Rising Eighth Grade Summer Reading List 2014 - 2015
Title
Author
Summary
Genre
Chains
Anderson, Laurie
Halse
Slaves Isabel and younger sister Ruthie are sold to harsh Loyalists at
the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Isabel must decide to be loyal
or to spy for the American patriots.
Historical
Fiction
The Boy Who Dared
Bartoletti, Susan C.
Told through flashbacks, this is a fictionalized biography of German
teenager Helmuth Hubener, who was imprisoned and executed in 1942
for openly resisting the Nazis.
Historical
Fiction
Tithe
Black, Hollie
Sixteen-year old Kaye, who has been visited by faeries since childhood,
discovers that she herself is a magical faerie creature with a special
destiny.
Fantasy
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
A totalitarian regime has ordered all the books to be destroyed, but one
of the book burners suddenly realizes their merit.
Science
Fiction
Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her:
what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face
appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her
ideal mate…until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before
the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare
malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined
to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as
they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility
and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky,
between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared
to follow. – Amazon
FantasyDystopian
Matched (or any book Condie, Ally
from the series)
Crackback
Coy, John
Under the pressures of a new football coach, a critical father, and a best
friend with bad ideas, Miles’ love for the game begins to fade.
Sports
Fiction
Jefferson’s Sons
Bradley, Kimberly
Brubaker
The story of Jefferson’s children by his slave Sally Hemmings. While
they do get special treatment, they live a far different life as slaves than
his other children and they are never to mention who their father is. As
the children grow up they grapple with slavery and freedom and what
“the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness” really means.
Historical
Fiction
The House of the
Scorpion
Farmer, Nancy
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.
Fantasy
Uprising
Haddix, Margaret P. In 1927, at the urging of twenty-one year old Harriet, Mrs. Livingston
reluctantly recalls her experiences at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory,
including the miserable work conditions and the fire that took the lives
of her two best friends.
Promises to the Dead
Hahn, Margaret D.
When Jesse went down to the marsh on that fateful day, he expected to Historical
find a turtle for terrapin soup. Instead, he comes across a dying slave
Fiction
woman who makes Jesse promise he’ll take her young son, Perry, to a
relative in Baltimore. Aiding and abetting a slave is against the law, and
it also goes against everything Jesse has been taught to believe. But he
can’t break a promise to the dead, and, more important, he has to follow
what he knows in his heart to be right.- Amazon
Sand Dollar Summer
Jones, Kimberly K
12-year old Lisa and her family spend the summer in Maine as her
mother recovers from a bad car accident.
Realistic
Fiction
The Lions of Little
Levine, Kristen
Historical fiction tying to the Little Rock Nine event when 9 black
students were denied entrance to school during the civil rights
Historical
Historical
Fiction
Rock
movement, this is the story of two middle school girls in true need of
each other’s friendship and their determination and courage to fight
back against society.
Fiction
Two terrific sports fiction books; Heat is a story about baseball, the
national little league world series and a Cuban youth trying to avoid
deportation. Travel team is a story about basketball and the trials of
trying to make the team.
Sports
Fiction
Heat or Travel Team
Lupica, Mike
Sunrise Over Fallujah
Myers, Walter Dean In 2003, in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, young Robin
Perry already wonders about “an enemy we can’t identify and friends
we’re not sure about”. Myers dedicates this novel to the men and
women who serve in the United States Armed Services and to their
families, and he offers a powerful study of the strange war they have
been sent to fight, where confusion and randomness rule
Historical
Fiction
The False Prince
Nielsen, Jennifer
When 15-year-old orphan Sage is purchased by the recently dead king
of Carthya’s regent, he becomes embroiled in a deadly contest with two
other orphans. Sage is a successful narrator in a humorous and
devilishly clever adventure, chock-full of plot twists and intrigue.
Although first in a planned trilogy, this reads as a satisfying stand-alone
novel.
Fantasy
Kennedy’s Last Days:
The Assassination
that Defined a
Generation
O’Reilly, Bill
Kennedy's Last Days is a gripping account of the events leading up to the Historical
most notorious crime of the twentieth century. O’Reilly vividly
Fiction
describes the Kennedy family’s life in the public eye, the crises facing
the president around the world and at home, the nation’s growing
fascination with their vigorous, youthful president, and finally, the
shocking events leading up to his demise.
