Maryland 8th grade reading list

Books with a Maryland citation for 8th grade include The Crossover, Schooled and The Giver. This list has 588 total books, 49 of them with a Maryland-specific citation. Each book shows its reading level and a cited source. Lexile levels on the list run from 410L to 1300L.

Top Maryland 8th grade pick: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander — on 1 Maryland list

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Total books588Lexile410L–1300LSourceMaryland College & Career Ready Standards✓ sources cited per book

Most-assigned on state lists: across every US state’s official reading and award lists, the Middle (6–8) titles appearing in the most states are The Giver (20 states), The Hunger Games (14 states), and Ground Zero (8 states). From our 2026 study of 13,258 source-cited assignments (as of 2026-07-13).

Our pick to start — most-cited for Maryland 8th grade

These are the 30 titles named in Maryland’s own curriculum documents for this grade — everything below is the wider national list. Read against the Common Core Appendix A complexity band; reading level is not thematic maturity, and several sit below the band because they are assigned for discussion.

  1. The Crossover

    Kwame Alexander

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document and 2 national references, taught from grade 5 to 8. Covers family, brotherhood and basketball. At 750L it sits just under the 925–1185L band for this grade.

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  2. Schooled

    Gordon Korman

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 3 to 8. Covers middle school students, teenage boys and home schooling.

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  3. The Giver

    Lois Lowry

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document and 1 national reference, taught from grade 6 to 8. Covers conformity vs individuality, memory, utopia and dystopia. At 760L it sits just under the 925–1185L band for this grade.

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  4. A Night Divided

    Jennifer A. Nielsen

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 5 to 8. Covers courage, freedom and family.

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  5. A Tale Dark and Grimm

    Adam Gidwitz

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 7. Covers fairy tales, courage and siblings.

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  6. All the Impossible Things

    Lindsay Lackey

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 6 to 8.

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  7. All's Faire in Middle School

    Victoria Jamieson

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 8. Covers renaissance fairs, middle schools and schools.

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  8. Allergic

    Megan Wagner Lloyd

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 6. Covers new york times reviewed and comic books, strips, etc..

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  9. Allies

    Alan Gratz

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 5 to 9. Covers war, courage and sacrifice.

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  10. Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity

    Dave Roman

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 8.

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  11. Attack of the Black Rectangles

    A. S. King

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 6 to 8. Covers middle grade and censorship.

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  12. Best Friends

    Shannon Hale

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 8.

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  13. Crush

    Svetlana Chmakova

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 8. Covers middle schools, graphic novels and comic books, strips.

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  14. Define "Normal"

    Julie Anne Peters

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 9 to 12. Covers peer counseling, friendship in fiction, parent and child in fiction.

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  15. Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey

    Margaret Peterson Haddix

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 6 to 9. Covers child abuse, diaries, fathers and daughters.

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  16. Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie

    Jordan Sonnenblick

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 6 to 9. Covers family, illness and music.

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  17. Eerie Tales from the School of Screams

    Graham Annable

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 8.

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  18. Ghosts

    Raina Telgemeier

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6.

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  19. Heir Apparent

    Vivian Vande Velde

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 6 to 8. Covers virtual reality, realidad virtual and novela juvenil.

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  20. Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy

    Faith Erin Hicks

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 9 to 12. Covers graphic novels, romance and lgbti.

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  21. I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

    Ally Carter

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 6 to 8. Covers man-woman relationships, nyt:series_books=2010-07-11 and spies.

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  22. It Came from the Trees

    Ally Russell

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 6. Covers friendship, courage and fear.

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  23. Lost & Found: Based on a True Story

    Mei Yu

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 4 to 8. Covers cartoonists.

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  24. Night Terrors

    Murphy, Jim

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 6 to 8. Covers american ghost stories, ghosts and short stories.

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  25. No Talking

    Andrew Clements

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 8.

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  26. On the Day I Died: Stories from the Grave

    Candace Fleming

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 6 to 8. Covers cemeteries.

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  27. Point Blank

    Anthony Horowitz

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 6 to 8.

