daughter did not like to ready, but she started reading by middle school and still keeps her favorite books. At the early years she liked books about a person. not so much action, science, or adventure.
The reason why I like kids to read "the lion the witch and the wardrobe" is the quality of the writing. Son's 4th grade teacher had them reading that and it helped with grammar. Plus it is an exciting adventure story that has so many levels to it.
I like the newer YA Fiction because I am tired of sex and violence that is often found in adult fiction. Sad themes. Bad behavior, etc. I like that YAF often has the eternal themes (good vs evil, man against man, man against himself, etc) and weaves it into a yarn where problems must be saved.
Glad you are reading to them. Thinking when I retire, I will do the same.
I'd recommend almost any of Oscar Wilde's children stories. I heard 'The Happy Prince' read to me as a child by a teacher and it has remained one of the most magical children's stories I have ever heard.
They are endearingly poignant it has to be said. These tales are often unbearably sad but it's such an enchanting way to learn about the harsh realities of the world that the searing, acerbic morality of these tales shines through and a side of Oscar Wilde's personality that isn't as obviously laid bare in the cynically dandified congeniality of his magnificent plays.
I read them again after reading all his other works and I still revere all the tales today. Magical stories.
Most fifth graders have already read "Charlotte's Web". "Animal Farm" would be way above most of their heads. "The Little Prince" is easy reading, but deals with serious issues, so would be the best choice of these three selections.
Well said! The Little Prince will teach them life lessons, about friendship, childhood, and other human behavior!
"The Giver" is the first recommendation from posters in this thread which I have read (other than books I had already read). I stayed up all night to finish it, and it is stunning. The big intellectual questions are there: What does it mean to be human? What is the meaning and what are the consequences of freedom? It reminded me of the Grand Inquisitor chapter in "The Brothers Karamazov" by Dostoyevsky, although it is of course quite different. And this is a book for children! Quite incredible. Newbery Prize in 1993, by the way.
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"The Giver" by Lois Lowry
