A Best Book for Each Grade?
At HIP, we don’t think there is a single best book for a given grade level. Teachers and parents should be making individual choices based on a child’s reading ability and his or her interests. (For a further discussion, click here.) Nonetheless, we are often asked to pick a single book for use with a class at a given grade level – a book that would be interesting to every student at that level but still accessible to the reluctant readers. So here are those choices:
Grade 4: Choose Your Bully. This novel fits in perfectly with bullying discussions at this grade level.
Grade 5: Shooting the Rapids. A great action-adventure tale with two kids trying to beat the wilderness. Who could resist a story that ends with the kids' canoe getting sucked into the Bus Cruncher rapids?
Grade 6: Ghost House. Because a good ghost story is just fun, especially before Halloween, and it’s HIP’s bestselling novel.
Grade 7: Our Plane is Down. A wilderness survival story very similar to Hatchet, but Our Plane is Down is consistently easy to read.
Grade 8: Avalanche. Based on a true story, this winter tragedy has vivid characters and a terrific scene with the central character trapped beneath the snow.
Grade 9: One Crazy Night. This is probably HIP’s funniest book with one zany character after another making an appearance at an all-night deli-gas station.
Grade 10: Outrage. A tough but good-hearted central character has to clear his name after being accused of a crime. Our best-selling Edge novel.
