3rd-Grade-Book-List
Annotated list of book suggestions for 3rd graders.
Fiction
Fiction
The One and Only Ivan
Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all. Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he's seen and about his friends, Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.
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Fiction
A Boy Called Bat
When his veterinarian mom brings home a stray baby skunk that needs rehabilitation before it can be placed in a wild animal shelter, Bat, who has autism, resolves to prove that he is up to the challenge of caring for the skunk permanently.
Boy Called Bat series
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Fiction
Anna Hibiscus
Anna Hibiscus, who lives in Africa with her whole family, loves to splash in the sea and have parties for her aunties, but Anna would love to see snow.
Anna Hibiscus series
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Fiction
Ivy + Bean
When seven-year-old Bean plays a mean trick on her sister, she finds unexpected support for her antics from Ivy, the new neighbor, who is less boring than Bean first suspected.
Book 1, Ivy + Bean series
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Fiction
The World According to Humphrey
Humphrey, pet hamster at Longfellow School, learns that he has an important role to play in helping his classmates and teacher.
Humphrey series
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Fiction
Frankie Sparks and the Class Pet
Frankie Sparks, the self-proclaimed "best inventor in the third grade," does research and creates a tool to try to persuade her classmates that a rat would make the best class pet.
Frankie Sparks series
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Fiction
Superfudge
Peter describes the highs and lows of life with his younger brother Fudge.
Fudge series
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Fiction
Bad Kitty Gets a Bath
Break out the bandages! Bad Kitty needs a bath. And she's not getting in the tub without a fight.
Bad Kitty series.
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Fiction
The Case of the Lost Boy
While searching for his mysteriously lost human family, Buddy the dog is adopted by another family and helps solve the mystery of their missing boy.
The Buddy File series
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Fiction
Beezus and Ramona
Ramona's sister, Beezus, tries very hard to be patient, but how many nine-year-old girls have to put up with their embarrassing, annoying little four-year-old sisters? Sisters are supposed to love each other, but pesky little Ramona just doesn't seem very lovable to Beezus.
Book 1, Ramona Quimby series
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Fiction
Finding Langston
Discovering a book of Langston Hughes' poetry in the library helps Langston cope with the loss of his mother, relocating from Alabama to Chicago as part of the Great Migration, and being bullied.
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Fiction
How to Train Your Dragon
Chronicles the adventures and misadventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third as he tries to pass the important initiation test of his Viking clan, the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans, by catching and training a dragon.
How to Train Your Dragon Series
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Fiction
Pleasing the Ghost
Ever since his father died, Dennis has been seeing ghosts. Lots of ghosts. They blow in on the breeze, visit for a while, and fly off again. But one night the ghost of his Uncle Arvie floats in the window. And Arvie wants to do more than chat. Together, they find a lost love letter, finish a special painting, and dig up buried treasure-all for Arvie's widow, Julia. Dennis loves having his uncle around again, but there's still one ghost he's longing to see.
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Fiction
Because of Winn-Dixie
Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that happen to her because of her big ugly dog Winn-Dixie.
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Fiction
Stella Diaz Has Something to Say
Stella Diaz wants to be friends with the new boy in class, but sometimes she accidentally speaks Spanish instead of English and pronounces words wrong, which makes her turn roja. In addition, she has to get over her fear of speaking in front of the class.
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Fiction
The Birchbark House
Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847.
Book 1, Birchbark House series
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Fiction
Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost
A timid boy named Tom reluctantly agrees to help professional ghostbuster Hetty Hyssop dispel an IRG (Incredibly Revolting Ghost) from an old house.
Ghosthunters series
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Fiction
Sidney & Sydney: Third Grade Mix-Up
It is the first day of third grade and sassy Sydney and the new boy Sidney are not only neighbors, they are in the same class, so mix-ups are inevitable--but they soon find they share some common interests, including a love for Halloween.
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Fiction
The Phantom Tollbooth
Milo, a young boy with little interest in anything, takes a trip through the Phantom Tollbooth to the Lands Beyond where he meets an enchanting cast of characters that teaches him the importance of words, numbers, ideas, creativity, and enthusiasm for life.
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Fiction
Superman Day Disaster
Disaster hits when Bizarro arrives on Superman Day in Metropolis, and the reader must choose the path that Superman will take to stop his strange misdeeds.
You Choose series
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Fiction
Inside Out & Back Again
Through a series of poems, a young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.
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Fiction
The Year of the Dog
It's the Chinese year of the dog! When Pacy's mom tells her that this is a good year for friends, family, and "finding herself," Pacy begins searching right away. As the year goes on, she struggles to find her talent, deals with disappointment, makes a new best friend, and discovers just why the year of the dog is a lucky one for her after all.
