Kansas 3rd grade reading list

The 474 books most commonly assigned to Kansas 3rd grade students in US schools — each with its reading level and a cited source.

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Books474Lexile380L–1000LSourceKansas Academic Standards✓ sources cited per book

Most-assigned nationally: across every US state’s official reading and award lists, the Elementary (K–5) titles appearing in the most states are Wonder (29 states), Because of Winn-Dixie (26 states), and Shiloh (25 states). From our 2026 study of 13,258 source-cited assignments (as of 2026-07-13).

Start here — most-cited for Kansas 3rd grade

These are the 23 titles named in Kansas’s own curriculum documents for this grade — everything below is the wider national list. Read against the Common Core Appendix A complexity band; reading level is not thematic maturity, and several sit below the band because they are assigned for discussion.

  1. 11 Birthdays

    Wendy Mass

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  2. Eleven

    Patricia Reilly Giff

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  3. Guinea Dog

    Patrick Jennings

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  4. How to Steal a Dog

    Barbara O'Connor

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  5. Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus

    Dusti Bowling

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  6. Life on Mars

    Jennifer Brown

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  7. Malcolm at Midnight

    W. H. Beck

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  8. Odder

    Katherine Applegate

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  9. Scritch Scratch

    Lindsay Currie

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  10. Small Spaces

    Katherine Arden

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  11. Stella

    McCall Hoyle

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  12. The Boy on the Porch

    Sharon Creech

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  13. Wildfire

    Rodman Philbrick

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  14. Amos Fortune, Free Man

    Elizabeth Yates

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 7.

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  15. Clementine

    Sara Pennypacker

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 8.

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  16. Shiloh

    Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers animal welfare, morality and family. At 890L it runs above the 420–820L band — a stretch text.

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  17. The Mouse and the Motorcycle

    Beverly Cleary

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 2 to 4. Covers friendship, responsibility and coming of age. At 860L it runs above the 420–820L band — a stretch text.

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  18. America is Under Attack September 11 2001

    Don Brown

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5.

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  19. Because of Winn-Dixie

    Kate DiCamillo

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers loss, friendship and mother absence. At 610L it falls inside the 420–820L band for this grade.

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  20. Fish in a Tree

    Lynda Mullaly Hunt

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers disability, friendship and school. At 550L it falls inside the 420–820L band for this grade.

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  21. Frindle

    Andrew Clements

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 7. Covers creativity, language and thought, intelligence. At 830L it runs above the 420–820L band — a stretch text.

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  22. Pax

    Sara Pennypacker

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers friendship, war and loyalty. At 760L it falls inside the 420–820L band for this grade.

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  23. The Trumpet of the Swan

    E.B. White

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers perseverance, family and courage.

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474 books cited for Kansas 3rd grade

Assignments tied directly to Kansas’s Kansas Academic Standards or national curricula with a Kansas-specific citation.

Show all 474 titles

Reading the whole Kansas 3rd grade reading list? Kids who struggle with the print versions often finish the assigned books by listening.

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Other Kansas grades

2nd grade · 4th grade · 1st grade · 5th grade

Reading lists by grade (all states)

2nd grade · 4th grade · 1st grade · 5th grade

Same 3rd grade in other states

California · Texas · Florida · New York · Pennsylvania · Illinois

Browse 3rd grade reading by theme

About the Kansas 3rd grade reading list

In Kansas schools, 3rd grade students are most often assigned books drawn from Kansas Academic Standardsalongside the national curricula that apply nationwide — Common Core State Standards Appendix B, AP English, and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. ReadingList currently tracks 474 titles for 3rd grade in Kansas, each tied to a Kansas-specific curriculum citation. Across the list, Lexile measures span 380L–1000L.

3rd grade sits in the 3-5 grade band, where students are transitional readers. At this stage the emphasis is on shifting from learning-to-read to reading-to-learn and sustaining attention across longer chapter books. Assigned reading skews toward early novels, narrative non-fiction, and a student's first assigned full-length stories, with text complexity that, per Common Core’s Appendix A reading bands, typically falls around roughly 400L to 800L. Measured against that 420–820L range, of the 50 titles here with a Lexile score 37 are grade-level, 1 is more accessible (often assigned for theme over challenge), and 12 are stretch texts that may need scaffolding. Because readers in a single 3rd grade classroom can span several hundred Lexile points, this list is best read as a starting point rather than a fixed requirement.

Kansas’s English Language Arts requirements are set by Kansas Academic Standards (ksde.org). Most states pair their own standards with the Common Core text-complexity framework, so the 3rd grade list below blends Kansas-specific assignments with the widely-taught national canon. Every title links to its primary source on the book’s detail page, so you can confirm exactly where and why it is assigned.

How to use this list:match a title to your child’s most recent Lexile or guided-reading level rather than to the grade alone. Teachers building a 3rd grade unit can pair a Kansas-cited core text with a grade-appropriate companion novel; parents previewing summer or supplemental reading can check each book’s content notes and challenge history before assigning it.

Common questions

How many books are assigned to 3rd grade students in Kansas?
474 books appear on ReadingList for 3rd grade students in Kansas, sourced from Kansas Academic Standards and national curricula (Common Core, AP, IB) with applicable grade citations.
What's the Lexile range for 3rd grade reading in Kansas?
Lexile measures across the 3rd grade Kansas reading list range from 380L to 1000L. Books without a published Lexile (poetry, drama, picture books) are not included in this range.
Where does this reading list come from?
Entries reference Kansas Academic Standards (published at www.ksde.org) plus national curricula that apply to Kansas schools: Common Core State Standards Appendix B, AP English Literature and Language, IB Diploma Programme, and Cambridge Assessment International. Every assignment row on each book's detail page links its primary source.

Reading guides for parents

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State-specific entries sourced from www.ksde.org. National references cited on each book’s detail page.