Great Books for 8th Graders

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Is your 8th grader looking for a new book? We have piled a list of our favorite recommendations for 8th graders. Though the library is still closed, you can place these books on hold for your curbside appointment or through one of our digital libraries (just download the Hoopla and/or Libby apps!)

8th grade

Burn by Patrick Ness: Sarah Dewhurst and her father, outcasts in their little town of Frome, Washington, are forced to hire a dragon to work their farm, something only the poorest of the poor ever have to resort to. The dragon, Kazimir, has more to him than meets the eye, though. Sarah can’t help but be curious about him, an animal who supposedly doesn’t have a soul but who is seemingly intent on keeping her safe. Because the dragon knows something she doesn’t.  Catalog Overdrive/Libby

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins (Alabama Author): In the first book of the Hex Hall series, Rachel Hawkins introduces teenage witch Sophie Mercer, who is exiled to Hex Hall, an isolated reform school for wayward witches, faeries, and shapeshifters. Catalog Overdrive/Libby Hoopla

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee: 1890, Atlanta. By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady’s maid for the cruel Caroline Payne, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for ‘the genteel Southern lady. Catalog Overdrive/Libby Hoopla

Unwind by Neal Shusterman: In a society where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts, three runaways fight the system that would “unwind” them. In this work, “Boston Globe/Horn Book” Award-winner Shusterman challenges readers’ ideas about life–not just where life begins and where it ends, but what it truly means to be alive. Catalog Overdrive/Libby

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han: Lara Jean writes love letters to all the boys she has loved and then hides them in a hatbox until one day those letters are accidentally sent. Catalog Overdrive/Libby

Light Years by Kass Morgan: After centuries of exclusivity, the Quatra Fleet Academy finally accepts students from the settler planets, forcing four teenagers from different backgrounds to work together to outmaneuver a mysterious alien enemy. Catalog

1919: The Year that Changed America by Martin W. Sandler: Some of the most important issues of our time were no less important 100 years ago. America in 1919, at the close of World War I, was shaken from the events of large-scale warfare, fearing a Communist takeover, and facing an incredible amount of social and political change. From Prohibition to women’s suffrage, the labor strikes to the violence of the Red Summer and the Red Scare, this book explores each major movement of 1919. Catalog Overdrive/Libby 

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi: In a near-future society that claims to have gotten rid of all monstrous people, a creature emerges from a painting seventeen-year-old Jam’s mother created, a hunter from another world seeking a real-life monster. Catalog Overdrive/Libby

I Am Malala (Young Reader’s Version) by Malala Yousafzai: Malala Yousafzai was only ten years old when the Taliban took control of her region. They said music was a crime. They said women weren’t allowed to go to the market. They said girls couldn’t go to school. Raised in a once-peaceful area of Pakistan transformed by terrorism, Malala was taught to stand up for what she believes. So she fought for her right to be educated. And on October 9, 2012, she nearly lost her life for the cause: She was shot point-blank while riding the bus on her way home from school. No one expected her to survive. Now Malala is an international symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Catalog Overdrive/Libby Hoopla

Cells at Work: Volume 1 (Manga) by Akane Shimizu: Strep throat! Hay fever! Influenza! The world is a dangerous place for a red blood cell just trying to get her deliveries finished. Fortunately, she’s not alone… she’s got a whole human body’s worth of cells ready to help out! The mysterious white blood cell, the buff and brash killer T cell, the nerdy neuron, even the cute little platelets — everyone’s got to come together if they want to keep you healthy! Catalog Overdrive/Libby

The Great Escape: The Greatest Prison Breakout of the 20th Century by Neal Boscomb: The author of “The Nazi Hunters” returns with the thrilling untold story about a group of Allied POWs during World War I who staged an escape from a German camp called Holzminden in July, 1918. Catalog Overdrive/Libby Hoopla

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green: It all begins with a fugitive billionaire and the promise of a cash reward. Turtles All the Way Down is about lifelong friendship, the intimacy of an unexpected reunion, Star Wars fan fiction, and tuatara. But at its heart is Aza Holmes, a young woman navigating daily existence within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts. Catalog Overdrive/Libby

Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell: Deja and Josiah are seasonal best friends. Every autumn, all through high school, they’ve worked together at the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world. (Not many people know that the best pumpkin patch in the whole wide world is in Omaha, Nebraska, but it definitely is.) They say good-bye every Halloween, and they’re reunited every September 1. But this Halloween is different — Josiah and Deja are finally seniors, and this is their last season at the pumpkin patch. Their last shift together. Their last good-bye. Catalog Overdrive/Libby

Hey Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka: In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka’s teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett’s family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett’s life. His father is a mystery — Jarrett doesn’t know where to find him, or even what his name is. Jarrett lives with his grandparents — two very loud, very loving, very opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children until Jarrett came along.Jarrett goes through his childhood trying to make his non-normal life as normal as possible, finding a way to express himself through drawing even as so little is being said to him about what’s going on. Only as a teenager can Jarrett begin to piece together the truth of his family, reckoning with his mother and tracking down his father. Catalog Overdrive/Libby Hoopla

Samurai Rising by Pamela S. Turner: Minamoto Yoshitsune should not have been a samurai. But his story is legend in this real-life saga.This epic warrior tale reads like a novel, but this is the true story of the greatest samurai in Japanese history. Catalog Overdrive/Libby Hoopla

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