Louisiana 5th grade reading list

Books with a Louisiana citation for 5th grade include New Kid, Smile and The Crossover. This list has 889 total books, 32 of them with a Louisiana-specific citation. Each book shows its reading level and a cited source. Lexile levels on the list run from 390L to 1020L.

Top Louisiana 5th grade pick: New Kid by Jerry Craft — on 1 Louisiana list

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Total books889Lexile390L–1020LSourceLouisiana Student 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 Louisiana 5th grade

These are the 30 titles named in Louisiana’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. New Kid

    Jerry Craft

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document and 4 national references, taught from grade 4 to 8. Covers race and identity, code-switching, middle school adjustment.

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  2. Smile

    Raina Telgemeier

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document and 2 national references, taught from grade 4 to 8. Covers growing up, friendship and self-acceptance. At 410L it reads well below the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  3. The Crossover

    Kwame Alexander

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document and 2 national references, taught from grade 5 to 8. Covers family, brotherhood and basketball. At 750L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  4. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)

    Rick Riordan

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document and 2 national references, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers Greek mythology, neurodivergence (dyslexia, ADHD) and friendship. At 740L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  5. Wonder

    R.J. Palacio

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document and 2 national references, taught from grade 3 to 7. Covers facial difference, kindness and bullying. At 790L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  6. 11 Birthdays

    Wendy Mass

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  7. Diary of a Wimpy Kid

    Jeff Kinney

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 7. Covers school, friendship and family. At 950L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  8. Swim Team

    Johnnie Christmas

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 7. Covers perseverance, friendship and race.

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  9. Allergic

    Megan Wagner Lloyd

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 6. Covers new york times reviewed and comic books, strips, etc..

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  10. Alligator Sue

    Sharon Arms Doucet

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers tall tales, alligators and identity.

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  11. Athlete vs. Mathlete

    W. C. Mack

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers basketball, twins and brothers.

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  12. Awkward

    Svetlana Chmakova

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers basic reader, middle schools and comics & graphic novels.

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  13. Clayton Byrd Goes Underground

    Rita Williams-Garcia

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers death, grandparent and child, bereavement.

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  14. Coraline

    Neil Gaiman

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers fantasy, paranormal fiction and graphic novels.

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  15. Dear Mrs. LaRue

    Mark Teague

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers training, humorous stories and letters.

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  16. Dress Coded

    Carrie Firestone

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers new york times reviewed, schools, fiction and adolescence, fiction.

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  17. Found

    Margaret Peterson Haddix

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 6.

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  18. Game Changer

    Tommy Greenwald

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 5 to 8. Covers football, injury and truth.

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  19. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

    J.K. Rowling

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers friendship, courage and good vs evil. At 880L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  20. My Dog, My Hero

    Betsy Cromer Byars

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers dogs and dogs, fiction.

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  21. Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude

    O'Malley, Kevin

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers motorcyclists, giants and humorous stories.

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  22. Secrets of My Hollywood Life

    Jen Calonita

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers actresses, actors and actresses, actors and actresses in fiction.

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  23. Skeleton Key

    Anthony Horowitz

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers mystery, spies in fiction and terrorism in fiction.

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  24. So B. It

    Sarah Weeks

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 5 to 8. Covers family, identity and journey.

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  25. Ten Rules You Absolutely Must Not Break If You Want to Survive the School Bus

    John Grandits

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers humorous stories, brothers and first day of school.

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  26. The Bad Guys

    Aaron Blabey

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers animals, heroes and rescues.

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  27. The Diary of a Killer Cat

    Anne Fine

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers cats, diaries and kinderbuch.

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  28. The Dunderheads

    Paul Fleischman

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers schools, individuality and humorous stories.

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  29. The False Prince

    Jennifer A. Nielsen

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 5 to 9. Covers identity, adventure and power.

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  30. The Terrible Two

    Mac Barnett

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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32 books cited for Louisiana 5th grade

Assignments tied directly to Louisiana’s Louisiana Student Standards with a Louisiana-specific citation.

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857 additional grade-appropriate books for 5th grade readers

The 889-book total above includes 32 titles with direct Louisiana citation; these 857 additional titles cover 5th grade in the broader canon. They don't have a Louisiana-specific citation yet but are commonly taught at this level.

Show all 857 titles

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Other Louisiana 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 Louisiana 5th grade reading list

This list combines books cited in Louisiana Student 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 889 titles for 5th grade in Louisiana, of which 32 carry a direct Louisiana citation and 857 are grade-appropriate titles whose reading level overlaps 5th grade. Across the list, Lexile measures span 390L–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 59 titles here with a Lexile score 34 are grade-level, 24 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.

Louisiana’s English Language Arts requirements are set by Louisiana Student Standards (louisianabelieves.com). Most states pair their own standards with the Common Core text-complexity framework. The 5th grade list below blends Louisiana-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 Louisiana-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 Louisiana?
Books with a Louisiana-specific citation for 5th grade include New Kid; Smile; The Crossover; The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) and Wonder. 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 Louisiana?
This list has 889 books for 5th grade students in Louisiana. 32 of them have a Louisiana-specific citation; the other 857 are grade-appropriate titles from national reading lists and awards.
What's the Lexile range for 5th grade reading in Louisiana?
Lexile measures across the 5th grade Louisiana reading list range from 390L to 1020L. Books without a published Lexile (poetry, drama, picture books) are not included in this range.
Where does this reading list come from?
Louisiana-specific entries reference Louisiana Student Standards (published at www.louisianabelieves.com). 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

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