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  28. Red Kayak

    Priscilla Cummings

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 6 to 8. Covers death, conduct of life, boats and boating.

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  29. Restart

    Gordon Korman

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 5 to 8. Covers identity, bullying and memory. At 730L it sits just under the 925–1185L band for this grade.

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  30. Running Out of Time

    Margaret Peterson Haddix

    Cited in 1 Maryland curriculum document, taught from grade 3 to 8. Covers adventure and adventurers, fiction, diphtheria, mystery and detective stories.

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49 books cited for Maryland 8th grade

Assignments tied directly to Maryland’s Maryland College & Career Ready Standards with a Maryland-specific citation.

Show all 49 titles

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539 additional grade-appropriate books for 8th grade readers

The 588-book total above includes 49 titles with direct Maryland citation; these 539 additional titles cover 8th grade in the broader canon. They don't have a Maryland-specific citation yet but are commonly taught at this level.

Show all 539 titles

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Other Maryland grades

7th grade · 9th grade · 6th grade · 10th grade

Reading lists by grade (all states)

7th grade · 9th grade · 6th grade · 10th grade

Same 8th grade in other states

California · Texas · Florida · New York · Pennsylvania · Illinois

Browse 8th grade reading by theme

About the Maryland 8th grade reading list

This list combines books cited in Maryland College & Career Ready Standards with books from national sources that list titles for 8th grade: the Common Core State Standards (ELA), plus awards such as the Andre Norton Award for Middle Grade & Young Adult Fiction, the Golden Kite Award and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. ReadingList currently tracks 588 titles for 8th grade in Maryland, of which 49 carry a direct Maryland citation and 539 are grade-appropriate titles whose reading level overlaps 8th grade. Across the list, Lexile measures span 410L–1300L.

8th grade sits in the 6-8 grade band, where students are middle-grade readers. At this stage the emphasis is on analyzing theme, character, and author's craft across full-length novels and their first classics. Assigned reading skews toward full-length novels, plays, memoir, and frequently-challenged contemporary titles, with text complexity that, per Common Core’s Appendix A reading bands, typically falls around roughly 700L to 1010L. Measured against that 925–1185L range, of the 34 titles here with a Lexile score 8 are grade-level, 25 are more accessible (often assigned for theme over challenge), and 1 is a stretch text that may need scaffolding. Because readers in a single 8th grade classroom can span several hundred Lexile points, this list is best read as a starting point rather than a fixed requirement.

Maryland’s English Language Arts requirements are set by Maryland College & Career Ready Standards (marylandpublicschools.org). Most states pair their own standards with the Common Core text-complexity framework. The 8th grade list below blends Maryland-specific assignments with widely taught national titles. Every title links to its primary source on the book’s detail page, so you can confirm exactly where and why it is assigned.

How to use this list:match a title to your child’s most recent Lexile or guided-reading level rather than to the grade alone. Teachers building a 8th grade unit can pair a Maryland-cited core text with a grade-appropriate companion novel; parents previewing summer or supplemental reading can check each book’s content notes and challenge history before assigning it.

Common questions

What books do 8th grade students read in Maryland?
Books with a Maryland-specific citation for 8th grade include The Crossover, Schooled, The Giver, A Night Divided and A Tale Dark and Grimm. Individual schools and districts choose their own titles, so check with your child's teacher for the exact list.
How many books are assigned to 8th grade students in Maryland?
This list has 588 books for 8th grade students in Maryland. 49 of them have a Maryland-specific citation; the other 539 are grade-appropriate titles from national reading lists and awards.
What's the Lexile range for 8th grade reading in Maryland?
Lexile measures across the 8th grade Maryland reading list range from 410L to 1300L. Books without a published Lexile (poetry, drama, picture books) are not included in this range.
Where does this reading list come from?
Maryland-specific entries reference Maryland College & Career Ready Standards (published at marylandpublicschools.org). The other books come from national sources that list books for 8th grade: the Common Core State Standards (ELA), plus awards such as the Andre Norton Award for Middle Grade & Young Adult Fiction, the Golden Kite Award and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. Each book's page links the primary source for every listing.

Reading guides for parents

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