Reading Project Book Guide

No Project Zone
There is nothing inherently wrong with the books listed here. They are just not at appropriate
levels for 8th graders or present complications for the sort of assignment listed.
1. The I, Funny series, The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Goosebumps series
2. Any novel that you have read for a previous class or just read previously
3. Comics or graphic novels
Many of the novels on this list have been made into movies. Be prepared to prove you havent
just watched the movie. I have read almost all the writers and novels on this list and have seen
almost all the movies made based on these books. Ill know if you didnt read.
Lexile 900-1200
Some of the novels on here have a lower Lexile but are true literature. If you choose to do one
of these novels, you will be expected to understand it on a deeper level.
1. Any Harry Potter novel*
24. Any Libba Bray novel
2. Any Narnia novel*
25. Any David Levithan novel
3. Any Kate Dicamillo novel (not including
26. Any Holly Black novel
27. Any Laurie Halsie Andersen novel
those for young readers)*
28. Any Scott Westerfeld novel
4. Any Roald Dahl novel or collection of short
29. Any Rainbow Rowell novel
stories*
30. Any Neal Shusterman novel
5. Any Anthony Horowitz novel (i.e. Alex Rider)
31. Any M.T. Anderson novel
6. Any Cassandra Clare novel (i.e. Mortal
32. Any Sherman Alexie novel
Instruments series)
33. Any Patrick Ness novel
7. Any Lemony Snicket novel
34. Any Walter Dean Meyers novel
8. Any Suzanne Collins novel
35. Any Leigh Bardugo novel
9. Any Veronica Roth novel
36. Any Kenneth Oppel novel
10. Any James Dashner novel
37. Any Michael Grant novel
11. Any John Green novel
38. Any Neal Shusterman novel
12. Any Ransom Riggs novel
39. Any Madeleine LEngle novel*
13. Any Kiera Cass novel
40. Any Ursula K. LeGuin novel*
14. Any Rick Yancey novel
41. Any Diana Wynne Jones novel*
15. Any Lois Lowry novel with the exception of
42. Any Markus Zusak novel*
The Giver
43. Coraline by Neil Gaiman
16. Any Marissa Meyer novel
44. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman*
17. Any Victoria Aveyard novel
45. Alice in Wonderland and Through the
18. Any Maggie Stiefvater novel
Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll*
19. Any Marie Lu novel
46. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling*
20. Any Stephenie Meyer novel
47. Any novel by George MacDonald*
21. Any Christopher Paolini novel
48. Any novel by Brian Selznick*
22. Any Garth Nix novel
49. A book not listed here that I clear and add to
23. Any Rick Riordan novel
the list.
50.
51. HA or any Lexile Above 1100

52. My goal is for you to be reading classic (and almost classic) literature this year.
1. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
22. Any novel (or short story collection) by
2. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Ernest Hemingway (My favorite is The Old
3. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich
Man and the Sea)
Maria Remarque
23. Dracula by Bram Stoker
4. The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K.
24. The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr.
Chesterton
Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
5. The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G.K.
25. Watership Down by Richard Adams
Chesterton
26. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
6. Any novel by Charles Dickens (A Christmas
27. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by
Carol, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, A
Douglas Adams
28.
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
Tale of Two Cities)
29.
Dune by Frank Herbert
7. Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift
30. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
8. Any novel or short story collection by Edgar
31. Huck Finn by Mark Twain
Allan Poe
32. Any novel by Jane Austen
9. Any novel or short story collection by Sir
33. Any novel by any of the Bronte sisters
Arthur Conan Doyle
34. Any novel by George Orwell
10. Any novel by Agatha Christie (My personal
35. Any novel by Herman Melville
favorites: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,
36. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the
37. Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nile, Endless Night) with the exception of
38. Any play by William Shakespeare
39. The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
And Then There Were None
40. Our Town by Thornton Wilder
11. Any novel by Dorothy L. Sayers (My
41. The Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee
personal favorite: The Nine Tailors)
Masters
12. Any novel by Elie Wiesel with the exception
42.
Any F. Scott Fitzgerald novel
of Night
43.
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar
13. Any novel (or short story collection) by Ray
Wilde
Bradbury with the exception of Fahrenheit
44.
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
451 (Something Wicked This Way Comes is
45. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
a good one)
46. You may choose one novel by a popular
14. Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
contemporary author like Stephen King,
15. Any J.R.R. Tolkien novel
Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton, Mitch
16. The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis
Albom, Dan Brown, Diane Setterfield, Neil
17. The Once and Future King by T.H. White
18. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, etc.
19. Any novel by Jack London
47. You may choose one novel to read from the
20. Any novel by Jules Verne
900-1300 list as long as it is marked with a
21. Any novel by H.G. Wells
*.
48.