What books are similar to The River Between Us?

The 10 closest matches to The River Between Us by Richard Peck on ReadingList include Chains, Shades of Gray, The Art of Keeping Cool, The Bomb, and The Game of Silence. Each is scored on shared themes, shared award lists, genre, and reading level (grades 7–12), and links to the curricula, states, and grades where it is assigned in US schools, with primary sources.

Are books like The River Between Us reading-level appropriate?

Yes — every match is a reading-level match, not just a topical one, scored on Lexile and grade band (grades 7–12), so the picks stay grade-appropriate. See how ReadingList judges text difficulty on the /standard methodology page.

How does ReadingList choose similar books?

Matches are ranked by shared themes, shared award and reading-program lists (two books picked for the same state award were chosen by the same committees for the same readers), same genre, comparable Lexile and grade band, and publication decade — computed from cited public curriculum data, not editorial opinion or AI-generated summaries.

Books like The River Between Us

If you liked The River Between Us, read Chains, Shades of Gray, or The Art of Keeping Cool — the closest matches in our database, matched on shared award lists and reading level.

Looking for books like The River Between Us by Richard Peck? The 10 titles below are the closest matches in the ReadingList database — each scored on shared themes, shared award lists, genre, and reading level, and each linked to the curricula, states, and grades where it’s assigned, with primary sources.

These are reading-level matches, not just topical ones — so the picks stay grade-appropriate for a grades 7–12 reader. See how we judge text difficulty on our methodology page.

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Why each is a match

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Chains780L: Both on the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction list, overlapping grades (5–9), and the same era (2000s). Amazon →
Shades of Graygrades 4–7: Both on the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction list, overlapping grades (4–7), and the same era (2000s). Amazon →
The Art of Keeping Coolgrades 5–8: Both on the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction list, overlapping grades (5–8), and the same era (2000s). Amazon →
The Bombgrades 7–10: Both on the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction list, overlapping grades (7–10), and the same era (2000s). Amazon →
The Game of Silencegrades 4–7: Both on the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction list, overlapping grades (4–7), and the same era (2000s). Amazon →
The Green Glass Seagrades 5–8: Both on the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction list, overlapping grades (5–8), and the same era (2000s). Amazon →
The Landgrades 7–12: Both on the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction list, overlapping grades (7–12), and the same era (2000s). Amazon →
Trouble Don't Lastgrades 5–8: Both on the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction list, overlapping grades (5–8), and the same era (2000s). Amazon →
Under the Blood-Red Sungrades 5–8: Both on the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction list, overlapping grades (5–8), and the same era (2000s). Amazon →
A Sea of Lemon Treesgrades 5–8: Both on the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction list and overlapping grades (5–8). Amazon →

Book data last updated 2026-07-07. Matches are computed from each book’s cited attributes — see the methodology.

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Books like The River Between Us

10 books similar to The River Between Us

Why each is a match