90 authors created a book list with a chapter book perfect for 3rd graders, and here are those books. Also, check out our bigger section with all books for 3rd graders.
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I write both fiction and nonfiction for kids and with Eat Bugs, I got to combine both loves.The book was inspired by two real-life female entrepreneurs, who literally cooked up an edible bug business in their college dorm room. After I watched them land a deal on Shark Tank, we met and I reimagined their story as if they’d started their business in sixth grade. I’ve always been fascinated by entrepreneurs who have the courage and tenacity to follow their dreams–no matter how wacky the idea may seem.
Third-grader J.D. has the entrepreneurial and problem-solving spirit I adore. Great at cutting hair, he starts a barbershop in his bedroom! But when the town barbershop loses business because J.D’s charging less than they do, they challenge him to a barber battle. The story made me laugh out loud and cheer for J.D.
Eight-year-old J.D. turns a tragic home haircut into a thriving barber business in this hilarious new illustrated chapter book series
J.D. has a big problem--it's the night before the start of third grade and his mom has just given him his first and worst home haircut. When the steady stream of insults from the entire student body of Douglass Elementary becomes too much for J.D., he takes matters into his own hands and discovers that, unlike his mom, he's a genius with the clippers. His work makes him the talk of the town and brings him enough hair business to…
I always wanted to be a writer, but as a kid, my teacher told me to write about what I know, and I didn’t know much. I didn’t know much for a long time, but eventually started writing anyway. Today, I’ve written more than thirty books for children including the popular novels Class Dismissed, The Pet War, Field Tripped, and Unschooled. I also write books under a variety of pen names, such as “Fowler DeWitt.” When I’m not writing I’m probably visiting a school or a library. I live with my family outside Chicago.
Miles Murphy has always been his school’s star prankster, a position he assumes will continue when he moves to a new school. Wrong. He quickly discovers the school already has a prankster, and Miles has a lot to learn about successful pranking if he’s going to keep up with his new rival. The outrageous and ingenious pranks, combined with great characters and hilarious writing, make this book by Mac Barnett and Jory John a fall-on-the-floor delight.
Miles Murphy is not happy to be moving to Yawnee Valley, a sleepy town that's famous for one thing and one thing only: cows. In his old school, everyone knew him as the town's best prankster, but Miles quickly discovers that Yawnee Valley already has a prankster, and a great one. If Miles is going to take the title from this mystery kid, he is going to have to raise his game.
It's prankster against prankster in an epic war of trickery, until the two finally decide to join forces and pull off the biggest prank ever seen: a prank…
Growing up as an only child, books and animals were hugely important to me – they were my friends and I really wanted to believe in a magic that would allow me to talk to animals and them to me. I have now written over 250 books and pretty much all of them have either magic or animals in or a combination of both – unicorns, ponies that turn into magical horses, star animals who teach the children they bond with how to do magic, mermaids with sea creatures as pets. I really love to write – and read – about magical animals and their very lucky human friends!
I wanted to choose a book about unicorns (given they’re one of my favorite things to write about!) and this is the second book in a great magical series perfect for middle-grade readers who prefer shorter chapter books. Ava and her friends live in Arramia along with many magical creatures such as unicorns, dragons, firebirds, and star wolves. In this book, Ava sets out on a daring adventure to rescue a gorgeous baby unicorn who has been stolen from his herd by an evil villain. Paula Harrison is a brilliant writer for readers who like reading about magic and animals. She creates wonderful worlds and her books are hard to put down. The Royal Rescues is another great series too.
A brilliant series for 7+ readers full of adventure, magic and friendship from Paula Harrison, author of the Rescue Princesses and Kitty and the Moonlight Rescue series.
Maya is a dancer with a travelling troupe of entertainers. When Clover, a little unicorn, is trapped by Sir Fitzroy and used to lure the other unicorns into danger, Maya hatches a cunning plan. She and Sophy will disguise themselves and foil Sir Fitzroy's plot, and the unicorns will be safe!
Beautifully illustrated throughout by Sophy Williams, this is the perfect book for young readers who love magic and animals!
I am a former book publishing professional turned full-time children’s book author. I’ve never swallowed a frog, battled imaginary bears, or had a slime war with ghosts like my character, Roosevelt Banks, but I have written more than fifty books for children. These range from beginning readers (You Should Meet Misty Copeland) and chapter books (Roosevelt Banks, Good-Kid-in-Training) to middle grade historical novels (Daniel at the Siege of Boston, 1775).
