Kansas 5th grade reading list

Books with a Kansas citation for 5th grade include 11 Birthdays, Fish in a Tree and Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus. This list has 924 total books, 81 of them with a Kansas-specific citation. Each book shows its reading level and a cited source. Lexile levels on the list run from 360L to 1020L.

Top Kansas 5th grade pick: 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass — on 2 Kansas lists

Get it on Amazon →

Affiliate link: as an Amazon Associate, ReadingList earns from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

Try it on audio — free. Kids who struggle with the print versions often finish the assigned books by listening.

Listen free on Audiblestarts instantly

New members only · many assigned titles are included with the membership. As an Amazon Associate, ReadingList earns from qualifying purchases and membership trials at no extra cost to you.

Total books924Lexile360L–1020LSourceKansas Academic Standards✓ sources cited per book

Most-assigned on state lists: across every US state’s official reading and award lists, the Elementary (K–5) titles appearing in the most states are Wonder (29 states), Because of Winn-Dixie (26 states), and Shiloh (25 states). From our 2026 study of 13,258 source-cited assignments (as of 2026-07-13).

Our pick to start — most-cited for Kansas 5th grade

These are the 30 titles named in Kansas’s own curriculum documents for this grade — everything below is the wider national list. Read against the Common Core Appendix A complexity band; reading level is not thematic maturity, and several sit below the band because they are assigned for discussion.

  1. 11 Birthdays

    Wendy Mass

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 5.

    Get it on Amazon

  2. Fish in a Tree

    Lynda Mullaly Hunt

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents and 1 national reference, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers disability, friendship and school. At 550L it sits just under the 740–1010L band for this grade.

    Get it on Amazon

  3. Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus

    Dusti Bowling

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 5.

    Get it on Amazon

  4. America is Under Attack September 11 2001

    Don Brown

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

    Get it on Amazon

  5. Eleven

    Patricia Reilly Giff

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

    Get it on Amazon

  6. Guinea Dog

    Patrick Jennings

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

    Get it on Amazon

  7. How to Steal a Dog

    Barbara O'Connor

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

    Get it on Amazon

  8. Life on Mars

    Jennifer Brown

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

    Get it on Amazon

  9. Malcolm at Midnight

    W. H. Beck

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

    Get it on Amazon

  10. Odder

    Katherine Applegate

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

    Get it on Amazon

  11. Pax

    Sara Pennypacker

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers friendship, war and loyalty. At 760L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

    Get it on Amazon

  12. Scritch Scratch

    Lindsay Currie

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

    Get it on Amazon

  13. Small Spaces

    Katherine Arden

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

    Get it on Amazon

  14. Stella

    McCall Hoyle

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

    Get it on Amazon

  15. The Boy on the Porch

    Sharon Creech

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

    Get it on Amazon

  16. Wildfire

    Rodman Philbrick

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

    Get it on Amazon

  17. Bud, Not Buddy

    Christopher Paul Curtis

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 4 national references, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers family, identity and perseverance. At 950L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

    Get it on Amazon

  18. Holes

    Louis Sachar

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 4 national references, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers fate vs choice, friendship and justice. At 660L it sits just under the 740–1010L band for this grade.

    Get it on Amazon

  19. Maniac Magee

    Jerry Spinelli

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 4 national references, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers race, homelessness and family. At 820L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

    Get it on Amazon

  20. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

    Robert C. O'Brien

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 3 national references, taught from grade 4 to 6. Covers family, courage, science and ethics. At 790L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

    Get it on Amazon

  21. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

    E.L. Konigsburg

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 2 national references, taught from grade 4 to 6. Covers independence, art and running away. At 700L it sits just under the 740–1010L band for this grade.

    Get it on Amazon

  22. Island of the Blue Dolphins

    Scott O'Dell

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 2 national references, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers survival, solitude and indigenous identity. At 1000L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

    Get it on Amazon

  23. Shiloh

    Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 2 national references, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers animal welfare, morality and family. At 890L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

    Get it on Amazon

  24. A Dog's Life

    Ann M. Martin

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 4 to 6.

    Get it on Amazon

  25. Amos Fortune, Free Man

    Elizabeth Yates

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 7.

    Get it on Amazon

  26. Because of Winn-Dixie

    Kate DiCamillo

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers loss, friendship and mother absence. At 610L it sits just under the 740–1010L band for this grade.

    Get it on Amazon

  27. Clementine

    Sara Pennypacker

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 8.

    Get it on Amazon

  28. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

    Chris Grabenstein

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 4 to 6.

