8th Grade Common Core Suggested Reading Lists

8-1 Literary Texts—Urban Settings in America

Poems

• “Chicago” (Carl Sandburg) (E)
• “O Captain! My Captain!” (Walt Whitman) (E)
• Stone Bench in an Empty Park (Paul Janeczko)
• Technically, It’s Not My Fault (John Grandits)

Short Stories
(Note: These are used again in unit 2.)

• American Eyes: New Asian-American Short Stories for Young Adults (Lori Carlson)
• America Street: A Multicultural Anthology of Stories (Anne Mazer)

Join In: Multiethnic Short Stories

(Donald R. Gallo)

Stories

The Great Fire

(Jim Murphy) (E)

KiKi Strike: Inside the Shadow City (Kirsten Miller) (L890)

The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)(L790)

All of the Above

(Shelley Pearsall)

A Long Way from Chicago: A Novel in Stories (Richard Peck) [easy to read] (L750)

Bag in the Wind (Ted Kooser and Barry Root) (easier)

The King of Dragons (Carol Fenner) (easier) (L820)

Picture Books (Introductory Material)

City By Numbers (Stephen T. Johnson)

Informational Texts

• The Building of Manhattan (Donald Mackay) (E)

Skyscraper

(Lynn Curlee) (L1200)

The New York Subways (Great Building Featsseries) (Lesley DuTemple) (L1100)

New York (This Land is Your Land series) (Ann Heinrichs)

September 11, 2001: Attack on New York City: Interviews and Accounts (Wilborn Hampton)

September 11, 2001 (Cornerstones of Freedom, Second Series) (Andrew Santella)

“The Evolution of the Grocery Bag” (American Scholar Magazine, Autumn 2003) (Henry Petroski) (E) (complete article available in EBSCO, Pioneer Library)

America’s Top 10 Cities(Jenny E. Tesar)(LG880)

An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 (Jim Murphy) (EA) (RL8.9)

Art, Music, and Media
Media

• Video footage from September 11, 2001

8-2 Literary Texts—Rural Settings in North America: “It Happened in the Country”
Stories
Rural United States

• Travels with Charley: In Search of America (John Steinbeck) (E) (L1010)
• This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie (Elizabeth Partridge) (E)
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain) (E)
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Mildred D. Taylor) (E) (L 920)
• The Land (Mildred D. Taylor)
• Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck) (L630)
• The Last of the Mohicans (James Fenimore Cooper) (L1350)
• Shane (Jack Schaefer) (L870)
• The Daybreakers (The Sackett series) (Louis L’Amour) (L930)

Rural North America

• Barrio Boy (Ernesto Galarza)(L1140)
• The Incredible Journey (Sheila Burnford) (L1320)

Poems

• “The Railway Train” (Emily Dickinson) (E)
• “Mending Wall” (Robert Frost) (EA)
• My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States (Lee Bennett Hopkins)
• You Hear Me?: Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys (Betsy Franco)

Short Stories
(Note: These were also used in unit 1.)

• American Eyes: New Asian-American Short Stories for Young Adults (Lori Carlson)
• America Street: A Multicultural Anthology of Stories (Anne Mazer)
• Join In: Multiethnic Short Stories (Donald R. Gallo)

Picture Books (Introductory Material)

• A Mountain Alphabet (Margriet Ruurs)
• B is for Big Sky Country: A Montana Alphabet (Sneed B. Collard, III and Joanna Yardley)
• P is for Piñata: A Mexico Alphabet (Tony Johnston)

Informational Texts
Informational Text
Rural United States

• The Alamo (Cornerstones of Freedom, Second Series) (Tom McGowen)
• African-Americans in the Old West (Cornerstones of Freedom series) (Tom McGowen)
• Trail of Tears (Cornerstones of Freedom series) (R. Conrad Stein)
• Wild Horses I Have Known (Hope Ryden)
• Wildflowers Around the Year (Hope Ryden)

American Science/Technical Subjects

• California Invasive Plant Council (Invasive Plant Inventory) (E)
• Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet out of Idaho (Jon Katz) (E) (L1070)
• “The Marginal World” (1955) in The Edge of the Sea (Rachel Carson)

North America

• Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves (Farley Mowat)
• One Hundred & One Beautiful Small Towns in Mexico (Guillermo Garcia Oropeza and Cristobal Garcia Sanchez)

Additional Resources

• History of Landscape Painting

Art, Music, and Media
Art

• Grant Wood, American Gothic (1930)

