8th Grade Summer Reading Selections
Students entering 8th grade must read at least two books over the summer vacation. One of the books must be from the list, while the book can be either from the list, or it can be your own personal choice. While reading your books, please be sure to take notes on plot, characters, setting, and themes. The week you return to school, you will write an essay on one of the books, and you will be permitted to use your notes.
*Indicates a more challenging choice
REAL LIFE AND HISTORICAL FICTION
*Abelove, Joan – Go and
Come Back
In this book, set in the Peruvian jungle in the 1970’s, readers see cultures
collide through the eyes of a teenager whose native tribe is being observed by
two young American anthropologists.
Cooney, Carolyn – Code
Orange
While conducting research on smallpox for his school paper, Mitty finds an
envelope containing 100 year old smallpox scabs and fears he has infected
himself and all of New York City.
English,
Karen – Francie
Francie finds herself in serious trouble for her efforts at friendship when the
16 year old black boy she’s tutoring is accused of murdering a white man.
*Fleischman,
Paul – Whirligig
When Brent inadvertently causes the death of another teenager, he undertakes a
journey of repentance. The whirligigs he builds become a metaphor for movement,
laughter and ultimately life.
Mazer, H.-
The Last Mission
Using his older brother’s birth certificate, 15 year old Jack Raab signs up for
the U.S. Air Force. After 25 successful missions, he is unprepared for the
terror of being shot down and taken to a German POW camp.
Meyer, L.A. – Bloody
Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jack” Faber
Reduced to begging and thievery in the streets of London, a 13 year old orphan
disguises herself as a boy and gets on a British warship set out in search of
pirates.
*Mochizuki, Ken –
Beacon Hill Boys
In 1972 in Seattle, a teenager in a Japanese American family struggles for his
own identity, along with a group of three friends who share his anger and
confusion.
Naidoo, Beverley – The
Other Side of Truth
Smuggled out of Nigeria after their mother's murder, Sade and her younger
brother are abandoned in London when their uncle fails to meet them at the
airport and they are fearful of their new surroundings and of what may have
happened to their journalist father back in Nigeria.
*Staples, S-
Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind
Eleven-year old Shabanu, the
daughter of a nomad in the Cholistan Desert of present-day Pakistan, is pledged
in marriage to an older man whose money will bring prestige to the family, and
must either accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences of
defying her father's wishes.
*Voigt, Cynthia - The
Runner
As a dedicated runner, a teenage boy has always managed to distance himself from
other people until the experience of coaching one of his teammates on the track
team gradually helps him see the value of giving and receiving.
*Zusak,
Markus - The Book Thief
Death meets the book thief, a
9-year-old girl named Liesel Meminger, when he comes to take her little brother,
and she becomes an enduring force in his life, despite his efforts to resist
her.
Gee, M. –The Fire
Raiser
This New Zealand import takes place during World War I and involves the attempts
of four children to discover the identity of an arsonist. This smoothly
constructed page-turner introduces a strong array of characters; the passages
highlighting the inner workings of the arsonist's sick mind are truly riveting.
King, Stephen – The
Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Nine-year-old Trisha McFarland, lost in the woods after she wanders off to
escape the bickering between her mom and her brother, boosts her courage by
imagining that her hero, Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Tom Gordon, is with her,
helping her survive an unknown enemy.
*Konigsburg, E.L. –
Silent to the Bone
Thirteen-year-old Branwell loses his power of speech after being wrongly accused
of gravely injuring his baby half-sister, and only his friend Connor is able to
reach him and uncover the truth about what happened.
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds –
Jade Green
While
living with her uncle in a house haunted by the ghost of a young woman, recently
orphaned Judith Sparrow wonders if her one small transgression causes mysterious
happenings.
*Voigt, Cynthia – The
Callender Papers
In
nineteenth-century Massachusetts, orphaned Jean, employed to sort out the family
papers of a reclusive artist, becomes curious about the mysterious, long-ago
death of his wife and the subsequent disappearance of their young child.
Bell, Hilari- A Matter
of Profit
Sick of the horrors of conquering beings on other planets, Ahvrem will end his
service as a soldier and save his sister from an unhappy marriage if he can
discover who is behind a rumored plot to assassinate the Emperor.
