Instructions
For incoming 5th graders, students are required to read two books before the end of summer. One of those two books must be read from the required book list below, and the second book should be chosen from the additional book 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.
Required Book
The Story of George Washington Carver
by Eva Moore
Briefly retells the life of the famous scientist, George Washington Carver.
ISBN 978-0-590-42660-2
Choose 1 additional Book
Harriet The Spy
by Louise Fitzhugh
Eleven-year-old Harriet keeps notes on her classmates and neighbors in a secret notebook, but when some of the students read the notebook, they seek revenge. ISBN 978-0-440-41679-1
Brown Sunshine of Sawdust Valley
by Marguerite Henry
Molly wants a horse of her own, but when her father’s mare gives birth to a mule, Molly changes her mind and raises the newborn. ISBN 978-0-689-80779-4
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
by Marguerite Henry
An unusual work horse raised in Vermont and known originally as “Little Bub” becomes the sire of a famous American breed and takes the name of his owner, Justin Morgan. ISBN 978-1-41692-785-3
Out of the Dust
by Karen Hesse
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family’s wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression. ISBN 978-0-590-37125-4
The Horse and His Boy
by C. S. Lewis
A boy and a talking horse share an adventurous and dangerous journey to Narnia to warn of invading barbarians. ISBN 978-0-06-440940-7
Prince Caspian
by C. S. Lewis
Four children help Prince Caspian and his army of Talking Beasts to free Narnia from evil. ISBN 978-0-06-447105-3
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
by C. S. Lewis
Lucy and Edmund, accompanied by their peevish cousin Eustace, sail to the land of Narnia where Eustace is temporarily transformed into a green dragon because of his selfish behavior and skepticism. ISBN 978-0-06-447107-7
The Silver Chair
by C. S. Lewis
Two English children undergo hair-raising adventures as they go on a search and rescue mission for the missing Prince Rilian, who is held captive in the underground kingdom of the Emerald Witch. ISBN 978-0-06-440945-2
The Last Battle
by C. S. Lewis
When evil comes to Narnia, Jill and Eustace help to fight the great last battle and Aslan leads his people to a glorious new paradise. ISBN 978-0-06-447108-4
Snow Treasure
by Marie McSwigan
In 1940, when the Nazi invasion of Norway reaches their village in the far north, twelve-year-old Peter and his friends use their sleds to transport nine million dollars worth of gold bullion past the German soldiers to the secret harbor where Peter’s uncle keeps his ship ready to take the gold for safekeeping in the United States. ISBN 978-0-14-240224-5
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
by Robert C. O’Brien
With nowhere else to turn, a field mouse asks the clever escaped lab rats living under the rosebush to help save her son, who lies in the path of the farmer’s tractor, too ill to be moved. ISBN 978-0-689-71068-1
Hatchet
by Gary Paulsen
After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the Canadian wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents’ divorce. ISBN 978-1-41693-646-6
A Long Way from Chicago: A Novel in Stories
by Richard Peck
A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother. ISBN 978-0-14-240110-1
Where the Red Fern Grows: The Story of Two Dogs and a Boy
by Wilson Rawls
The adventures of a ten-year-old boy and the two dogs he bought with money he had earned. ISBN 978-0-553-27429-5
