GRADE 8 – 2010 SUMMER READING LIST
FICTION
Abrahams, Peter Reality Check
After a knee injury destroys sixteen-year-old Cody’s college hopes, he drops out of high school and gets a job in his small Montana town, but when his ex-girlfriend disappears from her Vermont boarding school, Cody travels cross-country to join the search
*Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice
A mother’s foolish attempts to marry off her five daughters result in humorous and tragic episodes.
Bartoletti, Susan The Boy who Dared
In October, 1942, seventeen-year-old Helmuth Hubener, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people.
Blundell, Judy What I saw and how I lied
In 1947, with her jovial stepfather Joe back from the war and family life returning to normal, teenage Evie, smitten by the handsome young ex-GI who seems to have a secret hold on Joe, finds herself caught in a complicated web of lies whose devastating outcome change her life and that of her family forever.
Bradbury, Jennifer Shift
When best friends Chris and Win go on a cross country bicycle trek the summer after graduating and only one returns, the FBI wants to know what happened.
Burg, Ann All the Broken Pieces
Two years after being airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975, Matt Pin is haunted by the terrible secret he left behind and, now, in a loving adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events forces him to confront his past.
*Card, Orson Scott Ender’s Game
Ender, who is the result of genetic experimentation, may be the military genius Earth needs in its war against an alien enemy.
Clippinger, Carol Open Court
A thirteen-year-old tennis prodigy grapples with her seemingly incompatible desires to be an exceptional athlete and a normal teenager.
Coy, John Crackback
Miles barely recalls when football was fun after being sidelined by a new coach, constantly criticized by his father, and pressured by his best friend to take performance-enhancing drugs.
Crowe, Chris Mississippi Trail, 1955
In Mississippi in 1955, a sixteen-year-old finds himself at odds with his grandfather over issues surrounding the kidnapping and murder of a fourteen-year-old African American from Chicago.
Dessen, Sarah Lock & Key
When she is abandoned by her alcoholic mother, high school senior Ruby winds up living with Cora, the sister she has not seen for ten years, and learns about Cora’s new life, what makes a family, how to allow people to help her when she needs it, and that she too has something to offer others.
Deuker, Carl Gym Candy
Groomed by his father to be a star player, football is the only thing that has ever really mattered to Mick Johnson, who works hard for a spot on the varsity team his freshman year, then tries to hold onto his edge by using steroids, despite the consequences to his health and social life.
*(M) Donnolly, Jennifer Northern Light
In 1906, a sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and fiancé, takes a job at a summer in where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest. Based on a true story.
(M) Draper, Sharon Fire from the Rock
In 1957, Sylvia Patterson’s life—that of a normal African American teenager—is disrupted by the impending integration of Little Rock’s Central High when she is selected to be one of the first black students to attend the previously all white school.
*Farmer, Nancy The House of the Scorpion
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.
Friend, Natasha Perfect
Following the death of her father, a thirteen-year-old uses bulimia as a way to avoid her mother’s and ten-year-old sister’s grief, as well as her own.
Grimes, Nikki Bronx Masquerade
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they’ve written, (open mike) revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.
*Haddon, Mark The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor’s dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.
Henry, April Shock Point
Fifteen-year-old Cassie Streng is determined to expose her stepfather after learning that he is giving a dangerous experimental drug to his teenaged psychiatric patients, but he sends her to a boot camp for troubled teens in Mexico in order to keep her quiet.
Hughes, Dean Soldier X
In 1943 sixteen-year-old Erik experiences the horrors of war when he is drafted into the German army and sent to fight on the Russian front.
Jaffe, Michelle Bad Kitty
While vacationing with her family in Las Vegas, seventeen-year-old Jasmine stumbles upon a murder mystery that she attempts to solve with the help of her other friends, recently arrived from California.
Jordan, Sherryl Raging Quiet
Suspicious of sixteen-year-old Marnie, a newcomer to their village, the residents accuse her of witchcraft when she discovers that the village madman is not crazy but deaf and she begins to communicate with him through hand gestures.
Kluger, Steve My Most Excellent Year
Three teenagers in Boston narrate their experiences of a year of new friendships, first loves, and coming into their own.
#Koertge, Ronald Shakespeare Bats Cleanup
When a fourteen-year-old baseball player catches mononucleosis, he discovers that keeping a journal and experimenting with poetry not only helps fill the time, it also helps him deal with life, love, and loss. (Novels in Verse)
Korman, Gordon Juvie Three
Gecko, Arjay, and Terence, all in trouble with the law, must find a way to keep their halfway house open in order to stay out of juvenile detention.
