Concord Middle School
Summer Reading List - Grade 8
2009
Creating Community through Reading
Click on the links below to the Concord Free Public Library. Search database for titles available in different formats and editions.
Required Reading for Incoming Eighth Graders
The House of the Scorpion  by Nancy Farmer
The House of the Scorpion  by Nancy Farmer
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the clone of El Patron, the 140-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.  As Matt struggles to understand his existenence, he is threatened by a sinister cast of characters.
 
Faculty Recommendation for Incoming Eighth Graders
English 
Bless Me Ultima  by Rudolfo Anaya
This is a beautifully written and moving story of Antonio Marez, a young six-year-old boy who lives in post-war New Mexico when Ultima comes to stay with his family.  Ultima is a curandera, one who cures with herbs and magic, and under her tutelage, Antonio comes to understand himself, his family, and his culture.
 
The Old Man and the Sea  by Ernest Hemingway - You’ll never forget this tragic story of an old fisherman who catches the fish of his life and then sadly loses it.
 
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn  by Betty Smith
Francie Nolan, a young Irish American girl, grows up in Brooklyn during the early 1900’s and learns about herself and the world.
 
The Chocolate War  by Robert Cormier
A boy refuses to give in to the cruelty practiced by the group of students that rules his high school (mature theme).
 
Ender’s Game  and Ender’s Shadow  by Orson Scott Card
Aliens have attacked Earth and almost destroyed the human species.  To make sure humans win the next war, the world government breeds military geniuses and trains them for the ultimate war.  Ender Wiggins is the genius for whom the the earthlings have been looking.  However, is he smart enough to save the planet?
 
Gathering Blue  and The Messenger   both by Lois Lowry
Lois Lowry delivers stunning looks at disturbing alternative worlds.
Airman by Eoin Colfer
            Set in the 1890's, this is a swashbuckling adventure about a young man who wants to design and fly an air machine. Allied with the princess of a tiny island, he finds himself imprisoned, plans a clever escape, and has to reestablish his life after everyone he has ever known believed him to be guilty. This is a great book if you like a fast, action-packed plot.

Taken by Edward Bloor
            Set in a dystopian future, this book follows a young girl as she is kidnapped from her exclusive, gated community. During her capture, she learns about the unequal social and economic systems that the country has developed. The book has both action and social commentary.

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock     
This book is about the athletic daughter of dairy farmers. She struggles to help with the family farm, support her brothers' football careers, and find her own way through the high school cliques. The strong female protagonist eventually opens her eyes to new friends and finds her own way through the complicated social rules of the town.

 
World  Languages
Go and Come Back  by Joan Abelove
Alicia is apprehensive when two American anthropologists come to study her Peruvian jungle village. Told from Alicia’s point of view, the story takes a close look at understanding different cultures.
The Little Prince  by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The little prince lives alone on a tiny planet no larger than a house.  He leaves his planet for an interplanetary trip where he learns the secret of what is really important in life.
 
The Well of Sacrifice  by Chris Eboch
When a Mayan girl in ninth century Guatemala suspects that a high priest sacrifices anyone who stands in the way of his power, she proves herself a hero.
 
Math
Reading the Sports Page by Jeremy R. Feinberg
This book is a clearly written guide to understanding the different statistics that appear in the sports section of a newspaper.
Zero  by Charles Seife
You might think it means nothing, and for thousands of years, it was an unnecessary concept.  But any mathematics more complicated than counting--that is, any mathematical system that uses place values, as our system does--needs zero as a placeholder.  And once zero got that job, it became far more useful, and far more frightening, than its inventors ever imagined.  Charles Seife's "biography" tells us everything we need to know about the number zero, from why we need it, to how we use it, to what comes next for it.
 
Science
The Longitude Prize  by Joan Dash
This is the remarkable story of John Harrison, a maker of clocks and watches in the 1700’s, who spent a lifetime perfecting the timepiece that would accurately record the longitude of ships at sea.
 
Rocket Boys:  A Memoir  by Homer H. Hickam, Jr. 
This is the book that inspired the movie October Sky.   It is a memoir of Sonny Hickam who was never the same after Sputnik streaked across the sky in 1957 (mature theme).
 
