Grade 6 Summer Reading List
Grade 6 Summer Reading Assignment (PDF)

 

Grade 7 Summer Reading List
Grade 7 Summer Reading Assignment (PDF)

 

Grade 8 Summer Reading List
Grade 8 Summer Reading Assignment (PDF)

 

 

SUMMER READING LIST SUGGESTIONS

SIXTH-GRADE BOOK LIST

(Summaries based on a variety of sources including School Library Journal and Booklist). For more reading selections check out the ALA - American Library Association Site: Best Books for Young Adults (http://www.ala.org).

Abrahams, Peter. Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo Falls Mystery or the series Behind the Curtain and Into the Dark
Thirteen-year-old Ingrid Levin-Hill loves a lot of things in her life such as soccer and Sherlock Holmes books, but she is especially passionate about acting. Her love for acting lands her the lead in the Prescott Players production of Alice in Wonderland. Unfortunately this also puts her right in the middle of a police investigation following the murder of an eccentric woman, who was also associated with the Prescott Players. Not one to back away from a mystery, Ingrid dives into her own private investigation finding herself in one dangerous situation after another as she tries to track down the killer.

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Fever 1793
Based on the epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook lives above a coffee shop with her widowed mother and grandfather. When tragedy strikes, Matilda is separated from her sick mother and is forced to cope with the tragedy that surrounds her.

Balliett, Blue. Chasing Vermeer or the series The Wright 3 and The Calder Game
Twelve-year-olds Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay attend the University of Chicago Laboratory School where their teacher, Ms. Hussey, makes learning something out of the ordinary. When Vermeer's A Lady Writing disappears on its way to an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, the two combine their talents to solve an international art scandal.

Benchley, Peter. Shark Life: True Stories about Sharks & the Sea
Benchley’s personal account of his life with sharks including filming the movie Jaws and working on various television programs. Over the years, Benchley has traveled great lengths in search of them. From the Great Barrier reef for great white sharks to Vancouver Island for killer whales, and Polynesia for hammerheads, Benchley has seen it all. He has also come close to death, describing some terrifying and gruesome situations in which he almost lost his life.

Bloor, Edward. Tangerine
Paul Fisher’s older brother is the star athlete of the family. All this changes when the Fishers move to Tangerine, Florida. Where despite his near blindness, Paul fights to play soccer and for the first time is able to see things clearly.

Choldenko, Gennifer. Al Capone Does My Shirts and its sequel Al Capone Shines My Shoes
Twelve-year-old Moose Flanagan and his family move from Santa Monica to Alcatraz Island with the hopes of getting his older autistic sister into a special school in San Francisco. Moose’s father gets a job as an electrician at the prison and after his sister gets rejected from the school, Moose’s dreams of playing baseball in his free time is deflated when he is forced to watch his sister.

Colfer, Eoin. The Supernaturalist
At the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys, orphans are forced to endure testing and end up injured as a result. Since the average life expectancy is 15, 14-year-old Cosmo Hill knows that his days are numbered. For that reason, Cosmo attempts to escape, but almost dies in the process. Cosmo is rescued by the Supernaturalists, a group of young people whose mission is to destroy the Parasites, which feed of the living.

Colfer, Eoin. The Wish List
Meg has been faced with some hard times. Kicked out of her house by her stepfather when her mother died, Meg has resorted to hanging out with a bad crowd. When she and her friend Belch attempt to rob an elderly man, Lowrie McCall, Meg’s life spirals towards death when a nearby gas tank inadvertently explodes. Meg finds herself trapped in a tunnel awaiting her faith. Saint Peter and Beelzebub argue over Meg’s soul. She is not really a bad kid, but not a very good one either. Meg learns that Lowrie is dying, and in order to redeem herself, Meg is sent back to Earth in an effort to make things right with Lowrie and the two set out on an adventure to fix all of the mistakes he has made in his life.

Funke, Cornelia. Dragon Rider
Firedrake may be a young dragon, but when he hears warning signs that humans are planning to destroy the land where he lives, he is the first to set out for the Rim of Heaven, a place above the clouds that will provide him refuge, if it actually exists. Firedrake bravely embarks on the journey. Along the way he meets Ben, an orphaned boy, and together they make their way to the Rim of Heaven facing many obstacles along the way.

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Funke, Cornelia. The Thief Lord
After the death of their mother, 12-year-old Prosper and five-year-old Boniface, run away to Venice, the place their mother always spoke fondly of and discover a group of children living in an abandoned movie theatre, who take them in. The leader of the group, Scipio, is known as the thief lord, because he robs houses and acts as an older brother to the children. When a detective is assigned to locate the thief lord, he finds himself drawn to the children to the point that he does not want to turn them in for their crimes.

