Fourth grade is a turning point in the Language Arts curriculum. This year focuses on more advanced reading comprehension strategies to understand text, including making inferences, determining the main idea and identifying key details. Students are required make connection from texts to their personal lives, other texts and world situations. Proper summarization is learned at this level as well. ​With such important concepts being introduced in fourth grade, the student must be engaged in the story and invested in the characters. The novels below introduce more complex themes such as racism, immigrant stereotypes, physical disabilities, and family issues.