A reader asked for recommended books with certain Lexile scores. I, personally, have zero experience with Lexile, so I asked for recommendations from teacher friends. Boy did they deliver! Here’s a list of books with Lexiles all the way from 700 up to 1140, recommended by teachers. I’ve ⭐️’d the ones that were mentioned many times. Enjoy!
- 700 – Out Of My Mind – A brilliant girl with cerebral palsy fights to make her voice heard.
- 700 – Wonder – A boy with facial differences navigates his first year at a mainstream school.
- 760 – Little House on the Prairie – The Ingalls family builds a new life on the American frontier.
- 770 – Chasing Vermeer – Two sixth graders solve an art mystery involving a stolen Vermeer painting.
- 780 – Bud Not Buddy – An orphan during the Great Depression searches for the father he never knew.
- 810 – Bridge to Teribethia – Two friends create an imaginary world in the woods until tragedy strikes.
- 810 – Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – A young girl embarks on a quest to change her family’s fortune in this Chinese folklore-inspired tale.
- 820 – The Invention of Hugo Cabret – An orphan living in a Paris train station tries to solve the mystery of a mechanical man.
- 830 – Frindle – A creative fifth grader invents a new word and sparks a school-wide revolution.
- 830 – The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate – An 11-year-old girl in 1899 Texas discovers her passion for natural science.
- 830 – Wonderstruck – Two parallel stories, told in words and pictures, follow deaf children in different time periods searching for connection.
- ⭐️ 840 – Matilda – A brilliant young girl with telekinetic powers stands up to her cruel parents and school principal.
- 850 – The Penderwicks – Four adventurous sisters spend their summer vacation exploring a beautiful estate with their new friend Jeffrey.
- 850 – The Witch of Blackbird Pond – A teenage girl in colonial Connecticut faces suspicion and accusations of witchcraft after befriending a Quaker woman.
- 860 – The Cay – A young boy and an old man must survive together on a Caribbean island after being shipwrecked during World War II.
- 870 – Narnia books – Four siblings discover a magical wardrobe that leads to the enchanted land of Narnia.
- 870 – Pippi Longstocking – An independent, super-strong girl with upside-down braids lives alone with her monkey and horse, having wild adventures.
- 870 – The Wright 3 – Three friends try to save Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House while uncovering its architectural mysteries. The sequel to Chasing Vermeer.
- 890 – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass – A young girl falls down a rabbit hole into a fantastical world of peculiar characters and nonsensical adventures.
- ⭐️ 900 – The Mysterious Benedict Society – Four gifted children are recruited for a secret mission to infiltrate a mysterious school.
- 910 – Mr. Popper’s Penguins – A house painter’s life changes dramatically when he receives a penguin from Antarctica.
- 920 – Stuart Little – A mouse born into a human family in New York City embarks on various adventures.
- 920 – The Ability – Twelve-year-olds with special mental powers are recruited to an exclusive school for training.
- 920 – The Ranger’s Apprentice – An orphan boy becomes apprenticed to a mysterious protector known as a Ranger.
- 930 – Island of the Blue Dolphins – A Native American girl survives alone for years on an island off the California coast.
- 940 – The Septimus Heap – A young boy discovers he is the seventh son of a seventh son and destined to be a powerful wizard.
- 950 – The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P Figg – A boy’s comic misadventures as he searches for his brother during the Civil War.
- 990 – Ginger Pye – A family’s beloved puppy disappears, leading to a mysterious search through their small town.
- 1000 – Nim’s Island – A girl living on a remote island must protect her home when her scientist father goes missing.
- ⭐️ 1000 – The Phantom Tollbooth – A bored boy drives through a magical tollbooth into a world where he must rescue the princesses Rhyme and Reason.
- 1010 – My Antonia – A successful lawyer reminisces about his childhood friend, a Bohemian immigrant girl on the Nebraska frontier.
- 1010 – Treasure Island – A young boy gets caught up in a dangerous adventure with pirates while searching for buried treasure.
- 1020 – Anne of Green Gables – An imaginative orphan girl transforms the lives of an elderly brother and sister who meant to adopt a boy.
- ⭐️ 1020 – Hatchet – After a plane crash, a thirteen-year-old boy must survive alone in the Canadian wilderness with only a hatchet.
- 1030 – The Hobbit – A comfort-loving hobbit reluctantly joins a quest to reclaim a dragon’s treasure.
- 1080 – The Jungle Book – A boy raised by wolves in the Indian jungle must face the tiger who wants to kill him.
- 1140 – Rascal – A boy spends a memorable year raising a baby raccoon during World War I.
- 1140 – The Wind in the Willows – The adventures of four animal friends who live along a river in the English countryside.