Gaiman, Neil. Coraline
After Coraline and her parents move into an old house, Coraline asks her mother about a mysterious locked door. Her mother unlocks it to reveal that it leads nowhere. But there is something about the door that attracts Coraline, who decides to check it out herself. Through the door, she travels a dark corridor into a world that mirrors her own, but with creepy differences. Coraline eventually makes it back to her real home only to find that her parents are missing--they're trapped in the shadowy other world, in which only Coraline can save them.

Giblin, James Cross. Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth
The story of Edwin and John Wilkes Booth, both actors who liked to drink and perform on stage, just like their famous father, Junius. While Edwin spent his life perfecting his craft and building a reputation as an actor, John was impulsive and popular with the ladies, and is best known as the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln. The book examines their lives leading up to the assassination and the aftermath of the assassination on the country and his family as well.

Hale, Shannon. Princess Academy
The thought of being a princess never occurred to the girls on Mount Eskel. That is until word gets out that the prince will choose a bride from their village, 14-year-old Miri, who thinks she is being kept from working in the quarry because of her small stature, believes that this is her opportunity to prove her worth to her father, when she and all the eligible females are sent off to attend a special academy to learn how to become a princess.

Hamilton, Bethany. Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board
What happens when the world you know is suddenly turned upside-down? That is what Bethany Hamilton faces when a sudden shark attack while she is surfing causes her to lose not only her arm, but her chances of becoming a professional surfer. Bethany has to come to terms with the injury and use her faith and her family to overcome her fears and and persevere to get back on the board.
 
Hayes, Daniel. Trouble with Lemons
Tyler and his best friend, Lymie know that they shouldn’t be going to the quarry for a late night swim, but they think what is the worse that can happen? They quickly discover how bad things can get when they stumble across a dead body. Knowing they were in the wrong for being there, they place an anonymous phone call to the sheriff to report their discovery. This leads to an investigation in which Tyler and Lymie try to figure out what happened.
 
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Lupica, Mike. Heat
When Michael Arroyo is on the baseball diamond, everything falls into place. He is a great pitcher who dreams of leading his South Bronx All-Stars to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA. It is a dream he shared with his father, one they brought with them as they fled Cuba and wound up living in the shadow of Yankee Stadium. Michael's ultimate dream is to play in the major leagues like his hero. El Grande, Yankee star and fellow Cuban refugee. Unfortunately Michael's dream hits a few road blocks. First his father tragically dies, then the league benches Michael because they believe he is lying about his age and before they will allow him to play again, they are demanding he produce a birth certificate.

Henkes, Kevin. Olive’s Ocean
Twelve-year-old Martha and her family are about to leave for their summer trip to New England when she is visited by the mother of her deceased classmate, Olive Barstow, who was killed by a car a month earlier. Olive’s mother wants to give Martha a page from her daughter’s journal. In this single entry, Martha learns that she shared a lot in common with Olive such as wanting to become a writer someday and a love of the ocean, something Olive, unlike Martha, never had the opportunity to see. The biggest surprise Martha found out through the entry was how Olive felt about Martha. She is touched to hear that Olive thought of her as the nicest person in the whole class. While Martha does not recall any reason for Olive to feel this way about her, she is touched to know her true feelings and laments that fact that she never had the opportunity to get to know her.

Hiaasen, Carl. Flush
Noah Underwood’s father has done it this time. He sunk the Coral Queen, a casino boat on a Florida Key because, he believed its owner, Dusty Muleman, was dumping raw sewage into the local waters.
Now Noah’s father is in jail and Noah is on a mission to find proof to vindicate his father and put the casino out of business.

Kinney, Jeff. Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Greg Heffley first year as a middle schooler has been rough. Thankfully he has his journal, not a diary to get him by. Greg tells his story through a series of short, episodic chapters filled with drawings that further fuel the story. This laugh-out-loud novel is filled with all the middle school problems students’ face like being bullied and trying to fit in.

Korman, Gordon. Swindle
Eleven-year old Griffin Bing is considered to be the man with a plan. When his family falls under financial hardship and have to sell their house due to his father investing all this time and energy into a new fruit picking invention called the Smart Pick, Griffin comes up with a master plan that will solve all of their money troubles. After a chance discovery of a valuable Babe Ruth baseball card, Griffin makes the mistake of taking it to a dishonest collectibles deal, who buys it from Griffin for next to nothing. Once he realizes how much it is worth, he assembles a team of masterminds to take back what is rightfully his.
 
Law, Ingrid. Savvy
Upon turning 13, each member of the Beaumont family develops a supernatural ability, or "savvy," which must then be tamed. Unfortunately, one of the problems a member faces forces the family to have to relocate. 12-year-old Mississippi (Mibs) is both anxious and apprehensive about her upcoming 13th birthday. When her father is injured, Mibs sets off to try to use her savvy to save him.

Lupica, Mike. Travel Team
Danny Walker is devastated when he doesn't make his seventh-grade basketball team. He is told that he is too short, but he suspects that the real reason has something to do with the bad blood between his divorced father and Mr. Ross, the father of the Viking's best player. Then Danny's father announces that he is going to start a team himself, but when he is unable to make it happen, Danny steps in and coaches the team himself.
 
