This is a list of my daughter’s favorite books in 5th grade. My daughters already loved reading at this point, so their choices could be pretty advanced. If you’re daughter isn’t really into reading yet, be sure to also check out my list of best books for girls in 4th grade.
By 5th grade, my daughters were well on their way to being great readers. But don’t worry if yours haven’t gotten there yet! You can help them enjoy reading by helping them have books they love – at any level. And I really mean that. The level they are reading – the difficulty of the book – isn’t as important as how much they’re reading.
Book List – best books for girls in 5th Grade
My daughters’ favorite books
Landry News
This book is not too long, and not too short, but just right – for beginning readers who are older. It’s also very realistic, which can appeal to readers who maybe are still reluctant readers because reading doesn’t seem like real life. Landry News is a story that kids will recognize as something that could happen in their own school.
If your child likes this one, Andrew Clements has a lot of great books for children they can plow through next.
The Wide Awake Princess
This is a really cute book by one of my older daughter’s favorite authors, E.D. Baker. This book is actually easier than the first one she read – The Frog Princess – that’s on my list of favorite books for girls in 2nd grade.
Thief Lord
This is a fun book written by another great children’s writer, Cornelia Funke. Some of her later books are more popular, but this was our favorite. It’s also shorter! Which is great for more reluctant readers. The Thief Lord was even made into a movie, but I think it went straight to DVD, The Thief Lord DVD. I’m not sure why, because it was even slightly better than the book. But you can get it on DVD and see for yourself!
When there’s a movie about a book you can do it two ways. The first, and most common, is to let kids watch the movie AFTER they read the book. But another possibility, especially if your child has trouble with reading comprehension, is to let them watch the movie before they read the book. That way they know what’s going on before they read. That makes it easier for them to engage in the story. That’s a method I used with high school readers, to get them reading on the level of the SAT. I started with movies like Emma, to get them started reading the classics of Jane Austen.
Lightning Thief – series
My son had tried to get his sister to read this for years.
But she refused.
Until The Lightning Thief appeared on a book choice list in 7th grade. She read the Lightning Thief from the list, and she’s been a convert every since. But, this book is definitely on the level of most 5th graders so I included it here.
The School for the Insanley Gifted
The School for the Insanely gifted is a fun fantasy that I gave my younger daughter one year for Christmas. Every year, they each get at least one book!
Theodosia
My older daughter read the first book in the Theodosia series on my suggestion. She liked it until she got to the end, where she was horrified that a villian got acid in the face. She had already started the Harry Potter series at this point, and the acid attack wasn’t graphically described in Theodosia, so I had failed to even consider that the instance of violence might bother her.
A couple of months later, though, her English teacher suggested this same series. To my surprise she breezed right through it loved them. So if you have a sensitive reader, maybe they just need to be prepared that the bad guy gets hurt at the end.
Olivia Kidney
This fun fantasy is a little offbeat. My girls read all of the Olivia Kidney books.
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (Book 4)
Does anything ever have to be said about these books anymore?!? But I will give you some advice, that in our house, our kids didn’t read the complete Harry Potter series until they got a little older. Some kids read them younger, but from talking to other moms and our experience, kids are more likely to finish the series if they start some of the scarier books when their older. (My son read the first one in second grade and he never did finish the series. Both the girls waited until around fifth grade and read the complete series. Over. And over. And over.) But this isn’t true of all kids, so use your judgement.
The books start to get a bit darker at this point. The first death in the series is in this one, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
I hope you found a great book for your girl here! Keep in mind that readers’ interests and ability vary. You can find more great books on my other lists of my kids’ favorite books.