5th grade Kentucky Bluegrass Award (KBA) reading list
Books referenced by Kentucky Bluegrass Award (KBA) at the 5th grade level. Source: www.kasl.us.
About the 5th grade Kentucky Bluegrass Award (KBA) reading list
Kentucky Bluegrass Award (KBA) is the Kentucky Bluegrass Award (KBA) framework. ReadingList tracks 49 titles referenced by Kentucky Bluegrass Award (KBA) at the 5th gradelevel, each tied to a primary-source citation on the book’s detail page. Across the list, Lexile measures span 390L–950L. The framework is published at kasl.us.
At the 5th grade level — the 3-5grade band — students are transitional readers, with the curriculum focused on moving from learning-to-read to reading-to-learn across longer chapter books. Per Common Core’s Appendix A complexity bands, text difficulty at this stage typically falls around roughly 400L to 800L. Measured against that 740–1010L range, of the 9 titles here with a Lexile score 4 are grade-level, 5 are more accessible, and 0 are stretch texts. A single Kentucky Bluegrass Award (KBA) classroom can still span a wide range of reading levels.
Unlike a state reading list, a Kentucky Bluegrass Award (KBA) list is portable: the same framework is taught across districts and, in the case of AP and IB, across countries. That makes these titles a reliable backbone for 5th grade planning whether you are a teacher mapping a unit, a homeschooler following a recognized sequence, or a parent checking what Kentucky Bluegrass Award (KBA) expects.
How to use this list: treat the Kentucky Bluegrass Award (KBA) titles as the core and layer in state-cited or thematically-related books to round out a 5th gradeyear. Each book’s page shows its Lexile measure, grade range, themes, and any challenge history, so you can match a text to a specific reader rather than to the grade label alone.
Kentucky Bluegrass Award (KBA) at other grades
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49 books
Reading the whole 5th grade Kentucky Bluegrass Award (KBA) reading list? Kids who struggle with the print versions often finish the assigned books by listening.
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A Corner of the UniverseAnn M. Martin
A Tale Dark and GrimmAdam Gidwitz
AlbertDonna Jo Napoli
AllergicMegan Wagner Lloyd
AloneMegan E. Freeman
Avalon HighMeg Cabot
Big Nate: In a Class by HimselfLincoln Peirce · 500L
Black Brother, Black BrotherJewell Parker Rhodes
Call Me HopeGretchen Olson
City of GhostsVictoria Schwab
Class ClownJohanna Hurwitz
Diary of a Wimpy KidJeff Kinney · 950L
Dog ManDav Pilkey · 390L
DukeKirby Larson
Game ChangerTommy Greenwald
GhostJason Reynolds · 730L
Giants BewareJorge Aguirre
Knocked Out by Nunga-NungasLouise Rennison
Max and the MidknightsLincoln Peirce
Million-Dollar ThrowMike Lupica
OdderKatherine Applegate
Piggie Pie!Margie Palatini
RulesCynthia Lord
Secrets of the MummiesShelley Tanaka
Show all 49 titles
- Smile · Raina Telgemeier
- Smoky Mountain Rose · Alan Schroeder
- So B. It · Sarah Weeks
- Something Big Has Been Here · Jack Prelutsky
- Stepping Stones · Lucy Knisley
- Surviving the Applewhites · Stephanie S. Tolan
- Swindle · Gordon Korman
- The Big Bad Fox · Benjamin Renner
- The Butterfly Jar · Jeffrey Moss
- The Christmas of the Reddle Moon · J. Patrick Lewis
- The Crossover · Kwame Alexander
- The Ghost of Graylock · Dan Poblocki
- The Graveyard Book · Neil Gaiman
- The Honest Truth · Dan Gemeinhart
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret · Brian Selznick
- The Lost Library · Rebecca Stead & Wendy Mass
- The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane · Kate DiCamillo
- The Stranger · Chris Van Allsburg
- The Tale of Despereaux · Kate DiCamillo
- The Thing About Leftovers · C.C. Payne
- Tucky Jo and Little Heart · Patricia Polacco
- Two Degrees · Alan Gratz
- When Stars Are Scattered · Victoria Jamieson
- Who Needs a Bratty Brother? · Linda Gondosch
- Wonder · R.J. Palacio