Students Entering Grade 8
September 2013
Narrative Choices
• Life As We Knew It by Suzanne Beth
Pfeffer
• Wonder by RJ Palacio
• Code Name Verify by Elizabeth E. Wein
• Radiance by Allyson Noel
Non-Fiction Choices
• Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by
Deborah Hopkinson
• Dogs on Duty: Soldiers’ Best Friends on
the Battlefield and Beyond by Dorothy
Hinshaw Patent
Life As We Knew It
by Suzanne Beth Pfeffer
•
•
I guess I always felt even if the world came to
an end, McDonald’s still would be open.
High school sophomore Miranda’s disbelief
turns to fear in a split second when an asteroid
knocks the moon closer to Earth, the way “one
marble hits another.” The result is catastrophic.
How can her family prepare for the future when
worldwide tsunamis are wiping out the coasts,
earthquakes are rocking the continents, and
volcanic ash is blocking out the sun? As August
turns dark and wintry in northeastern
Pennsylvania, Miranda, her two brothers, and
their mother retreat to the unexpected safe
haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on
stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth
of a wood-burning stove. Told in a year’s worth
of journal entries, this heart-pounding story
chronicles Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the
most important resource of all—hope—in an
increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world. An
extraordinary series debut!
Wonder
by RJ Palacio
I won't describe what I look like. Whatever
you're thinking, it's probably worse.
August Pullman was born with a facial
deformity that, up until now, has prevented
him from going to a mainstream school.
Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he
wants nothing more than to be treated as
an ordinary kid—but his new classmates
can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary
face.WONDER, now a #1 New York
Times bestseller and included on the Texas
Bluebonnet Award master list, begins from
Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches
to include his classmates, his sister, her
boyfriend, and others. These perspectives
converge in a portrait of one community’s
struggle with empathy, compassion, and
acceptance.
Code Name Verify
by Elizabeth E. Wein
Oct. 11th, 1943—A British spy plane crashes in
Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger
are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at
survival. The other has lost the game before it's
barely begun. When “Verity” is arrested by the
Gestapo, she's sure she doesn’t stand a chance.
As a secret agent captured in enemy territory,
she’s living a spy’s worst nightmare. Her Nazi
interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal
her mission or face a grisly execution. As she
intricately weaves her confession, Verity
uncovers her past, how she became friends with
the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in
the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each
new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life,
confronting her views on courage, failure and
her desperate hope to make it home. But will
trading her secrets be enough to save her from
the enemy?
Radiance
by Alyson Noel
• When Riley Bloom is killed in a car
accident, she walks over a mysterious
bridge. She finds out that this is the
afterlife, and is soon assigned a job as a
'Soul Catcher', with a mysterious boy as
her guide. Her first assignment will take
her back to Earth, to find the Radiant
boy - a long-lost ghost who doesn't want
to go... Can Riley persuade him to come
to the 'Here and Now'?
Titanic: Voices from the Disaster
by Deborah Hopkinson
Scheduled to coincide with the 100th
anniversary of the tragic sinking of the
TITANIC, a topic that continues to haunt
and thrill readers to this day, this book by
critically acclaimed author Deborah
Hopkinson weaves together the voices and
stories of real TITANIC survivors and
witnesses to the disaster -- from the
stewardess Violet Jessop to Captain Arthur
Rostron of the CARPATHIA, who came to
the rescue of the sinking ship. Packed with
heart stopping action, devastating drama,
fascinating historical details, loads of
archival photographs on almost every page,
and quotes from primary sources, this
gripping story, which follows the TITANIC
and its passengers from the ship's
celebrated launch at Belfast to her
cataclysmic icy end, is sure to thrill and
move readers.
Dogs on Duty: Soldiers’ Best Friends
on the Battlefield and Beyond
by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
When the news of the raid on Osama Bin
Laden's compound broke, the SEAL team
member that stole the show was a highly
trained canine companion. Throughout
history, dogs have been key contributors to
military units. Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
follows man's best friend onto the
battlefield, showing readers why dogs are
uniquely qualified for the job at hand, how
they are trained, how they contribute to
missions, and what happens when they
retire. With full-color photographs
throughout and sidebars featuring heroic
canines throughout history, Dogs on
Duty provides a fascinating look at these
exceptional soldiers and companions.