The following is list of suggested titles for 8th graders. This list was compiled by Children’s Outreach Librarian Samantha Tai at the Vineland Public Library. All titles are available at the Vineland Public Library. Audiobooks are indicated as J AUD CD FIC or AUD CD YA FIC. Lexile numbers have been listed after each title. Please see a librarian for the location of the following books or for more suggested titles. Zombie Baseball Beatdown by Paolo Bacigalupi Lexile 650 While practicing for their next baseball game, 13-year-old friends Rabi, Miguel, and Joe discover that the nefarious activities of the Delbe, Iowa, meatpacking plant have caused cows to turn into zombies. (YA FIC Bacigalupi & AUD CD YA FIC Bacigalupi) They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti Lexile 1180 “Boys, let us get up a club.” With those words, six restless young men raided the linens at a friend’s mansion, pulled pillowcases over their heads, hopped on horses, and cavorted through the streets of Pulaski, Tennessee. The six friends named their club the Ku Klux Klan, and, all too quickly, their club grew into the self-proclaimed Invisible Empire with secret dens spread across the South. Includes personal accounts from oral histories, congressional documents and diaries. (YA 322.42 Bar) Peeled by Joan Bauer Lexile 620 In an upstate New York farming community, high school reporter Hildy Biddle investigates a series of strange occurrences at a house rumored to be haunted. (YAP B) I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter Lexile 1000 Cammie Morgan is a student at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, a fairly typical all-girls school—that is, if every school taught advanced martial arts in PE and the latest in chemical warfare in science, and students received extra credit for breaking CIA codes in computer class. The Gallagher Academy might claim to be a school for geniuses, but it’s really a school for spies. Try the other books in the Gallagher Girls series too. (YA FIC Carter) Graceling by Kristin Cashore Lexile 730 In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king. (YA FIC Cashore & AUD CD YA FIC Cashore) Hunger Games, The by Suzanne Collins Lexile 810 In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the 12 districts against one another, 16-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place. (YA FIC Collins & AUD CD YA Collins) Rag and Bone Shop, The by Robert Cormier Lexile 730 Trent, an ace interrogator from Vermont, works to procure a confession from an introverted 12-year-old accused of murdering his seven-year-old friend in Monument, Massachusetts. (YA FIC Cormier) Maze Runner, The by James Dashner Lexile 770 Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape. (YA FIC Dashner & AUD CD YA FIC Dashner) Scorch Trials, The by James Dashner Lexile 720 In the sequel to The Maze Runner, after surviving horrific conditions in the Maze, Thomas is entrapped, along with 19 other boys, in a scientific experiment designed to observe their responses and gather data believed to be essential for the survival of the human race. (YA FIC Dashner & AUD CD YA FIC Dashner) Better Nate Than Ever by Tim Federle Lexile 930 An eighth-grader who dreams of performing in a Broadway musical concocts a plan to run away to New York and audition for the role of Elliot in the musical version of "E.T." (YA FIC Federle) My Life in Pink and Green by Lisa Greenwald Lexile 680 When the family's drugstore is failing, seventh-grader Lucy uses her problem-solving talents to come up with a solution that might resuscitate the business, along with helping the environment. (YA FIC Greenwald) Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix Lexile 750 When 13-year-olds Jonah and Chip, who are both adopted, learn they were discovered on a plane that appeared out of nowhere, full of babies with no adults on board, they realize that they have uncovered a mystery involving time travel and two opposing forces, each trying to repair the fabric of time. (J FIC Haddix) Lost Conspiracy, The by Frances Hardinge Lexile 970 Two young sisters who live on a beautiful island soon become caught in a deadly web of deceit. Neither girl is exactly what she pretends to be. When they are drawn into a sinister conspiracy, one discovers that the only thing more dangerous than the secret she hides is the truth she must uncover. (YA FIC Hardinge) Dogs of War by Sheila Keenan Lexile 490 Three fictional stories, told in graphic novel format, about soldiers in World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War who were aided by combat dogs. Based on true stories. (J GN Dogs) Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta Lexile 820 Now on the cusp of manhood, Finnikin, who was a child when the royal family of Lumatere was brutally murdered and their throne was taken over by a usurper, reluctantly joins forces with an enigmatic young novice and fellow exile, who claims that her dark dreams will lead them to a surviving royal child and a way to regain the throne of Lumatere. (YA FIC Marchetta & AUD CD YA FIC Marchetta) Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay Lexile 630 After learning that she was adopted, thirteen-year-old Saffron's relationship with her eccentric, artistic family changes, until they help her go back to Italy, where she was born, to find a special memento of her past. (J FIC McKay & J AUD CD FIC McKay) Far, Far Away by Tom McNeal Lexile 790 When Jeremy Johnson Johnson's strange ability to speak to the ghost of Jacob Grimm draws the interest of his classmate, Ginger Boltinghouse, the two find themselves at the center of a series of disappearances in their hometown. (YA FIC McNeal) Trash by Andy Mulligan Lexile 850 Fourteen-year-olds Raphael and Gardo team up with a younger boy, Rat, to figure out the mysteries surrounding a bag Raphael finds during their daily life of sorting through trash in a third-world country's dump. (YA FIC Mulligan & AUD CD YA FIC Mulligan) Peace, Love and Baby Ducks by Lauren Myracle Lexile 630 Fifteen-year-old Carly's summer volunteer experience feels more real to her than her life of privilege in Atlanta ever did, but her younger sister starts high school pretending to be what she is not, and both find their relationships suffering. (YA FIC Myracle) As Easy as Falling off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins Lexile 730 A teenage boy encounters one comedic calamity after another when his train strands him in the middle of nowhere, and everything comes down to luck. (YA FIC Perkins) Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer Lexile 770 Through journal entries, 16-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. (YA FIC Pfeffer & AUD CD YA FIC Pfeffer) Wings by Aprilynne Pike Lexile 690 Fifteen-year-old Laurel has always known she was different from other teenagers, but she's about to learn just how different she is. She doesn't eat the food that most of her teen peers eat—she's a vegan, sticking to salads and peaches and other fruit. When she grows a flower blossom that look like wings on her back, she begins to investigate her past and learns some extraordinary things about herself. (YA FIC Pike) Framed! by Malcolm Rose Lexile 760 Sixteen-year-old Luke Harding is the youngest person ever to qualify for the position of forensic investigator, and he is about to get his first real case. A young student has been mysteriously shot and killed by an arrow. The boy’s murder is quickly followed by two more grisly deaths and all clues lead back to Luke himself. (J FIC Rose) Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary Schmidt Lexile 1000 In 1911, Turner Buckminster hates his new home of Phippsburg, Maine, but things improve when he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, a girl from a poor, nearby island community founded by former slaves that the town fathers--and Turner's--want to change into a tourist spot. (J FIC Schmidt & J AUD CD FIC Schmidt) Bomb: The Race to Build-and Steal-the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin Lexile 920 This is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that created the world's most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb. (J 623.451 She) Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool Lexile 790 Odyssey-like adventure of two boys' incredible quest on the Appalachian Trail where they deal with pirates, buried secrets, and extraordinary encounters. (J FIC Vanderpool & J AUD CD FIC Vanderpool) Monstrumologist, The by Richard Yancey Lexile 990 In 1888, 12-year-old Will Henry chronicles his apprenticeship with Dr.