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
A meteor knocks the moon closer to Earth causing tsumanis and many other nautral disasters  What unfolds is a heart-pounding story of a girl Miranda and her family as they struggle to survive in a drastically changing time while finding hope brings them closer than ever.
 
Catalyst  by Laurie Halse Anderson
The story of a star student, Kate, who deals with many twists in life when she gets turned down from her only application to college.  While the plot is fiction, the metaphor with chemistry is cleverly employed throughout.
 
 
Social Studies
Autobiography of Malcolm X
This book belongs on the small shelf of great autobiographies.  The reasons are many:  the blistering honesty with which he recounts his transformation from a bitter, self-destructive petty criminal into an articulate political activist, the continued relevance of his militant analysis of white racism, and his emphasis on self-respect and self-help for African Americans.
 
Roots  by Alex Haley
This tale begins with a birth in 1750 in an African village and ends seven generations later at the Arkansas funeral of a black professor whose children are a teacher, an architect, an assistant director of the U.S. Information Agency, and an author.
Warriors Don’t Cry  by Melba Pattillo Beals
This searing memoir of the battle to integrate Little Rock’s Central High is a true story you will never forget.  Melba, the author of the book, is one of the nine African American teenagers chosen to integrate Central High in 1957.  The book is an account of her ordeal.
 
Daniel’s Story  by Carol Matas
Daniel, whose family suffers as the Nazis rise to power in Germany, describes his imprisonment in a concentration camp and his eventual liberation.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963  by Christopher Paul Curtis
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American
family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Night  by Elie Weisel
Read this author’s own account of his horrifying experience as a Holocaust victim.
 
All Quiet on the Western Front  by Erich M. Remarque
Young German soldiers go to the front with idealism and enthusiasm, but the war soon changes them.  As fear, frustration, and anger set in, the soldiers must make their own peace with combat.  This book shows the human side of World War I (mature theme).
 
Special Areas
Up Country  by Alden Carter
Forced to leave his alcoholic mother, Carl goes to live with his relatives in Wisconsin where he discovers much about himself.
A Separate Peace  by John Knowles
Two friends at a New England boarding school after the war share an interesting and tragic friendship (mature theme).
 
Just Be Gorgeous  by Barbara Wersba
Under pressure from her mother to be “gorgeous,” Heidi finds solace in a friendship with a homeless street performer.
 
The Painter’s Eye:  Learning to Look at Contemporary American Art  by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan
Students interested in modern art will enjoy this look at several post-war American painters.
 
Ludwig van Beethoven  by Wendy Thompson
Enjoy this story of the life of the famous composer that includes excerpts from some of his musical scores.
 
Chicken Soup for the Teen Age Soul  by Jack Canfield
This book is part of the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  It contains stories, poems, and cartoons relating to the specific troubles that traumatize teenagers everywhere.
 
The Beauty Trap  by Elaine Landau
This book is a close look at how young women are convinced by society and the media that beauty is the only thing that counts.
 
Artist in Overalls:  The Life of Grant Wood   by John Duggleby
Follow the life of an Iowa farm boy who went to Paris to paint but returned to his rural home and became an accomplished painter.
No More Dead Dogs  by Gordon Korman
No More Dead Dogs  by Gordon Korman
An eighth grade football hero is sent to detention attending rehearsals of the school play.  He becomes involved in the production and makes suggestions that improve the play and his own life.
 
 Kid Picks for Incoming Eighth Graders
Novels
1.  Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer
2.  Marley and Me by John Grogan
3. Night  by Elie Weisel
4.  Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
5. The House of the Scorpion  by Nancy Farmer
The House of the Scorpion  by Nancy Farmer
6.  Speak by Laurie Anderson
7.  Eragon by Christopher Paolini
8.  The Wanderer by Sharon Creech
The Wanderer by Sharon Creech
The Wanderer by Sharon Creech
9.  The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Series
(search online for more titles)
1.  The Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld
2.  Alex Rider Series Anthony Horowitz
3.  The Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman