Instructions
For incoming 4th graders, students are required to read two books before the end of summer. One of those two books must be chosen from the required book list below, and the second book may be chosen from either list. Learn more about Aestas Libri guidelines and requirements.
Book Report Form
Download the book report forms, and print out a copy for each of the books read. Book report forms are specific to each grade level and are not interchangeable. Both book reports are required to be submitted on the first day of school, and will result in a literature completion grade.
Choose 1 Required Book
Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography
by William Anderson
A biography of the writer whose pioneer life on the American prairie became the basis for her “Little House” books.
ISBN 978-0-06-088552-6
Abraham Lincoln: the Great Emancipator
by Augusta Stevenson
Abe Lincoln, frontier boy. A childhood biography of Abraham Lincoln, discussing his education, his role models, and the influences on the life of the boy who grew up to be the president of the United States during the Civil War.
ISBN 978-0-02-042030-9
Journey to the Bottomless Pit: the story of Stephen Bishop and Mammoth Cave
by Elizabeth Mitchell
In 1838, as the nation struggles with issues of slavery, seventeen-year-old Stephen Bishop serves his master as a guide in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave and spends his free time exploring and discovering new passages and rooms.
ISBN 978-1-50405-769-1
Choose 1 additional Book
The Fighting Ground
by AVI
Thirteen-year-old Jonathan goes off to fight in the Revolutionary War and discovers the real war is being fought within himself. ISBN 978-1-41314-472-7
Kneeknock Rise
by Natalie Babbitt
From the moment young Egan arrives in Instep, he senses the spell cast over the villagers by the Megrimum–the mysterious something that lurks on the mist-wreathed peak of Kneeknock Rise and soon he is climbing the peak for answers. ISBN 978-0-312-37009-1
Frindle
by Andrew Clements
When he decides to turn his fifth-grade teacher’s love of the dictionary around on her, clever Nick Allen invents a new word and begins a chain of events that quickly moves beyond his control. ISBN 978-0-689-81876-9
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by Roald Dahl
Each of five children lucky enough to discover an entry ticket into Mr. Willy Wonka’s mysterious chocolate factory takes advantage of the situation in his own way. ISBN 978-0-14-751295-6
Matilda
by Roald Dahl
Matilda applies her untapped mental powers to rid the school of the evil, child-hating headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, and restore her nice teacher, Miss Honey, to financial security. ISBN 978-0-14-240253-5
Because of Winn-Dixie
by Kate DiCamillo
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. ISBN 978-0-7636-8086-2
The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread
by Kate DiCamillo
The adventures of Desperaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess that he loves, the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin. ISBN 978-0-7636-8089-3
Bull Run
by Paul Fleischman
Northerners, Southerners, generals, couriers, dreaming boys, and worried sisters describe the glory, the horror, the thrill, and the disillusionment of the first battle of the Civil War. ISBN 978-0-06-440588-1
Gentle Ben
by Walt Morey
Traces the friendship between a boy and a bear in the rugged Alaskan Territory. ISBN 978-1-41314-493-2
Shiloh
by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Marty finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, and tries to hide it from his family and the dog’s real owner, a mean-spirited man known to shoot deer out of season and to mistreat his dogs. ISBN 978-0-689-83582-7
Loser
by Jerry Spinelli
Even though his classmates from first grade on have considered him strange and a loser, Daniel Zinkoff’s optimism and exuberance and the support of his loving family do not allow him to feel that way about himself.
ISBN 378-0-06-054074-6
The Velveteen Rabbit
by Margery Williams
By the time the velveteen rabbit is dirty, worn out, and about to be burned, he has almost given up hope of ever finding the magic called Real. ISBN 978-1-944686-46-8
100 Cupboards
by Nathan D Wilson
Twelve-year-old Henry York and his cousin Henrietta discover 100 hidden portals to other worlds in the bedroom wall of his aunt and uncle’s house. ISBN 978-0-375-83882-8
