Age-Appropriate Books for Advanced Third Grade Readers

As long as I've been a teacher, I've had parents ask me for book suggestions. I struggle the most with suggesting books for advanced readers. So many popular book series are set in middle school and contain content that I consider inappropriate for my elementary students. My third graders don't need to be reading about girlfriends/boyfriends, over the top violence, any reference to alcohol or illegal substances, or foul language.

In order to be able to suggest books to parents that are academically challenging yet age-appropriate, I've compiled this list with the help of Scholastic Book Wizard, Common Sense Media, GoodReads, and some teacher friends on Instagram. I hope it helps you out!


Level P:

• Wayside School series
• Rescue Princesses series
• Puppy Patrol series

Level Q:

• American Girl Doll series
• Who Is...? / What Is...? series
• Little House series

Level R:

• I Survived... series
• E.B. White books (Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little...)
• You Wouldn't Want To... series

Level S:

• Goosebumps series
• many Matt Christopher books
• Roald Dahl books (Matilda, James and the Giant Peach...)
• Lemonade War series

Level T:

• Animorphs series
• Chronicles of Narnia series
• Ranger in Time

Level U:

• The 39 Clues series
• Secrets of Bearhaven series 
• Warriors series*

Level V:

• Harry Potter series
• Series of Unfortunate Events series
• NERDS series*
• Story Thieves series*
• Spirit Animals series*

Level W:

• Percy Jackson series
• Wings of Fire series* (I'm a bit torn on this one. Common Sense Media states the first book is very violent and gory, but I have students who LOVEEE the series.)

*Books marked with asterisks were suggested by other 3rd grade teachers and then researched, but I haven't actually read them myself! 

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Are you looking for some appropriate yet super-engaging read alouds for your third grade class? Look no further! I've got you covered right here.