8th Grade Independent Reading: 2015-2016

Presents an account of fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin, an African-American girl who refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks, and covers her role in a crucial civil rights case.

Lynda Blackmon Lowery recounts her experiences as the youngest marcher on the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

Chronicles the life of controversial militant leader Malcolm X.

When Babe Didrikson Zaharias set herself a goal, she was bound to achieve it. From a very young age, she was determined to become the greatest woman athlete of the twentieth century. Through her world-record setting performances at the 1932 Olympic Games and her later dominance of professional golf, her never-take-no-for-an-answer attitude brought her an unprecedented mix of fame and scorn.

The autobiography of Michaela DePrince, who lived the first few years of her life in war-torn Sierra Leone until being adopted by an American family. Now seventeen, she is one of the premiere ballerinas in the United States.

The author describes how he spent his teenage years climbing mountains in the United States, South America, Africa, and Asia, with an emphasis on his two expeditions up Mount Everest.

The author relates his experience of climbing Mount Everest during its deadliest season and examines what it is about the mountain that makes people willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense.

Eric LeGrand reflects on his life, discussing his childhood, family, success in high school and college sports, football injury which resulted in paralysis, rehabilitation, and more.

A biographical novel in which Native American athlete and Olympic gold medalist Jim Thorpe discusses his life, focusing on the years he spent at Pennsylvania's Carlisle School where coach Pop Warner first recognized Thorpe's abilities.

An illustrated biography of boxing great Muhammad Ali that addresses his politics, his fight against Parkinson's disease, and boxing's dangers.

Soccer player Tim Howard recounts his life and career, discussing his poverty stricken childhood and more.

Distance swimmer Lynne Cox describes her emotional and spiritual need to swim and about the mythical act of swimming itself, and chronicles some of her more memorable swims.

Chronicles the life of Paul Farmer, focusing on his efforts to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring modern medicine to the countries and people who need them most.

Addresses the issues of family and illegal immigration through the story of a young boy's dangerous journey from Honduras to the U.S. in search of his mother, who left him and his sibling behind to make a better life for her family.

Malala Yousafzai's describes her fight for education for girls under Taliban rule, the support she received from her parents to pursue an education, and how the Taliban retaliated against her by trying to kill her.

The author tells about the happy life she led in China up until she was twelve-years-old when her family became a target of the Cultural Revolution, and discusses the choice she had to make between denouncing her father and breaking with her family, or refusing to speak against him and losing her future in the Communist Party.

A member of the Masai people describes his life as he grew up in a northern Kenya village, traveled to America to attend college, and became an elementary school teacher in Virginia.

The author tells the story of her painful childhood in China where she lived until the age of fourteen with her father, stepmother, and siblings, all of whom considered her bad luck because her mother died shortly after giving birth to her.

Firoozeh Dumas recounts the experiences she had after her family moved from Iran to Southern California, discussing how her family adapted to life in America.

Author Walter Dean Myers describes his childhood in Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s, discussing his loving stepmother, his problems in school, his reasons for leaving home, and his beginnings as a writer.

The author shares her childhood memories and reveals the first sparks that ignited her writing career in free-verse poems about growing up in the North and South.

An exploration of the life and achievements of Harper Lee that discusses her Southern upbringing, education, family, writing of "To Kill a Mockingbird," association with Truman Capote, and personality.

Autobiography covering the childhood of a woman who has been a professional dancer, actress, poet, journalist, and television producer.

The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.

The author describes her battle against polio when she was thirteen and her efforts to overcome its debilitating effects.

A narrative account of the childhood and youth of nineteenth-century writer Mark Twain. Includes period engravings, newspaper cartoons, and black-and-white photographs.

An autobiographical account of NASA engineer Homer Hickam's life that discusses his childhood, his obsession with rockets, his NASA career, and other related topics.

Anousheh Ansari shares the story of her life, discussing her youth in revolutionary Iran, her dreams of having a career in science, her move to America where she fell in love and became a successful entrepreneur, and events that led to her becoming the first female commercial spaceflight participant.

Chronicles the life and accomplishments of Apple mogul Steve Jobs, discussing his ideas, and describing how he has influenced life in the twenty-first century.

A biography of English naturalist Charles Darwin that provides an account of the personality behind evolutionary theory and the affect of his work on his personal life, such as his relationship with his religious wife.

Chronicles the life of Marie Curie, discussing her childhood in Poland, schooling in France, discovery of the element radium, efforts to create mobile X-ray units during World War I, and eventual death from radium poisoning.

A biography of Olympic runner and World War II bombardier, Louis Zamperini, who had been rambunctious in childhood before succeeding in track and eventually serving in the military, which led to a trial in which he was forced to find a way to survive in the open ocean after being shot down.

Ryan Smithson recounts the experiences he had serving his first tour of duty as an Army engineer in Iraq when he was only nineteen.

John Bul Dau and his wife, Martha, describe the hardships they experienced, including violence, famine, and war, while growing up in the Sudan and explain how they escaped the region to start a new life.

Recounts the story of Emma Edmonds, the Canadian-born woman who disguised herself as a man and slipped behind Confederate lines to spy for the Union army.

The diary of a thirteen-year-old girl living in Sarajevo, begun just before her eleventh birthday when there was still peace in her homeland.

A memoir of Elli Friedmann in which she tells about her experiences at Auschwitz concentration camp where she was taken at the age of thirteen in 1944 when the Nazis invaded her native Hungary.

A thirteen-year-old Dutch-Jewish girl records her impressions of the two years she and seven others spent hiding from the Nazis before they were discovered and taken to concentration camps. Includes entries previously omitted.

A biography of Jack Mandelbaum, who survived Nazi concentration camps when he was a teenager.

Ashley Rhodes-Courter provides an account of her life, focusing on the nine years she spent in Florida's foster care system after being removed from her mother at the age of three, and explaining how her life changed after she was adopted.

Presents a memoir of a one year social experiment in which teen author Maya Van Wagenen followed a 1950's popularity guide, written by former teen model Betty Cornell.

An introduction to the life of Benedict Arnold that highlights not only the traitorous actions that made him legendary, but also his heroic involvement in the American Revolution.

Traces the life of female aviator Amelia Earhart from her childhood to her final flight, discusses the extensive search for her and her missing plane, and includes photographs, maps, handwritten notes by Amelia, and sidebars.

Follows the lives of the Wright brothers and describes how they developed the first airplane.

Details the history of Russia's last royal family, the Romanovs.

Helen Keller tells of her early life, her relationship with her teacher Anne Sullivan, and her struggles to triumph over blindness and deafness.

The life of the eighteenth-century African prince who, after being captured by slave traders, was brought to Massachusetts where he was a slave until he was able to buy his freedom at the age of sixty.

A biography of the magician, ghost chaser, aviator, and king of escape artists whose amazing feats are remembered long after his death in 1926.

A biography of the first wife of a president to have a public life and career of her own.

Photographs and text trace the life of the Civil War President.