*Collins, Suzanne - The Hunger Games
Sixteen-year-old Katniss poaches food for her
widowed mother and little sister from the forest outside the legal perimeter of
District 12, the poorest of the dozen districts constituting Panem, the North
American state that has replaced the U.S. in the not-too-distant future.
Engdahl, Sylvia -
Enchantress from the Stars
Three civilizations from different planets in widely varying stages of
development clash in what could be either a mutually disastrous or beneficial
encounter.
Flanagan, John - Ruins
of Gorlan
When fifteen-year-old Will is rejected by battle school, he becomes the
reluctant apprentice to the mysterious Ranger Halt, and winds up protecting the
kingdom from danger.
*Haddix, Margaret –
Turnabout
Melly and
Anny Beth agree to participate in Project Turnabout, a scientific experiment in
which they are given a shot that will make them grow younger, until they receive
a second injection that will stop the aging process, but when other participants
die after receiving the second shot, Melly and Anny Beth refuse to have the shot
and set out to find someone to care for them when they are too young to do it
themselves.
*Jeapes, Ben – The
Xenocide Mission
In a
far-distant solar system, Lieutenant Joel Gilmore and his space observation team
are suddenly attacked by the very aliens they were sent to watch.
Link, Kelly - Pretty Monsters
In this collection of nine short stories, the
author mingles the grotesque and the ethereal in a quirky, fairytale style to
make magic on the page.
Patterson, James -
Maximum Ride Series
Birdkids, who have wings as a result of genetic experimentation, struggle to
understand their own origins and purpose.
Blumenthal, Karen -
Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX
Examines Title IX, the 1972 legislation which mandated that schools receiving
federal funds could not discriminate on the basis of gender. and focuses on its
effects in schools, politics, sports and the culture as a whole.
*Dash, Joan - The
Longitude Prize
The story of John Harrison, inventor of watches and clocks, who spent forty
years working on a time-machine which could be used to accurately determine
longitude at sea.
Grogan, John- Marley
and Me
The author presents a tender story of his family's love for their golden
retriever, Marley, and recalls how he grew from a mischievous puppy into a
nearly impossible adult that no amount of obedience school training could
correct, and of the love they felt for him.
Krull, Kathleen-
Leonardo DaVinci
A biography of Leonardo da Vinci focusing on his scientific rather than
his artistic work.
*Kurson, Robert- Shadow
Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One
of the Last Mysteries of WWII
Tells the story of the discovery in 1991 of a World War II German U-boat, sunk
sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey, by deep sea divers John Chatterton and
Richie Kohler, and their six year obsession with identifying the submarine which
sank with its crew onboard.
*Maynard, Kyle- No
Excuses: The True Story of a Congenital Amputee Who Became a Champion in
Wrestling and Life
Presents the author's first hand account of his experiences growing up as a
congenital amputee, providing information on how he learned to eat, type, write,
and live without hands, ultimately becoming a successful athlete and champion
wrestler in Georgia.
*McClafferty, Carla –
Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium
Chronicles the life of Marie Curie, discussing her childhood in Poland,
schooling in France, discovery of the element radium, efforts to create mobile
X-ray units during World War I, and eventual death from radium poisoning.
Meltzer, M. - Rescue:
The Story of How Gentiles Saved Jews in the Holocaust
A recounting drawn from historic source material of the many individual acts of
heroism performed by righteous gentiles who sought to thwart the extermination
of the Jews during the Holocaust.
Murphy, Jim- An
American Plague :The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of
1793
Provides an account of the yellow fever epidemic that swept through
Philadelphia in 1793, discussing the chaos that erupted when people began
evacuating in droves, leaving the city without government, goods, or services,
and examining efforts by physicians, the Free African Society, and others to
cure and care for the sick.
Hale, Shannon - Rapunzel's Revenge
Young Rapunzel lives a lonely life, never
knowing what lies beyond the high garden walls of her mother’s royal villa until
one day she climbs the wall to see what’s on the other side.
Tan, Shaun - The Arrival
A lone immigrant leaves his family and
journeys to a new world, both bizarre and awesome, finding struggle and
dehumanizing industry but also friendship and a new life.
Wood, Don - Into the Volcano
Brothers Duffy and Sumo Pugg embark on an
adventure after their eccentric aunt invites them to come see the island of
Kocalaha, their mother’s birthplace.
awp 05/09