GREAT BOOKS FOR STUDENTS IN GRADE EIGHT
WHO ARE PREPARING FOR HIGH SCHOOL

Read books by these authors:

Aiken, Joan (British)
Alexander, Lloyd (British)
Brooks, Martha (Canadian)
Christie, Agatha. (British)
Cleaver, Vera and Bill
Colfer, Eoin (Irish)
Cooper, Susan (British)
Cushman, Karen
Danziger, Paula
Friesen, Gayle (Canadian)
Garfield, Leon (British)
Hamilton, Virginia
Henkes, Kevin
Herriot, James (British)
Hesse, Karen
Hinton, S.E.
Holm, Anne (Danish)
Horowitz, Anthony (British)
Horvath, Polly (Canadian)
Hughes, Monica (Canadian)
Jones, Diana Wynne (British)
Kjelgaard, James A.
LeGuin, Ursula
Lewis, C.S. (British)
MacHale, D.J.
Matas, Carol (Canadian)
McCaffrey, Anne
Meyer, Caroline
Mowat, Farley (Canadian)
Nix, Garth (Australian)
O’Dell, Scott
Orwell, George (British)
Paterson, Katherine
Patterson, James
Paulsen, Gary
Peck, Richard
Peck, Robert Newton
Riordan, Rick
Rose, Malcolm (British)
Sage, Angie (British)
Rylant, Cynthia
Speare, Elizabeth George
Spinelli, Jerry
Sutcliff, Rosemary (British)
Taylor, Mildred
Tolan, Stephanie S.
Tullson, Diane (Canadian)
Voight, Cynthia
Walsh, Jill Paton (British)
Walters, Eric (Canadian)
Zindel, Paul

Read some of these books:

Acheson, Alison. Mud Girl.
Almond, David. Skellig.
Banks, Lynne Reid. Broken Bridge.
Bell, William. The Blue Helmet.
Bloor, Edward. Tangerine.
Bondoux, Anne-Laure. The Killer’s Tears.
Buchan, John. The Thirty-Nine Steps.
Budhos, Marina. Ask Me No Questions.
Carter, Anne Laurel. The Shepherd’s Granddaughter.
Carter, Forrest. The Education of Little Tree.
Cassidy, Anne. Looking for JJ.
Chesterton, G.K. Father Brown Mysteries.
Clarke, Judith. One Whole and Perfect Day.
Clements, Andrew. Things Not Seen.
Craven, M. I Heard the Owl Call My Name.
Donnelly, Jennifer. A Northern Light.
Dumas, A. The Count of Monte Cristo.
Ellis, Deborah. Lunch with Lenin and other Stories.
Fox, Helen. Eager.
Gallico, Paul. The Snow Goose.
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies.
Gordon, Sheila. Waiting for the Rain.
Harper, Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird.
Hautzig, E. The Endless Steppe.
Ho, Minfong. Rice Without Rain.
Holubitsky, Katherine. Tweaked.
Hyde, Catherine Ryan. Becoming Chloe.
Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees.
Lafaye, A. The Strength of Saints.
L’Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time.
Lichtman, Wendy. Secrets, Lies, and Algebra.
Little, Jean. Willow and Twig.
Magorian, Michelle. Good Night, Mr. Tom.
Miklowitz, Gloria D. The Enemy Has A Face.
Naidoo, Beverly. The Other Side of Truth.
North, Sterling. Rascal.
Paterson, Katherine. Jacob Have I Loved.
Paulsen, Gary. The Crossing.
Peck, Robert Newton. Weeds in Bloom: An Autobiography…
Perkins, Lynne. Criss Cross.
Pratchett, Terry. Truckers, Diggers and Wings.
Rawlings, Marjorie. The Yearling.
Reiss, Kathryn. Blackthorn Winter.
Rylant, Cynthia. Boris.
Singer, Nicky. Gem X.
Smelcer, John. The Trap.
Smith, Dodie. I Capture the Castle.
Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl and Love, Stargirl.
Steinbeck, John. The Pearl and The Red Pony.
Stratton, Allan. Chanda’s Wars.
Turnbull, Ann. Forged in the Fire.
Walters, Eric. Shattered.
Werlin, Nancy. The Rules of Survival.
Wilson, John. The Alchemist’s Dream.

Be acquainted with these authors and stories:

Andersen, Hans Christian. Fairy Tales.
– a collection of stories by a Danish man who lived in the 19th century
– includes ‘The Ugly Duckling’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice.
– a British novel about Elizabeth Bennet, her four sisters and her expectations for marriage during the early 19th century

Barrie, J.M. Peter Pan.
– a British fantasy story from the early 20th century about a young boy who can fly and who never grows up

Baum, Frank. The Wizard of Oz.
– an American fantasy novel, first published in 1900, about a girl named Dorothy who gets swept up in a tornado and goes on an adventure with a cowardly lion, a scarecrow and a tin man

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre.
– a British novel from the mid-19th century about a young governess  who falls in love with her employer, Mr. Rochester

Burnett, Frances H. The Secret Garden.
– a British novel from the early 20th century about a young orphan, Mary, who is sent from India to England where she makes friends with a gardener’s son

Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
– a British fantasy novel from 1865 about a girl who has adventures with strange, nonsensical creatures in an alternate world

Collodi, Carlo. Pinnochio.
– an Italian children’s novel from 1883 about a little wooden puppet who dreams of becoming a boy; his character is famously remembered because every time he lied, his nose grew longer

Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe.
– a British adventure novel from 1719 about a man who is stranded on a tropical island near Trinidad where he lives for 28 years before being rescued

Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist.
– British novels about poor people during the 1800s; remembered for the many vivid characters

Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
– 4 Scottish novels from the 19th/20th century about a detective who lives in London and solves mysteries using his superior observational skills

