I am looking for suggestions for my 5th grader’s next reading assignment. They are supposed to choose a contemporary realistic fiction story that provides them with a look at a life different from their own. It needs to be set within the past 20 years, which eliminates anything I read as a child, and it would be good to be long enough to take a couple of weeks for him to read.
He reads at an 8th grade level, but still has the emotional understanding of an average 10 year old. It’s ok for the book to deal with heavy themes, but we’d like to avoid graphic descriptions of sex, death, or violence. He is a middle class, suburban, white boy with married parents, so anything outside of that lens will work (female protagonist, different race, different socioeconomic status, divorce, death, etc.).
The teacher provided a link to a library reading list, but I don’t know if any of them are particularly good. The writing is really everything with this type of story and can be the difference between a book ok that bores you to tears and one that changes your whole outlook on life. So, I am asking here for recommendations of books people have read and enjoyed or been impacted by. Thank you in advance!
I may post this to r/children’s books as well, if you happen to see it twice.
by Astrazigniferi