8th grade Young Hoosier Book Award reading list
Books referenced by Young Hoosier Book Award at the 8th grade level. Source: cdn.ymaws.com.
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About the 8th grade Young Hoosier Book Award reading list
Young Hoosier Book Award is the Young Hoosier Book Award framework. ReadingList tracks 45 titles referenced by Young Hoosier Book Award at the 8th gradelevel, each tied to a primary-source citation on the book’s detail page. Across the list, Lexile measures span 410L–1020L. The framework is published at cdn.ymaws.com.
At the 8th grade level — the 6-8grade band — students are middle-grade readers, with the curriculum focused on analyzing theme, character, and craft in full-length novels and first classics. Per Common Core’s Appendix A complexity bands, text difficulty at this stage typically falls around roughly 700L to 1010L. Measured against that 925–1185L range, of the 5 titles here with a Lexile score 1 is grade-level, 4 are more accessible, and 0 are stretch texts. A single Young Hoosier Book Award classroom can still span a wide range of reading levels.
Unlike a state reading list, a Young Hoosier Book Award list is portable: the same framework is taught across districts and, in the case of AP and IB, across countries. That makes these titles a reliable backbone for 8th grade planning whether you are a teacher mapping a unit, a homeschooler following a recognized sequence, or a parent checking what Young Hoosier Book Award expects.
How to use this list: treat the Young Hoosier Book Award titles as the core and layer in state-cited or thematically-related books to round out a 8th gradeyear. Each book’s page shows its Lexile measure, grade range, themes, and any challenge history, so you can match a text to a specific reader rather than to the grade label alone.
Young Hoosier Book Award at other grades
7th grade · 9th grade · 6th grade · 10th grade · All 8th gradereading lists →
45 books
A Deadly Game of MagicJoan Lowery Nixon
Among the HiddenMargaret Peterson Haddix
Are You There God? It's Me, MargaretJudy Blume
CardboardDoug TenNapel
Cryptid HuntersRoland Smith
Don't Hurt LaurieWillo Davis Roberts
Don't Look Behind YouLois Duncan- Forged by FireSharon M. DraperForged by FireSharon M. Draper
Harris and MeGary Paulsen
HatchetGary Paulsen · 1020L
Help! I'm a Prisoner in the LibraryEth Clifford
How to Eat Fried WormsThomas Rockwell- Jelly BellyRobert Kimmel SmithJelly BellyRobert Kimmel Smith
Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25Richard Paul Evans
Mick Harte Was HereBarbara Park
New KidJerry Craft
NightjohnGary Paulsen
Operation: Dump the ChumpBarbara Park
Orbiting JupiterGary D. Schmidt
RefugeeAlan Gratz · 800L- RestartGordon KormanRestartGordon Korman · 730L
Romiette and JulioSharon M. Draper
ScytheNeal Shusterman
SmileRaina Telgemeier · 410L
Show all 45 titles
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- So B. It · Sarah Weeks
- Stargirl · Jerry Spinelli
- Stranger with My Face · Lois Duncan
- Strider · Beverly Cleary
- Superfudge · Judy Blume
- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever · Barbara Robinson
- The Compound · S. A. Bodeen
- The Dark and Deadly Pool · Joan Lowery Nixon
- The Doom Stone · Paul Zindel
- The Face on the Milk Carton · Caroline B. Cooney
- The Ghost on Saturday Night · Sid Fleischman
- The Goof that Won the Pennant · Jonah Kalb
- The House of the Scorpion · Nancy Farmer
- The Hunger Games · Suzanne Collins
- The Selection · Kiera Cass
- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants · Ann Brashares
- The Third Eye · Lois Duncan
- The Trumpet of the Swan · E.B. White
- Twisted Summer · Willo Davis Roberts
- Unbreakable · Kami Garcia
- Whispers from the Dead · Joan Lowery Nixon