8th grade: Summer Reading List
Please choose one book from each list (3 books in all):
List 1: Choose one book
1. The Great Fire - Jim Murphy
The Great Fire tells the riveting story of one of the greatest disasters in American history by weaving together the personal accounts of survivors -- from courageous 12-year-old Clare Innis to reporter Joseph Chamberlin -- with contemporary newspaper accounts and extensively researched Chicago history. In the process, Jim Murphy separates fact from legend, and explores the tensions between the haves and the have-nots that both fueled and followed the conflagration.
2. Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott- Russell Freedman
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus and give up her seat to a white man. This simple act sparked a nationwide movement for equality. Award-winning author Russell Freedman puts readers in the midst of a volatile and uplifting time. This compelling and poignant volume, illustrated with arresting black-and-white photographs from the period, is an essential addition to the Civil Rights canon.
List 2: Choose one book
1. Devil’s Arithmetic- Jane Yolen
Hannah is tired of hearing about the Nazis during the Holocaust, but when she opens the door for Elijah at the Passover Seder, she is transported to 1940’s Poland, where she is captured and put in a death camp.
2. Code Talker: A Novel About The Navajo Marines of WWII- Joseph Bruchac
After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay is recruited by the Marines to become a Code Talker, sending urgent messages during WWII in his native tongue.
3. Chasing Lincoln’s Killer: The Search for John Wilkes Booth - James L. Swanson
Based on rare archival material, obscure trial manuscripts, and interviews with relatives of the conspirators and the man hunters, Chasing Lincoln’s Killer is fast-paced thriller about the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth: a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia.
4. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry- Mildred D. Taylor
Mildred Taylor’s Newbery Medal-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry tells the story of one African American family, fighting to stay together and strong in the face of brutal racist attacks, illness, poverty, and betrayal in the Deep South of the 1930s. Nine-year-old Cassie Logan, growing up protected by her loving family, has never had reason to suspect that any white person could consider her inferior or wish her harm. But during the course of one devastating year when her community begins to be ripped apart by angry night riders threatening African Americans, she and her three brothers come to understand why the land they own means so much to their Papa.
List 3: Choose one book
1. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
This is a lovely and heart rending tale about the March family--a family who loses its wealth and gains much more--love and unity. Young girls are only human, and they have a natural yearning for worldly possessions. It is up to them how they cope with it, which brings us back to the March girls. Their desire to help others even when they don't have much themselves is indeed remarkable. This book shows how in all times, love and hope are the most faithful companions, for when all else fails we can depend on them. Honest and true intentions are really the most valuable possessions one can have. And this novel shows us the beauty of simplicity and the importance of the small human deeds that count even though they cannot be visibly seen.
2. Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo Falls Mystery - Peter Abrahams
Eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill idolizes Sherlock Holmes, so it is not surprising when stumbling across a murder, she opts to keep what she knows a secret and tries to solve the crime herself.
3. Eragon - Christpher Paolini
In Aagasesia, a fifteen-year-old boy of unknown lineage called Eragon finds a mysterious stone that weaves his life into an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power, peopled with dragons, elves, and monsters.
4. Soldier’s Heart - Gary Paulsen
Soldier's Heart is the gripping, heart-wrenching story of war as seen through the eyes of Charley Goddard, a 16-year-old who enlisted in the First Minnesota Volunteers in June 1861 and fought in almost every major battle in the Civil War.