Grade 8

A mysterious stranger who can spin straw into gold promises to make Charlotte's money problems disappear, but what does he want in return?
400 pages, Grades 7 and up
related subjects:  Fairy Tales, 18th Century, Ghosts

When a polar bear promises that her family will become rich if the Lass accompanies him to his castle, she doesn't hesitate. But the bear is not what he seems, nor is his castle, which is made of ice and inhabited by a silent staff of servants. The bear is really a prince who's been enchanted by a troll queen.
336 pages, Grades 7 and up
related subjects:  Trolls, Fairy Tales

Katie and Michaela are sisters and best friends, but their relationship changes when they move from the city to a small town in upstate New York.
384 pages, Grades 8 and up
related subjects:  High School, Popularity, Sisters

13-year-old Cap has been homeschooled his whole life, but now he is going to public middle school for the first time. He is not prepared for the kids there, and they are not prepared for him!
224 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Boy Bullies, Popularity

This wordless graphic novel powerfully captures the immigrant experience.
128 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Refugees

Book 8 of the Pendragon series. The leaders of Ibara are keeping a devastating secret from their people, one that gives Saint Dane all the opportunity he needs to launch his final assault on Halla.
560 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Parallel Universe, Warriors

Book 3 in the Twilight series. As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger.
Grades 8 and up
related subjects:  High School, Love, Vampires

In Gandhi-era India, 12-year-old Leela's life changes dramatically when she becomes a widow and must renounce the happy life she knew, and prepare for a life of mourning a husband she barely knew.
288 pages, Grades 7 and up
related subjects:  India

When eighth-grader San Lee moves to a new town and a new school, he doesn't try to make new friends or be cool. Instead he devises a plan to be totally different.
272 pages, Grades 7 and up
related subjects:  Popularity

Elaine, the Lady of Shalott tells her version of the King Arthur legend.
394 pages, Grades 7 and up
related subjects:  King Arthur

Thirteen-year-old Azad, a Kurdish boy living in Iran, tries desperately to cling to the life he has known, but the political situation in Iran during the war with Iraq, and Saddam Hussein's persecution of the Kurds forces his family to flee.
152 pages, Grades 7 and up
related subjects:  Refugees, Middle East

A retelling of the Shakespeare play Macbeth, told from the perspective of a teenaged girl living in Macbeth's castle when the King is murdered.
281 pages, Grades 8 and up
related subjects:  Murder Mysteries, Witches, 9th-13th Century

The lives of two girls, one a slave and the other her beautiful master, change forever when Mt. Vesuvius erupts.
160 pages, Grades 7 and up
related subjects:  Ancient Rome, Volcanoes

15-year-old J.J. disappears into the fairy world to plug a time leak caused 150 years ago when his great-grandfather disappeared.
448 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Ireland, Fairies, Parallel Universe

Sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels.
448 pages, Grades 8 and up
related subjects:  19th Century, ESP

Book 2 of the Chronus Chronicles. Sequel to The Shadow Thieves.
448 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Mythology

When the sea called to Sapphy's father, he vanished from her life. When the sea called to her brother, he started disappearing for hours on end. And now the sea is calling to Sapphy, and she feels its pull more strongly than she's ever felt anything in her life. 336 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  Mermaids & Selkies

Eleven-year-old Silver sets out to find the Timekeeper, a clock that controls time, and to protect it from falling into the hands of two people who want to use it for their own evil ends.
415 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Evil Scientists, Parallel Universe, Time Travel

Sequel to Twilight. Edward is afraid that his vampire lust for blood is putting his human girlfriend in danger.
576 pages, Grades 8 and up
related subjects:  High School, Love, Vampires

The alternating narratives of art tutor Samuel Godwin and governess Charlotte Agnew, who work for the wealthy Farrow family in 1898 England, reveal the secrets that almost everyone in the household is hiding.
358 pages, Grades 8 and up
related subjects:  19th Century

Book 1 of the Chronus Chronicles. Thirteen-year-old Charlotte and her cousin Zee must set out to save humankind from denizens of the Underworld, Nightmares, Death, Pain, and a really nasty guy named Phil.
424 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Mythology, Zombies, Evil Scientists

After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana, sixteen-year-old Hattie travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself, and describes her difficult new life in letters to her old friend fighting the war in Europe.
289 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  World War I, Wild West Pioneers

