Anaya, Seth, and Petra have always felt different from their peers on their British Columbia island. Anaya has severe allergies that give her acne and perpetual congestion. Seth is a foster child with scars running up and down his arms. Although pretty and popular, Petra is allergic to water. None of the teens think much about the others until strange black plants begin sprouting all over town after a day of heavy rain—that somehow doesn’t trigger Petra’s water allergy. When the plants turn carnivorous, Petra, Anaya, and Seth are the only ones able to withstand their strange perfumes and their acidic interiors, and they realize they must have something more in common. And then Anaya’s botanist father reveals that the plants came from another planet—and they are in the process of colonizing the Earth. In this fast-paced thriller, Oppel spins a richly drawn, incredibly fascinating world. Beginning with the brilliantly unique premise of a botanical alien invasion, the plot unravels satisfyingly, building readers’ curiosity by creating 10 new questions for every answer given.

The only thing you’ll find on the summit of Mount Everest is a divine view. The things that really matter lie far below. After Peak Marcello is arrested for scaling a New York City skyscraper, he's left with two choices: wither away in juvenile detention or go live with his long-lost father, who runs a climbing company in Thailand. But Peak quickly learns that his father's renewed interest in him has strings attached. Big strings. As owner of Peak Expeditions, he wants his son to be the youngest person to reach the Everest summit--and his motives are selfish at best. Even so, for a climbing addict like Peak, tackling Everest is the challenge of a lifetime. But it's also one that could cost him his life.

Peak doesn’t even consider saying no. If he makes it to the top before his birthday, he will be the youngest person ever to stand above 29,000 feet.

Grace Blakely is absolutely certain of three things:

1. She is not crazy.

2. Her mother was murdered.

3. Someday she is going to find her mother’s killer and make him pay.

As certain as Grace is about these facts, nobody else believes her -- so there's no one she can completely trust. Not her grandfather, a powerful ambassador. Not her new friends, who all live on Embassy Row. Not Alexei, the Russian boy next door, who is keeping his eye on Grace for reasons she neither likes nor understands.

Everybody wants Grace to put on a pretty dress and a pretty smile, blocking out all her unpretty thoughts. But they can't control Grace -- no more than Grace can control what she knows or what she needs to do. Her past has come back to hunt her . . . and if she doesn't stop it, Grace isn't the only one who will get hurt. Because on Embassy Row, the countries of the world stand like dominoes, and one wrong move can make them all fall down.

15 year old John Smith has just arrived in Paradise, Ohio, which is another stop in a string of small towns where he has been hiding out from the Mogadorians, a terrifying group of aliens who destroyed John’s planet, Lorien, and killed almost all of its inhabitants. Now they are after John and the other nine surviving Loric children who have sought refuge on Earth. The Mogadorians are picking them off in numerical order. The first three are dead and John's number is up. He is hoping his Legacies, his defining super powers, will develop in time for him to fight against the enemy. I Am Number Four is an exciting page-turner that combines science fiction and adventure.

Marlee's a junior high student in Little Rock, Arkansas who is too shy and timid to talk. No one knows why, but she has only ever spoken to her immediate family and her bossy friend, Sally. She never voices her opinion or speaks up in class.

Liz is the new girl at school and she's confident and pretty and has everyone’s attention. Sally and her high society mother are immediately on their guard. Who does this new girl think she is? Sally and her mother make it their mission to put this Liz in her place, but Marlee realizes that she actually likes the new girl. For once she has a friend who is encouraging her to speak her mind instead of enjoying the fact that she never interrupts to say what she’s thinking.

When Sally and her mother discover Liz in the “colored” part of town, they realize that Liz is actually Black and has been “passing” as white, to receive a better education at the white junior high. They make sure they shame her by publicly declaring her “deception” and she is forced to leave her new school and her new friendship with Marlee.

It's 1958, and it's the segregated South and Liz's act of deception echoes the previous year's “disruption” of the Little Rock Nine, the nine students who bravely determined to attend a white high school despite public outcry.

Marlee's in a terrible position. She's a small girl, and a mostly mute one at that, but she likes Liz and she realizes, for the first time in her life, that she is being told that she can't do something that seems ridiculous to ban. Why can't she and Liz be friends?

Before she knows it, Marlee is taking risks that she has never taken before and is aligning herself with her father, who is a high school teacher and a community integrationist. It's not long before she is receiving death threats from grown men in town, who phone her at home to call her terrible terrible names.

Marlee is terrified, and she has several moments of wishing she could back down from this unpopular friendship, but when she finally realizes that sassy Liz has no choice and no voice because she is “colored,” she knows she must find her own voice to represent both of them.

Twelve-year-old Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat. A toy gun that he only has to scare off the kids who are bullying him and his friends at school. As a ghost, he observes the devastation that's been unleashed on his family and community in the wake of what they see as an unjust and brutal killing.

Soon Jerome meets another ghost: Emmett Till, a boy from a very different time, 1955, but similar circumstances, he was also killed at a young age. Emmett helps Jerome process what has happened, on a journey towards recognizing how historical racism may have led to the events that ended his life. Then Jerome also meets Sarah, the daughter of the police officer and the only living person who can see him. She is trying to wrap her mind around her father's actions. Jerome struggles with deciding to help her deal with her feelings or allowing her to hurt as much as his own family is.

Here are thirty titles from our library that would great selections for the 8th Gr. Independent Novel Unit.