Special Collections
District List: BCPS Supplemental Texts - Grade 5
Description: Baltimore City Public Schools Supplemental Text List for students in 5th Grade. #bcps
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Sing Down the Moon
by Scott O'DellNewbery Honor BookIn this powerful novel based on historical events, the Navajo tribe's forced march from their homeland to Fort Sumner is dramatically and courageously narrated by young Bright Morning.Like the author's Newbery Medal-winning classic Island of the Blue Dolphins, Scott O'Dell's Sing Down the Moon is a gripping tale of survival, strength, and courage.
The Dreamer
by Pam Muñoz RyanFrom the time he is a young boy, Neftalí hears the call of a mysterious voice. Even when the neighborhood children taunt him, and when his harsh, authoritarian father ridicules him, and when he doubts himself, Neftalí knows he cannot ignore the call. Under the canopy of the lush rain forest, into the fearsome sea, and through the persistent Chilean rain, he listens and he follows ... Combining elements of magical realism with biography, poetry, literary fiction, and sensorial, transporting illustrations, Pam Muñoz Ryan and Peter Sís take readers on a rare journey of the heart and imagination.
Winner of the Pura Belpre Medal
American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings
by Zitkala-saZitkala-Sa wrestled with the conflicting influences of American Indian and white culture throughout her life. Raised on a Sioux reservation, she was educated at boarding schools that enforced assimilation and was witness to major events in white-Indian relations in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Tapping her troubled personal history, Zitkala-Sa created stories that illuminate the tragedy and complexity of the American Indian experience. In evocative prose laced with political savvy, she forces new thinking about the perceptions, assumptions, and customs of both Sioux and white cultures and raises issues of assimilation, identity, and race relations that remain compelling today. .
Civil War Stories
by Ambrose BierceNewspaperman, short-story writer, poet, and satirist, Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) is one of the most striking and unusual literary figures America has produced. Dubbed "Bitter Bierce" for his vitriolic wit and biting satire, his fame rests largely on a celebrated compilation of barbed epigrams, The Devil's Dictionary, and a book of short stories (Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, 1891). Most of the 16 selections in this volume have been taken from the latter collection.The stories in this edition include: "What I Saw at Shiloh," "A Son of the Gods," "Four Days in Dixie," "One of the Missing," "A Horseman in the Sky," "The Coup de Grace," "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "The Story of Conscience," "One Kind of Officer," "Chickamauga," and five more.Bierce's stories employ a buildup of suggestive realistic detail to produce grim and vivid tales often disturbing in their mood of fatalism and impending calamity. Hauntingly suggestive, they offer excellent examples of the author's dark pessimism and storytelling power.
Noah Webster
by Pegi Deitz Shea and Monica VachulaThis NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book celebrates one of the most important patriots in post-Revolutionary times. Most readers know Noah Webster for his dictionary masterpieces and his promotion of a living "American Language" that embraces words and idioms from all its immigrant peoples. But he was also the driving force behind universal education for all citizens, including slaves, females, and adult learners. Speaker of twenty languages, he developed the new country's curriculum, writing and publishing American literature, American history, and American geography. He published New York City's first daily newspaper. As editor, Webster conducted a study and linked disease with poor sanitation. He created the country's first insurance company, established America's first copyright law, and became America's first best-selling author.
Rain Reign
by Ann M. MartinWinner of the Schneider Family 2015 Middle School Award
Rose Howard is obsessed with homonyms. She's thrilled that her own name is a homonym, and she purposely gave her dog Rain a name with two homonyms (Reign, Rein), which, according to Rose's rules of homonyms, is very special. Not everyone understands Rose's obsessions, her rules, and the other things that make her different - not her teachers, not other kids, and not her single father.
When a storm hits their rural town, rivers overflow, the roads are flooded, and Rain goes missing. Rose's father shouldn't have let Rain out. Now Rose has to find her dog, even if it means leaving her routines and safe places to search.
Hearts will break and spirits will soar for this powerful story, brilliantly told from Rose's point of view.
The Right Word
by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet2015 Caldecott Honor Book
2015 Sibert Medal Winner
For shy young Peter Mark Roget, books were the best companions -- and it wasn't long before Peter began writing his own book. But he didn't write stories; he wrote lists. Peter took his love for words and turned it to organizing ideas and finding exactly the right word to express just what he thought. His lists grew and grew, eventually turning into one of the most important reference books of all time.
Readers of all ages will marvel at Roget's life, depicted through lyrical text and brilliantly detailed illustrations. This elegant book celebrates the joy of learning and the power of words.
A River of Words
by Jen BryantThis book traces the childhood urges to write of William Carlos Williams
The Mostly True Adventures Of Homer P. Figg
by Rodman PhilbrickIn this Newbery Honor-winning page-turner, twelve-year-old orphan Homer runs away from Pine Swamp, Maine, to find his older brother, Harold, who has been sold into the Union Army.
With laugh-aloud humor, Homer outwits and outruns a colorful assortment of civil War-era thieves, scallywags, and spies as he makes his way south, following clues that finally lead him to Gettysburg. Even through a hail of gunfire, Homer never loses heart--but will he find his brother? Or will it be too late?
