An Incomplete Suggested Reading List
Grade 8


     Mysteries/Suspense 

A Spy in the House by Y. S. Lee
Rescued from the gallows in 1850s London, young orphan and thief Mary Quinn is offered a place at Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls where she is trained to be part of an all-female investigative unit called The Agency and, at age seventeen, she infiltrates a rich merchant's home in hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships.
 
The Uninvited by Tim Wynne-Jones
After a disturbing freshman year at New York University, Mimi is happy to get away to her father's remote Canadian cottage only to discover a stranger living there who has never heard of her or her father and who is convinced that Mimi is responsible for leaving sinister tokens around the property.
 
Jump Cut by Ted Staunton
Spencer travels to Buffalo to get a kiss from an ancient movie star...the task his late grandfather wants him to undertake...and he's supposed to film it. Gloria Lorraine, star of the silver screen back in the day has big plans--plans that involve her granddaughter AmberLea, a gun, a baker who might be a gangster, some real gangsters and a road trip to Nowheresville, Ontario.
 
The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim by Shane Peacock
Edgar Brim, a sensitive orphan living at a gloomy boarding school in Scotland becomes involved with a secret society that hunts and destroys monsters from famous works of literature.
 
Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
Seven Australian teenagers return from a camping trip in the bush to discover that their country has been invaded and they must hide to stay alive.


     Historical 

Every Hidden Thing by Kenneth Oppel
Seventeen-year-old Samuel Bolt and and his paleontologist father search the Badlands for the skeleton of the “rex,” a massive dinosaur. But Samuel and his father aren't the only ones after the rex--so are Rachel Cartland and her professor father. As their paths cross and the rivalry between their fathers becomes more intense, Samuel and Rachel must make a decision.
 
Mary, Bloody Mary by Carolyn Meyer
Mary Tudor, who would reign briefly as queen of England during the mid sixteenth century, tells the story of her troubled childhood as daughter of King Henry VIII.
 
Vango: Between Sky and Earth by Timothée de Fombelle
In 1934, Vango, a young Frenchman who is about to take his priestly vows, finds himself falsely accused of murder. To clear his name, he must travel across Europe in search of clues to his hidden past.
 
Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
When young American pilot Rose Justice is captured by Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious women's concentration camp, she finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery, and friendship of her fellow prisoners.
 
The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King
When Mary Russell meets famous detective Sherlock Holmes, she discovers that he is also a beekeeper. Soon she finds herself on the trail of kidnappers and discovers a plot to kill both Holmes and herself. Sherlock Holmes and his young assistant, Mary Russell, solve a kidnapping after World War I, become targets for bombers.
 
Leonardo's Shadow by Christopher Grey
Fifteen-year-old Giacomo, servant to Leonardo da Vinci, helps his procrastinating master finish painting, "The Last Supper," while also trying to find clues to his parentage and pursue his own career as an artist in late fifteenth-century Milan.
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     Science Fiction 

Scythe by Neal Shusterman
In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed ('gleaned') by professional reapers ('scythes'). Two teens must compete with each other to become a scythe--a position neither of them wants. The one who becomes a scythe must kill the one who doesn't.
 
Inhuman by Kat Falls
Beyond the Titan wall lies the Feral Zone, and the only people who break quarantine and venture there are the "fetches", who are paid exorbitant sums to bring back items that were left behind when the wall went up--but Delaney McEvoy's father is there and she is being forced to find him and bring him back.
 
Legend by Marie Lu
In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.
 
Gunslinger Girl by Lyndsay Ely
Seventeen-year-old Serendipity "Pity" Jones inherited two things from her mother: a pair of six shooters and perfect aim. She's been offered a life of fame and fortune in Cessation, a glittering city where lawlessness is a way of life. But the price she pays for her freedom may be too great.
 
The Rule of Thre3 by Eric Walters
When a viral catastrophe causes a global technological shut down, 16 year old Adam realizes that his police captain mother and a retired government spy living next door are key to his survival.
 
The Martian by Andy Weir
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive.
 
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.


     Fantasy

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
In a world where dragons and humans coexist in an uneasy truce and dragons can assume human form, Seraphina, whose mother died giving birth to her, grapples with her own identity amid magical secrets and royal scandals, while she struggles to accept and develop her extraordinary musical talents.
 
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
In a world divided by blood--those with common, Red blood serve the Silver-blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities--seventeen-year-old Mare, a Red, discovers she has an ability of her own. To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons.
 
Mark of the Thief by Jennifer A Nielsen
When Nic, a slave in the mines outside of Rome, is forced to enter a sealed cavern containing lost treasures of Julius Caesar, he finds himself in possession of an ancient amulet filled with magic once reserved for the Gods, and becomes the center of a conspiracy to overthrow the emperor and destroy Rome.
 
Eon : Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman
Sixteen-year-old Eon hopes to become an apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune and learn to be its main interpreter, but to do so will require much including keeping secret that she is a girl.
 
Hero by Perry Moore
Superman had kryptonite, and Thom, the teenaged basketball star and son of the now-retired Major Might, tries hard to keep his own Achilles heel—being gay—under the radar. His powers of healing seem to bring him nothing but bad press, however, especially when he decides to go out for a superhero-like boot camp headed up by the League, the sworn protectors of Moore's Metropolis-like city.
 
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
I n a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace of killing and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

 
     Real Life 

I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall
Jess hadn't seen her survivalist, off-the-grid dad in over a decade. But after a car crash killed her mother and left her injured, she was forced to move to his cabin in the remote Canadian wilderness. Just as Jess was beginning to get to know him, a secret from his past paid them a visit, leaving her father dead and Jess stranded.
 
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D Schmidt
Jack, 12, tells the gripping story of Joseph, 14, who joins his family as a foster child. Damaged in prison, Joseph wants nothing more than to find his baby daughter, Jupiter, whom he has never seen. When Joseph has begun to believe he'll have a future, he is confronted by demons from his past that force a tragic sacrifice
 
Drama by Raina Telgemeier
Callie rides an emotional roller coaster while serving on the stage crew for a middle school production of Moon over Mississippi as various relationships start and end, and others never quite get going.
 
Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart
Lily Jo McGrother, born Timothy McGrother, is a girl. But being a girl is not so easy when you look like a boy. Especially when you're in the eighth-grade. Norbert Dorfman, nicknamed Dunkin Dorfman, is bipolar and has just moved from the New Jersey town he's called home for the past thirteen years. This would be hard enough, but the fact that he is also hiding from a painful secret makes it even worse
 
Optimists Die First by Susin Nielsen
When Petula de Wilde, who is anything but wild, meets Jacob in their school's dorky art therapy program, his friendship (and something more) helps her overcome intense fears since her sister died. And he has a secret of his own
 
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds
When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend.