Book Recommendations from 2022-23 8th Graders
“Books I Would Love to Live In” by Laura L., 2022-23 8th grader
This book is about Belly who every summer goes to her mom’s best friend beach house. Every summer she’s excited to be there and see everyone, but especially to see Conrad Fisher, the older son of her mom’s best friends.
I would love to live in this book because every summer Belly goes every summer to a beach house, and it seems fun to have something to look forward to every summer. I would also like to meet the characters, especially Belly because she seems like a great friend and fun to hang out with.
This book series is about the boy who lived, Harry Potter, every year since he was 11 where he was sent to magic school, but he also has fight for his life and run away from Voldemort.
Who wouldn’t want to live there? You go to a magic school every year and learn spells and see something interesting every day. I would also like to be friends with Harry, Hermione, Ron, and especially Luna. And if I get to live in the book I would get to see the whole school and see the Ravenclaw dorms.
This book is about Jenny, a girl who plays violin. One day her mom tells her they have to live in Korea for a time because her grandma is sick, and she starts attending a school of arts.
I would like to live in this book because the school of the main character seems interesting and fun–it’s a school of art and can choose very different types of art. Plus , it is in South Korea because I’m really interested in their culture, and I might get to know the country and get to know the South Korean culture. Also, in the school there are celebrities, so I can meet them.
This book is about Mia who gets into summer ballet summer camp. Originally, her mind is only focused on ballet until she meets a boy and gets distracted.
This book was fun! If I danced ballet, I would like to live in this book. This book is about a girl that goes to summer camp in France. Apart from doing ballet in France, I would like to get to know the country. Like go to the museums, see the Eifel tower, meet new people and eat the food. I would also like to see the Eifel tower at night
After her mom died, Lina goes to Florence to make her mom’s wishes come true. When she arrives at Florence she meets a man who now she thinks is her dad, but also meets new people and new love.
The whole time I read the book I was like, “I want to go there!” After reading this book, I was interested in going to Florence and seeing the city.
“Books I Read That Were Out of my Comfort Zone and Ended Up Being Some of my Favorites” by Anna Liz R., 2022-23 8th grader
At first, I was completely scared to read this book. Not because of the storyline, but only because of it being a classic old book, with big, complex words that I would not understand. It was on my bookshelf, waiting to be picked up. However, one day, after wanting something completely different from what I was reading (romance books), I decided to pick this one. If you read this book, you would know that this book starts with letters a man wrote from an expedition to his sister, and just by that I was so invested. I wanted to know how Frankenstein’s life escalated, and his motives. This book for me was written so well, and I loved every second of it. And before I knew it, I was done with this book in about a day.
This book is so talked about on BookTok, so many varying reviews where people would absolutely love this book, or hate it. Not to mention the books get progressively big in terms of pages, and so you are committing to that when you start reading this series. However, one day I was in a big need of a fantasy world, something with two opposing worlds, where it takes one person to change it all, and with a romance subplot. So of course, ACOTAR was the chosen one for me. I loved this book, it was definitely the book I was looking for. Without hesitation I needed to pick up the second book (A Court of Mist and Fury) which was even better. Cannot wait to continue the series!
I never read a book that is 200-300 pages long divided in stanzas. And honestly I never thought I would. Yes, I do love poems, but they usually last a few pages. Now this book does not have rhyming words, or any complex hidden meaning. The word choices, the plot, the setting, literally just like any fiction chapter book, except the stanzas. I thought that was weird at first, I mean it’s not very common for me, but I was definitely willing to try it. As soon as I read the first page, I knew I had to continue. The meaning of this book was amazing. The character development, family hardships, friends standing up for you. I loved it, and I’m sure many people did too.
I definitely wouldn’t call myself the biggest graphic novel fan out there. For me, I prefer words rather than illustrations because then I get to picture the story myself, and that’s where I get to be creative. But due to the author’s visit at our school, I wanted to read more of her books, and so I decided to pick up this one. As I was reading, I loved the characters’ representation, how they have their own home problems, their difficulties in being familiar with the place and the language. The characters were so diverse! And not to mention the amazing ending that made me so happy! 🙂
When I read romance, I usually go for enemies to lovers. It’s just so amazing, and something I would never get tired of. But this book is a cutesy romance…so why did I read it since it’s not my cup of tea? Well, besides the title/main character having the same first name as me, and it taking place in Paris, I wanted to read something different. I wanted to discover the new concept of falling in love in a different way, not just daggers-pointed-to-the-throat type of enemies to lovers. If it was me last year, I would not believe I read this book. However, I’m certainly glad I did! The setting of Paris was described so well, and you see the main character discovering Paris while being new to the school and language, new to everything basically, all without her parents. And her slowly falling for Etienne St. Clair. This book overall was so sweet and amazing, and I loved it!
“Books I Could Talk About for Hours” by Mai B., 2022-23 8th grader
This book talks about the story of Morgan, a girl who has a complicated relationship with her friends and family, as she is hiding lots of stuff from them. She meets a mysterious girl, who saved her from drowning, eventually they become closer and everything starts to change for Morgan.
I’m so passionate about this book that I could talk about it for hours. I love the story so much and I find it kinda relatable. I love the characters and the way they develop their relationship with each other. I find the ending very sweet and even a little sad. What makes me the most passionate about the book is the story and how I find it relatable.
This book talks about Lucia, a girl who lives happily in Cuba with her family. She’s caught up in a communist revolution and forced to immigrate to Nebraska, where everything changes for her, in both positive and negative ways.
I find this book very relatable, as an immigrant. I loved the way the book developed and how it accurately portrayed the experiences of an immigrant, especially one that has to see their own country be ruined by its own people. I loved the ending and I don’t think it could’ve ended better, I absolutely adore it.
This book shows the story of Link, Hyrule’s famous hero, who’s looking for his dear friend, Navi. As he’s traveling on his horse, he is attacked by Skull kid who steals his ocarina and creates chaos upon Termina. Link has to get Majora’s mask back from Skull kid and save the town.
I love this book so much, the ending is perfect and the characters are very likable. Their personalities, backstories and the way they show it is something I love about this book. I love the art style too; it’s very cute. In my opinion, it shows what happened very well.
This book talks about the story of Giorno Giovanna, a young boy who joins the mafia so he can stop the dealing of drugs to minors. He enters a gang where he makes friends and is assigned an important mission, which he’s going to take advantage of and try to kill the headmaster.
This manga is honestly one of my favorites, but I specifically love part 5. I adore the characters and the way the story is narrated and developed, it honestly has a special place in my heart. The ending made me cry so much, and I still loved it.
This book talks about the story of Shoko and Shoya, two high-schoolers who have been bullied and caused them to have issues with themselves. They become friends, even after not having a great relationship as kids. And help each other be better, see things differently and change the way they think. It helps them have better relationships and react to things better.
I like this book so much because of the way it shows how social anxiety and self esteem issues can affect your relationships and the way you react to others, it’s a really sweet story too and I like the way the characters are shown. It made me cry a little, but it’s still really good. I also like how it realistically shows how having a disability can affect the ways others see you, and how different people can react to a disability.
“Summer Recommendations” by Brielle P., 2022-23 8th grader
This series is perfect for summer. It has exciting romance and is overall a perfect summer book.
This book is perfect for that Outer Banks vibe this summer. It reminds so much of Outer Banks if it was in the keys.
The reason I added this book is because it gives me such summer vibes, even though the book isn’t by the ocean, it’s just the layout and colors of the book give me summer serotonin.
This book is perfect for the summer, reading by the beach or pool!
If you want to read a summer romance, this is the one for you.
This is sad, but it’s also heart warming.
This book is amazing–it shows the hardships of her life and what she wants to be/do.
This is such a cute summer book; you will love it!
This book follows four women and their POVs for their summer. It is really interesting and a nice light read.
Thank you so much to my student voices today and their book recommendations!
