Louisiana 3rd grade reading list

The 476 books most commonly assigned to Louisiana 3rd grade students in US schools — each with its reading level and a cited source.

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Books476Lexile380L–1000LSourceLouisiana Student 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 Louisiana 3rd grade

These are the 22 titles named in Louisiana’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. Swim Team

    Johnnie Christmas

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 7. Covers perseverance, friendship and race.

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  2. 11 Birthdays

    Wendy Mass

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

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  3. Alligator Sue

    Sharon Arms Doucet

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers tall tales, alligators and identity.

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  4. Athlete vs. Mathlete

    W. C. Mack

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers basketball, twins and brothers.

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  5. Awkward

    Svetlana Chmakova

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers basic reader, middle schools and comics & graphic novels.

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  6. Clayton Byrd Goes Underground

    Rita Williams-Garcia

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers death, grandparent and child, bereavement.

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  7. Coraline

    Neil Gaiman

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers fantasy, paranormal fiction and graphic novels.

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  8. Dear Mrs. LaRue

    Mark Teague

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers training, humorous stories and letters.

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  9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid

    Jeff Kinney

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 7. Covers school, friendship and family. At 950L it runs above the 420–820L band — a stretch text.

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  10. Dress Coded

    Carrie Firestone

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers new york times reviewed, schools, fiction and adolescence, fiction.

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  11. My Dog, My Hero

    Betsy Cromer Byars

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers dogs and dogs, fiction.

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  12. Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude

    O'Malley, Kevin

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers motorcyclists, giants and humorous stories.

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  13. Secrets of My Hollywood Life

    Jen Calonita

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers actresses, actors and actresses, actors and actresses in fiction.

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  14. Skeleton Key

    Anthony Horowitz

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers mystery, spies in fiction and terrorism in fiction.

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  15. Ten Rules You Absolutely Must Not Break If You Want to Survive the School Bus

    John Grandits

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers humorous stories, brothers and first day of school.

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  16. The Bad Guys

    Aaron Blabey

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers animals, heroes and rescues.

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  17. The Diary of a Killer Cat

    Anne Fine

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers cats, diaries and kinderbuch.

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  18. The Dunderheads

    Paul Fleischman

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers schools, individuality and humorous stories.

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  19. The Terrible Two

    Mac Barnett

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

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  20. Verdi

    Janell Cannon

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 5. Covers old age, pythons and snakes.

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  21. Weslandia

    Paul Fleischman

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 8. Covers civilization, gardening and individualism.

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  22. Wonder

    R.J. Palacio

    Cited in 1 Louisiana curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 7. Covers facial difference, kindness and bullying. At 790L it falls inside the 420–820L band for this grade.

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476 books cited for Louisiana 3rd grade

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

Show all 476 titles

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

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Other Louisiana 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 Louisiana 3rd grade reading list

In Louisiana schools, 3rd grade students are most often assigned books drawn from Louisiana Student Standardsalongside the national curricula that apply nationwide — Common Core State Standards Appendix B, AP English, and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. ReadingList currently tracks 476 titles for 3rd grade in Louisiana, each tied to a Louisiana-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 48 titles here with a Lexile score 35 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.

Louisiana’s English Language Arts requirements are set by Louisiana Student Standards (louisianabelieves.com). Most states pair their own standards with the Common Core text-complexity framework, so the 3rd grade list below blends Louisiana-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 Louisiana-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 Louisiana?
476 books appear on ReadingList for 3rd grade students in Louisiana, sourced from Louisiana Student Standards and national curricula (Common Core, AP, IB) with applicable grade citations.
What's the Lexile range for 3rd grade reading in Louisiana?
Lexile measures across the 3rd grade Louisiana 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 Louisiana Student Standards (published at www.louisianabelieves.com) plus national curricula that apply to Louisiana 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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