Summer Reading Choices for Students Entering the 8th Grade I Am Malala (Culture) Malala Yousafzai (*There is a Young Reader's edition) When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday October 9, 2012, she almost paid the ultimate price. When she was shot in the head at point blank range while riding the bus home from school, few expected her to survive. Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in Northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest ever nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Okay For Now (Realistic Fiction) Gary D. Schmidt Doug struggles to be more than the "skinny thug" that some people think him to be. He finds an unlikely ally in Lil Spicer, who gives him the strength to endure an abusive father, the suspicions of a town, and the return of his oldest brother, forever scarred, from Vietnam. Schmidt expertly weaves multiple themes of loss and recovery in a story teeming with distinctive, unusual characters and invaluable lessons about love, creativity, and survival. This companion novel to The Wednesday Wars will engage readers of historical fiction and anyone who wants to be seen for who they can be, not for who people think they are.
Peak (Adventure) Roland Smith Arrested for scaling a New York City skyscraper, 14-year-old Peak Marcello is left with two choices: Juvenile Detention or go live with his long-lost father, who runs a climbing company in Thailand. But Peak quickly learns that his father's renewed interest in him has strings attached. Big strings. As owner of Peak Expeditions, he wants his son to be the youngest person to reach the Everest summit--and his motives are selfish at best. For a climbing addict like Peak, tackling Everest is the challenge of a lifetime. But it's also one that could cost him his life.
Brown Girl Dreaming (Memoir/Novel in Verse) Jacqueline Woodson Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child.
I Am Number Four (Fantasy)Pittacus Lore Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books—but we are real. Our plan was to grow, train, become strong, become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. Now all of us are running. Spending our lives in shadows, in places where no one would look, blending in. We have lived among you without you knowing. But they know.
Unwind (Fantasy) Neil Shusterman This thriller contains mature content and is the first book in a popular trilogy. The path of three teens intersect as they try to escape and survive in a world in which parents can have their child “unwound” between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.
Counting by 7’s (Realistic Fiction)Holly Goldberg Sloan This is an intensely moving novel about being an outsider, coping with loss, and discovering the true meaning of family. Willow Chance is a twelve-year-old genius, obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions, who also happens to find it comforting to count by 7s. It has never been easy for her to connect with anyone other than her adoptive parents, but that hasn’t kept her from leading a quietly happy life . . . until now.
The Heart of a Champion (Sport) Carl Deuker Seth had been an unfocused, confused pre-teen who had never come to terms with his father's death when he was seven. He meets Jimmy in a park as Jimmy's overbearing father is putting his son through intense baseball drills. As their friendship develops, Jimmy's determination and self-assurance on the playing field spills over into Seth's life, helping him to blossom as a student and a baseball player.
Chasing Lincoln's Killer (Nonfiction) James L. Swanson When actor John Wilkes Booth raced from Ford's Theatre after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln, he began a mad flight that lasted 12 days. James Swanson's Chasing Lincoln's Killer summarizes the exciting chase through small towns and swamps by drawing on letters, manuscripts, trial transcripts, government reports, and contemporary newspaper interviews.