With pockets full of rocks and a purple-dragon T-shirt, science-loving Jada Jones makes her debut in this early chapter book series. When her best friend moves away, school is the last place Jada wants to be, until her teacher announces a project about rocks and minerals. The only problem—she’s in a group with two BFF’s who don’t seem to like her or her ideas. Readers will love reading about Jada’s journey to new friendships and becoming a fourth-grade rock star—setting her up for new challenges in subsequent titles. I love the fact that Lyons created a science-loving girl.
Fans of Princess Posey and Ivy and Bean will enjoy engaging with science-loving Jada Jones in this easy-to-read chapter book.
When Jada Jones's best friend moves away, school feels like the last place she wants to be. She'd much rather wander outside looking for cool rocks to add to her collection, since finding rocks is much easier than finding friends. So when Jada's teacher announces a class project on rocks and minerals, Jada finally feels like she's in her element. The only problem: one of her teammates doesn't seem to like any of Jada's ideas. She doesn't seem to like…
I’ve always been fascinated by the names of people and things. Why do we use the names we do? What do they mean? Who made them up? Is there power in knowing something’s name? I later discovered that all these questions are very old—the idea that names have power goes back at least to ancient Egypt. When I became a biology professor, I found that my students and colleagues mostly didn’t know or care why animals and plants have the Latin names they do. But those names are fascinating, and there are stories to uncover whenever we tug on a name’s meaning like a loose thread.
I loved the Alice books as a child and even more as an adult. As a child, I loved their absurdist humor; the situations Alice gets into are ridiculous, and the ways she gets out are even more so. As an adult, I love that the absurdist humor asks really interesting questions about language and naming and self, our ideas of time and space, and social conventions and who’s in charge of them.
All this with hilariously eccentric characters and nonsense poetry that isn’t quite nonsense! To top it off, reading Alice as an adult is a trip because so many books, movies, songs, and other creative pieces have referenced events or language from the Alice books. What fun!
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked. 'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat. 'We're all mad here.'
The 'Alice' books are two of the most translated, most quoted, and best-known books in the world, but what exactly are they? Apparently delightful, innocent fantasies for children, they are also complex textures of mathematical, linguistic, and philosophical jokes. Alice's encounters with the White Rabbit, the Cheshire-Cat, the King and Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter, Tweedledum and Tweedledee and many other extraordinary characters have made them masterpieces of carefree nonsense, yet they also appeal to adults…
I was a children's book illustrator for years before my agent prompted me to start writing. I didn’t know the first thing about writing for children, but I really wanted to try, and with help from the SCBWI and after a lot of failed attempts, I found that early reader graphic novels most fit in with my Mad Magazine and New Yorker style of gag humor. There are so many great early reader graphic novels out there these days, and I truly feel we are in a golden age for this genre. I hope you like my choices and find many more on your own!
This is the first book in the young readers' genre that made me think that I, too, could write for this age group.
This book is a wonderfully funny and imaginative tale about a girl, her family, and her imaginary friends. It is not really a graphic novel but more of an illustrated early reader story. The loose but expressive pencil illustrations really impressed me with how much personality you could get in such a simple drawing.
What sets this apart is the anything-goes/freewheeling stream-of-consciousness telling of her story, which takes you from one outlandish scene to another as Dory makes her way through her day. However, this book also has lots of heart and love in the family.
Move over, Junie B. Jones and Ivy & Bean! Here comes a lovably energetic little sister with a BIG personality-and an imagination to match!
As the youngest in her family, Dory really wants attention, and more than anything she wants her brother and sister to play with her. But she's too much of a baby for them, so she's left to her own devices-including her wild imagination and untiring energy. Her siblings may roll their eyes at her childish games, but Dory has lots of things to do: outsmarting the monsters all over the house, escaping from prison (aka time-out),…
I have had a love of sci-fi and fantasy since I was twelve, and I have been an avid reader since then. I have always had an obsession with all things space and the mysteries that reside out there, and it was my dream to create a story that intermixed that with the fantasy worlds I grew up adoring. Since I released my debut book, I have broken into the indie social scene across multiple platforms. I am part of a sixteen-person author group where we share our passion and ideas for one another’s writing, and I have been on numerous BookTube channels and podcasts discussing the craft.
