Great books for kids in grades 3 & 4
Suggestions from Mt. Lebanon Public Library, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
www.mtlebanonlibrary.org
Unless otherwise noted, all books may be found in the juvenile fiction section under the author's last name.
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FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Ivy & Bean / Annie Barrows
Bean becomes best friends with her new neighbor.
The Penderwicks / Jeanne Birdsall
Four loving sisters have a memorable summer.
Bink & Gollie / Kate DiCamillo
Two roller-skating best friends--one tiny, one tall--share three comical adventures.
Phineas L. MacGuire--blasts off / Frances O'Roark Dowell
Fourth-grade science whiz Phineas asks his friends to help with experiments using dog "slobber."
The Dunderheads / Paul Fleischman
When Miss Breakbone confiscates Junkyard's crucial find, the Dunderheads plot to teach her a lesson.
Stink and the great Guinea Pig Express / Megan McDonald
Stink and his friends try to give away 101 guinea pigs rescued from a laboratory.
Secret Letters from 0 to 10 / Susie Morgenstern
Ernest’s boring life is enlivened when a spunky girl named Victory enters his class.
The Moffats / Eleanor Estes
The adventures of four Connecticut children.
Sarah, Plain and Tall / Patricia MacLachlan
Siblings want their father’s mail order bride to stay.
The Good Master / Kate Seredy
A Hungarian farm family is visited by their city cousin.
Younguncle comes to town / Vandana Singh
Younguncle brings fun to his three nieces and nephews in Northern India.
The adventures of Nanny Piggins / R.A. Spratt
A widower hires a glamorous ex-circus pig who knows nothing about children but a lot about chocolate to be his children’s nanny.
FUNNY STORIES
Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing / Judy Blume
Peter’s little brother, Fudge, is never far from trouble.
Frindle / Andrew Clements
Nick Allen invents a new word.
The BFG /Roald Dahl
Sophie concocts a plan to save the Big Friendly Giant.
Babymouse : queen of the world! / Jennifer L. Holm
An imaginative mouse dreams of being queen of the world. One of a series. (GRAPHIC j BABYMOUSE)
Melonhead / Katy Kelly
Adam "Melonhead" Melon, a budding inventor with a knack for getting into trouble, enters a science contest .
The princess test / Gail Carson Levine
Humorous retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Princess and the Pea."
Alvin Ho : allergic to birthday parties, science projects, and other man-made catastrophes / Lenore Look
A young Chinese boy who loves superheroes tries to overcome his fear of everything.
Judy Moody / Megan McDonald
Third-grader Judy gets a fun assignment on the first day of school- The Me Collage.
How to Eat Fried Worms / Thomas Rockwell
Billy must eat 15 worms or lose a bet.
Clementine, Friend of the Week / Sara Pennypacker
It's Clementine's turn to be "Friend of the Week" when she gets to be line leader and feed the fish.
Sideways stories from Wayside School / Louis Sachar
Humorous stories from a class in Wayside School.
Math Curse / Jon Scieszka
One day everything is a math problem.
Frankie Pickle and the closet of doom / Eric Wight
Fourth-grader Frankie Piccolini has a vivid imagination when it comes to cleaning his room.
ANIMAL STORIES
Poppy / Avi
A deer mouse tries to persuade her family to move, but an owl has other plans for them.
Chicken feathers / Joy Cowley
Josh has a pet chicken who talks, but only to him.
Hurry Home, Candy / Meindert DeJong
A dog is accidentally left behind during a family outing.
Because of Winn-Dixie / Kate DiCamillo
Good things happen to a ten year-old girl because of her big ugly dog Winn-Dixie.
The Mousewife / Rumer Godden
Story of a devoted mouse and a dove.
Runaway Radish / Jessie Haas
Radish the pony grows too big for the girls who own him, but then finds another nice life at a horse camp.
Lady Lollipop / Dick King-Smith
A swineherd and his pig reform a royal princess.
Catwings / Ursula LeGuin
Four cats are born with wings.
Calvin Coconut: dog heaven / Graham Salisbury
Fourth-grader Calvin wants a dog more than anything in the world.