Dumas, Alexandre. The Three Musketeers.
– a French novel written in the mid-19th century about a young man and his three friends who all live in Paris and have adventures during the 17th century

Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows.
– an English children’s novel, first published in 1908, about little anthropomorhic animals who have adventures in the countryside of southeastern England

Grimm, W. Fairy Tales.
– a German collection of folk stories from the early 19th century including ‘The Three Bears’ and ‘Goldilocks’

Hugo, Victor. Les Miserables.
– a French novel from the mid-19th century about an ex-convict, Jean Valjean; considered one of the most important novels of the 19th century

Irving, Washington. Rip Van Winkle.
– an American short story written in the early 19th century and set in the late 18th century about a man who falls asleep in the woods of New York State and wakes up 20 years later to discover many changes have taken place

Kipling, Rudyard. The Jungle Book and Just So Stories.
– British children’s stories from the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century; tell about life during the British reign of India

Lofting, Hugh. The Story of Dr. Doolittle.
– the first of several British children’s novels about a doctor who can talk to animals; the author started writing the stories, set in the mid-1800s, when he was a soldier in the trenches of WW1

London, Jack. The Call of the Wild.
– a short American novel, written in the early 20th century, about Buck, a dog from California who struggles to survive as a sled dog in the Yukon Gold Rush of the 19th century

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick.
– an American novel, from the mid-19th century, about Ishmael, a sailor who has adventures on the ship captained by Ahab, who is determined to catch a huge white sperm whale called Moby Dick; considered one of the greatest American novels

Milne, A.A. Winnie-the-Pooh.
– the first of several British children’s novels from the early 20th century about Christopher Robin and his animal friends, Winnie, Owl, Piglet, Kanga and Eeyore; another anthromorphic series

Montgomery, L.M.  Anne of Green Gables.
– the first of several Canadian children’s novels from the early 20th century about a lively orphan, Anne, who has adventures on Prince Edward Island

Nesbit, E. The Railway Children.
– a British children’s novel from the early 20th century about three children who move with their mother to the country after their father is falsely accused of being a spy

Norton, Mary. The Borrowers.
– the first in a series of British children’s novels from the mid-20th century about some tiny people who secretly live in homes and borrow things

Sewell, Anna. Black Beauty.
– a British children’s novel from the late 19th century about the life and adventures of a beautiful horse

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein.
– a British novel from the early 19th century about a monster created by a scientist; it was intended to be a horror story and is now considered one of the  earliest examples of science fiction

Spyri, Johanna. Heidi.
– a Swiss children’s novel from the late 19th century about a little orphan girl who lives in the Alps with her grandfather

Stevenson, R.L. Treasure Island.
– a Scottish adventure novel about pirates from the late 19th century

Stoker, Bram. Dracula.
– an Irish novel from the late 19th century about a vampire that wants to move from Transylvania to England

Tolkein, J.R.R. Lord of the Ring series.
– a series of British fantasy novels from the mid-20th century about some imaginary people called hobbits

Twain, Mark. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
– American novels from the late 19th century describing the adventures of two friends in small-town Missouri during the 1840s

Verne, Jules. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
– a French science fiction novel from 1870 about Captain Nemo and his submarine

Wyss, Johann. The Swiss Family Robinson.
– a German adventure novel from the early 19th century about a Swiss family that is shipwrecked while on a journey to Australia

Be acquainted with these fictional or legendary characters:

Achilles – a mythical Greek hero from the Trojan War

Aladdin – a young man who is tricked into retrieving a magical lamp

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – a character who is partly good and partly evil

Helen of Troy – the mythical daughter of the Greek god Zeus

Icarus – the son of Daedalus, in Greek mythology, who flies to close to the sun

King Arthur – a legendary leader in 5th and 6th century Britain who defended his country against the Saxon invaders

Mary Poppins – a fictional nanny in London who can fly and takes the children in her care on many marvellous adventures

Merlin – a wizard from the time of King Arthur

Midas – a mythical Greek king; everything he touched turned to gold

Minotaur – a mythical Greek creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man

Narcissus – a mythical Greek young man known for his beauty and vanity

Odysseus (Ulysses) – a mythical Greek character who takes ten years to travel home after the Trojan War

Pandora – in Greek mythology, the first woman and the one who let out of a box all the evils in the world

Pegasus – a mythical Greek winged horse

Phoenix – a mythical bird that lives up to 1,000 years before burning up in a fire and then rising again from the ashes

Pollyanna – a fictional character who is always optimistic

Robin Hood – a legendary English character from the Middle Ages who stole from the rich and gave to the poor

William Tell – a legendary Swiss character who was to be executed, along with his son, unless he could shoot an apple off the top of his son’s head with a single shot from a crossbow

 

You may request books from your school library or  the Fraser Valley Public Library at http://www.fvrl.bc.ca.bc.ca.

 

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a story for older readers about a girl named Scout and her brother Jem. They live with their father, Atticus, a lawyer, in a burdensome town in Alabama. One day, Atticus takes a case defending Tom Robinson, an African-American man accused of raping and beating a white woman, Mayella Ewell. The townspeople think Tom is guilty, and students at school are antagonizing Scout and Jem because of their father’s case. In court, Tom is found guilty, but Scout and Jem know Tom is really innocent. In desperation, Tom tries to break out of prison but is shot and killed. Atticus speaks out angrily, but the violence continues. Jem and Scout are attacked on Halloween: Jem’s arm is broken and Scout is almost killed before they are saved by Boo Radley, a recluse who is viewed suspiciously.  This sad story is only for older readers. It will take you through the roughest parts of being human. I recommend it for students in grade eight. (Londyn in grade 7)