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ELA Grade 8 Required and Recommended Texts

Note: MetaMetrics® made changes to the Lexile® levels in June 2017 in order to provide more accurate measures for early readers. These changes affected 32% of all previously assigned Lexile® levels, including some texts for elementary and middle grade readers. The Lexile® levels listed on EL Education materials were added before this shift and do not reflect updated Lexile® levels.

Module 1

Texts and Resources to Buy

Texts that need to be procured. Please download the Trade Book List for procurement guidance.


Text or Resource Quantity ISBNs
Summer of the Mariposas
by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
One per student
ISBN: 9781620140109

Recommended texts for independent reading

Optional texts for students to read on their own to learn more about the topic.

Text Genre Lexile Measure
Curse of the ChupaCabra
by Rudolfo Anaya
Literary
La Llorona: The Crying Woman
by Rudolfo Anaya
Literary
The Dragon Slayer: Folktales from Latin America (A TOON Graphic)
by Jaime Hernandez
Literary 570
Maya Gods and Monsters: Supernatural Stories from the Underworld and Beyond
by Carol Karasik
Literary
The Latin American Story Finder: A Guide to 470 Tales from Mexico, Central America and South America, Listing Subjects and Sources
by Sharon Barcan Elswit
Literary
Latin American Folktales
by John Bierhorst
Literary
Love Sugar Magic: A Sprinkle of Spirits
by Anna Meriano
Literary
Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble
by Anna Meriano
Literary
A Pocket Dictionary of Aztec and Mayan Gods and Goddesses
by Clara Bezanilla
Informational
Chickens
by Rachel Castro
Literary
“The Box”
by Iliana Vargas
Literary
Aztec, Inca, and Maya
by Elizabeth Baquedano
Informational
Paola Santiago and the River of Tears
by Tehlor Kay Mejia
Literary
La Llorona/The Weeping Woman: An Hispanic Legend Told in Spanish and English
by Joe Hayes
Literary
Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky
by David Bowles
Literary
Whiskers, Tails, and Wings
by Judy Goldman
Literary 930
Mexican-American Folklore
by John O. West
Literary
The Emerald Lizard
by Pleasant DeSpain
Literary 730
Momentos Mágicos/Magic Moments
by Olga Loya
Literary
Tales Our Abuelitas Told
by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy
Literary 850

Module 2

Texts and Resources to Buy

Texts that need to be procured. Please download the Trade Book List for procurement guidance.


Text or Resource Quantity ISBNs
The Omnivore's Dilemma (Young Readers Edition)
by Michael Pollan
one per student
ISBN: 9781101993835
Nourish: Short Films (DVD)
by NourishLife
one per classroom
ISBN: 850075002290

Recommended texts for independent reading

Optional texts for students to read on their own to learn more about the topic.

Text Genre Lexile Measure
Genetically Modified Crops and Food (The Biotechnology Revolution)
by Natalie Regis
Informational
Your Food Is Fooling You: How Your Brain Is Hijacked by Sugar, Fat, and Salt
by David A. Kessler
Informational 830
What the World Eats
by Faith D'Aluisio and Peter Menzel
Informational
The Color of Food: Stories of Race, Resilience, and Farming
by Natasha Bowens
Informational
Food: The New Gold
by Kathlyn Gay
Informational
Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science
by Marc Aronson
Informational
The Story of Seeds: From Mendel’s Garden to Your Plate, and How There’s More of Less to Eat around the World
by Nancy F. Castaldo
Informational 1 110
Chew on This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know about Fast Food
by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson
Informational 1 110
Eat This!: How Fast Food Marketing Gets You to Buy Junk (And How To Fight Back)
by Andrea Curtis
Informational
Relish: My Life in the Kitchen
by Lucy Knisley
Informational
The Story of Food: An Illustrated History of Everything We Eat
by DK Publishing
Informational

Module 3

Texts and Resources to Buy

Texts that need to be procured. Please download the Trade Book List for procurement guidance.


