Best Book List: Personal Favorites #BestBooks #iLoveMG

At the end of the year, I asked my fifth grade students to create their own Best Book List, themed however they wished. Click our Best Book tag for more lists or #iLoveMG for individual books recommended by my fifth graders. (Please note that my fifth graders read a wide variety of books across a wide variety of genres, levels, and topics. Do not think that these books are "only" for fifth graders.) Check out #3rdfor3rd for kid recommendations from when I taught third grade.

Probably Every Book I Read in Fifth Grade that You Should Read!

Recommended by MT

Personal favorites:

• The 12 Dares of Christa by Marissa Burt (Has sort of a Romantic genre, don’t read it if you don’t like Romance!)
• Better Than Nate Ever by Tim Federle (Was my assigned book club book, however was slightly weird.)
• Lemons by Melissa Savage (Katie has this in her library! SO GOOD!!!)
• Rules of the Ruff by Heidi Lang (Super good for dog lovers!🐶)
• The Doughnut Fix by Jessie Janowitz (Good book, and I’m pretty sure it’s in the school library)
• Rules by Cynthia Lord (About an older girl, who’s brother has autism. Good book, in Katie’s library)
• Ahimsa by Supriya Kelkar (A book club book, my favorite of them. In Katie’s library. READ IT!!!)
• Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser (The first in the Vanderbeeker’s series. Amazing! In Katie’s library)
• Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden by Karina Yan Glaser (Second in the Vanderbeeker’s series, also AMAZING)
• The Truth about Martians by Melissa Savage (Another by Melissa Savage, really good. You should read it.)
• The Sky at our Feet by Nadia Hashimi (Very touching, also saddish. If you haven’t read it, go do it. I think it’s in the school library)
• Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelley (About a girl who is deaf, and sets out on a journey of a lifetime.)
• Out of Left Field by Ellen Klages (About baseball and women’s rights. In school library)
• The Amazing Magicians of Elephant County by Adam Perry
• LION by Saroo Brierley
• George by Alex Gino (About a transgender girl who still hasn’t told their mom how they feel)

Student-designed cover for Better Nate Than Ever

More good books:

• Max Einstein by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein
• We are Party People by Leslie Margolis
• Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage
• The Simple Art of Flying by Cory Leonardo
• The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart
• Into the Lion’s Den by Linda Fairstein
• The Candymakers by Wendy Mass
• Story Thieves by James Riley
• Bloomability by Sharon Creech
• The Wanderer by Sharon Creech

Click here for all of our Best Books posts or here for more great middle grade recommendations. What are your favorite fantasy books?