Ms. Galang’s Reading Recommendations for 8th Graders
Level 4: very challenging; 3: somewhat difficult; 2: moderate; 1: easy
The Real World (memoirs that teach real life lessons):
4:
Educated by Tara Westover
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer
Becoming by Michelle Obama
The Glass Castle by Janette Walls
3:
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
March 1-3 by John Lewis
2:
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings
Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson
Girl Code: Gaming, Going Viral by Andrea Gonzalez and Sophie Houser
1:
El Deafo by Cece Bell
Smile by Raina Telgemeier
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This Is America (learning about American culture and history):
4:
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Books by John Steinbeck:
Of Mice and Men
The Grapes of Wrath
Travels with Charley
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
3:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
2:
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
1:
Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (1967)
Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
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Writing about the World:
4:
Pachinko by Ming Jin Lee
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
3:
We Should All Be Feminists
and Dear Ijeawele by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Persepolis + all other books by Marjane Satrapi
Cont’d Writing About the World:
2:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Diary of Anne Frank
1:
When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Refugee by Alan Gratz
The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney
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The Struggles and Survival of Young Characters:
3:
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
2:
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Cont’d Struggles and Survival of Young Characters:
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Sold by Patricia McCormick
Some Places More Than Others by Renee Watson
Books by: Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green , Sarah Dessen, Jodi Picoult
1:
George by Alex Gino
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
Blended by Sharon Draper
Front Desk by Kelly Yang
The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden
Count Me In by Vasha Bajaj
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Life Is Poetry:
Ariel by Sylvia Plath
American Sonnets by Terrance Hayes
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom By Margarita Engle
Paint Me Like I Am: Teen Poems from WritersCorps, Ed.by Bill Aguado and Richard Newirth
Read any collections by:
Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson
Walt Whitman, Gwendolyn Brooks, Nikki Giovanni
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Fantasy, Supernatural, and Sci-Fi:
4:
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
1984 by George Orwell
The Martian by Andy Weir
3:
Akata Witch and Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
2:
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Giver series by Lois Lowry
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
The Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Illuminae by Amie Kaufmamn and Jay Kristoff
Cont’d Fantasy, Supernatural, and Sci-Fi:
1:
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling
Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
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Nonfiction:
3-4:
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehesi Coates
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
2:
The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
The Borden Murders by Sarah Miller
Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees by Deborah Ellis
1:
In Their Own Words: Harriet Tubman by George Sullivan
Nathaniel Hale’s Hazardous Tales
Bad Boy: A Memoir by Walter Dean Myers
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Crime and Mystery/Thriller:
3-4:
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
2:
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Books by April Henry
Girl, Stolen
The Night She Disappeared
Shattering Glass by Gail Giles
Time Bomb Hardcover by Joelle Charbonneau
One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
We Were Liars by E. Lockhaart
Theodore Boone 6-book series by John Grisham
1:
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Half Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan
The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Boch
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Books Adapted into Film:
4:
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Cont’d Books Adapted Into Film
3:
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
A Wrinkle in Time by Margaret L’Engle
Divergent by Veronica Roth
2:
Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (made into His Dark Materials TV show)
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
1:
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Holes by Louis Sachar
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Challenging Texts and Classics:
3-4:
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Cont’d Challenging Texts and Classics:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
2:
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
1:
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
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Books On Deck (Books I Want to Read):
Research titles on this list. List titles that sound appealing to you, and list at least 5 books you want to read. (Title and author)
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Reading Goals and How You Will Reach Them (what topics do you want to learn more about and research; what genres do you want to read; when and how often will you read; how will you obtain books...):
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