Grade 3 Reading List

Recommended by educators at top U.S. gifted and talented school

An excellent reading list for 3rd graders, starting with classic fiction books, followed by mystery and adventure fictions, and ending with biography/memoir titles. 

Fiction

  • Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid
  • Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing up Scieszka
  • Walk Two Moons (1995 Newbery)
  • If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period
  • It Only Looks Easy
  • The Tale of Despereaux (2004 Newbery)
  • The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
  • The Magician's Elephant
  • Because of Winn-Dixie (2001 Newbery Honor)
  • The Tiger Rising
  • Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures (2014 Newbery)
  • Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1972 Newbery)
  • My Life as a Fifth-Grade Comedian
  • It's Not the End of the World
  • Baseball Great
  • The Biggest Klutz in Fifth Grade
  • Eggs
  • Ella Enchanted (1998 Newbery Honor)
  • Framed
  • The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2008 Caldecott Medal)
  • Strange Case of Origami Yoda
  • A Wrinkle in Time (1963 Newbery)
  • The Wrinkle in Time Quintet Boxed Set
  • Holes (1999 Newbery)
  • The One and Only Ivan (2013 Newbery)


Mystery and Adventure

  • Scat
  • The Mysterious Benedict Society
  • The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
  • The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma
  • The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict
  • National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society (NERDS Book One)
  • Rapunzel's Revenge
  • The Case of the Missing Marquess (An Enola Holmes Mystery)

Biography/Memoir

  • The Last Rider: The Final Days of the Pony Express
  • Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story
  • Helen's Eyes: A Photobiography of Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller's Teacher
  • Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing up Scieszka