Martin, Ann. A Corner of the Universe
The summer Hattie is 12, the comfortable small-town life she knows and loves is turned upside-down when her mentally disabled uncle comes to town.

Martin, Ann. A Dog’s Life: Autobiography of a Stray
Told through the eyes of a dog named Squirrel, this novel follows Squirrel’s life starting a puppy when she is separated from her family to growing up alone and learning to fend for herself.

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O’Connor, Barbara. How to Steal a Dog
Georgina and her family have been living in their car ever since her father left and they were evicted from their apartment. Her mother is working two jobs in order to earn enough rent money to get out of their situation. Desperate to help her mother out, Georgina comes up with a plan to steal a dog for the reward money so that she contribute to her family’s financial situation. She decides to document her plan in a diary outlining the step-by-step process.

Paulsen, Gary. Harris and Me
Summer is upon this eleven-year-old narrator and he is off to spend it with his cousin Harris Larson on their farm. Harris is a crude, rude, scheming troublemaker, but he has a sense of fun and excitement that makes readers want to know what he'll do next. Harris, of course, is the instigator, while the narrator goes along with Harris and as a result endures a good part of the blame and unfortunately the pain as the summer and their friendship progresses throughout the summer.

Sachar, Louis. Small Steps (Sequel to Holes)
It has been two years since Armpit’s release from Camp Green Lake, and the 16-year-old is still digging holes, although now he is getting paid for it, working for a landscaper in his hometown of Austin, TX. He is trying to turn his life around, taking small steps to make it happen. When X-Ray, his friend from Camp Green Lake, comes up with a get-rich-quick scheme involving scalping tickets to a concert by teenage pop star Kaira DeLeon, Armpit fronts X-Ray the money. He decides to take his best friend and neighbor, Ginny, a 10-year-old with cerebral palsy, to the concert, where he meets Kaira, causing him to take some big steps in his life beginning with dating Kaira, and ending with him saving her life.

Spinelli, Jerry. Crash
Crash has many passions in life including being in charge and never being second in anything. This seventh-grade bully’s softer side comes through in his life for his grandfather that makes him more sympathetic to others.

Weeks, Sarah. So B. It
Thirteen-year-old Heidi lives in Reno with her developmentally disabled mother, So B. It, and their agoraphobic neighbor, Bernadette, who takes care of them. The pair arrived on Bernie's doorstep 13 years ago, and because So B. It's vocabulary consists of only 23 words, Bernie has never been able to figure out where she and her mother came from or if they have any other family.

Van Draanen, Wendelin. Flipped
The first time Juli Baker saw Bryce Loski, she flipped. The first time he saw her, he ran. This novel, told in alternating chapters by Juli and Bryce, describes how their feelings change about themselves and each other over time.
 
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SEVENTH-GRADE BOOK LIST

(Summaries based on a variety of sources including School Library Journal and Booklist). For more reading selections check out the ALA - American Library Association Site: Best Books for Young Adults (http://www.ala.org).
 
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Chains
Isabel tells the story of her life as a slave in New York City at the beginning of the American Revolution. She was sold with her five-year-old sister to a cruel Loyalist family even though the girls were to be free upon the death of their former owner. She has hopes of finding a way to freedom and becomes a spy for the rebels, but soon realizes that it is difficult to trust anyone. She chooses to find someone to help her no matter which side he or she is on.

Armstrong, Jennifer. Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance
Sir Ernest Shackleton, with a crew of 27 men, manage to overcome the impossible when in an attempt to cross the Antarctic continent in 1914, their ship gets trapped in an ice pack for seven months. Facing great hardships, they entire crew manages to survive and are rescued two years after their journey began.

Bauer, Joan. Peeled
Banesville, New York, knows apples. This apple loving town is considered to be The Happiest Town in the Happy Apple Valley. But all this changes due to a series of spooky events resulting in a death that occurs near the abandoned haunted Ludlow House. As the media becomes enriched in the hysteria of town, Hildy sets out to get to the core of the story herself.

Brashares, Ann. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants or the sequel The Second Summer of the Sisterhood
The summer of their 15th year, four best friends spend the summer apart, but are able to stay together through a pair of jeans that travels from one friend to the other over the course of the summer.

Carter, Ally. I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You
Cammie Morgan, 15, is a student at Gallagher Academy, a top-secret boarding school for girls who are spies-in-training. She studies covert operations, culture and assimilation, and advanced encryption, and has learned to speak 14 languages. Her troubles begin when she falls for Josh, a local boy who has no clue about her real identity. Keeping her training secret forces her to lie to her new love, which leads to comic complications.

