This list is intended for students in grades 4-6.
Archer’s Quest
by Linda Sue Park
J FIC PARK
Twelve-year-old Kevin is shocked when Chu-mong, legendary ruler of ancient Korea, suddenly arrives with his bow and arrows in Kevin’s room in Dorchester, New York. But Kevin is drawn to the brave stranger, who must return home before the Year of the Tiger ends the next day and history is changed forever.
The Castle in the Attic
by Elizabeth Winthrop
P/J WIN
A gift of a toy castle, complete with silver knight, introduces William to an adventure involving magic and a personal quest.
P/J WIN
The Emerald Atlas
by John Stephens
J FIC STEPHENS
Ten years ago, siblings Kate, Michael, and Emma were taken from their parents’ home and have lived in orphanage after orphanage ever since. Newly arrived at their latest abode, they find an enchanted old atlas that transports them back in time…and into the clutches of an evil countess who’s seeking the book that they’ve found.
The Game of Sunken Places
by M.T. Anderson
J FIC ANDERSON
When Brian and Gregory go to stay at a distant relative’s strange manse, they stumble upon a board game that mirrors a greater game in which they have suddenly became players.
J FIC ANDERSON
George’s Secret Key to the Universe
by Lucy Hawking
J FIC HAWKING
Follows the adventures of a young boy and his neighbor friend as they travel through a computer portal into outer space, where they explore such mysteries as black holes and the origins of the universe, while trying to evade an evil scientist.
George Washington’s Socks
by Elvira Woodruff
P/J WOO
A mysterious rowboat transports five adventurous kids back in time to the eve of the Battle at Trenton where they experience the American Revolution.
Herbert’s Wormhole
by Peter Nelson
J FIC NELSON
When almost-sixth-grader Alex, a video game fanatic, is forced on a “playdate” with his neighbor Herbert, an inventor, the two travel to the twenty-second century and face off against aliens, who are not as beneficent as most people think.
A Hero for WondLa
by Tony DiTerlizzi
J FIC DiTERLIZZI
Raised underground by a robot, twelve-year-old Eva Nine finally finds all she ever wanted in the human colony of New Attica, but something very bad is going on there and unless Eva and her friends stop it, it could mean the end of life on Orbona.
Invasion from Planet Dork
by Greg Trine
P/J TRI
As big trouble heads toward Los Angeles, California, Max Beederman gathers his superhero friends to face what comes–a trio of extraterrestrial kidnappers who call themselves Monkey Wrench, Elbow, and Shoe.
James and the Giant Peach
by Roald Dahl
P/J DAH
When James drops magic crystals by the peach tree, the toy peach starts growing. Before long, it’s as big as a house and contains a secret entranceway.
Knight’s Castle
by Edward Eager
J FIC EAGER or P/J EAG
Roger, Anne, Eliza, and Jack find a magic way to go back into the time of Robin Hood, Rebecca, and Ivanhoe.
The Magic Half
by Annie Barrows
J FIC BARROWS or P/J BAR
Eleven-year-old Miri Gill feels left out in her family, which has two sets of twins and her, until she travels back in time to 1935 and discovers Molly, her own lost twin, and brings her back to the present day.
The Magician’s Boy
by Susan Cooper
J FIC COOPER
A Boy works for a Magician. The Boy polishes the Magician’s wands, and catches the rabbits that the Magician pulls out of hats. But the Boy’s favorite job is operating the puppets — until one terrible day when, in the middle of a performance, the Boy can’t find the Saint George puppet. The Magician is furious. He points a long magical finger at the Boy, and — poof! — the Boy is suddenly in the strange Land of Story, where he must find Saint George.
On the Blue Comet
by Rosemary Wells
J FIC WELLS or P/J WEL
When the Depression hits in Cairo, Illinois, and Oscar Ogilvie’s father must sell their home and vast model train set-up to look for work in California, eleven-year-old Oscar is left with his dour aunt, where he befriends a mysterious drifter, witnesses a stunning bank robbery, and is suddenly catapulted onto a train that takes him to a different time and place.
Raider’s Ransom
by Emily Diamand
J FIC DIAMAND or P/J DIA
In 22nd-century Great Britain, where climate change has caused vast flooding, the piratical Reavers kidnap the Prime Minister’s daughter and thirteen-year-old Lilly Melkun, an English fisher-girl, takes her seacat on a daring rescue attempt, with a mysterious talking jewel from a past computer age tucked in her belt as ransom.
Stargazer
by Patrick Carman
J FIC CARMAN
Twelve-year-old Alexa and her companions unwittingly lead Abaddon, now in the form of an enormous, horrible sea monster, to the secret community known as the Five Stone Pillars when they go to bring the people living there home.
Time Cat: the remarkable journeys of Jason and Gareth
by Lloyd Alexander
P/J ALE
Jason and his magic cat Gareth travel through time to visit countries all over the world during different periods of history.
The Time Hackers
by Gary Paulsen
YA FIC PAU
You ever open your locker and find that some joker has left something really weird inside? Seventh-grader Dorso Clayman opens his locker door to find a dead body. Thirty seconds later it disappears. It’s not the first bizarre thing that has appeared in his locker and then vanished.
YA FIC PAU
Tom’s Midnight Garden
by Phillipa Pearce
J FIC PEARCE
When the clock strikes 13 o’clock, Tom enters an old fashioned garden where he meets a mysterious girl named Hatty.
Tuck Everlasting
by Natalie Babbitt
J FIC BABBITT or P/J BAB
Doomed to – or blessed with – eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less a blessing that it might seem.
A Well-Timed Enchantment
by Vivian Vande Velde
J FIC VANDE VELDE
Deanna has only 24 hours to get a watch back from medieval France or the world as she knows it will cease to exist.
When You Reach Me
by Rebecca Stead
J FIC STEAD
As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1970s television game show “The $20,000 Pyramid,” a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space.
A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L’Engle
J FIC L’ENGLE
It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger. “Wild nights are my glory,” the unearthly stranger told them. “I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I’ll be on my way.