With engaging wit and comical repartee reminiscent of Mark Twain, master storyteller Rodman Philbrick introduces us to the unforgettable character of Homer in his latest groundbreaking novel.
Elijah of Buxton
by Christopher Paul CurtisMaster storyteller Christopher Paul Curtis's Newbery Honor novel, featuring his trademark humor, unique narrative voice, and new cover art--now in paperback!
Eleven-year-old Elijah lives in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves near the American border. He's the first child in town to be born free, and he ought to be famous just for that. Unfortunately, all that most people see is a "fra-gile" boy who's scared of snakes and talks too much. But everything changes when a former slave steals money from Elijah's friend, who has been saving to buy his family out of captivity in the South. Now it's up to Elijah to track down the thief--and his dangerous journey just might make a hero out of him, if only he can find the courage to get back home.
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Chasing Lincoln's Killer
by James L. SwansonNEW YORK TIMES bestselling author James Swanson delivers a riveting account of the chase for Abraham Lincoln's assassin. Based on rare archival material, obscure trial manuscripts, and interviews with relatives of the conspirators and the manhunters, CHASING LINCOLN'S KILLER is a fast-paced thriller about the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth: a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D. C. , across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia.
The Journal of James Edmond Pease
by Jim MurphyIgnorant to the bitter realities of military life, 16-year-old James enlists in the Union Army at the dawn of the Civil War.
When his lieutenant assigns him to be the company historian of the G Company of the 122nd Regiment, New York Volunteers, he is initially at a loss as to what exactly he is supposed to record.
As the days pass, James settles into his role, but he cannot take comfort in it.
His country is divided by a bloody war, and his unit struggles through the hardships and turmoil.
Through his journal entries, James poignantly captures the terror of battle, the drudgery of day-to-day life in the infantry, the loss of comrades, and the disillusionment of a young soldier.
Red Moon at Sharpsburg
by Rosemary WellsAward-winning author Rosemary Wells lays bare the senseless devastation of war in this stunning novel. As the Civil War breaks out, India, a young Southern girl, summons her sharp intelligence and the courage she didn''t know she had to survive the war that threatens to destroy her family, her Virginia home, and the only life she has ever known. A timeless heroine of inspiring drive and bravery, India holds on to her dream of forging a career in science, unheard-of for a woman, in the face of battle, starvation, and tragic loss. Rarely has the Southern perspective on the war been told so even-handedly for young adults as in this meticulously researched, poignant, and riveting novel.
Across Five Aprils
by Irene HuntThe unforgettable story of young Jethro Creighton who comes of age during the turbulent years of the Civil War.
Newbery Award Honors book
Mr. Matisse and His Cutouts
by Annemarie Van HaeringenMr. Matisse is a painter with "the sun in his tummy." His colors make everyone happy. But one day he becomes ill and has to have a major operation. When he wakes up in a white hospital room, he misses his colors. 'Bring my brushes! Bring my paint!' But the sheets are not smooth and taut like canvas. And the walls and ceiling are too far away. What will he do now?
Jesse Owens
by Carole Boston Weatherford and Eric VelasquezJesse Owens grew up during the time of Jim Crow laws, but segregation never slowed him down. After setting world records for track in high school and college, he won a slot on the 1936 U.S. Olympic team. That year, the Olympics were in Berlin, then controlled by the Nazis, and Hitler was certain they would be a chance to prove to the world that Aryans were superior to all other races. But the triumph of Jesse's will helped him run through any barrier, winning four gold medals and the hearts of millions, setting two world records, and proving the Nazi dictator unmistakably wrong.
The story of Jesse Owens comes alive for young readers with Carole Boston Weatherford's award-winning free verse poetry. Eric Velasquez tackles this challenging subject with the use of pastels for the first time in twenty years-a technique that is both heart-stopping and immediate.
Lemonade
by Bob Raczka and Nancy DonigerPlay with your words! A brand-new poetic form that turns word puzzles into poetry.
Part anagram, part rebus, part riddle—the poems in Lemonade: and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word capture a scene from a child's daily life and present a puzzle to solve. Sometimes sweet and sometimes funny but always clever, these poems are fun to read and even more fun for kids to write. Bob Raczka is a fresh, new voice in children's poetry who knows that fun and games can turn a poetry lesson into lemonade!
C D B!
by William SteigLetters and numbers are used to create the sounds of words and simple sentences 4 u 2 figure out with the aid of illustrations.
Seaman's Journal
by Patricia EubankWhen Seaman, a Newfoundland dog, met his new master in August of 1803, he didn't know that he would spend the next three years on an adventure of more than 8,000 miles to the Pacific Ocean and back. Seaman's Journal is based on actual entries in Meriwether Lewis's journal describing Seaman, and it presents an account of the Lewis and Clark expedition as seen from the viewpoint of Lewis's dog. Join Seaman before the trip as preparations take place. Meet the Native American guides and friends they encountered along the way. And read of Seaman's love for Sacajawea, the Shoshone woman whose husband acted as interpreter and guide.
