Reading Beyond Grades 4-5

For children in grades 4-5 reading at a 7th grade level. Books that are challenging but still appropriate for younger readers.
 

Showing 1 - 20 of 27  There are a total of 27 valid entries on the list.

1. The best at it

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Author:
Pancholy, Maulik
Formats:
Book, Hoopla eAudiobook, Hoopla eBook, Media Player, OverDrive eBook
Description:
Twelve-year-old Rahul Kapoor, an Indian-American boy growing up in small-town Indiana, struggles to come to terms with his identity, including that he may be gay.

2. The boy who harnessed the wind

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Author:
Kamkwamba, William, 1987-
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
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On Shelf
Guilford Juvenile Non-Fiction
J621.45 KAMKWAMBA
Description:
When a terrible drought struck William Kamkwamba's tiny village in Malawi, his family lost all of the season's crops, leaving them with nothing to eat and nothing to sell. William began to explore science books in his village library, looking for a solution. There, he came up with the idea that would change his family's life forever: he could build a windmill. Made out of scrap metal and old bicycle parts, William's windmill brought electricity to...

3. The bridge home

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Author:
Venkatraman, Padma, 1969-
Average Rating:
5 stars
Formats:
Book, OverDrive eAudiobook
Description:
Four determined homeless children make a life for themselves in Chennai, India.

4. Front desk

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Author:
Yang, Kelly
Average Rating:
4.9 stars
Formats:
Book, CD Audiobook, Hoopla eBook, Media Player, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
Recent immigrants from China and desperate for work and money, ten-year-old Mia Tang's parents take a job managing a rundown motel in Southern California, even though the owner, Mr. Yao is a nasty skinflint who exploits them; while her mother (who was an engineer in China) does the cleaning, Mia works the front desk and tries to cope with demanding customers and other recent immigrants--not to mention being only one of two Chinese in her fifth grade...

5. Girl rising: changing the world one girl at a time

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Author:
Stone, Tanya Lee
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Available from another library

6. Gracefully Grayson

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Author:
Polonsky, Ami
Formats:
Book, Hoopla eAudiobook, Hoopla eBook
Description:
"Grayson, a transgender twelve-year-old, learns to accept her true identity and share it with the world"--

7. Harbor me

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Author:
Woodson, Jacqueline
Average Rating:
5 stars
Formats:
Book, CD Audiobook, Large Print, OverDrive eAudiobook
Description:
"When six students are chosen to participate in a weekly talk with no adults allowed, they discover that when they're together, it's safe to share the hopes and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world"-- Six kids discover the power of sharing their secrets and their stories ... It all starts when six kids are sent to a room for a weekly chat - by themselves, with no adults to listen in. At first they fear this new unfamiliar and wonder...

8. Hurricane child

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Author:
Callender, Kacen
Average Rating:
3 stars
Formats:
Book, Hoopla eAudiobook, Hoopla eBook, Media Player
Description:
Born on Water Island in the Virgin Islands during a hurricane, which is considered bad luck, twelve-year-old Caroline falls in love with another girl--and together they set out in a hurricane to find Caroline's missing mother.

9. Illegal

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Author:
Colfer, Eoin
Average Rating:
4 stars
Formats:
Graphic Novel, Hoopla eComic, OverDrive eComic
Description:

A powerfully moving, award-winning graphic novel that explores the current plight of undocumented immigrants from New York Times bestselling author Eoin Colfer and the team behind the Artemis Fowl graphic novels. How can a human being be illegal for simply existing?

Ebo is alone. His brother, Kwame, has disappeared, and Ebo knows it can only be to attempt the hazardous journey to Europe, and a better life—the same journey

...

10. The inquisitor's tale, or, the three magical children and their holy dog

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Author:
Gidwitz, Adam
Formats:
Book, CD Audiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
Crossing paths at an inn, thirteenth-century travelers impart the tales of a monastery oblate, a Jewish refugee, and a psychic peasant girl with a loyal greyhound, the three of whom join forces on a chase through France to escape persecution.

