Is your 4th-6th grader searching for more reading material — or are they not that interested in reading? Grades JK-6 Language Arts Department Chair Christine Dwyer shares seven recommendations for all kinds of readers ages 9-11.

Watch the videos or scroll down for the transcripts.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Clywmq7jckq/

TRANSCRIPT:

I'm Christine Dwyer and I'm the JK-6 Language Arts Department Chair. For grades four through six, these are three books that I thought were really neat just because of the ways that they're written and how I access them. This one is the Night Diary, and I love it because it's written in letters. It's about a girl who's writing to her in her journal, in her diary, to her mom. It's a unique, different kind of book for middle readers.

This one is by Christine Day, I Can Make This Promise. And I love this one too because both of these are written based on their family histories. This one is about a girl whose mom is Native American, but she's adopted by white parents. She knows that there's something that she doesn't know, and she just ends up stumbling on the right questions to learn how to figure out more about her family history.

And this one, I love everything by Jason Reynolds (As Brave As You). It's about a boy who goes with his brother to his grandparents' house in Virginia. They're from Brooklyn. They spend the summer kind of doing different things and figuring out what it means to be brave. Just different rich characters and different styles of writing that I really loved.

Books for Reluctant Readers

I'm Christine Dwyer and I'm the JK-6 Language Arts Department Chair. Sometimes, believe it or not, some children do not love to read themselves a book!

So here are some ways to help children get into reading that are a little bit more low-risk and less scary. The graphic novel is a great genre. These are not comic books. There's a really distinct, rich plotline. Raina Telgemeier has some great graphic novels that she's written about themes that matter, including Smile.

And believe it or not, I think poetry and verse can be a great way for children who just get intimidated by too many words on the page. So if you open it up, if you can get over the fact that it's in a poem, children can go through them and feel really accomplished and move really quickly. This one is by Nicky Grimes, Words With Wings.

Sharon Creech is a favorite author for a 4th grade, 5th grade kind of level: Love That Dog.

And we do we actually read this as a shared text in sixth grade: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. He writes a lot in verse that's really great to move through. Great stories!

*These are not affiliate links, and Flint Hill does not profit from book sales.