Wonder
Palacio, R.J.
August Pullman is a 10 year old boy with normal interests and high
Realistic
intellect; however he has significant facial deformities that have kept
him home schooled up until fifth grade. August’s first public school
experience not only changes him but also those who become a part of
his new world. This is a remarkable story about courage, friendship,
understanding, and the freedom to be yourself.
Fiction
Okay For Now
Schmidt, Gary
Okay For Now explores another seemingly improbable alliance, this one
between new outsider in town Doug Swieteck and Lil Spicer, the savvy
spitfire daughter of his deli owner boss. With her challenging
assistance, Doug discovers new sides of himself. Along the way, he also
readjusts his relationship with his abusive father, his school peers, and
his older brother, a newly returned war victim of Vietnam.- Good Reads
Realistic
Fiction
Between Shades of
Gray
Sepetys, Ruth
Fifteen-year-old Lina is a Lithuanian girl living an ordinary life--until
Soviet officers invade her home and tear her family apart. Separated
from her father and forced onto a crowded train, Lina, her mother, and
her young brother make their way to a Siberian work camp, where they
are forced to fight for their lives. Lina finds solace in her art,
documenting these events by drawing. Risking everything, she imbeds
clues in her drawings of their location and secretly passes them along,
hoping her drawings will make their way to her father's prison camp.
But will strength, love, and hope be enough for Lina and her family to
survive?- Amazon
Historical
Fiction
Bomb: The Race to
Build—and Steal—
the World's Most
Dangerous Weapon
Sheinkin, Steve
In December of 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a
shocking discovery: When placed next to radioactive material, a
Uranium atom split in two. That simple discovery launched a scientific
race that spanned 3 continents. In Great Britain and the United States,
Soviet spies worked their way into the scientific community; in
Norway, a commando force slipped behind enemy lines to attack
German heavy-water manufacturing; and deep in the desert, one
brilliant group of scientists was hidden away at a remote site at Los
Nonfiction,
2013 Newbery
Winner
Alamos. This is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and
genius that created the world's most formidable weapon. This is the
story of the atomic bomb.- Good Reads
I Am Scout: The
Biography of Harper
Lee
Shields, Charles J.
The story of Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, is told in
regard to her success, her childhood, her seclusion, and her rejection of
fame.
Nonfiction
Flygirl
Smith, Sherri L
Meet 18-year old Ida Mae Jones, a Louisiana girl who longs to be a pilot,
in December 1941, on the eve of American’s entrance into World War
II. She is pretty and smart, but she has two strikes against her. She is
black in an America where racism holds sway, and a competent pilot in
an America in which she is denied her license because she is a woman.
Historical
Fiction
Drums, Girls and
Dangerous Pie
Sonnenblick,
Jordan
Thirteen-year-old Steven has a totally normal life: he plays drums in
the All-Star Jazz band, has a crush on the hottest girl in the school, and
is constantly annoyed by his five-year-old brother, Jeffrey. But when
Jeffrey is diagnosed with leukemia, Steven's world is turned upside
down. He is forced to deal with his brother's illness and his parents'
attempts to keep the family in one piece. Salted with humor and
peppered with devastating realities, Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie is a
heartwarming journey through a year in the life of a family in crisis. Amazon
Realistic
Fiction
Milkweed
Spinelli, Jerry
A novel capturing the hardships and cruelty of life in the ghettos of
Warsaw during the Nazi occupation of WWII, through the eyes of a
Jewish orphan who must use all his wits and courage to survive
unimaginable events and circumstances.
Historical
Fiction
Uglies (or any from
the series)
Westerfeld, Scott
Tally Youngblood lives in a future society where all citizens are
considered “ugly” until undergoing a transformative operation on their
FantasyDystopian
16th birthday.
Black Storm Comin’
Wilson, Diana Lee
In 1860, with the Civil War looming, Colton joins the Pony Express to
make a crucial delivery for his sick mother.
Historical
Fiction