09-10+8th

Students entering grade 8 are asked to read at least one book from the fiction list and one from the non-fiction list. Fiction After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.
 * A Great and Terrible Beauty** by Libba Bray

When sixteen-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney, Wisconsin, to work as waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways diner, they become involved with the diner owner's political campaign to oust the town's corrupt mayor.
 * Hope Was Here** by Joan Bauer (fantasy)

While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.
 * Monster** by Walter Dean Myers (realistic)

After his anger erupts into violence, fifteen year-old Cole, in order to avoid going to prison, agrees to participate in a sentencing alternative based on the Native American Circle Justice, and he is sent to a remote Alaskan Island where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life.
 * Touching Spirit Bear** by Ben Mikaelsen (or another book by this author) (realistic)

In the New York City borough of Queens in 1996, three girls bond over their shared love of Tupac Shakur's music, as together they try to make sense of the unpredictable world in which they live..
 * After Tupac and D Foster** by Jacquenline Woodson (realistic)

The developing relationship between teenager Davie and a mysterious new boy in town morphs into something darker and more sinister when Davie learns firsthand of the boy's supernatural powers.
 * Clay** by David Almond (fantasy)

Suddenly able to see demons and the Darkhunters who are dedicated to returning them to their own dimension, fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is drawn into this bizzare world when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a monster.
 * City of Bones** by Cassandra Clare (fantasy)

As a new sophomore at an exclusive boarding school in the 1950s, Rob Garrett, a young black man, is witness to the persecution of other students and wonders about the growing civil rights movement back home in Virginia.
 * New Boy** by Julian Houston (historical)

Hunter Braque, a New York City teenager who is paid by corporations to spot what is "cool," combines his analytical skills with girlfriend Jen's creative talents to find a missing person and thwart a conspiracy directed at the heart of consumer culture.
 * So Yesterday** by Scott Westerfeld (realistic)

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen accidentally becomes a contender in the annual Hunger Games, a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death.
 * Hunger Games** by Suzanne Collins (fantasy)

Sixteen-year-old Tomas Wanninger persuades his mother to let him leave Germany to volunteer at a kibbutz in Israel, where he experiences a violent political attack and finds answers about his own past.
 * Real Time** by Pnina Kass (realistic)

Exiled from their home country because of their father's plot against King Phraates, fourteen-year-old Mitra and five-year-old Babak, who are of royal descent, live as beggars until it is discovered that the boy can tell the future through his dreams, and the magus Melchoir and two other Zoroastrian priests take the children with them to Bethlehem to witness the coming of a new king.
 * Alphabet of Dreams** by Susan Fletcher (historical)

Thirteen-year-old Louise uncovers secrets about her family and her neighborhood during the violent protests over school desegregation in 1960 New Orleans.
 * My Mother the Cheerleade**r by Rob Sharenow (historical)

Graphic Novel - In a series of three linked tales, the central characters are introduced: Jin Wang, a teen who meets with ridicule and social isolation when his family moves from San Francisco's Chinatown to an exclusively white suburb; Danny, a popular blond, blue-eyed high school jock whose social status is jeopardized when his goofy, embarrassing Chinese cousin, Chin-Kee, enrolls at his high school; and the Monkey King who, unsatisfied with his current sovereign, desperately longs to be elevated to the status of a god.
 * American Born Chinese** by Gene Luen Yang (realistic)

Nonfiction The author tells about the happy life she led in China up until she was twelve-years-old when her family became a target of the Cultural Revolution, and discusses the choice she had to make between denouncing her father and breaking with her family, or refusing to speak against him and losing her future in the Communist Party.
 * Red Scarf Girl** by Ji-li Jiang

Published in association with the Spy Museum, this book is an illustrated exploration of espionage that discusses famous and notorious spies, spy technology, tactics, and notable missions in history.
 * Secrets, Lies, Gizmos, and Spies: A History of Spies and Espionage** by Janet Wyman Coleman

Presents a selection from the thousands of letters written to offer comfort and support to Olivia Gardner, a girl who became the victim of bullying after suffering an epileptic seizure in school, and whose story was heard by sisters Emily and Sarah Buder who took it upon themselves to start the letter writing campaign.
 * Letters to a Bullied Girl** by Olivia Gardner with Emily and Sarah Buder

Tells the story of David Hahn, the Michigan teenager who built a nuclear breeder reactor in his backyard in 1994, endangering the residents of his Michigan hometown and raising the ire of the federal government.
 * Radioactive Boy Scout** by Ken Silverstein

In graphic art format, describes the friendship between two roommates on the MTV show "Real World," one of whom died of AIDS.
 * Pedro and Me** by Judd Winick

An adaptation of the book in which former Vice President Al Gore examines the climate crisis that is threatening the future of the planet, describes what the world's governments are doing to correct the problem, and explains why the problem should be taken more seriously.
 * An Inconvenient Truth** by Albert Gore

Tells the life story of singer Marian Anderson, describing her famous 1939 Lincoln Memorial performance and explaining how she helped end segregation in the American arts after being refused the right to perform at Washington's Constitution Hall because of the color of her skin.
 * The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights** by Russell Freedman

Sixty poems present a balanced yet intimate view of both the Middle East and Arab Americans. Many poems are autobiographical in nature.
 * 19 Varieties of Gazelle : Poems of the Middle East** by Naomi Shihab Nye

Chronicles the efforts of 13 women to win admission into NASA's initial astronaut training program in the early 1960s. They were resisted from all directions-including NASA regulations, which were weighted toward men; media coverage that reflected contemporary gender expectations; political maneuvering by then vice president LBJ and other officials; and the crushing opposition expressed by renowned aviatrix Jackie Cochran in a 1962 Congressional hearing.
 * Almost Astronauts : 13 women who dared to dream** by Stone, Tanya Lee

A biography of English naturalist Charles Darwin that provides an account of the personality behind evolutionary theory and the affect of his work on his personal life, such as his relationship with his religious wife.
 * Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith** by Deborah Heiligman

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.
 * Let Me Play : the Story of Title IX, the Law that Changed the Future of Girls in America** by Karen Blumenthal

Presents the words of young people between the ages of eleven and eighteen in which they share what it is like to live in the midst of the upheaval and violence of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
 * Three Wishes : Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak** by Deborah Ellis

Rap-inspired verse and illustrations describe the life of Muhammed Ali, discussing his bouts, struggles with societal prejudice, Islamic faith, Olympic glory, and more.
 * Twelve Rounds to Glory : the Story of Muhammad Ali** by Charles R. Smith

Presents an account of fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin, an African-American girl who refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks, and covers her role in a crucial civil rights case.
 * Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice** by Phillip Hoose

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