Book 2 of the Echo Falls series. Things are amiss in Echo Falls. True to her hero, Sherlock Holmes, eighth-grader Ingrid begins fishing around to find out who's really pulling the strings in Echo Falls. But one morning, while en route to the dreaded MathFest, Ingrid is kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a car.
352 pages, Grades 6-8
related subjects:  Detectives

Fifteen-year-old Giacomo, servant to Leonardo da Vinci, helps his procrastinating master finish painting The Last Supper while also trying to discover who his real parents are in fifteenth-century Milan, Italy.
390 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  14th-15th Century

Fourteen-year-old Clara is invited to Mexico to meet her grandparents for the first time. When she gets there, she's stunned by their life: they live in a simple shack in a small mountain village, very different from suburban Maryland.
272 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Mexico, Grandparents

Book 7 of the Pendragon series. Bobby must save the people of Quillan from being pawns in a cruel game.
496 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Parallel Universe, Warriors

Book 6 of the Pendragon series. Saint Dane's influence has fueled the fire of discontent between two warring tribes: the Rokador and the Batu on Zadaa where the Traveler Loor lives as a member of the Batu. Together she and Bobby must work to thwart Saint Dane's efforts to destroy Zadaa.
416 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Parallel Universe, Warriors

Book 2 of the Guild of Specialists trilogy. As the Kalaxx warriors close in on the hidden cove where they are stranded, Becca and Doug unearth a riddle linked to a 1533 painting, which may hold the key to the Guild's dark secrets and to finding their parents. But how can they solve the puzzle and escape with their lives before their enemies attack?
288 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  China, Pirates, Sea Adventures, Spies, Survival

Book 1 of the Guild of Specialists trilogy. While trying to find their missing parents, Doug and Becca encounter an ancient order of Chinese mercenaries, a brutal pirate warlord, a feisty Texan heiress, and a stolen cache of a volatile explosive called zoridium. By their saga's end, the duo has exposed a murderous plot involving their parents and uncovered a secret society hidden from the world for hundreds of years.
288 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  China, Pirates, Sea Adventures, Spies, Survival

Book 6 of the Alex Rider series. Shot outside the offices of MI6 and left for dead by Scorpia, Alex Rider awakens in a top-secret hospital, glad simply to be alive. But when the boy in the next room is the victim of a kidnapping attempt, it is Alex who saves him, only to be kidnapped himself.
362 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Spies

Book 5 of the Artemis Fowl series.
400 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Fairies, Spies

In the months leading up to the August 1991 coup attempt that resulted in the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, a young dancer with the Kirov Ballet struggles to decide whether to defect while on an upcoming trip to Paris.
224 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Russia, Poverty, Dancing

In ancient Persia, Mitra and her little brother, Babak, scratch out a living by begging and stealing food, but Mitra knows they are exiled royals if they could only rejoin the rest of their family. Then they discover that Babak has a strange power, he can dream other people's dreams. They use this gift to gain money until they attract the attention of the wrong person.
304 pages, Grades 7 and up
related subjects:  Homelessness, Middle East

A retelling of the Snow White story.
336 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Princesses, Princes, Fairy Tales, Love, Singing

Book 3 in the Confessions of a Teen Nanny series.
208 pages, Grades 7 and up
related subjects:  High School, Best Friends, Popularity

Book 2 in the Confessions of a Teen Nanny series. Two teen nannies in New York City learn the dangers of losing old boyfriends and gaining new ones in the glamorous but deceptive world of the rich and powerful.
208 pages, Grades 7 and up
related subjects:  High School, Best Friends, Popularity

In a government class, three popular girls undergo a mock trial for their ruthless bullying of a classmate.
176 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  High School, Mean girls, Popularity

Liesel is a foster girl living outside of Munich during World War II. With the help of her foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.
560 pages, Grades 8 and up
related subjects:  Jewish Holocaust, World War II

Three teens and a curator of unclassifiable artifacts at the British Museum match wits with a madman determined to reanimate the dead, both humans and dinosaurs.
336 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  19th Century, Museum Mysteries, Zombies, Evil Scientists

Michael Arroyo has a dream of pitching in the Little League World Series, and an arm that throws serious heat. But, orphaned after his family fled from Cuba, Michael has no one to watch out for him except his older brother, who is only 17, and if Social Services hears of the boys' situation, they will be separated in the foster care system-or even worse, sent back to Cuba.
220 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Baseball

Sequel to The Convicts. As Tom Tin sails through islands of headhunters and cannibals to Australia, where he's to serve a lengthy sentence for a murder he didn't commit, he and his fellow convict, Midgely, plot their escape.
240 pages, Grades 6-8
related subjects:  Sea Adventures, 19th Century, Boy Bullies

As a Navajo boy at American school, Ned Begay was punished for speaking Navajo, but when war broke out with Japan, the navajo language formed an unbreakbale code that saved many American lives.
240 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  World War II, Racism

Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced between desire and danger.
512 pages, Grades 8 and up
related subjects:  High School, Love, Vampires

On August 24, A.D. 79, Mount Vesuvius began to erupt. Within twenty-four hours, the entire city of Pompeii had been utterly annihilated. It was not until hundreds of years later that archaeological excavations began to unearth what had been buried under layers of volcanic rubble.
48 pages, Grades 4-8
related subjects:  Ancient Rome, Volcanoes

When his father lands in debtors' prison, Tom, 14, tries to survive on the rough streets of early-nineteenth-century London.
208 pages, Grades 6-8
related subjects:  19th Century, Boy Bullies

Sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty.
560 pages, Grades 8 and up
related subjects:  19th Century, ESP

Like her idol, Sherlock Holmes, eighth grader Ingrid uses her intellect to solve a murder case in her home town of Echo Falls.
375 pages, Grades 6-8
related subjects:  Murder Mysteries, Detectives

When Paul Faustino of LA NACION goes to interview El Gato, the phenomenal goalkeeper who single-handedly brought his team the World Cup, the reporter quickly learns that this will be no ordinary story. Instead, the legendary El Gato ("The Cat") tells a tale of the South American rain forest, where a ghostly mentor, the Keeper, teaches him the secrets of the game.
240 pages, Grades 8 and up
related subjects:  Soccer

When Mitty finds a smallpox scab in an envelope, he fears he may have contracted the disease, but when a terrorist group discovers his situation, they kidnap him to use the disease against innocent people.
208 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Disease Epidemics, Terrorism

In Mississippi in 1969, sixteen-year-old Ruba, trained by her Haitian grandmother in both voodoo and Amazonian war tactics, uses her skills to fight against racism and the African witch Zashar, coming ashore in the form of Hurricane Camille.
208 pages, Grades 7 and up
related subjects:  Civil Rights Movement, Racism, Hurricanes

As a brunette on the all-blonde cheerleading squad at her new Florida high school, sophomore Annisa tries to fit in with her popular teammates without losing the friendship of Bethany, the only other non-blonde at the school.
246 pages, Grades 8 and up
related subjects:  High School, Popularity, Mean Girls

Nell is a wild child: friend of fairies and piskies...and, some say, a witch. Grace is everything Nell is not. She is the Puritan minister's daughter: beautiful and refined, innocent and sweet...to those who think they know her. But she is hiding a secret that will bring everlasting shame to her family should it ever come to light.
263 pages, Grades 7 and up
related subjects:  17th Century, Fairies, Mean girls, Witches

Book 18 of the Redwall series. The otters of Green Isle have long been enslaved to the Wildcat Riggu Felis and his catguards, who torture the otters at every opportunity until the day their savior will arrive—the prophesized High Rhulain, who will lead them in battle and a return to glory.
352 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Talking Animals

High school senior, Laura Sweeney has never had a date. She needs a proven "get the guy" strategy. Luckily she knows exactly the expert to call. He's a matchmaking mastermind who actually has the bow and arrow to prove it. Let's just call him...Cupid.
288 pages, Grades 7 and up
related subjects:  High School, Funny, Love, Mythology

While attending a strict academy for potential princesses with the other girls from her mountain village, fourteen-year-old Miri discovers unexpected talents and connections to her homeland.
250 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Princesses, Love, Singing

Hermes, Prince of Thieves and son of Zeus, relates why the seasons change, the history of the Trojan War, his friendship with Pegasus, and many more adventures.
229 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Ancient Greece, Mythology

At the age of ten, Gwen Cooke had a strange encounter with a boy with dark, slightly tilted eyes. He came to her on the beach, whispered strange words in her ear, and then disappeared. Shortly thereafter, her family moved away from their seaside home and Gwen never saw the boy again. Now seventeen, Gwen is returning to her childhood home. Perhaps the memory of the boy and his haunting words are drawing her back to the place they met. Perhaps it's time for her to face her destiny.
288 pages , Grades 8 and up
related subjects:  Mermaids & Selkies, Love