8-3 Literary Texts—Looking Back on America
Poems

• “Paul Revere’s Ride” (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) (E)
• “I, Too, Sing America” (Langston Hughes) (E)
• “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (Maya Angelou)(L1070)
• Hour of Freedom: American History in Poetry (Milton Meltzer)

Stories (Historical Fiction, From Some Non-Traditional Perspectives)

• George vs. George: The American Revolution As Seen from Both Sides (Rosalyn Schanzer) (L1120)
• 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving (I Am American) (Catherine O”Neill Grace)(L1040)
• Cast Two Shadows: The American Revolution in the South (Great Episodes) (Ann Rinaldi) (L610)
• 33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women’s History: From Suffragettes to Skirt Lengths to the E.R.A. (Tonya Bolden)
• Good Women of a Well-Blessed Land: Women’s Lives in Colonial America (Brandon Marie Mailler) (L950)
• Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years (Sarah L. Delaney and A. Elizabeth Delany) (L890)
• We Were There, Too!: Young People in U.S. History (Phillip M. Hoose) (RL7.1)
• The Boys’ War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War (Jim Murphy) (EA) (L950)
• Girls: A History of Growing Up Female in America (Penny Colman) (L1020)
• Johnny Tremain (Esther Forbes) (easier to read) (L1040)
• America’s Paul Revere (Esther Forbes and Lynd Ward) (easier to read) (L1000)
• Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two (Joseph Bruchac) (easier to read) (L910)
• The Year of the Hangman (Gary Blackwood) (easier to read) (L820)

Informational Texts
Picture Books (Introductory Material)

• We the People (Peter Spier)

Informational Text

• “Letter on Thomas Jefferson” (John Adams) (E)
• Preamble to the United States Constitution (1787) (E)
• First Amendment to the United States Constitution (1791) (E)
• The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution (Linda R. Monk) (E)
• Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (Russell Freedman) (E)
• The Real Revolution: The Global Story of American Independence (Marc Aronson)
• The American Revolutionaries: A History in Their Own Words 1750-1800 (Milton Meltzer)
• Lincoln: A Photobiography (Russell Freedman)
• We Shall Not Be Moved: The Women’s Factory Strike of 1909 (Joan Dash)
• Day of Infamy, 60th Anniversary: The Classic Account of the Bombing of Pearl Harbor (Walter Lord) (EA)
• The Making Of America (Robert D. Johnston)

Biographies

• George Washington, Spymaster: How the Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War (Thomas B. Allen)
• Tell All the Children Our Story: Memories and Mementos of Being Young and Black in America (Tonya Bolden)
• The Signers: The 56 Stories Behind the Declaration of Independence (Dennis Brindell Fradin)

Art, Music, and Media
Art

• Grant Wood, Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (1931)

8-4 Literary Texts—Authors and Artists
Stories

• From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E.L. Konigsburg) (L700)
• Leaving Eldorado (Joann Mazzio) (L730)
• Talking With Tebe: Clementine Hunter, Memory Artist (Mary E. Lyons) (easier)
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce) (advanced) (L1120)

Poems

• Is This Forever, or What?: Poems & Paintings from Texas (Naomi Shihab Nye)

Picture Books (Introductory Material)

• Museum ABC (NY Metropolitan Museum of Art)
• Museum Shapes (NY Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Informational Texts
Biographies
Artists

• Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art (Eric Carle, Mitsumasa Anno, and Quentin Blake)
• Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist (Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan) (E)
• Book of Black Heroes: Great Women in the Struggle (Tayomi Igus)
• Norman Rockwell: Storyteller with a Brush (Beverly Gherman)
• Sparky: The Life and Art of Charles Schulz (Beverly Gherman)
• Andy Warhol, Prince of Pop (Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan)
• A Caldecott Celebration: Seven Artists and their Paths to the Caldecott Medal (Leonard S. Marcus)
• Marc Chagall (Artists in Their Time series) (Jude Welton)
• Mary Cassatt: Portrait of an American Impressionist (Tom Streissguth)
• Vincent Van Gogh: Sunflowers and Swirly Stars (Smart About Art series) (Brad Buck and Joan Holub) [easier to read]
• Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors (Smart About Art series) (Jane O’Connor and Jessie Hartland) [easier to read]
• Pablo Picasso: Breaking All the Rules (Smart About Art series) (True Kelley) [easier to read]
• The Lives of the Artists (Giorgio Vasari), excerpt on Michelangelo or Leonardo [advanced readers]

Authors

• Maya Angelou (Just the Facts Biographies) (L. Patricia Kite)
• Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women (Cornelia Meigs)
• Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon (Leonard S. Marcus)
• Mark Twain (Just the Facts Biographies) (Susan Bivin Aller)
• Bram Stoker: The Man Who Wrote Dracula (Great Life Stories) (Steven Otfinoski)
• Aung San Suu Kyi: Fearless Voice of Burma (Whitney Stewart)

Informational Text
Art

• A Short Walk Around the Pyramids & Through the World of Art (Philip M. Isaacson) (E)
• Smithsonian Q&A: American Art and Artists: The Ultimate Question & Answer Book (Tricia Wright)

Pictorial History

• Buffalo Hunt (Russell Freedman) (EA)
• The Buffalo and the Indians: A Shared Destiny (Dorothy Hinshaw Patent)

Art, Music, and Media
Art
Prompt: How do painters use perspective to engage viewers in their work?

• Édouard Manet, Dead Toreador (1864)
• Andrea Mantegna, Lamentation over the Dead Christ (1480)
• Michaelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Supper at Emmaus (1601)
• Paul Cézanne, The Card Player (1890-92)
• Paolo Uccello, Niccolo Mauruzi da Tolentino at the Battle of San Romano (1438-40)
• Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights (1503-04)
• Chuck Close, Fanny/Fingerpainting (1985)
• Sylvia Plimack Mangold, The Linden Tree (1988)

8-5 Literary Texts—Dramatically Speaking

Plays

• Sorry, Wrong Number (Lucille Fletcher) (E)
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (William Shakespeare; adapted by Diana Stewart and illustrated by Charles Shaw)
• Zora Neale Hurston: Collected Plays (Zora Neale Hurston)
• The Colored Museum (George C. Wolfe)
• Famous Americans: 22 Short Plays for the Classroom, Grades 4-8 (Liza Schafter, ed.)

Speeches

• “The Banking Crisis” (First Fireside Chat, Franklin Delano Roosevelt) (March 12, 1933)
• Keynote Address to the Democratic National Convention (Barbara Jordan) (July 12, 1976)

Poems

• “A Poem for My Librarian, Mrs. Long” in Acolytes: Poems by Nikki Giovanni (Nikki Giovanni) (E)
• “The Book of Questions” (Pablo Neruda) (E)
• “Macavity” (T.S. Eliot)

Music Lyrics

• “Macavity,” from Cats (Andrew Lloyd Webber)

Stories

• King of Shadows (Susan Cooper) (EA)

Informational Texts
Biographies
Playwrights

• Sorrow’s Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of Zora Neale Hurston (Great Achievers series) (Mary E. Lyons)
• The Play’s the Thing: A Story About William Shakespeare (Creative Minds Biographies) (Ruth Turk)
• Hitchcock on Hitchcock: Selected Writings and Interviews(Alfred Hitchcock)

Public Figures

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Russell Freedman)
• Barbara Jordan: Voice of Democracy (Book Report Biography) (Lisa Renee Rhodes)

Poets

• Memoirs (Pablo Neruda)
• “T. S. Eliot” (Wikipedia)

Videographies

• Spirit to Spirit: Nikki Giovanni (1988)

Art, Music, and Media
Media

• Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
• Dial M for Murder (1954)
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999)
• Cats (PBS Great Performances) (1998)

8-6 Literary Texts—“The Road Not Taken”
Poems

• “The Road Not Taken” (Robert Frost) (E)
• Things I Have To Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls (Betsy Franco)
• Night Is Gone, Day Is Still Coming: Stories and Poems by American Indian Teens and Young Adults (Annette Piña Ochoa, Betsy Franco, and Traci L. Gourdine)

Stories

• Little Women(Louisa May Alcott) (E)
• I, Juan De Pareja (Elizabeth Borton de Trevino)
• Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
• The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
• Gulliver’s Travels(Jonathan Swift)
• The Sea-Wolf (Oxford World’s Classics Edition) (Jack London)
• Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier)
• American Dragons: Twenty-Five Asian American Voices (Laurence Yep) (EA)
• The Color of My Words (Lynn Joseph) (easier)
• Children of the River (Linda Crew) (easier)
• Amos Fortune, Free Man (Elizabeth Yates) (easier)
• The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton) (easier)

Informational Texts
Science/Technical Subjects

• “Trek 7, The Fractal Pond Race” (from Math Trek: Adventures in the Math Zone) (Ivars Peterson and Nancy Henderson) (E)

Art, Music, and Media
Media

• Little Women (1949)
• Little Women (1994)
• Lord of the Flies (1990)
• The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
• The Old Man and the Sea (1990)
• Gulliver’s Travels (1996)
• The Sea Wolf (1941)

Art

• Diego Velazquez, Juan de Pareja (1650)