Looking for Novel Recommendations for 4th & 5th class (age 10-11)

Oldstyle1

I am teaching ages (10-11) next year and I am already thinking ahead to what novel that I could cover with them.

I am looking for something that suits both boys and girls has good story line, good adventure and also even some good humour.

I would really appreciate any recommendations that you may have that your son or daughter might have covered in 5th class.

Thanks

Queenalocin

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_the_Red_King

Try these...

byhookorbycrook

What about "Holes" by Louis Sachar? Or "The Iceman" -the story of Tom Crean by Michael Smith?"Melody for Nora" by Mark O’ Sullivan,"Goodnight Mr. Tom," by Michelle Magorian is always a winner " and with the anniversary of 1916 next year "The Guns of Easter" by Gerard Whelan could go well. I've used all of those with mixed senior classes.

Do you plan to buy a set? Some libraries will order a set in for you,worth checking out.

baby builder

There's a boy in the girls bathroom by Louis Sachar ticks all the boxes!

koriko

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

What about "Holes" by Louis Sachar? Or "The Iceman" -the story of Tom Crean by Michael Smith?"Melody for Nora" by Mark O’ Sullivan,"Goodnight Mr. Tom," by Michelle Magorian is always a winner " and with the anniversary of 1916 next year "The Guns of Easter" by Gerard Whelan could go well. I've used all of those with mixed senior classes.

Do you plan to buy a set? Some libraries will order a set in for you,worth checking out.

I second Goodnight Mr. Tom for 4/5th class- lots of scope for integration to other subjects

Moonbeam

Lord of the Rings,Harry Potter

Missyelliot2

David Walliams is a huge hit!'Billionaire Boy' is an amazing book and encouraged all the children to seek out more of his books. It's not as brash as Jeremy Strong- captain underpants etc. but it is really well-written, funny, up to date and challenges children (post boom) about things they might find important.

Excuse the eulogy...but I cannot praise this book enough.

Oldstyle1

Thanks for those;

I was thinking along the lines too of Easter 1916. Is Guns of Easter a difficult read? I also have read part of Young Rebels based on 1916 too. It might be an option if Guns of Easter was too hard for 4th and 5th.

Goodnight Mr. Tom - Would it be suitable for 4th and 5th too. Do both girls and boys enjoy? Are there any strong themes in any?

byhookorbycrook

Lord of the Rings series may prove difficult for some of 4th.We use David Walliams with 3rd and they love it.

Queenalocin

I'm not sure about Mr. Tom for 4th class, some of it is very disturbing. My pair, who are avid readers, did it in 6th class and found it very sad, especially the death of baby. It was on curriculum in my daughter's school for first year.
What about the Garth Nix Keys to the Kingdom series? I like the idea of working through one book with class and then those that want can stay going.

Oldstyle1

Queenalocin, thanks for that - Yes I agree I think topics like that could be too much and sad for even the best of 4th class.

Never heard of the Garth Nix Keys series, will look into it, Do you think it would appeal to girls and boys alike? I like to do books too that give me good scope to look into characters, plot etc and extend to writing activities like diary entry as a character from the book, letter writing, report writing and also dealing with different themes.

Queenalocin

They are a clever set of books, each one is named after a day of the week and are set in different worlds. They work on 2 levels, good story for those who just read them and underlying themes for the stronger students. They are also old enough that this current set of 10-11 year olds might not have read them. My youngest is 16 and she read them in 5th class.
Another set which could be good are those from The Young Samurai series.

byhookorbycrook

Nearly forgot about Artemis Fowl!! Irish based, criminal mastermind Irish young fella, fairies with attitude and a strong female character.
ETA I didn't have any issues with Mr. Tom, but perhaps some children now might, I used it about ten years ago.

DGOBS

David Walliams is a huge hit!'Billionaire Boy' is an amazing book and encouraged all the children to seek out more of his books. It's not as brash as Jeremy Strong- captain underpants etc. but it is really well-written, funny, up to date and challenges children (post boom) about things they might find important.

Excuse the eulogy...but I cannot praise this book enough.

+1, my daughter just read the Demon Dentist, and I could hear her laughing away in her room as she read it. She couldn't put it down!

Oldstyle1

Yes David Walliams is a big hit with kids ages 10+/-. His latest was Awful Auntie.

I find kids are not as fond of Michael Murpurgo as a few years ago too!

Hard to find a novel to suit everyone. Was also thinking of a book to coincide with the 1916 Rising like Guns of Easter or Young Rebels

glack

Matilda, The Witches, Charlottes Web, Butterfly Lion, Benny and Omar, War Horse.

sm213

Harry potter and the philosophers stone.
You don't get your wizard/witch letter until you're 11 hehe.
Its a great way to start them on the series. They can chose to read on as they wish.
Lots of opportunity for creative writing etc. I'm a female and loved the series. But the boys my age did too.
Goodnight Mr. Tom is way too much for today's kids. Imagine the parents complaints! Awesome book though I was probably that age when I read it but I read encyclopaedias for fun so not the average kid
Roald Dahl books are amazing too. I still like to read them now. Can't wait for my daughter to get big enough to share them with her.
There's also a series called beast quest but not sure if kids will have read them already.

Oldstyle1

Thank you all for your recommendations! I am making a list and I hope for the ones I don't pick as novels, I hope to read a few books to kids aloud in class, say 10-15mins some days after a break get them settled back in. Hopefully they will look forward to them too.

Thanks again

purplecow1977

Goodnight Mr. Tom can be covered with 5th and 6th, more likely 6th. Too much for 4th class.