OMOS

8th Grade Summer Reading LIst

Summer 2009 Reading List: Grade 8 Picks (THREE BOOKS TOTAL REQUIRED)

 

REQUIRED READING

Please note: We will compare and contrast elements of The Schwa Was Here with Jerry Spinelli’s Crash.  Rereading Crash might not be a bad idea.  If you purchase Schwa and still have your copy of Crash, bring both to school.

 

The Schwa Was Here by Neal Schusterman

 

Options for other Reading Choices (choose any one or two)

 

HISTORICAL FICTION:

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

*The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt

 

WORLD WAR I

Lord of the Nutcracker Men by Iain Lawrence

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

 

WORLD WAR II

European Theater:

Soldier X by Don Wulffson

Under a War-Torn Sky by L.M. Elliott

Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes

Japanese Theater:

Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salibury

 

Holocaust:

*Night by Elie Wiesel

I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust by Livia Jackson-Britton

The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank

No Pretty Pictures by Anita Lobel

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

 

Homefront:

The Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene

On the Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck

 

Japanese Interment:

Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata

 

Vietnam War

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

 

Iraq War

Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers

 

Other Titles ( Choose one)

 

ADVENTURE

*The Call of the Wild by Jack London                                  Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter              *Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Kit’s Wilderness by David Almond

 

CLASSIC/CONTEMPORARY FICTION

*A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

*The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

Jacob I have Loved by Katherine Paterson

*The Chosen by Chaim Potok

*To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Hood

 

FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

The Sword and the Stone by T. H. White

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

 

GRAPHIC NOVEL

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

 

             I highly recommend that you choose one of the books marked with an asterisk as those will be most useful in terms of preparing you for the literature you will be reading as part of the 8^th grade curriculum, but I will leave those decisions up to you. Log your choices on the Reading Achievement tally sheet and ask your parents to sign the log to verify your reading.  I will be checking signatures in August.

 

A WORD TO THE WISE: Consider buying your books at a used bookstore instead of using the library.  The library is, of course, great, but you will be vying with many other students for borrowing privileges of a small pool of books.  Bookman’s is a good choice, especially for Newberry winners and older titles.  This is just a suggestion....