Books for people in 7th and 8th grades

Atkins, Catherine. Alt Ed
Susan, an overweight tenth grader, develops a better sense of herself when she participates in a special after-school counseling class with other troubled students, including a sensitive gay classmate.
Y ATKINS

Bell, Hilari. Flame
The Persian land of Farsala has been prosperous and respected, but now three young people, Jiaan, Soraya, and Kavi, see time's wheel turning with Farsala under siege by the invading Hrum.
Y BELL

Cabot, Meg. The Princess Diaries
Mia, a fourteen-year-old New Yorker, is shocked to learn that her father is the Prince of Genovia, a small European principality, and that she is a princess and the heir to the throne.
Y CABOT

Cameron, Ann. Colibri
Kidnapped when she was very young by an abusive con artist who has forced her to lie and beg, Tzunum, a twelve-year-old Mayan girl, wishes she could return to the loving home she can hardly remember.
Y and J CAMERON

Clements, Andrew. Things Not Seen
When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds himself invisible, he, his parents, and his new blind friend Alicia try to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it.
Y CLEMENTS

Cohn, Rachel. Gingerbread
After being expelled from a fancy boarding school, Cyd Charisse's problems with her mother escalate after Cyd falls in love with a sensitive surfer and is sent from San Francisco to New York City to spend time with her biological father.
Y COHN

Colfer, Eoin. The Wish List
Meg Finn is dead, but not at peace; she's in limbo and has returned to earth to do the one good deed that will guarantee her entry into heaven.
Y COLFER

Dickinson, Peter. Tears of the Salamander
Alfredo, a twelve-year-old choir boy in eighteenth-century Italy, loses his family in a fire and goes to live with his Uncle Giorgio, a sorcerer in control of the fires of Mt. Etna who has sinister plans for his nephew.
Y DICKINSON

Frank, E.R. Friction
When a new girl at her private alternative school spreads rumors about Alex's favorite teacher, Alex and her classmates are confused about what to believe and how to behave.
Y FRANK

Funke, Cornelia. Inkheart
In this engrossing tribute to the power of books and the imagination, 12-year-old Meggie finds that she shares her father's ability to bring book characters into her world simply by reading aloud.
J FUNKE

Gaiman, Neil. Coraline
Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.
Y and J GAIMAN

Grimes, Nikki. Bronx Masquerade
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.
Y GRIMES

Henkes, Kevin. Olive's Ocean
On a summer visit to her grandmother’s home on Cape Cod, 12-year-old Martha reflects on the troubling news that her classmate Olive, recently killed in an accident, had hoped to become her friend and on their shared ambition to become writers.
Y and J HENKES

Horvath, Polly. The Canning Season
Thirteen-year-old Ratchet spends a summer in Maine with her eccentric great-aunts Tilly and Penpen, hearing strange stories from the past and encountering a variety of unusual and colorful characters.
Y HORVATH

Howe, James. The Misfits
Four students who do not fit in at their small-town middle school decide to create a third party for the student council elections to represent all students who have ever been called names.
Y HOWE

Koja, Kathe. Buddha Boy
Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that impact Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.
Y and J KOJA

Korman, Gordon. Son of the Mob
Seventeen-year-old Vince's romance with the daughter of an FBI agent is complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful Mafia boss.
Y KORMAN

Mackler, Carolyn. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things
Feeling as though she does not fit in with the other members of her family, who are all thin, brilliant, and good-looking, fifteen-year-old Virginia tries to deal with her self-image and her disillusionment with some of the people closest to her.
Y MACKLER

Myers, Walter Dean. The Dream Bearer
During a summer in Harlem, David relies on his mother, a close friend, and an old man he meets in the park to help him come to terms with his father's outbursts and unstable behavior.
Y and J MYERS

Nimmo, Jenny. Midnight for Charlie Bone
Charlie Bone's discovery that he can hear people in photographs talking is his first clue that he may be a descendant of the magical Red King.
J NIMMO

Oates, Joyce Carol. Big Mouth & Ugly Girl
When sixteen-year-old Matt is falsely accused of threatening to blow up his high school and his friends turn against him, an unlikely classmate comes to his aid.
Y OATES

Paolini, Christopher. Eragon
Fifteen-year-old Eragon finds a mysterious blue stone that sets him on the path to a destiny filled with dragons, elves, and monsters.
Y PAOLINI

Paulsen, Gary. How Angel Peterson Got His Name
Author Gary Paulsen relates tales from his youth in a small town in northwestern Minnesota in the late 1940s and early 1950s, including skiing behind a souped-up car and imitating daredevil Evel Knievel.
Y, J, and J 813 PAULSEN

Peck, Richard. The River Between Us
During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two mysterious young ladies who have fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois.
Y PECK

Plum-Ucci, Carol. The Body of Christopher Creed
Torey Adams, a high school junior with a seemingly perfect life, struggles with doubts and questions surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the class outcast.
Y PLUM-UCCI

Pratchett, Terry. The Wee Free Men
Determined to rescue her kidnapped baby brother from the Elf Queen, aspiring witch Tiffany Aching enlists the help of the fierce, blue, six-inch high Wee Free Men.
Y PRATCHETT

Prue, Sally. Cold Tom
Struggling to find a place for himself, Tom flees the elven parents who hunt to kill him and becomes involved with human "demons" in the nearby city.
Y and J PRUE

Shan, Darren. Trials of Death
Darren begins the Trials of Initiation to prove himself worthy of being a half-vampire, even as the clan's blood foes, the vampaneze, gather near Vampire Mountain. Sequel to Vampire Mountain.
Y SHAN

Shusterman, Neil. Full Tilt
When sixteen-year-old Blake goes to a mysterious, by-invitation-only carnival he knows that it could save his comatose brother, but soon learns that much more is at stake if he fails to meet the challenge presented there by the beautiful Cassandra.
Y SHUSTERMAN

Stroud, Jonathan. The Amulet of Samarkand
Nathaniel, a 12-year-old magician, conjures up the 5000-year-old dinn Bartimaeus and orders him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the evil and powerful magician Simon Lovelace.
Y STROUD

Tolan, Stephanie. Surviving the Applewhites
Jake, a budding juvenile delinquent, is sent for home schooling to the arty and eccentric Applewhite family's Creative Academy, where he discovers talents and interests he never knew he had.
J TOLAN

Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, believes his father is planning to kill him.
Y TRUEMAN