Recommended Books for Grade 8 Reading Workshop

Mirror & Window Books
Barton, Chris. 2011. Can I See Your I.D.? True Stories of False Identities. Illustrated by Paul Hoppe. NY: Dial.
Bruchac, Joseph,. 2007. The Way. Minneapolis, MN: Darby Creek Publishing.
Budhos, Maria. 2011. Tell Us We're Home. NY: Atheneum.
Collington, Peter. 1994. The Coming of the Surfman. NY: Knopf.
Gallo, Donald, R. (Ed.). 2007. First Crossing: Stories about Teen Immigrants. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
Hidier, Yanuja Desai. 2003. Born Confused. NY: Scholastic.
Jones, Traci. L. 2006. Standing Against the Wind. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Lee, Marie G. 2001. Finding My Voice. NY: Harper Trophy.
Myers, Walter Dean & Ross Workman. 2011. Kick. NY: HarperTeen (Note: Workman is a high school student).
Na, An. 2003. A Step from Heaven. NY: Speak.
Son, John. 2004. Finding My Hat. NY: Scholastic.
Thurlo, David & Aimee Thurlo. 2004. The Spirit Line. NY: Viking.
Veciana-Suarez, Ana. 2002. Flight to Freedom. NY: Scholastic.
Woodson, Jacquline. 2008. After Tupac and D Foster. NY: Putnam. 

Text to Text 
1. Exploring the Essay
Bryson, Bill. 2000. I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away. NY: Broadway.
Einstein, Albert, 1950s. An Ideal Service to Our Fellow Man. This I Believe on NPR.
Grady, Wayne. 2010. Technology: A Groundwood Guide. Toronto: Groundwood Books.
Heinlan, Robert. 2010. Our Nobel, Essential Decency. This I Believe Essays as heard on the Bob Edwards show, 3.12.10 on NPR.
Hubbard, Jim. 1994. Shooting Back from the Reservation: A Photographic View of Life by Native Americans. NY: New Press.
Kidder, Tracey. 2004. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World. New York: Random House.
Sullivan, George. 2009. Berenice Abbott, Photographer: An Independent Vision. NY: Clarion.
Walker, David & Peter Hinks (ed). 1829/2000. David Walker's Appeal: To the Coloured Citizens of the World. Pennsylvania State University. (Link is for an online source)

2. Exploring the 1960s & Early 1970s


Alvarez, Julia. 2004. Before We Were Free. NY: Laurel Leaf. (Dominican Republic, 1960-61).
----------------. 2004. Antes de ser libres. NY: Laurel Leaf. (Dominican Republic, 1960-61).
Brimner, Larry Dane. 2011. Birmingham Sunday. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press.
Caputo, Philip. 2005. 10,000 Days of Thunder: A History of the Vietnam War. NY:
Atheneum.
Case, Diana. 1995. 92 Queens Road. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (South Africa, 1960s).
Compestine, Ying Chang.  2009. Revolution is Not a Dinner Party. NY: Holt. (China, 1972).
Gallo, Gary. 2010. Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow: the Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix. Illustrated by Javaka Steptoe. NY: Clarion.
Glass, Linzi. 2006. The Year the Gypsies Came. NY: Henry Holt. (South Africa during the 1960s).
Gonzalez, Christina. 2010. The Red Umbrella. NY: Knopf Books.
Hill, Laban Carrick. 2007.  America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s. NY: Little Brown.
Kaufman, Michael. 2009. 1968. New Milford, CT: Roaring Brook Press.
Magoon, Kekla. 2010. The Rock and the River. NY: Collins.
McWhorter, Diane. 2004. A Dream of Freedom: the Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968. NY: Scholastic.
Mills, Kay, 1994. This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer. NY: Plume.
Myers, Walter Dean. 1994. Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary. NY: Scholastic.
Stokes, John, Herman Viola and Lois Wolfe. 2007. Students on Strike: Jim Crow, Civil Rights, Brown, and Me. Illustrated with Photographs. Washington DC: National Geographic Children’s Books.
Wiles, Deborah. 2010. Countdown. NY: Scholastic Press.
Williams-Garcia. Rita. 2010. One Crazy Summer. NY: Amistad.

Text to World

Bagdasarian, Adam. 2000. Forgotten Fire. NY: Dorling Kindersley.
Badoe, Adwoa. 2010. Between Sisters. Toronto: Groundwood Books.
Budhos, Marina. 2007. Remix: Conversations with Immigrant Teenagers. New York: Henry Holt/Resource Publications.
Carmi, Daniella. 2000. Samir and Yonatan. Translated by Yael Lotan.  NY: Arthur A. Levine Books.
Combres, Elisabeth. 2011. Broken Memory: A Novel of Rwanda. Toronto: Groundwood Books.
Engle, Margarita. 2011. Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck. NY: Henry Holt.
Guibert, Emmanuel. 2009. The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders. Photographs by Lefevre. NY: FirstSecond.
Kass, Pnina Moed. 2006. Real Time. NY: Graphia.
Kuklin, Susan. 1996. Irrepressible Spirit: Conversations with Human Rights Activists. New York: Putnam.
Marston, Elsa. 2005. Figs and Fate: About Growing Up in the Arab World Today. NY: George Braziller.
Oodgeroo. 1994. Dreamtime: Aboriginal Stories. Illustrated by Bronwyn Bancroft. NY: Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard.