During the 2001 Afghan War, the lives of Najmah, a young refugee from Afghanaistan, and Nustrat, an American-Muslim teacher who is awaiting her husband's return from Mazar-i-Sharif, intersect at a school in Pakistan.
288 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Middle East, Refugees

Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1919, thriteen-year-old Rachel is tricked into returning to England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents' mission hospital.
208 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  East Africa, Orphans

Book 4 of the Artemis Fowl series. Artemis has no memory of the fairy people and has returned to his unlawful ways. He doesn't know that his old rival, Opal, has escaped from prison by cloning herself. She's left her double behind in jail and, now free, is exacting her revenge on all those who put her there, including Artemis.
400 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Cloning, Fairies, Spies

Book 5 of the Alex Rider series. When Alex learns that his father may have been an assassin for the most lethal and powerful terrorist organization in the world, Scorpia, his world shatters. Now Scorpia wants Alex on their side, and Alex no longer has the strength to fight them.
312 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Spies

Eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow stows away on board Shakleton's ship bound to explore the Antarctic continent. Within months, the ship, trapped and crushed by ice, sank with no hope of rescue. If the men were to survive in the most hostile place on earth, they would have to do it on their own.
336 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Sea Adventures, Survival

Steven has won a coveted press pass for the Final Four. But the games going on behind the scenes between the coaches, the players, the media, the money-men, and the fans turn out to be even more fiercely competitive than those on the court. Steven and his fellow winner, Susan, overhear a threat to throw the championship game. Now they have just 48 hours to figure out who is blackmailing one of MSU’s star players . . . and why.
256 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Basketball, Detectives

Sofia's tales of growing up in Texas, full of family traditions: Easter cascarones, her best friend's quinceanera, the Christmas nacimiento, and eating the tequila worm. When Sofia receives a scholarship to boarding school, she longs to explore life beyond the barrio, even though it means leaving her family for a strange world of rich kids.
199 pages, Grades 5-8
related subjects:  Mexico

Book 1 of the Maximum Ride series. Max and the rest of her "family", all 98% human and 2% bird as a result of a genetic experiment, must rescue the youngest member, Angel, who has been abducted by a group of mutant wolf-men.
480 pages Grades 7 and up
related subjects:  Cloning, Mutants, Survival, Flying People

Noah's dad is sure that the owner of the Coral Queen casino boat is flushing raw sewage into the harbor, which has made the local beach into toilet. He canÕt prove it though, so he decides to sink the boat. But the boat is pumped out and back in business within days and NoahÕs dad is stuck in jail. Now Noah is determined to prove that the Coral Queen is dumping illegally.
272 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Fathers, Pollution

Two sisters, aged ten and twelve, are accused of witchcraft in Andover, Massachussetts in 1692, and await trial in a miserable prison while their mother desperately searches for some way to obtain their freedom.
211 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  17th century, Sisters, Witches

Twelve-year-old New York City twins Meg and Edward have nothing in common, so they are just as shocked as everyone else when Meg's hopes for popularity and Edward's mischievous schemes coincidentally collide in a hilarious showdown.
208 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Twins, Funny, Popularity

Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s, and the despair felt when one sister becomes terminally ill.
256 pages, Grades 6 and up
related subjects:  Sisters

Twelve-year-old Annika was abandoned as a baby and found by two kind servants in a professor's house. They took her in and loved her. Then one day a glamorous stranger arrives, claiming to be Annika's mother. Annika is no servant, she learns, but an aristocrat whose true home is an ancient castle. But at crumbling Spittal, Annika discovers that all is not as it seems in the lives of her newfound family.
416 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Foundlings, 19th Century

Discusses the events and personalities involved in the momentous Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944.
61 pages, Grades 4 and up
related subjects:  Survival, World War II

The true story of Washington's use of espionage in gathering intelligence to defeat the British in the Revolutionary War.
192 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  18th Century, Spies

Book 4 of the Alex Rider series. Alex investigates pop star Damian Cray whose new video game hides sinister motives involving Air Force One, nuclear missiles, and the international drug trade.
256 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Spies

Book 5 of the Pendragon series. The inhabitants of Eelong are in danger of being wiped out by a mysterious plague. But if Bobby chooses to save Eelong he could endanger himself, his friends, and the future of every other being in Halla.
448 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Parallel Universe, Warriors

The true story of a thirteen-year-old girl whose arm was bitten off by a shark while she was surfing in Hawaii.
213 pages, Grades 5 and up
related subjects:  Sharks