8th Grade Reading List – List of Books for 8th Graders

Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author’s own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character’s art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

You can never go wrong with a book that helps teach life skills. This book goes over many different things teens should know as they get older. For instance, how to tell if food in the fridge has gone bad, first aid, fixing a car, and so much more.

Going through school we have all felt like outsiders at some point.  This story gives a credible view of the outsiders from the inside and has a good message throughout the story.

Jack Phillips’s allergy to sunshine confines him to the shadows, leaving him lonely and at risk of life-threatening burns every time he steps into the light. Shadow jumping on the rooftops at dusk makes him feel alive. When Jack hunts for his dad’s past to find some clues on helping his condition, he uncovers some shocking things.

Berlin, 1942: When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move away. After moving, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different from his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

Certainly a classic and one that has been read by many. This book is told through the eyes of a young girl. Her father is a lawyer in her town and he risks everything he has to help and defend a black man that has been wrongly accused of a terrible crime.

At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate. This far from civilization they can do anything they want. Anything. But as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far removed from reality as the hope of being rescued.

When a young poor farm boy discovers a blue stone, it changes everything. Overnight his simple life is shattered, and, gifted with only an ancient sword, a loyal dragon, and sage advice from an old storyteller, Eragon is soon swept into a dangerous tapestry of magic, glory, and power. Now his choices could save or destroy the Empire.

Jane Brannen wants nothing more than to become a famous author like Jane Austen. Her chance to uncover the secret arrives when bestselling author J. E. Fairfax visits her tiny town of Whickett Harbor. Through a series of unfortunate and shocking events, will Jane be able to make her dreams come true?

Dill isn’t the most popular kid at his rural Tennessee high school. After his father fell from grace in a public scandal that reverberated throughout their small town, Dill became a target. Fortunately, his two fellow misfits and best friends, Travis and Lydia, have his back. It’s a story about the importance of family and friendship as the teen struggles to find himself.

When the unconventional Durrell family can no longer endure the damp, gray English climate, they sell their house and relocate to the sunny Greek isle of Corfu. Intended to embrace the natural history of the island it’s a delightful account of Durrell’s family’s experiences and all the eccentric animals they’ve brought into their home.

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has since become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit. 

A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours’ walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the “lost boys” of Sudan, refugees. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing and moving way. 

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. What she says could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned—a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to totalitarianism just as terrible.

Life in the community where Jonas lives is idyllic. Designated birthmothers produce new children, who are assigned to appropriate family units. Citizens are assigned their partners and their jobs. No one thinks to ask questions. Everyone obeys. Everyone is the same. Except Jonas, who begins to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. 

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. Karou fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”; she speaks many languages — not all of them human, and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.

Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Julia’s sister was perfect. One day a tragic accident took Julia away. Dealing with grief, Julia must deal with her sister’s death and her family as she uncovers that her sister may not be as perfect as she thought.

A true story about a fifteen-year-old Knud Pedersen, who, along with his brother and a handful of schoolmates take action against the Nazis. Based on a true story.

When Serafina, a mermaid of the Mediterranean Sea, awakens on the morning of her betrothal, her biggest worry should be winning the love of handsome Prince Mahdi. And yet Sera finds herself haunted by strange dreams that foretell the return of an ancient evil. Her dark premonitions are confirmed and now she must save herself and her nations.