8th+Grade+Suggested+Reading+List


 * Realistic** **Flake, Sharon - //The Skin I'm In//**. Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she looks like.
 * Hinton, S.E. - //The Outsiders.//** Ponyboy is 14, tough, confused, yet sensitive - when his best friend kills a rival gang member, a nightmare of violence begins.
 * Ryan, Pam Munoz - //Becoming Naomi Leon.//** When Naomi's absent mother resurfaces to claim her, Naomi runs away to Mexico with her great-grandmother and younger brother in search of her father.
 * Soto, Gary - //Local News//.** A collection of thirteen short stories about the everyday lives of Mexican American young people in California's Central Valley.
 * Spinelli, Jerry - //Loser.//** Even though his classmates from first grade on have considered him strange and a loser, Daniel Zinkoff's optimism and exuberance and the support of his loving family do not allow him to feel that way about himself.


 * Van Draanen, Wendelin - //Flipped.//** In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their feelings about themselves, each other, and their families have changed over the years.
 * Woodson, Jacqueline - //Miracle's Boys.//** Twelve-year-old Lafayette's close relationship with his older brother Charlie changes after Charlie is released from a detention home and blames Lafayette for the death of their mother.

**Sports** **Deuker, Carl - //On the Devil's Court//****//.//** Struggling with his feelings of inadequacy and his failure to make the basketball team at his new school, seventeen-year-old Joe Faust finds himself willing to trade his soul for one perfect season of basketball.
 * Lupica, Mike - //Heat.//** Twelve-year-old Michael Arroyo is a star pitcher who struggles with his father’s death as he pursues his dream of leading his South Bronx All-Stars to the Little League World Series.
 * Myers, Walter Dean - //SLAM!//** Sixteen-year-old "Slam" Harris is counting on his noteworthy basketball talents to get him out of the inner city and give him a chance to succeed in life, but his coach sees things differently.

**Historical** **Avi - //Crispin: the Cross of Lead//****//.//** Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.
 * Curtis, Christopher Paul - //The Watsons Go to Birmingham.//** The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
 * Namioka, Lensey - //Ties that Bind, Ties that Break.//** Ailin's life takes a different turn when she defies the traditions of upper class Chinese society by refusing to have her feet bound.
 * Park, Linda Sue - //A Single Shard.//** Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge near a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself.

**Mystery & Adventure** **Balliett, Blue //- Chasing Vermeer.//** When seemingly unrelated and strange events start to happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, eleven-year-olds Petra and Calder combine their talents to solve an international art scandal.
 * Blackwood, Gary - //The Shakespeare Stealer.//** A young orphan boy is ordered by his master to infiltrate Shakespeare's acting troupe in order to steal the script of "Hamlet," but he discovers instead the meaning of friendship and loyalty.
 * Hoobler, Dorothy - //In Darkness, Death.//** In eighteenth-century Japan, young Seikei becomes involved with a ninja as he helps Judge Ooka, his foster father, investigate the murder of a samurai.
 * Paulsen, Gary - //Brian's Winter.//** Brian is forced to survive a winter in the wilderness with only his survival pack and hatchet.

**Biography & Autobiography** **Jimenez, Francisco - //Breaking Through//.** Having come from Mexico to California ten years ago, fourteen-year-old Francisco is still working in the fields but fighting to improve his life and complete his education.
 * Thomson, Sarah** **–** **//Three Cups of Tea (Young Reader’s Edition)//**//.// When mountaineer Greg Mortenson becomes lost in the mountains and is rescued by Pakistani villagers, he vows to return to build a village school.

**Science-Fiction & Fantasy** **Adams, Douglas - //The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.//** Seconds before Earth is demolished to make room for a galactic freeway, an earthman is saved by his friend. Together they journey through the galaxy.
 * Barron, T.A. - //The Lost Years of Merlin//****//.//** A young boy who has no identity nor memory of his past washes ashore on the coast of Wales and finds his true name after a series of fantastic adventures.