Grade 5 Reading List: Books with Summaries and Free Quizzes
Fifth graders read longer novels with more complex characters, from classic stories to modern adventures. In the UK this is Year 6, and in Australia Year 5. Every school and teacher picks its own books, so check the list with your child’s class. For some of the books, you will find our free printable book quiz with an answer key.
Books for grade 5
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Spoiled, lonely Mary Lennox comes to live in a gloomy house in Yorkshire, finds the key to a locked garden and, with Dickon and her cousin Colin, brings it back to life.
👉 Check your understanding: The Secret Garden Book Quiz – Grade 5
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan
Twelve-year-old Percy finds out that he is the son of Poseidon and sets off across America to find Zeus’s stolen lightning bolt. Greek myths in a funny, fast adventure.
👉 Check your understanding: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief Book Quiz – Grade 5
Matilda – Roald Dahl
Matilda is a brilliant girl with awful parents and a terrifying headmistress, Miss Trunchbull. With the help of her kind teacher Miss Honey, she discovers a special power.
Wonder – R. J. Palacio
August, a boy with a facial difference, goes to school for the first time in fifth grade. A book about kindness, told by August and the people around him.
Free book quizzes for grade 5
Each quiz has multiple-choice questions, true or false sentences, events to put in order and open questions. Every print draws different questions, so a child can take the quiz again, or each child in a class can get a different version. The Show answers switch shows the answer key.
Want one quiz a day? The learning path Book Quizzes – Grade 5 puts them in order. Quizzes for every grade are on the Book quizzes – grades 1–8 page.
How to read these books with your child
- Start early: spread a longer book over two or three weeks.
- Note down the characters’ names and the main events. They help with the quiz and with class discussions.
- After the book, do the quiz and check the answers with the answer key.