Coville, Bruce and Jane Yolen. Armageddon Summer
The end of the world is coming and Reverend Beelson is ready. Beelson and his 144 True Believers are gathering on Mount Weeupcut in western Massachusetts in order to await Armageddon. Marina and Jed, two teenagers, whose points of view the story is told through, prove to be the voices of sanity and reason as they struggle to make sense of their lives and their beliefs.
Fleischman, John. Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science
The incredible story of a railroad foreman who survived for 10 years after a 13-pound iron rod shot through his brain.

Fleischman, John. Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science
The incredible story of a railroad foreman who survived for 10 years after a 13-pound iron rod shot through his brain.

Friend, Natasha. Perfect
Isabelle Lee is quick to convince everyone that everything is fine with her, but it is not. In fact, being fine couldn’t be further from the truth as Isabelle’s life is concerned. She is still mourning the loss of her father, who passed away two years ago and has turned to binging and purging as a way of dealing with the loss and the fact that her mother never talks about it.

Funke, Cornelia. Inkheart or the series Inkspell and Inkdeath
Twelve-year-old Meggie and her father, Mo, love books. In fact, her father, repairs and binds them for a living, but Meggie is shocked to learn that her father has been keeping a secret from her. He can read fictional characters out of books. When Meggie was three, he read aloud from a book called Inkheart and released Capicorn, an evil villain. Now Capicorn is back in their lives and wants Mo to read some more evil characters to life.
 
Gaiman, Neil. The Graveyard Book
The book opens with a killer entering the house of a family and murdering everyone, but a baby whom unknowingly escapes. Finding his way through a fence into a graveyard, the baby is discovered by Mr. and Mrs. Owens, a loving couple who want to take him in, even if they are ghosts. The baby is named Nobody and is raised in the graveyard where he is protected by the dead, but the killer is still lurking in the shadows patiently waiting to make his move.
 
George, Jean Craighead. Julie of the Wolves
Thirteen-yera-old Miyax is on the run. Unhappily married, she decides to brave the Alaskan tundra in order to reach San Francisco, where her pen pal lives. With no food, no shelter, and nothing to protect her from the dangers she faces, Miyax is able to find refuge when a wolf pack accepts her into their community and treat her like one of their own.
 
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Gore, Al. An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming
In this youth-focused adaptation of Gore’s 2006 adult book and Oscar-winning documentary, Gore explains that his interest distill the material, creating an eye-opening story that targets kids' concerns. Gore’s interest in the environment began as a teenager when he read Silent Spring. He goes on to discuss the steeply rising carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere, and then to link that to accelerating changes in temperature and precipitation patterns worldwide. Filled with easy-to-grasp graphics and revealing before-and-after photos, Gore’s arguments are brought to the reader’s attention in a simple language that intends to disturb readers, but not frighten them.

Green, Tim. Football Genius or its sequel Football Champ
Twelve-year-old Troy White’s athletic ability and his natural talent for predicting football strategy are both going to waste (he is stuck playing second-string on his football team), until frustration with a bully on his team pushes him to borrow an official NFL football from local Atlanta Falcons star linebacker Seth Halloway. Even though Troy has not had the opportunity to show what he could do on the field, he is able to convince Seth of his talent and use his predictions to turnaround the Falcons losing streak. Seth takes Troy under his wing and becomes a mentor, something Troy has been missing ever since his father abandoned him.

Hama, Larry. The Battle of Iwo Jima: Guerilla Warfare in the Pacific
Hama provides a short, informative background piece describing the run-up to World War II, the significance of the Japanese war machine, and the importance of the tiny island of Iwo Jima. Then the graphic novel, illustrated by Williams in camouflage colors, does a great job of examining the ups and downs of the battle as well as the horror of so many losses.

Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust
Told through a journal of free-verse poetry, Billie Jo describes living on her family’s wheat farm in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl.

Howe, James. The Watcher
The people on the beach call her the Watcher. She sits there all day long with her notebook and writes what she sees. There is plenty to look at too. Children, parents and lifeguards. Margaret finds great comfort in watching others, because she sees things in them that she wishes she had in her own life.

Jurmain, Suzanne. The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students
In 1831, Prudence Crandall was approached by an African American teenager to join the school she was opening for young white females, Crandall agreed and decided to open a school for African-American females. The story describes the difficulties and torment Crandall faced as a result of this decision from citizens of Canterbury, Connecticut, where the school was based.

Korman, Gordon. Pop
When Marcus moves to a new town in the middle of summer, he doesn't know anyone. He devotes his time to practicing football with the hopes of trying out for the team in the fall. With no friends in sight, Marcus befriends an older man who shares his love of football. A huge prankster, Charlie is the best football player Marcus has ever seen. He quickly learns just how good he is when he finds out his true identity, that of a famous NFL linebacker who has been sidelined from the game, but why?
 
Korman, Gordon. The Juvie Three
Terence, Gecko, and Arjay are doing time, literally. After being caught in various illegal activities, the three are serving time in juvenile-detention facilities. That is until they are saved by Douglas Healy, a juvenile delinquent himself, who was able to turn his life around and wants to do the same for them. Douglas has convinced authorities to let him open a halfway house in New York City. The boys will live with him and go to school. Unfortunately some are more agreeable to the plan. When Terence tries to sneak out in the middle of the night, a fight breaks out, the boys find themselves in more trouble then they can imagine.
 
Koss, Amy Goldman. The Girls
What happens when your best friends decide they do not want to be your friend anymore? That is what happens when the leader of a group of friends decides that one of the girls in the group is out, so the others decide to end the friendship with her as well.

Lubar, David. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie
Scott Hudson begins his freshman year of high school with a rocky start. He immediately becomes the target of bullying both on the school bus and in school. The girl he has a major crush on doesn’t know he is alive, and against his better judgment, he gets roped into a number of extracurricular activities including writing a column for the school newspaper and working on set design for the school play. On top of everything else, his mom is pregnant. As a way of expressing his thoughts and feelings of this trying year, Scott decides to keep a journal and fills it with lists and tips for his expected sibling on how to survive freshman year.

Myers, Walter Dean. Monster
Steve Harmon is in prison awaiting trial for murder. At 16, he is accused of serving as a lookout for a robbery of a store, in which the owner was shot and killed. Steve recounts his case and incarceration in the form of a movie screenplay.

Murdock, Catherine Gilbert. Dairy Queen
D.J.'s family doesn't talk much, especially about the fact that 15-year-old D.J. carries the burden of work on their Wisconsin dairy farm since her father broke his hip and her two older brothers left for college. Nor do they talk about why D.J's mom, a teacher is so busy filling in for the middle-school principal that she's never home. And they never, ever discuss the reason why her brothers haven't called home for mother than six months. So when D.J. decides to try out for the Red Bend football team, even though she's been secretly training (and falling for) Brian Nelson, the cute quarterback from Hawley, Red Bend's rival, she becomes the talk of the town. Suddenly, her family has something to say.

Oppel, Kenneth. Airborn
Matt Cruse is a cabin boy aboard the luxury passenger airship Aurora when the ship encounters a battered hot air balloon with an unconscious man aboard. Before dying, the man claims to have seen beautiful creatures swarming in the air over an uncharted island. Not until a year later, when Matt meets the man's granddaughter, Kate de Vries, who boards the Aurora, does he learn that the man wasn't hallucinating. Pirates board, rob, and kill, and a fierce storm grounds the Aurora on the very island that Kate's grandfather spoke about--which proves to be the pirates' secret hideaway.

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Patterson, James. The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1)
A group of genetically enhanced kids who can fly and have other unique talents are on the run from part-human, part-wolf predators called Erasers in this thriller. Max, 14, and her adopted family-Fang and Iggy, both 13, Nudge, 11, Gazzy, 8, and Angel, 6-were all created as experiments in a lab called the School. Jeb, a sympathetic scientist helped them escape and, since then, they’ve been living on their own. The Erasers have orders to kill them so the world will never find out they exist.

Paolini, Christopher. Eragon or Eldest
While exploring the forest, Eragon witnesses a mysterious explosion. In the center of this blast, Eragon spots a polished blue stone. Eragon thinks he can trade the stone for food for his family, but before he has a chance, it hatches a beautiful sapphire blue dragon. Eragon decides to keep and raise the dragon and must deal with the consequences that go along with his decision.

Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass, Book 1 (His Dark Materials Series) or The Subtle Knife, Book 2 or The Amber Spyglass, Book 3
Twelve-year-old Lyra is a rough and tumble girl. While her home is with the scholars of Jordan College in Oxford, she finds her greatest enjoyment with the Gyptian children of Oxford’s streets and canals. Lyra is content with this life until Uncle Asriel arrives and stirs things up.

Rees, Celia. Witch Child
The life of Mary Newbury is told through journal entries that begin in 1659 when Mary watches in horror as her grandmother is hung for being a witch by her English village. Before they can turn on her, she is placed into safety on a ship headed for America. Although Mary does find people who understand and believe in her, she is still in danger.

Sonnenblick, Jordan. Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
Steven Alper is a typical eighth-grader--smarter than some, a better drummer than most, but with the usual girl problems and family trials. Then, on October 7, his five-year-old brother, Jeffrey, falls, has a nosebleed that doesn't stop, and is diagnosed with leukemia. His parents handle the situation differently. His mother spends here days and nights getting Jeffrey to his chemotherapy treatments, and his father retreats into a shell, coming out only occasionally to weep over the mounting medical bills. Steven becomes the forgotten son, who throws himself into drumming, even as he quits doing his homework and tries to keep his friends from finding out about Jeffrey's illness.

Werlin, Nancy. The Rules of Survival
Matthew knows firsthand the art of survival. He and his younger sisters, Callie and Emmy are constantly on alert due to their home life consisting of an unpredictable, psychotic mother and a distant father. Since his younger sister, Emmy, is still a baby at the height of their domestic dysfunctional upbringing, Matt decides to write her a letter in order to share with Emmy some of their childhood filled with fear as a warning of what it was like to grow up under the unstable parental supervision of their mother.

Zevin, Gabrielle. Elsewhere
Fifteen-year-old Liz Hall is looking forward to the future – getting her driver’s license, falling in love, and just plain growing up. Unfortunately Liz’s dream is taken away from her when she is killed in a hit-and-run accident while riding her bike to meet her best friend to look for a prom dress. Now Liz must come to terms with the fact that she is dead and on her way to Elsewhere, where she will begin a new life, one in which instead of aging forward every year, you age backwards a year for every year that you are Elsewhere.
 
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EIGHTH-GRADE BOOK LIST

(Summaries based on a variety of sources including School Library Journal and Booklist). For more reading selections check out the ALA - American Library Association Site: Best Books for Young Adults (http://www.ala.org).

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Catalyst
Kate Malone has a lot of responsibilities. She is an AP student, she has been taking care of her father and brother since her mother’s death and she is waiting for her acceptance letter to MIT. The only time she does not worry about things is when she is running, an activity she likes to do late at night, because she can run in darkness. Unfortunately the light of day always takes over and Kate has to deal with realities of her teenage life,
whether she wants to or not.

Bingham, Kelly. Shark Girl
Jane, 15, is samrt, good-looking, and the best artist in her school. After a shark attack at a local beach results in the amputation of her right arm, nothing is the same.
 
Bowler, Tim. Frozen Fire
Fifteen-year-old Dusty first hears the voice of a stranger in town on the telephone, and she is startled by his words-last said to her in similar language by her long-missing older brother, Josh. As snow falls on the remote English countryside where Dusty lives, she searches for the mysterious boy, and the closer she comes to him (and he to her), the more danger surrounds her.
 
Bradbury, Jennifer. Shift
When best friends, Chris Collins and Winston Coggans take off for a post-graduation cross-country bike ride, they are eager to set out on this adventure. But when Chris returns home without Win at the end of the summer, he is positive that their friendship is over. Even though Chris has not had any contact with Win since the trip, the FBI is investigating his disappearance and Chris is the prime suspect in the investigation.
 
Brashares, Ann. Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood
It is now the summer of their 16th year and the four best friends are about
to spend another summer with the magic pair of thrift-store jeans that help
deepen their friendship.

Bray, Libba. A Great and Terrible Beauty or the sequels Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing
Gemma Doyle is not having a Happy 16th Birthday. She gets into a fight with her mother because she wants to leave India where they live to go to school in London. When her mother refuses to send her, Gemma runs off. As she is wandering the streets of India, Gemma has a horrible vision and witnesses her mother’s death. Two months later, Gemma is enrolled in Spence, a girl’s academy in England, where she is still troubled by visions and is still mourning the loss of her mother. She gradually learns to control her visions and enter the "realms" where magical powers can make anything happen and where she is able to reconnect with her mother.
 
Brown, Jennifer. Hate List
Even though Valerie's home life is not the greatest, she has her boyfriend to lean on, until one fatal day at the end of their junior year, when he opens fire at their school killing six students and a teacher and leaving many others wounded. Valerie is hit by a bullet in the leg while trying to stop him, just before he ends his own life. Valerie is shocked and devastated by what happened, especially since Nick has taken a "hate list" that they created together containing the names of all the people that were bullying them, and used it to target those individuals during the shooting. Although the police investigation clears her name regarding the shootings, students and people in the community feel she was a conspirator. Instead of finishing her senior year by being home-schooled, Valerie decides to brave the elements and return to the same school that had seen tragedy months before.

Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game
Aliens have attacked Earth twice and have almost eliminated the human species. In order to prepare for the next attack, the world government has decided to breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. Ender Wiggin is selected for military training. Even though he is a genius and is smart enough to succeed, will his personal feelings of what he is becoming stand in the way?
 
Cashore, Kristin. Graceling
In Katsa's world, the "Graced" those gifted in a particular way, are marked by eyes that are different colors. Katsa's Grace is that she is a gifted fighter, and as such, is virtually invincible. She is in the service of her tyrannical uncle, king of one of the seven kingdoms, and she is forced to torture people for infractions against him. She has secretly formed the Council, which acts in the service of justice and fairness for those who have been accused and abused. Readers meet her as she is rescuing her father of the Lienid king, who has been abducted. The reasons for his capture are part of a tightening plot that Katsa unravels and resolves, with the help of Prince Po. the captive's grandson. He has his own particular Grace, and he becomes Katsa's lover and partner in what becomes a mortally dangerous mission.

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 dystopic state that has replaced the U.S. in the not-too-distant future. Her hunting and tracking skills serve her well when she is then cast into the nation's annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death where contestants must battle harsh terrain, artificially concocted weather conditions, and two teenaged contestants from each of Panem's districts. District 12's second "tribute" is Peeta, the baker's son, who has been in love with Katniss since he was five. Now Peeta is being forced in situation that might ultimately take his life, but the love of his life too.
 
Donnelly, Jennifer. A Northern Light
Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has been accepted at Barnard College, but before her mother died, she promised to always take care of her father and younger siblings. For that reason, she has had to put on hold her dream of leaving the farm and going off to pursue her dreams of becoming a writer. Mattie is able to land a job at the Adirondack summer resort. It is there that a guest, Grace Brown, befriends her and asks her to burn some of her letters. Before Mattie has a chance to follow through with Grace’s wishes, Grace’s body is found in the lake, and the young man who was with her disappears and is believed to have drowned too.

Farmer, Nancy. House of the Scorpion
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt is chosen as the clone of El Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a third country that was formed between the United States and Mexico to deal with their continuing border troubles. The country is called Opium and is run by drug lords who control opium production using “eejits,” humans with computer chips in their brains.

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Jinks, Catherine. Evil Genius
AT age seven, child prodigy Cadel Piggot lands in a shrink's office for illegal computer hacking, where psychologist Thaddeus Roth surprising response is "Next time, don't get caught." Thaddeus is an agent of Cadel's real father, a brilliant crook, who from behind bars, manages to place Cadel at the secretive Axis Institute for World Domination. By 13, Cadel is studying such things as infiltration, misinformation, and embezzlement, but thanks to an outside friendship, is privately plotting to choose good over evil.
 
Korman, Gordon. Son of the Mob or the sequel Son of the Mob: Hollywood Hustle
Vince Luca, 17, wants to lead a normal teenage life. Unfortunately the circumstances of his crime-family background are preventing him from doing so. When he does get a girlfriend, he thinks that his luck is finally turning, that is until he realizes that his girlfriend is the daughter of the FBI agent investigating his family.

Kostick, Connor. Epic
Where fantasy and video games meet, there is Epic. In a society where violence is banned, people must settle their disputes in epic, at the same time that they are trying to stay alive in order to accumulate wealth and status in both the fame world and in reality. Impulsively Erik creates his new Epic character to be female, and spends all his allotted funds on beauty and attitude for Cindella rather than weapons, but he has a gut feeling this is the way to go. She and his friends' characters use a succession of usual methods to save Erik's father from exile and to challenge Central Allocations, the representatives who run the game, and therefore, the society.

Lobel, Anita. No Pretty Pictures
Lobel writes a simple and straightforward survival story of her childhood years growing up in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Martino, Alfred C. Pinned
Ivan Korske and Bobby Zane, two wrestlers from completely different worlds, are competing for a spot in the New Jersey State Wrestling Championship. Bobby’s dad is a lawyer and his mom is a successful real-estate agent. He also attends a prestigious school with a first-class wrestling coach. Ivan, on the other hand, is mourning the loss of his recently deceased mother and lives rather poorly on a farm with his father, a Polish immigrant. He is also a loner and does not get along with his wrestling coach. The story is told in alternating chapters as it delves into the lives of the two wrestlers as they prepare and work toward the biggest day of their lives.

Marchetta, Melina. Saving Francesca
Francesca’s life is changing. She is about to start Year Eleven at St. Sebastian’s, a formerly all-boys school that has reluctantly admitted 30 coeds. She misses her old friends, but more than that, she misses her mother, Sydney, a professor at the University of Technology, who has slipped into a severe depression and can’t get out of bed. Sydney is struggling to fit into her new school and latches onto some of the girls who have joined her at St. Sebastian’s from her old school, St. Stella’s, where she never really hung out with them. New friends, a new crush, Francesca is forced to find her way in the midst of all these changes.

Nelson, Pete. Left for Dead: A Young Man’s Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis
Two history lessons run concurrently through this story, which was triggered when 11-year-old Hunter Scott watched the movie Jaws and became curious about one character’s reference to the U.S.S. Indianapolis. While gathering more information about it, Scott learned of the many mistakes and oversights that resulted in the ship being put directly in the path of a Japanese submarine. The U.S. Navy was not willing to admit that anyone except Captain McVay made any errors. Nelson describes the horrors the survivors endured as they waited for four and a half days to be rescued, which came about only because of an accidental sighting and how the combined efforts of Scott, several of the survivors, national media attention, and several members of Congress posthumously exonerated McVay of any charges.

Oates, Joyce Carol. Big Mouth and Ugly Girl
Be careful what you say, because you never know who might hear you. Matt learns the hard way what joking around with your friends could cost you when he makes a remark at lunch that gets him suspended. His friends do not come to his side, because their parents do not want them to get involved. The only person that does come to his side is the most unlikely, Ursula Riggs, a girl he barely knows.

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Prose, Francine. After
After a school-shooting incident takes place at a nearby high school, administrators at Central High decide to take security measures. A crisis counselor is brought in and students, including Tom and his sophomore classmates, start noticing some considerable changes and eerie disappearances of students who fail to conform to the school’s new restrictions.