    Get it on Amazon

  29. Frindle

    Andrew Clements

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 7. Covers creativity, language and thought, intelligence. At 830L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

    Get it on Amazon

  30. Ghost

    Jason Reynolds

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 5 to 8. Covers running, family violence and mentorship. At 730L it sits just under the 740–1010L band for this grade.

    Get it on Amazon

81 books cited for Kansas 5th grade

Assignments tied directly to Kansas’s Kansas Academic Standards with a Kansas-specific citation.

Show all 81 titles

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

843 additional grade-appropriate books for 5th grade readers

The 924-book total above includes 81 titles with direct Kansas citation; these 843 additional titles cover 5th grade in the broader canon. They don't have a Kansas-specific citation yet but are commonly taught at this level.

Show all 843 titles

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Know a parent or teacher who needs this? Share it:FacebookPinterest

Teacher or librarian? Print this list as a checklist — free to photocopy for your class or library (details).

Other Kansas grades

4th grade · 6th grade · 3rd grade · 7th grade

Reading lists by grade (all states)

4th grade · 6th grade · 3rd grade · 7th grade

Same 5th grade in other states

California · Texas · Florida · New York · Pennsylvania · Illinois

Browse 5th grade reading by theme

About the Kansas 5th grade reading list

This list combines books cited in Kansas Academic Standards with books from national sources that list titles for 5th grade: the Common Core State Standards (ELA), plus awards such as the Golden Kite Award, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and the Andre Norton Award for Middle Grade & Young Adult Fiction. ReadingList currently tracks 924 titles for 5th grade in Kansas, of which 81 carry a direct Kansas citation and 843 are grade-appropriate titles whose reading level overlaps 5th grade. Across the list, Lexile measures span 360L–1020L.

5th grade sits in the 3-5 grade band, where students are transitional readers. At this stage the emphasis is on shifting from learning-to-read to reading-to-learn and sustaining attention across longer chapter books. Assigned reading skews toward early novels, narrative non-fiction, and a student's first assigned full-length stories, with text complexity that, per Common Core’s Appendix A reading bands, typically falls around roughly 400L to 800L. Measured against that 740–1010L range, of the 61 titles here with a Lexile score 34 are grade-level, 26 are more accessible (often assigned for theme over challenge), and 1 is a stretch text that may need scaffolding. Because readers in a single 5th grade classroom can span several hundred Lexile points, this list is best read as a starting point rather than a fixed requirement.

Kansas’s English Language Arts requirements are set by Kansas Academic Standards (ksde.org). Most states pair their own standards with the Common Core text-complexity framework. The 5th grade list below blends Kansas-specific assignments with widely taught national titles. Every title links to its primary source on the book’s detail page, so you can confirm exactly where and why it is assigned.

How to use this list:match a title to your child’s most recent Lexile or guided-reading level rather than to the grade alone. Teachers building a 5th grade unit can pair a Kansas-cited core text with a grade-appropriate companion novel; parents previewing summer or supplemental reading can check each book’s content notes and challenge history before assigning it.

Common questions

What books do 5th grade students read in Kansas?
Books with a Kansas-specific citation for 5th grade include 11 Birthdays, Fish in a Tree, Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, America is Under Attack September 11 2001 and Eleven. Individual schools and districts choose their own titles, so check with your child's teacher for the exact list.
How many books are assigned to 5th grade students in Kansas?
This list has 924 books for 5th grade students in Kansas. 81 of them have a Kansas-specific citation; the other 843 are grade-appropriate titles from national reading lists and awards.
What's the Lexile range for 5th grade reading in Kansas?
Lexile measures across the 5th grade Kansas reading list range from 360L to 1020L. Books without a published Lexile (poetry, drama, picture books) are not included in this range.
Where does this reading list come from?
Kansas-specific entries reference Kansas Academic Standards (published at www.ksde.org). The other books come from national sources that list books for 5th grade: the Common Core State Standards (ELA), plus awards such as the Golden Kite Award, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and the Andre Norton Award for Middle Grade & Young Adult Fiction. Each book's page links the primary source for every listing.

Reading guides for parents

▸Embed this list on your site

Copy + paste this snippet into any school newsletter, classroom blog, library site, or homeschool resource page. The embed shows the top 12 titles and links back to the full list. Updates automatically when ReadingList’s data changes.

<iframe src="https://readinglist.school/embed/grade/5" width="100%" height="540" style="border:1px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.1);border-radius:6px;max-width:640px" loading="lazy" title="5th grade reading list — ReadingList.school"></iframe>

Preview: /embed/grade/5 · License: CC BY 4.0 (please credit “ReadingList.school”).

Was this page helpful?

Browse by another angle

State-specific entries sourced from www.ksde.org. National references cited on each book’s detail page.

Find ReadingList in your Google results more often: