Books for elementary school readers

I’ve been one, I’ve taught them, and I have two of my own. Here are the books that have stood out.

3rd/4th grade reading level

The BFG, The Witches, George’s Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl. Brilliant, gently scary, surprising, delightful. Mix of genders of main characters.

Wayside School series by Louis Sachar: Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Wayside School is Falling Down, and Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger by Louis Sachar — basically Jorge Luis Borges for kids, weird and unique and inspiring. Mix of genders of main characters. Please, please, please tell me you’ll give a kid Sideways Stories from Wayside School to read—it might make them into a writer.

Smile series (Smile, Sisters, Guts) and Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier — excellent graphic novel memoirs, main characters are girls.

Babysitter’s Club series — the original books are fast-reading, if repetitious and a little shallow. But the recent graphic novel adaptations are truly excellent; the first few are by Raina Telgemeier, but they’re all good. Main characters are girls, without too much centering their lives around boys.

Space Boy graphic novels — human-focused space science fiction

Ivy and Bean series — brilliant, relatable stories about two 8 year-old girls who are best friends.

Ramona Quimby books — Beezus and Ramona is the first one, not Ramona the Pest. These are still as wonderful as ever, and are unforgettably compassionate for Ramona’s mix of imagination and easily-bruised pride. The main characters are girls.

Among the Dolls by William Sleator — child-appropriate, non-bloody horror; mix of genders of main characters.

Tumtum & Nutmeg series by Emily Bearn. Mice who live in the walls; mix of genders of main characters, in very traditional gender roles. Nothing groundbreaking here, but the stories are clever and fun.

Dominic by William Stieg (erudite, but with short sentences and short length overall). Main character is a male dog; mix of genders of other characters, in somewhat old-school gender roles. A slightly harder read than the other books here.

4th/5th grade reading level

Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl—utter joy. Note that Matilda features some shocking abuse, though somehow in Dahl’s hands it’s palatable, which is its own lesson

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White — if you haven’t read this, it’s even better than you think; a masterpiece of empathy, imagination, and beautiful sentences

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien—like Charlotte’s Web, this is suffused with fine observations, plus a compelling mix of wonder, love, and danger.

Holes by Louis Sachar — a clever metafictional take on racism

Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling—the first two books are shorter, less intense, and a bit easier to read than the rest

Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt — good portrait of a girl living with a learning disability, my 9 year old loved it (and she’s hard to please)

Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull — fast-moving, smart fantasy adventure; there is danger, but it’s handled with a light touch, as in Harry Potter’s first two books

Calvin & Hobbes comics collections by Bill Watterson— there are six or so of these, start with The Essential Calvin & Hobbes. They provide a joyful indoctrination into independent thinking, inspiration, imagination, and resisting the coercion and blandness of modern life.

No Coins, Please and Who is Bugs Potter? by Gordon Korman — excellent, smart comedic chapter books. There’s a bit of ambient 1980s sexism in the secondary role of women as girlfriends and objects of attention which might be worth calling out.

Oz books: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz, The Emerald City of Oz — these are excellent (there are some others that aren’t as good; skip Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, for example)

Narnia books — these days people sometimes foolishly start with The Magician’s Nephew, but you should start with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, then Prince Caspian, then The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. People disagree about The Silver Chair and A Horse and His Boy, but they generally agree that The Magician’s Nephew is a good read, and The Last Battle isn’t. Note that there’s a tiny bit of sexism from time to time, like a throwaway line where a boy sneers at his sisters and suggests they don’t read maps well, and the girls getting healing potions instead of swords.

5th/6th grade reading level

Harry Potter books 3 through 7. Prisoner of Azkaban (book 3) is still my favorite, but Order of the Phoenix is a damning takedown of institutional fear of dissent and independent thought, and a powerful endorsement of authentic, student-motivated learning.

Beyonders series by Brandon Mull — fast-moving, smart fantasy adventure; there’s some serious violence, though not gratuitous, and intense, scary situations. My daughter and I felt that the momentum sags in the third book, for what it’s worth, but the first two are fantastic.

Singularity and Intersteller Pig by William Sleator — thought-provoking, unforgettable science fiction. Sleator should be read more.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster — you don’t really need to be able to follow all of the metaphors and satirical jokes. When I read this to my kids, I changed half the male characters to female; why the heck does every talking geometry shape, anthropomorphic cloud, or faceless demon have to be male? Isn’t that a bizarre way of imagining fiction?

Losing Joe’s Place by Gordon Korman — excellent, smart comedic chapter book. Suffers from the same subordinate role of women as his other books, but with that called out, it’s still a gem.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — still magical after all these years! A slow build but a great payoff.

Anastasia series by Lois Lowry — like the Ramona books, but shifted a little older. Wonderful and full of unexpected surprises, minor transgressions, and fresh takes on growing into a teenager. The first book is “Anastasia Krupnik”.

A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones—this was one of my favorite books as a child, a strange and soaring romp through a gentle sci-fi/fantasy world, with one of the most unforgettable fictional foods you’ll ever encounter (trust me). I do confess that I started to read this to my 7 year old and the first third was too slow for her.

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie — I’ve actually never read this, but my partner and other people adore it.

6th/7th grade reading level

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkein, illustrated by Michael Hague — always tricky because the first 30 pages are incredibly slow, but then the rest is unparalleled adventure.

The War that Saved My Life, and Jefferson’s Sons by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley — ambitious historical young adult novels. Jefferson’s Sons is a family coming-of-age story told from the point of view of Thomas Jefferson’s enslaved Black children, and it is a truly monumental, and loving, achievement; it is damning of slavery and the accommodations made for it by those who talk a good game about freedom and democracy, while also being true to the ways that the children find joy and identity in their relationships and daily life.

The Boy Who Reversed Himself and House of Stairs by William Sleator — thought-provoking science fiction, conceptually tricky and somewhat dystopian.

The Giver by Lois Lowry — dystopian fiction, an inspiring existentialist masterpiece

The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman — brilliant fantasy. I didn’t love the third book in the trilogy, which, like the last Narnia book, gets into religious allegory that I find tedious.

Earthsea series by Ursula LeGuin — starts with A Wizard of Earthsea — brilliant fantasy, but more erudite and slow than most young adult writing. The second book, The Tombs of Atuan, takes place in one of the most unforgettable setpieces in fantasy, and the fourth book, Tehanu, is a work of revisionism that looks at fantasy worlds through a feminist lens, and finds them deeply wanting.