Independent Reading Resources

8th Grade 2020 Reading Recommendations

Awesome AP Classics for High School:

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens


Awesome 2019-2020 Young Adult Fiction Novels:

The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu

Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed

All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

Infinity Son by Adam Silvera

One of Us is Next by Karen M. McManus

Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon

Layoverland by Gabby Noone

All the Stars and Teeth by Adalyn Grace

The Conference of the Birds by Ransom Riggs


Awesome 2019-2020 Young Adult Nonfiction Reads:

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Do You Know Who You Are? by DK

Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education by Malala Yousafzai

Trapped by Marc Aronson

Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team by Steve Sheinkin

Don't forget about Destiny Discover !!

Here are some links to resources that can give you access to tons of online reading!!

A Note On Students And Books

What’s a classroom without books! If you’re going to be teaching virtually you might be wondering where to find reading material for your students. Some students might be lucky enough to have a lot of reading material at home. No doubt, many will not.

Here are a few ideas:

  • New Braunfels Public Library offers free access to eBooks and audio books. Find out what they are doing to hook you up with great reads!!!
  • Newsela — Great real world texts presented so that children can access the same text at different reading levels (currently free for schools).
  • Rivet — Free app that families can download with thousands of modern leveled readers.
  • Epic — Digital library of modern books aimed at children under 12. Always free for teachers and librarians (and students can access it during school hours).
  • ReadingIQ — Similar to Epic. There are thousands of modern digital books for readers under 12. Access is free for closed schools — learn more here.
  • International Children’s Digital Library –– A collection of international books for children aged 3-13 presented in 59 languages.
  • Project Gutenberg — Don’t be put off by the “old school” design of this website. There are 60,000+ eBooks that can be downloaded for all ages (most are older works with expired copyright).
  • Faded Page — 5000 plus eBooks that are completely free to download. Not designed for children but there are many classics for older students (like Project Gutenberg they are mostly older works with expired copyright).
  • Open Library — Catalogue where you can borrow books for free (lots of options for older students).
  • Lit2Go — A free online collection of stories and poems in MP3 (audiobook) format with accompanying text. Includes many classics with expired copyright.
  • Storyline Online
  • Free new and popular ebooks from Junior Library Guild in elementary, middle and high school levels. Don’t click personal login after clicking the link for ebooks for your grade level. Enter the codes below.

Middle School

Username: JLGMID

Password: JLGFREE

Mrs. Stroud's 8th Graders are named:

Texas Middle School Conference-

2020 READBowl State Champion!!

Read Bowl Champions!.pdf