7th-8th Grade Reading List

"In her New York Times bestseller White Rage, Carol Anderson laid bare an insidious history of policies that have systematically impeded black progress in America, from 1865 to our combustible present. With One Person, No Vote, she chronicles a related history: the rollbacks to African American participation in the vote since the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Known as the Shelby ruling, this decision effectively...

After a gunshot leaves her paralyzed, Barbara Gordon enters the Arkham Center for Independence, where Gotham's teens undergo physical and mental rehabilitation. Now using a wheelchair, Barbara must adapt to a new normal, but she cannot shake the feeling that something is dangerously amiss. Within these walls, strange sounds escape at night; patients go missing; and Barbara begins to put together pieces of what she believes to be a larger puzzle. But...

"After being dumped at the beginning of freshman year, Iranian-American Parvin Mohammadi sets out to win the ultimate date to Homecoming"--

"Nisrin is a 13-year-old Bangladeshi-American girl living in Milwaukie, Oregon, in 2002. As she nears the end of eighth grade, she gives a presentation for World Culture Day about Bangladesh while wearing a traditional cultural dress. On her way home, she is the victim of a hate crime when a man violently attacks her for wearing a headscarf. Deeply traumatized by the experience, Nisrin spends the summer depressed and isolated. Other than weekly therapy,...

Waylon Russell Brewer is a fat, openly gay boy stuck in the small West Texas town of Clover City. After graduation he plans to move to Austin with his twin sister, Clementine, and finally live his truth. Throwing caution to the wind he creates an audition tape for his favorite TV drag show, Fiercest of Them All. What he doesn't count on is the tape accidentally getting shared with the entire school-- and being nominated for prom queen as a joke. Clem's...

Bronski and Chevat look at how American culture has shaped the LGBT, or queer, experience, while simultaneously arguing that LGBT people not only shaped but were pivotal in creating our country. This book, adapted for younger readers, is not so much about queer history as it is about all American history-- and why it should matter to both LGBT people and heterosexuals alike. -- adapted from jacket of 2011 printing

In 2199 in the Neo State of Korea, eighteen-year-old Jaewon is partnered with supersoldier Tera, but their evolving love is threatened when Jaewon must choose among conflicting loyalties--to the totalitarian government that promises to end all war, the nationalist rebels his father followed, or the crime syndicate staging a coup.

The exiled Princess Shiori must unravel the curse that turned her six brothers into cranes, and she is assisted by her spurned betrothed, a capricious dragon, and a paper bird brought to life by her own magic.

In 1861, Grace, a runaway, and Flor, a stagecoach robber, join forces to thwart a plan by the Confederate Army in the New Mexico Territory.

Trinidad. Audre is being sent to live in America with her father because her strictly religious mother caught her with her secret girlfriend, the pastor's daughter. Her grandmother Queenie tries to reassure her granddaughter that she won't lose her roots. Minneapolis. Mabel is trying to figure out why she feels the way she feels-- about her ex Terrell, about her girl Jada and that moment they had in the woods. When Audre and her father come for dinner,...