Lulu and the brontosaurus / Judith Viorst
When Lulu's parents don’t give her a brontosaurus for her birthday, she sets out to find her own.
Stories about Rosie / Cynthia Voigt
The daily life of Rosie, a dog.
A Mouse in the House / Gerda Wagener
A family tries to protect a mouse from its pet cat.
TRUE STORIES
Lizards / Nic Bishop ( j 597.95 Bis)
Fun facts about lizards are paired with full-page images by an award-winning photographer.
Ask Dr. K. Fisher about dinosaurs/ Claire Llewellyn ( j 567.9 Lle)
When dinosaurs ask Dr. Fisher about their concerns
his witty replies include lots of prehistoric facts.
Owen and Mzee / Isabella Hatkoff
Meet 2 unlikely friends: an orphaned baby hippo and a giant 130-year old tortoise. (599.635 Hat)
You wouldn't want to be a medieval knight! : armor you'd rather not wear / Fiona Macdonald
The real story about the life of knights. (j 940.1 Mac)
Dark emperor & other poems of the night / Joyce Sidman (j 811 Sid)
Poems that celebrate the and danger of the night and describe the many things that hide in the dark.
Roberto Clemente / Jonah Winter (j 92C CLEMENTE Win)
The life of the legendary Pittsburgh Pirate.
MYSTERIES & ADVENTURES
The Night Crossing / Karen Ackerman
An Austrian family escapes to Switzerland in 1938.
The Field guide / Holly Black
The Grace children have unusual experiences at their Great Aunt’s house. First in The Spiderwick Chronicles.
The fairy-tale detectives / Michael Buckley
Two sisters solve mysteries in Ferryport Landing where the inhabitants are characters from famous fairy tales.
The Courage of Sarah Noble / Alice Dalgliesh
True story of a brave little girl in colonial America.
Half magic / Edward Eager
Four children find that wishes made on an ancient coin only come half-true.
The Secret of Platform 13 / Eva Ibbotson
Three unlikely companions travel through a magic tunnel to rescue the king’s stolen son.
Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat / Lynne Jonell
Emmy discovers that she and her parents are being drugged with rodent potions by their evil nanny .
The fantastic secret of Owen Jester / Barbara O'Connor
Three friends find a valuable mechanical treasure that fell from a passing train.
Riding Freedom / Pam Munoz Ryan
The adventure-filled story of a girl who posed as a boy and fooled everyone.
The mysterious howling / Maryrose Wood
A governess finds herself in charge of three young children who have been raised by wolves.
OUR FAVORITES
Twenty and Ten /Claire Bishop
Twenty fifth graders hide ten children from the Nazis.
Love That Dog / Sharon Creech
A boy writes a poem about an event close to him.
14 cows for America / Carmen Agra Deedy (j Ea DEEDY)
Maasai tribal members present the American people with 14 sacred cows as a healing gift after the September 11th attacks.
The Whipping Boy / Sid Fleischman
A prince and his whipping boy meet some outlaws.
Stone Fox / John Reynolds Gardiner
A boy enters an important dog sled race.
The year of the dog: a novel / Grace Lin
A young Taiwanese American girl sets out to apply the lessons of the Chinese Year of the Dog to her own life.
Word after word after word / Patricia MacLachlan
An author teaches five friends about the power of words.
The night fairy / Laura Amy Schlitz
When Flory the night fairy's wings are accidentally broken she has to learn to do everything differently.
Many Moons / James Thurber
A princess wants the moon.
POETRY
Butterfly eyes and other secrets of the meadow / Joyce Sidman (j 811 Sid)T
Tap dancing on the roof : sijo (poems) / Linda Sue Park (j 811 Par)
Orangutan tongs : poems to tangle your tongue / Jon Agee ( j 398.8 Age)
Guyku : a year of haiku for boys / Bob Raczka
(j Ea RACZKA)
Look for these and other great books in
The Children's Library
Mt. Lebanon Public Library
16 Castle Shannon Blvd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15228
412/531-1913 2011
www.mtlebanonlibrary.org
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