I recommend this book because, like many kids, it was one of my first introductions to the world of fiction. And given its popularity, it is a story I have always thought back on when thinking about my own writing. What elements of it are a reason for its popularity that I could establish in my own work?
The big one I took away was how the story is intermixed with our reality. I think contemporary urban fantasies, or those in the magical realism realm, I think a big part of the appeal is that readers find it believable and more relatable because it is set in our “reality." Of course, to reach such a status as Harry Potter, it needs to be a great story, but that was an element I tried to mimic, albeit in a space opera sense. This is the first book in the series…
Galloping gargoyles ... 2022 is the silver anniversary of J.K. Rowling's magical classic Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone!
The boy wizard Harry Potter has been casting a spell over young readers and their families ever since 1997. Now the first book in this unmissable series celebrates 25 years in print! The paperback edition of the tale that introduced us to Harry, Ron and Hermione has been updated and dressed in silver to mark the occasion. It's time to take the magical journey of a lifetime ...
Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping…
My journey as a writer began in correlation with my career as a family doctor. After reading Dr. Jacques Ferron’s, books, I knew I wanted to be an author as well as a doctor. While pursuing my medical career, I wrote medical articles and books. My husband and I have also been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul of Quebecers with the story Witness of the Last Breath. This is the story of the last night of my daughter-in-law dying of lung cancer. Before she died, I promised Marie-Noëlle that I would pursue my writing career to change the world one young reader at a time. And I did.
It is a challenge to make a dyslexic child like reading. I recommend this book it was designed for dyslexic readers.
A special font and large space between letters help dyslexic children read easily. There are only a few of these books on the market. Children’s book editors should adapt their books for children having reading problems. This book is also very funny to read.
The well-illustrated basic plot keeps readers focused on the story. If your child likes this book, they may like the 12-chapter book series titled Here’s Hank.
Hank's class gets to take care of Principal Love's pet frog while he's away, and Hank is thrilled when he's selected to take it home for the weekend. But when he forgets to put the top back on the tank, Hank's excitement quickly turns to panic--the frog has escaped! The frog hunt is on, but time is running out. Hank needs to find that frog, and fast!
Toilet
humor, superhero, slapstick, science fiction—all genres I would have expected I’d be
allergic to.
A book like that would appeal to boys who love gross stuff, not my
cultured granddaughters, right? Captain Underpants has repeatedly been “the
most banned book in America.” Among the characters are Professor Poopypants,
Wicked Wedgie Woman, Tippie Tinkletrousers, and Dr. Diaper.
The plot itself—the
mean principal can be turned into comic superhero Captain Underpants whenever
one of the two fourth-grade pranksters snaps his fingers—is plenty silly;
however, it has amused children around the world and gotten them interested in
reading.
Book-banners of all stripes agree that this is an objectionable book.
Yet given all the chaos in the world, it felt good for our family to laugh
together.
I have always been fascinated by fairies. I remember watching dragonflies in my backyard, convinced that they carried fairies on their backs. I hung pictures of fairies on my bedroom walls. I even moved my dollhouse furniture outside and set it up under a tree so the fairies would be comfy. This wasn’t as farfetched as it sounds when you consider that I grew up before the digital age and was always encouraged to use my imagination. When the movie Peter Pan was released, I fell in love with Tinkerbell. I’m convinced that all of this prepared me to become the writer of a series of fairy books. Who knew?
I love children’s series that encourage young readers to keep track of what their favorite character is up to in the next book…and the next. Pixie Tricks is an early chapter book series that does just that. In the first book, the main character finds a portal to the fairy world right in her own backyard. In the following books, she must deal with baffling situations such as mysteriously leaking faucets and figuring out a way to rescue her cousin who is somehow trapped inside a video game. There are 5 books in this series and children ages 6 to 8 love to collect them all.
Fairies + magic + fantasy + New York Times bestselling author Tracey West = Pixie Tricks!
Pick a book. Grow a Reader!
This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line, Branches, aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow!
Eight-year-old Violet didn't expect to find a portal to the fairy world in her backyard. And she certainly didn't think she would have to defend the human world from trickster pixies! With the help of her new…