Year of the Dog series
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Fiction
Alvin Ho : allergic to camping, hiking, and other natural disasters
When Alvin's father takes him camping to instill a love of nature, like that of their home-town hero Henry David Thoreau, Alvin makes a new friend and learns that he can be brave despite his fear of everything.
Alvin Ho series
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Fiction
Ruby Lu, Brave and True
“Almost-eight-year-old" Ruby Lu spends time with her baby brother, goes to Chinese school, performs magic tricks and learns to drive, and has adventures with both old and new friends.
Ruby Lu series
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Fiction
Digory the Dragon Slayer
Digory, a gentle boy who likes to spend time alone in the forest and make up songs to sing, accidentally becomes a knight and reluctantly sets off to rescue damsels in distress, slay dragons, and marry a princess.
Digory series
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Fiction
Judy Moody
To start, Judy Moody doesn't have high hopes for third grade. Her new desk won't have an armadillo sticker with her name on it. Her new classroom will not have a porcupine named Roger. And with her luck, she'll get stuck sitting in the first row, where Mr. Todd will notice every time she tries to pass a note to her best friend, Rocky.
Book 1, Judy Moody series
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Fiction
Dog Friday
Ten-year-old Robin Brogan's life takes a turn for the interesting when a new family with five children moves next door. And when Robin, who's terrified of dogs, finds a starving, abandoned dog on the beach, it's his new neighbors who help him overcome his fears to save an animal that desperately needs him.
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Fiction
Juana & Lucas
A spunky young girl from Colombia loves playing with her canine best friend and resists boring school activities, especially learning English, until her family tells her that a special trip is planned to an English-speaking place.
Juana & Lucas series
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Fiction
Rescue on the Oregon Trail
Ranger, a golden retriever, could have been a great search-and-rescue-dog except for the squirrels--but one day he unearths a mysterious box and finds himself transported back to the year 1850 where his faithful service is really needed by a family traveling west along the Oregon Trail.
Book 1, Ranger in Time series
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Fiction
Big Nate: In a Class by Himself
Supremely confident middle school student Nate Wright manages to make getting detention from every one of his teachers in the same day seem like an achievement.
Big Nate series
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Fiction
Clementine
While sorting through difficulties in her friendship with her neighbor Margaret, eight-year-old Clementine gains several unique hairstyles while also helping her father in his efforts to banish pigeons from the front of their apartment building.
Clementine series
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Fiction
Rickshaw Girl
In her Bangladesh village, ten-year-old Naimi excels at painting designs called alpanas, but to help her impoverished family financially she would have to be a boy--or disguise herself as one.
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Fiction
The Littles
The Littles are a family of tiny people who live in the Bigg family's house. Mr. Little is only six inches tall, and he is big for a Little. The Littles develop a plan to get rid of the mice in the Bigg's house.
The Littles series
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Fiction
Calvin Coconut: Trouble Magnet
Nine-year-old Calvin catches the attention of the school bully on the day before he starts fourth grade, while at home, the unfriendly, fifteen-year-old daughter of his mother's best friend has taken over his room.
Calvin Coconut series
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Fiction
Quinny & Hopper
Funny series about irresistible Quinny and Hopper, two polar-opposite eight year olds who become summer best friends and find their friendship threatened by the uncertainties of a new school year.
Quinny & Hopper series
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Fiction
Spaceheadz
Michael K. just started fifth grade at a new school. As if that wasn't hard enough, the kids he seems to have made friends with apparently aren't kids at all. They are aliens. Real aliens who have invaded our planet in the form of school children and a hamster. They have a mission to complete: to convince 3,140,001 kids to BE SPHDZ, but with a hamster as their leader, "kids" who talk like walking advertisements, and Michael K as their first convert, will the SPHDZ be able to keep their cover and pull off their assignment?
Book 1, Spaceheadz series
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Fiction
Maybelle in the Soup
When Mr. and Mrs. Peabody invite a guest to dinner, Maybelle the cockroach, who lives under their refrigerator, ignores the warnings of Henry the flea to be sensible and ends up "splashing" into a big adventure.
Maybelle series
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Fiction
Third Grade Angels
George 'Suds' Morton competes with his third-grade classmates to earn the first 'halo' of the year for good behavior, but being good turns out to be more stressful than he anticipated.
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Fiction
I Survived the Great Chicago Fire, 1871
In this book of the I survived series, one boy will struggle to stay alive as the great city of Chicago burns.
I Survived series
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Fiction
As Fast As Words Could Fly
In North Carolina in the 1960s, Mason becomes one of the first black teens to attend an all-white school.
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