Text or Resource Quantity ISBNs
Maus I
by Art Spiegelman
one per student
ISBN: 9780394747231

Recommended texts for independent reading

Optional texts for students to read on their own to learn more about the topic.

Text Genre Lexile Measure
We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler
by Russell Freedman
Informational 640
The Librarian of Auschwitz
by Antonio Iturbe
Literary
We Are Witnesses: Five Diaries of Teenagers Who Died in the Holocaust
by Jacob Boas
Informational 970
Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz
by Michael Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat
Informational 890
Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust
by Alan Zullo and Mara Bovsun
Informational 970
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow
by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Informational 1 050
Prisoner B-3087
by Alan Gratz
Literary 760
What the Night Sings
by Vesper Stamper
Literary 720
Hana’s Suitcase: The Quest to Solve a Holocaust Mystery
by Karen Levine
Informational 730
In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer
by Irene Gut Opdyke
Informational
The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
Literary 730
The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank
Literary 1 020
Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story
by Ken Mochizuki
Literary 610
Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
by Art Spiegelman
Literary
I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Drawings and Poems from the Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942–1944
by Hana Volavkova (Ed.)
Poetry
The Other Victims: First-Person Stories of Non-Jews Persecuted by the Nazis
by Ina R. Friedman
Informational 780
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
by Scott McCloud
Informational
Four Perfect Pebbles: A True Story of the Holocaust
by Lila Perl and Marion Blumenthal Lazan
Informational
Night
by Elie Wiesel
Informational
Schindler, Wallenberg, Miep Gies: The Holocaust Heroes
by David K. Fremon
Informational
Eva’s Story
by Eva Schloss
Literary
The War within These Walls
by Aline Sax
Literary
Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust
by Doreen Rappaport
Informational 1 030
The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible . . . on Schindler’s List
by Leon Leyson
Informational 1 000
The Boy Who Dared
by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Literary 760

Module 4

Texts and Resources to Buy

Texts that need to be procured. Please download the Trade Book List for procurement guidance.


Text or Resource Quantity ISBNs
Farewell to Manzanar (DVD)
by John Korty, director
one per classroom
ISBN: 0000000230021
Farewell to Manzanar
by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston
one per student
ISBN: 9781328742117

Recommended texts for independent reading

Optional texts for students to read on their own to learn more about the topic.

Text Genre Lexile Measure
Citizen 13660
by Mine Okubo
Literary 920
They Called Us Enemy
by George Takei
Literary
Paper Wishes
by Lois Sepahban
Literary 550
Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration during World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference
by Joanne Oppenheim
Informational 1 040
Sylvia & Aki
by Winifred Conkling
Literary 760
Uprooted: The Japanese American Experience during World War II
by Albert Marrin
Informational 1 050
Internment
by Samira Ahmed
Literary
The War Outside
by Monica Hesse
Literary 710
A Place Where Sunflowers Grow
by Amy Lee-Tai
Literary 730
Baseball Saved Us
by Ken Mochizuki
Literary 550
We Are Not Free
by Traci Chee
Literary
Thin Wood Walls
by David Patneaude
Literary 620
Fish for Jimmy: Inspired by One Family’s Experience in a Japanese American Internment Camp
by Katie Yamasaki
Literary 880
Enemy Child: The Story of Norman Mineta, a Boy Imprisoned in a Japanese American Internment Camp during World War II
by Andrea Warren
Informational 1 030
Journey to Topaz
by Yoshiko Uchida
Literary 970
Children of Manzanar
by Heather C. Lindquist (Ed.)
Informational
Fred Korematsu Speaks Up
by Laura Atkins and Stan Yogi
Informational
Gaijin: American Prisoner of War
by Matt Faulkner
Literary
Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans during World War II
by Martin W. Sandler
Informational 1 240
Within These Lines
by Stephanie Morrill
Literary
Four-Four-Two
by Dean Hughes
Literary 820
Weedflower
by Cynthia Kadohata
Literary 750

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