11. Internment

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Author:
Ahmed, Samira (Fiction writer)
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On Shelf
Guilford YA Fiction
YA AHMED
Description:
"Rebellions are built on hope. In a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens. With the help of new friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the camp's Director and his guards" -- Page [4] cover.

12. The journey of little Charlie

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Author:
Curtis, Christopher Paul
Formats:
Book, Hoopla eBook
Description:
When his poor sharecropper father is killed in an accident and leaves the family in debt, twelve-year-old Little Charlie agrees to accompany fearsome plantation overseer Cap'n Buck north in pursuit of people who have stolen from him; Cap'n Buck tells Little Charlie that his father's debt will be cleared when the fugitives are captured, which seems like a good deal until Little Charlie comes face-to-face with the people he is chasing.

13. Legends, icons & rebels: music that changed the world

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Author:
Robertson, Robbie
Average Rating:
5 stars
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On Shelf
Guilford Adult Non-Fiction
782.42 ROBERTSON
Description:
A tribute to more than two dozen legendary music artists who significantly influenced the landscape of music for generations to come, from Ray Charles and Bob Dylan to Chuck Berry and Johnny Cash.

14. The lightning queen

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Author:
Resau, Laura
Formats:
Book, CD Audiobook, Hoopla eAudiobook, Hoopla eBook
Description:
On the Hill of Dust, in the remote mountains of Mexico, an eleven-year-old Mixtec boy called Teo lives with his family and the animals that he has healed, but one day a Romany caravan rolls into town with a young girl who calls herself Esma, the Gypsy Queen of Lightning--it is the beginning of a life-long friendship that will change both their lives.

15. Lincoln's grave robbers

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Author:
Sheinkin, Steve
Formats:
Book, Hoopla eAudiobook, Hoopla eBook
Description:
A true crime thriller -- the first book for teens to tell the nearly unknown tale of the brazen attempt to steal Abraham Lincoln's body. Reissued in Scholastic Focus, with an exciting new cover. The action begins in October of 1875, as Secret Service agents raid the Fulton, Illinois, workshop of master counterfeiter Ben Boyd. Soon after Boyd is hauled off to prison, members of his counterfeiting ring gather in the back room of a smoky Chicago saloon...

16. Moonbird: a year on the wind with the great survivor B95

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Author:
Hoose, Phillip M., 1947-
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On Shelf
Guilford Juvenile Non-Fiction
J598 HOOSE

17. The night diary

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Author:
Hiranandani, Veera
Average Rating:
5 stars
Formats:
Book, CD Audiobook, Media Player, OverDrive eAudiobook
Description:
Shy twelve-year-old Nisha, forced to flee her home with her Hindu family during the 1947 partition of India, tries to find her voice and make sense of the world falling apart around her by writing to her deceased Muslim mother in the pages of her diary.

18. One last word: wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance

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Author:
Grimes, Nikki
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On Shelf
Guilford Juvenile Non-Fiction
J811.45 GRIMES
Description:
"In this collection of poetry, Nikki Grimes looks afresh at the poets of the Harlem Renaissance -- including voices like Langston Hughes, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and many more writers of importance and resonance from this era -- by combining their work with her own original poetry. Using "The Golden Shovel" poetic method, Grimes has written a collection of poetry that is as gorgeous as it is thought-provoking. This special book also includes original...

19. Pathfinders: the journeys of 16 extraordinary Black souls

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Author:
Bolden, Tonya
Formats:
Book, Hoopla eBook
Description:
Profiles sixteen high-achieving African Americans, including magician Richard Potter, concert singer Sissieretta Jones, and architect Paul R. Williams.

20. Refugee

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Author:
Gratz, Alan, 1972-
Average Rating:
5 stars
Formats:
Book, CD Audiobook, Hoopla eAudiobook, Large Print, Media Player, OverDrive eAudiobook, OverDrive eBook
Description:
Although separated by continents and decades, Josef, a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany; Isabel, a Cuban girl trying to escape the riots and unrest plaguing her country in 1994; and Mahmoud, a Syrian boy in 2015 whose homeland is torn apart by violence and destruction, embark on harrowing journeys in search of refuge, discovering shocking connections that tie their stories together.