Reinhardt, Dana. Harmless
Freshmen Anna and Emma have been best friends since third grade when Emma moved to town. It is only when Emma and Mariah are paired together for an English assignment and start hanging out, that Emma and Anna’s friendship is able to graduate to a higher level thanks to Mariah, who is beautiful and popular and is dating a senior at another high school. Mariah invites them to an unsupervised party at her boyfriend’s house. The girls lie to their parents about where they are going and get away with it. Deciding to tempt fate once again, they agree to hang out the following week. This time though, the girls get caught and create an elaborate attack story in order to save themselves from getting into trouble. The lie gets them off the hook, but takes on a life of its own when the school and community becomes involved. Told from the girls’ alternating points of view, it gets to the heart of what each girl is feeling and thinking as the truth and therefore, the consequences, unravels before their eyes.
 
Schlosser, Eric. Chew on this: Everything you don't want to know
This book covers the history of the fast-food industry and delves into the agribusiness and animal husbandry methods that support it. From the 37-day life of the pre-McNugget chicken to the appallingly inhumane conditions of slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants, Schlosser outlines the gruesome details behind the tasty burgers and sandwiches.

Shusterman, Neal. Downsiders
Talon lives in a subterranean world underneath New York City. He is considered to be a Downsider and is forbidden from going to Topside, but when the two worlds collide and Talon meets Lindsay, a Topside girl, he is intrigued enough to risk it all.

Smith, Roland. Peak
Fourteen-year-old Peak has a love of climbing. Unfortunately his New York City residence has had to restrict his climbs to skyscrapers. After his caught climbing the Woolworth Building, the judge gives him probation, with the understand that Peak will leave the city and live with his famous mountaineer father in Thailand. Peak soon learns that his father has other plans for him. He wants Peak to become the youngest person to climb Mt Everest at any cost.
 
Smithson, Ryan. Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GHI
Smithson experienced the events of 9/11 while in high school and responded by enlisting in the Army Reserve after graduation. He married his high school sweetheart before being deployed to Iraq. Once there, he worked as an equipment operator, in an equipment platoon, and while mortar fire was a regular occurrence, the missions he describes were all about bulldozing berms, filling craters created by IEDs, and convoying lumber. Gruesome at times, Smithson creates a powerful look at one man's experience at war.
 
Sonnenblick, Jordan. Notes from the Midnight Driver
While his mother is out on a first date, sixteen-year-old Alex decides to get drunk, steal her car, and drive to his father’s home, hoping to catch him on a date with one of his former teachers. His goal? Revenge? Reality? A damaged car, a decapitated gnome, a drunk driving charge, and community service. He is ordered to serve his 100 hours visiting Solomon Lewis, the meanest resident at Egbert P. Johnson Memorial Home for the Aged. Alex discovers that Solomon is also witty, intelligent, and a fighter.

Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral
Shawn McDaniel has cerebral palsy. He has no control of physical functions and for this reason, the outside world, even his own family, think he is a “vegetable.” But this is far from the truth. Through his narration, the reader learns that Shawn is aware of his surroundings and can hear everything that is being said to him, no matter how painful those words might be.

Vrettos, Adrienne Maria. Skin
Donnie, 14, has a dysfunctional family. His parents are constantly fighting. His sister, Karen, 16, is anorexic and denies her illness and lashes out at her parents. In the middle of all this turmoil is Donnie who is becoming more invisible as the problems his family faces takes precedent. The story opens with the unfortunate death of his sister due to her illness and is told through Donnie’s eyes as he lovingly recounts the preceding years leading to her untimely death in which he tries everything in his power to save her.

Walker, Sally M. Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley
After sinking a Union sloop near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1864, the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley did not return to port. Although divers searched for more than 130 years, it was not found until 1995. Over the last 10 years, archaeologists have carefully raised the Hunley and sifted through the 20,000 pounds of sediment it contained for artifacts, human remains and clues as to why, when, and how the vessel sank.

Werlin, Nancy. Double Helix
Even though Eli Samuels graduated high school at the top of his class, he has decided to forgo college and work instead. He is fortunate enough to land a job working for the famed Dr. Quincy Wyatt of Wyatt Transgenics. Eli’s father is not too happy about Eli’s decision to not go to college. He is also not happy about the fact that Eli will be working for Quincy, but Eli is not sure why. It might have something to do with the fact that Quincy has some sort of connection to his mother, who is dying of Huntington’s Disease, a disease which Eli has a 50/50 chance of getting.

Yolen, Jane. The Devil’s Arithmetic
Hannah Stern is tired of remembering about the Holocaust and Passover. She is embarrassed by her grandfather’s ranting and raving at the mention of Nazis and her mother’s stories of how her many lives were lost during that time does not really get through to Hannah. It is only when, during a Passover Seder where Hannah is chosen to open the door to the prophet Elijah, that she is transported back to World War II and experiences what life was like during that time period.

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