Kostick, Conor Epic
On New Earth, a world based on a video role-playing game, fourteen-year-old Erik persuades his friends to aid him in some unusual gambits in order to save Erik’s father from exile and safeguard the futures of each of their families.
Limb, Sue Girl 15, Charming But Insane (and sequels)
Fifteen-year-old Jess, living with her mum, separated from her father in Cornwall, and with a best friend who seems to do everything perfectly, finds her own assets through humor.
Lockhart, E. Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks
A popular girl who attends an exclusive boarding school creates a false online identity in order to infiltrate a secret, all male school club to which her father once belonged.
Lubar, David Sleeping Freshman Never Lie
While navigating his first year of high school and awaiting the birth of his new baby brother, Scott loses old friends and gains some unlikely new ones as he hones his skills as a writer.
#Mazer, Harry A Boy at War: A Novel of Pearl Harbor (and sequels)
While fishing with his friends off Honolulu on December 7, 1941, teenaged Adam is caught in the midst of the Japanese attack and realizes his father is serving on the USS Arizona.
McClintock, Norah Taken
While she is walking home from school Stephanie is grabbed from behind, drugged, and taken to a secret cabin in the woods where she tries to escape her captor and make her way to safety.
McCormick, Patricia Purple Heart
While recuperating in a Baghdad hospital from a traumatic brain injury sustained during the Iraq War, eighteen-year-old soldier Matt Duffy struggles to recall what happened to him and how it relates to his ten-year-old friend, Ali.
McNamee, Graham Acceleration
Stuck working in the Lost and Found of the Toronto Transit Authority for the summer, seventeen-year-old Duncan finds the diary of a serial killer and sets out to stop him.
Morpurgo, Michael Private Peaceful
When Thomas Peaceful’s older brother is forced to join the British Army, Thomas decides to sign up as well, although he is only fourteen years old, to prove himself to his country, his family, his childhood love, Molly, and himself.
Morris, Paula Ruined
Rebecca moves to New Orleans to stay with her aunt in a scary old house while her father is traveling, and while most kids at school treat her poorly, a mysterious girls named Lisette shows her the hidden nooks of the city and reveals shocking truths about Rebecca’s own history.
Myers, Walter Dean Sunrise Over Fallujah
Robin Perry, from Harlem, is sent to Iraq in 2003 as a member of the Civilian Affairs Battalion, and his time there profoundly changes him.
*Paolini, Christopher Eragon (and sequels)
In Aagaesia, a fifteen-year-old boy of unknown lineage called Eragon finds a mysterious stone that weaves his life into an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power, peopled with dragons, elves, and monsters.
Pearson, Mary Adoration of Jenna Fox
In the not-too-distant future, when biotechnological advances have made synthetic bodies and brains possible but illegal, a seventeen-year-old girl, recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses, learns a startling secret about her existence.
Pearson, Mary E. Scribbler of Dreams
Despite her family’s long feud with the Crutchfields, seventeen-year-old Kaitlin falls in love with Bram Crutchfield and weaves a tangled web of deception to conceal her identity from him.
Pfeffer, Susan Beth Life As We Knew It (and sequels)
Through journal entries, sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family’s struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
* Prachett, Terry Nation
A tsunami destroys everything leaving Mau, and island boy, Daphne, an aristocratic English girl, and a small group of refugees responsible for rebuilding their village and their lives.
Price, Charlie Dead Connection
A loner who communes with the dead in the town cemetery hears the voice of a murdered cheerleader and tries to convince the adults that he knows what happened to her.
*Pullman, Philip The Golden Compass (and sequels)
Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.
Rennison, Louise Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (and sequels)
The humorous journal of a fourteen-year-old British girl.
Schroeder , Lisa The sweet, terrible, glorious year I truly, completely lost it
Fourteen-year-old Gemma Stone struggles to understand her shifting emotions as her older sister plans her wedding, she overcomes her nerves and tries out for the school play, and she gets to know one of the most notorious boys in her class.
Sharenow, Rob My Mother the Cheerleader
Thirteen-year-old Louise uncovers secrets about her family and her neighborhood during the violent protests over school desegregation in 1960 New Orleans.
