Ella Enjoyed: 5 Chapter Books for 5th Graders

If you are looking for some great chapter books for 5th graders, pop in your email address and I’ll send you a list of 5 of our recent favorites (reviewed by a fifth grader!). 

As school is starting to wind down, Ella has been spending more and more time reading.

Her homework load has decreased significantly and she’s plowing through books at an astonishing rate.

She remembered this month that she owns a Kindle and has been asking me every few days to load it up with new book – thank goodness for the library or I’d have spent my entire life savings on ebooks for her this month! If your child has a Kindle Reader for Kids, here’s step-by-step directions for how to get library books on it.

Whether your child or student is reading paper books or ebooks, I hope they’ll find some new titles to enjoy here!

chapter books for fifth graders

Ella Enjoyed: 5 Chapter Books for 5th Graders

nathan's hazardous tale bookNathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales by Nathan Hale
128 pages
You may have noticed that Ella has gotten into more historical fiction and non-fiction over the last year (after years of having little interest in it) and this ten book series was the perfect match between her love of graphic novels and her burgeoning interest in real events.

What Ella has to say: I really liked these books because 1) they’re graphic novels, 2) they have a lot of very interesting facts and 3) they’re pretty hilarious.

keeper of the lost cities bookKeeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger 
496 pages

I’ve heard this recommended a million times for Harry Potter lovers, but it went in one ear and out the other until Ella come home from school saying one of her friends was raving about this series. Happily, I happened to have a copy and Ella devoured this book about Sophie doesn’t fit in at school or in her family, in part because she can read minds. Then she meets a boy who has the same powers she does and it turns out there are a lot of secrets about herself and the world around her that she doesn’t know. But she’s going to find out pretty quickly!

What Ella has to say: My friend recommended this book to me and at first I was a little dubious and I only read about six chapters and then set it aside for a while. But finally, I picked it up again and once I started, I couldn’t stop. It’s a really good mix of mystery and fantasy – now all it needs is to be in a graphic novel format! I really liked guessing what was going to happen and the plot line is really good. It’s just a very satisfying read. There are nine books and I can’t wait to read them all.

unsolved mystery files bookUnsolved Case Files: Escape at 10,000 Feet: D.B. Cooper and the Missing Money by Thomas Sullivan
104 pages
I wasn’t sure if Ella would like this book but then she LOVED this true story of an unsolved mystery where D.B Cooper demands $20,000 in cash and then parachutes from an airplane with it. It’s been 50 years and the money and Cooper have never been found. It’s also in a semi-graphic novel format which made it an easy sell for her!

What Ella has to say: I’d never read a book quite like this – I really loved that it was an actual unsolved mystery. It was all facts but it felt like something that would be made up in a book. It was really interesting to see the clues they have and how they’ve never caught him and they’ve never found the money. What is the point of stealing $10,000 if you never spend it?

i survived titanicI Survived by Lauren Tarshis
112 pages

This historical fiction series has more than 20 books in it, each featuring some major historical event (always of a terrifying or tragic nature) from the sinking of the Titanic to the Battle of Gettysburg to the California wildfires. They feature a child right in the middle of the event and how the whole thing played out. Ella can’t get enough of them!

What Ella has to say: I read these for my Star Reader (a reading program my school does where you have to read different genres of books). I needed historical fiction and I’d heard a ton of good things about this series and decided I’d give them a try. After the first one, I’ve read a bunch more and they’ve all been amazing. It’s really interesting to see how it would feel if these events were actually happening to you and how lots of people didn’t believe these things could actually happen. Would you believe that the unsinkable boat would actually sink?!

front deskFront Desk by Kelly Yang
304 pages
I read this one a few years ago and absolutely LOVED it (you can see my full review here) and so when Ella was looking for some award winners to read for school, I suggested this one. I was so thrilled when she loved this book about Mia Tang, a young girl who, along with her immigrant parents, run a motel in California where they also hid other immigrants who need a place to stay.

What Ella has to say: I read this one on my Kindle – it was really good and I really liked the comparisons between China and America and how different they are and how when someone moves from one to the other, their life changes a LOT. I liked that Mia gets to pretty much run the hotel even though she’s only ten years old. It shows that, like most other jobs, running a motel is not as easy as it sounds!

You can see all of Ella’s previous reviews here!

And if you’d like a printable copy of this list that you can take to your library or screenshot on your phone for easy access, just pop in your email address below and it’ll come right to your inbox!

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One Comment

  1. I always appreciate Ella Enjoyed because I have a daughter the same age and she is much more inclined to take recommendations from Ella than from me 🤣
    My MIL just gave my daughter the Keeper of the Lost Cities books a few weeks ago and I had never heard of them, but now I’m seeing them everywhere!! I love having a big series for her to read through.

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