Exploring Other: Science Fiction & Fantasy
Abbott, Ellen Jensen. 2009. Watersmeet. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish.
Allende, Isabel. 2006. Kingdom of the Golden Dragon. NY: Rayo.
------------------. 2004. El Reino del Dragon de Oro. NY: Rayo.
Allende, Isabel. 2004. Forest of the Pygmies. NY: Rayo.
------------------. 2005. El Bosque de los Pigmeos. NY: Rayo.
Allende, Isabel. 2009. City of Beasts. NY: Harper Perennial.
-------------------. 2003. La Ciudad de las Bestias. NY: Rayo.

Bruchac, Joseph. 2011. Wolf Mark. NY: Tu Books/Lee & Low. (Will be published in Fall, 2011).
-------------------. 2007. Wabi: A Hero's Tale. NY: Speak.
Fishbone, Greg, 2011. Galaxy Games: The Challengers. NY: Tu Books/Lee & Low. (Will be published in Fall, 2011).
Gill, David Macinnis. 2009. Soul Enchilada. NY: Harper Collins.
Pon, Cindy. 2009. Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia. NY: Greenwillow Books.
Sandler, Karen. 2011. Tankborn. NY: Tu Books/Lee & Low. (Will be published in Fall, 2011).
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. 2011. Blessed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
----------------------------. 2010. Eternal. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
---------------------------. 2007. Tantalize. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
Tolkien, J.R.R. 1986. The Hobbit. NY: Ballantine.

So Much to See: Image and Text
Carlson, Lori Marie. (Ed.). 2005. Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
Feelings, Tom. 1995. The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo. New York: Dial.
Grandits, John. 2007. Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems. NY: Clarion.
Igus, Toyomi.1998. i see the rhythm. Illustrated by Michele Wood. San Francisco: Children's Book Press.
Nye, Naomi Shihab. 2002. 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East.  Greenwillow Books/ HarperCollins.
Soto, Gary. 2006. A Fire in My Hands: Revised and Expanded Edition. San Diego, CA: Harcourt.
Volakova, Hana. 1994. I Never Saw Another Butterfly. NY: Schocken.


Wonderings...
Alvarez, Julia. 2006. Finding Miracles. New York: Laurel Leaf.
Anderson, M.T. 2006. The Astonishing Life of Octavia Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
Cart, Michael. 2006. Necessary Noise: Stories About Our Families as They Really Are. Illustrated by Charlotte Noruzi. NY: HarperTeen.

Chassman, Gary. 2002. In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  NY: Tinwood Books.

Haddix, Margaret Petersen. 2007. Uprising. NY: Simon & Schuster.
Laird, Elizabeth & Nimr, Sonia. 2006. A Little Piece of Ground. Illustrated by Bill Neal. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.
Lawrence, Jerome and Lee Robert E. 2007. Inherit the Wind. NY: Ballantine Books.
Myers, Walter Dean. 2010. Lockdown. NY: Amistad.
Saenz, Benjamin Alire. 2011. Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press.

Determining Importance
Atkin, S. Beth. 2000. Voices from the Field: Children of Migrant Farmworkers Tell Their Stories. New York: Little Brown Young Readers.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. 2010. They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group. NY: Houghton Mifflin.
Bial, Raymond. 2002. Tenement Life on the Lower East Side. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Grainfield, Linda. 2001. 97 Orchard Street, New York: Stories of Immigrant Life. Illustrated by Arlene Alda. Toronto, Ontario: Tundra Books.
Higgins, Dalton. 2010. Hip Hop World: Groundwood Series. Toronto: Groundwood Books.
Herrera, Nicholas. 2011. High Riders, Saints and Death Cars: A Life Saved by Art. Illustrated by John T. Deene. Toronto: Groundwood Books.
Myers, Walter Dean. 2009. Riot. NY: Egmont USA.
Ziegelman, Jane. 2010. 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement. NY: HarperCollins.


Synthesis
Aronson, Marc & Marina Budhos. 2010. Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science. NY: Clarion.
Bryant, Jennifer. 2007. Pieces of Georgia: A Novel. NY: Yearling.
Danticat, Edwidge. 2003. Behind the Mountains. New York: Scholastic.
Gaskins, Paul Fuyo (Ed.). 1999. What Are You? Voices of Mixed-Race Young People. New York: Henry Holt.
Haworth-Attard, Barabra. 2005. Theories of Relativity. NY: Holt.
Rushdie, Salman. 1990. Haroun and the Sea of Stories. New York: Penguin.
Sheth, Kashmira. 2009. Keeping Corner. NY: Hyperion.
Staples, Suzanne Fisher. 2005. Under the Persimmon Tree. Frances Foster Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Steinbeck, John. 2002. Of Mice and Men (Centennial Edition). New York: Penguin.
Williams-Garcia, Rita. 2010. Jumped. NY: Amistad.
Zusak, Markus. 2007. The Book Thief. NY: Knopf Books for Young Readers.