Shusterman, Neal Unwind
Three teens embark upon a cross-country journey in order to escape from a society that salvages body parts from children ages thirteen to eighteen.
Slade, Arthur G Dust
Eleven-year-old Robert is the only one who can help when a mysterious stranger arrives, performing tricks and promising to bring rain, at the same time children begin to disappear from a dust bowl farm town in Saskatchewan in the 1930s.
*Smith, Betty A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
A young girl comes of age in the squalor and poverty of the Brooklyn slums in the early 1900’s.
Smith, Roland Elephant Run
Nick endures servitude, beatings, and more after his British father’s plantation in Burma is invaded by the Japanese in 1941, and when his father and others are taken prisoner and Nick is stranded with his friend Mya, they plan a daring escape on elephants, risking their lives to save Nick’s father and Mya’s brother from a Japanese prisoner of war camp.
#Sones, Sonya One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies
Fifteen-year-old Ruby Milliken leaves her best friend , her boyfriend, her aunt, and her mother’s grave in Boston and reluctantly flies to Los Angeles to live with her father, a famous movie star who divorced her mother before Ruby was born. (M) (Novel in Verse)
Sonnenblick, Jordan Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie (and sequels)
When his younger brother is diagnosed with leukemia, thirteen-year-old Steven tries to deal with his complicated emotions, his school life, and his desire to support his family.
Sorrells, Walter First Shot
As David enters his senior year of high school, a family secret emerges that could solve the mystery of why his mother was murdered two years ago.
Sparks, Nicholas Last Song
Seventeen-year-old Ronnie Miller is resentful when her mother insists she and her ten-year-old brother spend the summer with their estranged father in North Carolina, and while things get off to a rocky start, Ronnie eventually makes friends and begins to better understand her dad and why he wanted her to visit.
#Springer, Nancy Blood Trail
After his best friend is murdered, seventeen-year-old Booger realizes he is the only one who has any idea who might have committed the crime – but he doesn’t dare tell anyone.
*Stevenson, Robert Louis Kidnapped
A sixteen-year-old orphan is kidnapped by his villainous uncle, but later escapes and becomes involved in the struggle of the Scottish highlanders against English rule.
*Stockett, Kathryn The Help
Skeeter returns home to Mississippi from college in 1962 and begins to write stories about the African-American women that are found working in white households, which includes Aibileen, who grieves for the loss of her son while caring for her seventeenth white child, and Minny, Aibileen’s sassy friend, the hired cook for a secretive woman who is new to town.
*Taylor, Mildred D The Land
After the Civil War Paul, the son of a white father and a black mother finds himself caught between two worlds as he pursues his dream of owning land of his own.
Tharp, Tim Knights of the Hill Country
In his senior year, high school star linebacker Hampton Greene finally begins to think for himself and discovers that he might be interested in more than just football.
Vande Velde, Vivian Heir Apparent
While playing a total immersion virtual reality game of kings and intrigue, fourteen-year-old Giannine learns that demonstrators have damaged the equipment to which she is connected, and she must win the game quickly or be damaged herself.
Wells, H.G War of the Worlds
Werlin, Nancy Double Helix
Eighteen-year-old Eli discovers a shocking secret about his life and his family while working for a Nobel Prize-winning scientist whose specialty is genetic engineering.
Westerfeld, Scott Uglies
Tally is faced with a difficult choice when her new friend Shay decides to risk life on the outside rather than submit to the forced operation that turns sixteen year old girls into gorgeous beauties, and realizes that there is a whole new side to the pretty world that she doesn’t like.
Wulffson, Don L. Soldier X
In 1943 sixteen-year-old Erik experiences the horrors of war when he is drafted into the German army and sent to fight on the Russian front.
Zevin, Gabrielle Elsewhere
After fifteen-year-old Liz Hall is hit by a taxi and killed, she finds herself in a place that is both like and unlike Earth, where she must adjust to her new status and figure out how to “live.”
NON-FICTION
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow
A photo-illustrated look at the youth organizations Adolf Hitler founded and used to meet his sociopolitical and military ends; includes profiles of individual Hitler Youth members as well as young people who opposed the Nazis, such as Hans and Sophie Scholl.
Bernier-Grand, Carmen Frida
Biographical poems about the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
Callahan, Steven Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea
The author recounts how he survived being adrift in a rubber raft in the Pacific ocean for 76 days after his sloop sank.
