Texas 4th grade reading list

The 593 books most commonly assigned to Texas 4th grade students in US schools — each with its reading level and a cited source.

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Books593Lexile410L–1000LSourceTEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills)✓ 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 Texas 4th grade

These are the 20 titles named in Texas’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. A Game of Noctis

    Deva Fagan

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers adventure, ambition and fantasy.

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  2. A Plate of Hope: The Inspiring Story of Chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen

    Erin Frankel

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers compassion, biography and service.

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  3. Dogtown

    Katherine Applegate & Gennifer Choldenko

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers friendship, perseverance and humor.

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  4. Doña Quixote: Rise of the Knight

    Rey Terciero

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

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  5. Ernö Rubik and His Magic Cube

    Kerry Aradhya

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers curiosity, invention and biography.

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  6. Haiku, Ew! Celebrating the Disgusting Side of Nature

    Lynn Brunelle

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers nature, poetry and science.

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  7. Hannah Sharpe, Cartoon Detective

    Janet Tashjian

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers mystery, humor and school.

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  8. Invisible Isabel

    Sally J. Pla

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers empathy, identity and family.

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  9. It Came from the Trees

    Ally Russell

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers friendship, courage and fear.

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  10. Legendarios: Wrath of the Rain God

    Karla Arenas Valenti

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers mythology, family and adventure.

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  11. Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All

    Chanel Miller

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers friendship, family and mystery.

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  12. Nimbus

    Jan Eldredge

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers loyalty, courage and animals.

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  13. Pedro's Yo-Yos: How a Filipino Immigrant Came to America and Changed the World of Toys

    Rob Peñas

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers immigration, invention and biography.

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  14. Scare School Diaries: Welcome to Scare School

    Jarrett Lerner

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers first day, friendship and confidence.

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  15. Stuntboy, In-Between Time

    Jason Reynolds

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

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  16. Tales from Cabin 23: The Boo Hag Flex

    Justina Ireland

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers folklore, fear and storytelling.

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  17. The Girl Who Figured It Out

    Minda Dentler

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers determination, disability and biography.

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  18. The Liars Society

    Alyson Gerber

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers mystery, friendship and trust.

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  19. The Lumbering Giants of Windy Pines

    Mo Netz

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers mystery, adventure and disability.

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  20. Volcanoes

    Nell Cross Beckerman

    Cited in 1 Texas curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers nature, history and intelligence.

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593 books cited for Texas 4th grade

Assignments tied directly to Texas’s TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) or national curricula with a Texas-specific citation.

Show all 593 titles

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

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Other Texas 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 · Florida · New York · Pennsylvania · Illinois · Ohio

Browse 4th grade reading by theme

About the Texas 4th grade reading list

In Texas schools, 4th grade students are most often assigned books drawn from TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills)alongside the national curricula that apply nationwide — Common Core State Standards Appendix B, AP English, and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. ReadingList currently tracks 593 titles for 4th grade in Texas, each tied to a Texas-specific curriculum citation. Across the list, Lexile measures span 410L–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 48 titles here with a Lexile score 26 are grade-level, 22 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.

Texas’s English Language Arts requirements are set by TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) (tea.texas.gov). Most states pair their own standards with the Common Core text-complexity framework, so the 4th grade list below blends Texas-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 Texas-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 Texas?
593 books appear on ReadingList for 4th grade students in Texas, sourced from TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) and national curricula (Common Core, AP, IB) with applicable grade citations.
What's the Lexile range for 4th grade reading in Texas?
Lexile measures across the 4th grade Texas reading list range from 410L 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 TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) (published at tea.texas.gov) plus national curricula that apply to Texas 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 tea.texas.gov. National references cited on each book’s detail page.