The 8th grade reading list contains a choice of pairs. The student is required to choose a pair of books to
read and complete the following assignments.
She explores her rich
history through family
pictures, memories,
and recollections of
childhood friends. She
details pivotal
moments that
affected her life,
inspired her writing,
and that magically
evolved into rich and
wonderful stories that
one is reluctant to put
down.
A description of the
boyhood, marriage,
and young
professional life of
Abraham Lincoln
includes his
presidential years and
also reflects on the
latest scholarly
thoughts about our
Civil War president. A
Newberry Medal
Book.
Ten-year-old Annemarie
Johansen and her best
friend Ellen Rosen often
think of life before the
war. It's now 1943 and
their life in Copenhagen
is filled with school, food
shortages, and the Nazi
soldiers marching
through town. When the
Jews of Denmark are
"relocated," Ellen moves
in with the Johansens
and pretends to be one
of the family. Soon
Annemarie is asked to
go on a dangerous
mission to save Ellen's
life.
CHASING
LINCOLN'S KILLER
is a fast-paced thriller
about the pursuit and
capture of John Wilkes
Booth: a wild twelveday chase through the
streets of Washington,
D.C., across the
swamps of Maryland,
and into the forests of
Virginia.
The only thing you'll find
on the summit of Mount
Everest is a divine view.
The things that really
matter lie far below Peak
Marcello After fourteenyear-old Peak Marcello is
arrested for scaling a New
York City skyscraper, he's
left with a choice: wither
away in juvenile detention
or fly to Kathmandu with
his long-lost father. Peak
quickly learns that his
father's renewed interest in
him has strings attached.
As owner of Peak
Expeditions, he wants his
son to be the youngest
person to reach the
Everest summit. The story
of Peak's dangerous
ascent told in his own
words is suspenseful,
immediate, and impossible
to put down.
Ice Drift. The year is
1868, and fourteenyear-old Alika and his
younger brother, Sulu,
are hunting for seals on
an ice floe attached to
their island in the Arctic.
Suddenly the ice starts
to shake, and they hear
a loud crack--the terrible
sound of the floe
breaking free from land.
The boys watch with
horror as the dark
expanse of water
between the ice and the
shore rapidly widens,
and they start drifting
south--away from their
home, their family, and
everything they've ever
known.
Important instructions: Projects should not be on poster board. Please limit the size to no larger than
81/2 x 11 paper. Also, do not bring your book activities to class the first day of school. You will be given a
date to bring them.
Activity for Fiction:
Directions: Choose one of the activities below to complete with Ice Drift by Theodore Taylor. Be
prepared to share your activity with the class during the first week of school.
A. Create a six to eight-panel comic strip for your story. You should depict the most important
events in the panels accompanied with a short essay of why you chose those events.
B. Create a persuasive newsletter to a movie production group. The objective is to write a
summary of the book so the movie production company will want to make a blockbuster movie
out of the book. Make sure you include the major events of the plot, setting, and characters.
Activity for Non-Fiction:
Directions: For Peak by Roland Smith students are to complete a double-entry journal. The purpose of
double-entry journal (DEJ) is to give students an opportunity to express their thoughts and become
more involved with the material they encounter. Students will divide their pages into two columns with
a vertical line down the center. On the left side, they will copy down short quotes from the original text
that they find interesting in some way. In the right column, they will write their personal responses to
the quotes on the left.