Fleming, Candace Our Eleanor: a Scrapbook look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s Remarkable Life
Presents a collection of illustrated photographs and stories representing the life and career of Eleanor Roosevelt, and examines her White House years, her years as a delegate to the United Nations, and more.
Fleming, Candace The Lincolns
A dual biography of Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary, using photographs, letters, engravings, and cartoons to look at their childhoods, courtship, marriage, children, and other joys and traumas of their years together, including their deaths.
Freedman, Russell The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and
the Struggle for Equal Rights
Tells the life story of singer Marian Anderson, describing her famous 1939 Lincoln Memorial performance and explaining how she helped end segregation in the American arts after being refused the right to perform at Washington’s Constitution Hall because of the color of her skin.
Gore, Al An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming
An adaptation of the book in which former Vice President Al Gore examines the climate crisis that is threatening the future of the planet, describes what the world’s governments are doing to correct the problem, and explains why the problem should be taken more seriously. Includes photographs, maps, and graphs.
Gourley, Catherine Flappers and the New American Woman
Looks at the role of women in postwar America, discussing the common perceptions of women at the time – including flappers and housewives – and illustrating how they were reflected in the magazines, catalogs, and films of the time.
Gourley, Catherine Gibson Girls and Suffragists
Presents an illustrated history of the images and issues of women in the early part of the twentieth century with specific emphasis on Gibson Girls and the suffragist movement.
Gourley, Catherine Ms. & The Material Girls
Prologue: The women’s strike for equality, August 26, 1970, - Who took the “r” out of “Mrs.”? – Bionic women and real-life heroines – From denial to indulgence: the body obsession – The material world, or welcome to the 1980’s – Guerrilla girls and other militant females march into the 1990’s – Epilogue: The girl power revolution.
Gourley, Catherine Rosie and Mrs. America
Explores how images in the media, including magazine advertisements and mail order catalogs, influenced how women saw themselves and helped them to be both fashionable and frugal in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Hoose, Phillip M. We Were There Too!: Young People in U.S. History
Biography of dozens of young people who made a mark in American history, including explorers, planters, spies, cowpunchers, sweatshop workers, and civil rights workers.
Krakauer, Jon Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
A definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest.
Lawlor, Laurie Helen Keller: Rebellious Spirit
An illustrated biography of Helen Keller, sharing aspects of her personality and sometimes radical beliefs, and discussing her relationship with her teacher Annie Sullivan and other important people in her life and work.
Marrin, Albert Years of Dust: the Story of the Dust Bowl
Darkness at noon – The Great Plains world – Conquering the Great Plains – The coming of the farmers – In hard times – Dust Bowl days – Refugees in their own land – The New Deal – Future dust bowls.
McWhorter, Diane A Dream of Freedom
Examines the lives and times of the southern states and its people during the civil rights struggle for equality for African Americans in the 1950’s and 60’s and includes other civil rights facts.
Mortenson, Greg Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace – One School at a Time
Young reader’s edition of Mortenson’s account of his rescue by Pakistani villagers after a disastrous mountain climb; he
was subsequently inspired to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Myers, Walter Dean The Greatest Muhammad Ali
A biography of the famous boxer.
Nelson, Peter Left for Dead: A Young Man’s Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis
Recalls the sinking of the USS Indianapolis at the end of WWII, the navy cover-up and unfair court martial of the ship’s captain, and how a young boy helped the survivor set the record straight fifty-five years later.
Oppenheim, Joanne Dear Miss Breed
True stories of the Japanese American incarceration during World War II and a librarian who made a difference.
Rochelle, Belinda, ed Words With Wings: A Treasury of African-American Poetry and Art
Pairs twenty works of art by African-American artists with twenty poems by twenty African-American poets.
Tillage, Leon Walter Leon’s Story
Autobiography of Leon Walter Tillage who was a sharecropper in North Carolina in the 1940s.
*Von Drehle, Dave Triangle: The Fire That Changed America
Chronicles the events surrounding the fire at the Triangle shirtwaist factory which broke out on March 25, 1911, killing more than one hundred factory workers who were trapped after the fire broke out, and discusses how the fire changed the work force in America.
Waniek, Marilyn Nelson A Wreath for Emmett Till
This illustrated poetry collection eulogizes Emmett Till, an African American man who was killed in a brutal, racially motivated lynching in 1955.
* Honors
# Easier Read
(M) = For Mature Readers
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