Kansas 4th grade reading list

The 597 books most commonly assigned to Kansas 4th grade students in US schools — each with its reading level and a cited source.

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Books597Lexile360L–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 4th grade

These are the 30 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. Fish in a Tree

    Lynda Mullaly Hunt

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents and 1 national reference, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers disability, friendship and school. At 550L it sits just under the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  2. 11 Birthdays

    Wendy Mass

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

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  3. Eleven

    Patricia Reilly Giff

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

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  4. Guinea Dog

    Patrick Jennings

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

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  5. How to Steal a Dog

    Barbara O'Connor

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

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  6. 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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  7. Life on Mars

    Jennifer Brown

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

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  8. Malcolm at Midnight

    W. H. Beck

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

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  9. Odder

    Katherine Applegate

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

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  10. Pax

    Sara Pennypacker

    Cited in 2 Kansas curriculum documents, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers friendship, war and loyalty. At 760L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  11. Scritch Scratch

    Lindsay Currie

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

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  12. Small Spaces

    Katherine Arden

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

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  13. Stella

    McCall Hoyle

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

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  14. The Boy on the Porch

    Sharon Creech

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

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  15. Wildfire

    Rodman Philbrick

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

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  16. Sarah, Plain and Tall

    Patricia MacLachlan

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 4 national references, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers family, loss and new beginnings. At 660L it sits just under the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  17. Bud, Not Buddy

    Christopher Paul Curtis

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 2 national references, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers family, identity and perseverance. At 950L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  18. Holes

    Louis Sachar

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 2 national references, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers fate vs choice, friendship and justice. At 660L it sits just under the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  19. Maniac Magee

    Jerry Spinelli

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 2 national references, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers race, homelessness and family. At 820L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  20. 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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  21. Because of Winn-Dixie

    Kate DiCamillo

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers loss, friendship and mother absence. At 610L it sits just under the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  22. Clementine

    Sara Pennypacker

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

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  23. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

    E.L. Konigsburg

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 4 to 6. Covers independence, art and running away. At 700L it sits just under the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  24. Island of the Blue Dolphins

    Scott O'Dell

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers survival, solitude and indigenous identity. At 1000L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  25. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

    Robert C. O'Brien

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 4 to 6. Covers family, courage, science and ethics. At 790L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  26. 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 falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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  27. A Million Ways Home

    Dianna Dorisi-Winget

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 6.

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  28. 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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  29. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

    Chris Grabenstein

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 6.

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  30. Frindle

    Andrew Clements

    Cited in 1 Kansas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 7. Covers creativity, language and thought, intelligence. At 830L it falls inside the 740–1010L band for this grade.

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597 books cited for Kansas 4th grade

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

Show all 597 titles

Reading the whole Kansas 4th grade reading list? Kids who struggle with the print versions often finish the assigned books by listening.

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Other Kansas grades

3rd grade · 5th grade · 2nd grade · 6th grade

Reading lists by grade (all states)

3rd grade · 5th grade · 2nd grade · 6th grade

Same 4th grade in other states

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

Browse 4th grade reading by theme

About the Kansas 4th grade reading list

In Kansas schools, 4th 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 597 titles for 4th grade in Kansas, each tied to a Kansas-specific curriculum citation. Across the list, Lexile measures span 360L–1000L.

4th 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 740–1010L range, of the 52 titles here with a Lexile score 29 are grade-level, 23 are more accessible (often assigned for theme over challenge), and 0 are stretch texts that may need scaffolding. Because readers in a single 4th 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 4th 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 4th 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 4th grade students in Kansas?
597 books appear on ReadingList for 4th 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 4th grade reading in Kansas?
Lexile measures across the 4th grade Kansas reading list range from 360L 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.