ESOL Books: Print, Ebooks and Audiobooks: Level 8
Books recommended for Level 8 readers
This page recommends great books for Level 8 readers!
Even more options are available from these links:
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Fiction Level 8 (stories of all sorts)
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Biography Level 8 (information books about the lives of amazing people)
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Nonfiction Level 8 (information books on many different topics)
The Hobbit
The Hobbit by Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.
Downstairs Girl
The Downstairs Girl by By day, 17-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel daughter in a rich family in the 19th century American south. But by night, Jo is the secret writer of a newspaper advice column, where she challenges culture views on gender and race.
Killers of the Flower Moon (adapted for young adults)
Killers of the Flower Moon: Adapted for Young Readers by In the 1920s, members of the Osage nation who had gotten rich off the oil under their land began disappearing. White investigators who tried to uncover the truth were disappearing too. Young adult adaptation of a Nonfiction book.
The Secret Life of Bees
The Secret Life of Bees by Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, a white girl whose mother was killed, and Rosaleen, her fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother." When both of them are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. Fiction, also a movie.
A thousand steps into night
A Thousand Steps into Night by When a girl who's never longed for adventure is hit with a curse that begins to transform her into a demon, she embarks on a quest to reverse the curse and return to her normal life, but along the way is forced to confront her true power within.
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults : Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults by As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi indigenous woman, she consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together. This version of the book has been shortened for young adults.
My Ántonia
My Antonia by In this classic novel, a New York lawyer remembers his boyhood in Nebraska and his friendship with Antonia, a free-spirited pioneer immigrant woman. The book is full of love for the heartland prairie.
Exit West
Exit West by In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet—fiercely independent Nadia and gentle Saeed. They embark on a secret love affair, but soon their city explodes, turning familiar streets into a patchwork of checkpoints and bomb blasts. They begin to hear whispers about doors that can whisk people far away, if perilously and for a price. As the violence escalates, Nadia and Saeed decide that they no longer have a choice. Leaving their homeland and their old lives behind, they find a door and step through. . . .
The Joy Luck Club
The Joy Luck Club by Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. Fiction, also a movie.
Wizard of EarthSea
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ged was the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, but once he was called Sparrowhawk, a reckless youth, hungry for power and knowledge, who tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.
All My Rage
All My Rage by Two young Pakistani Americans open a motel together in a sweeping story that crosses generations and continents in a novel about family and forgiveness, and love and loss.
The Maze Runner
The Maze Runner by Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.
This Is How You Lose the Time War
This Is How You Lose the Time War by From award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone comes an enthralling, romantic novel spanning time and space about two time-traveling rivals who fall in love and must change the past to ensure their future.
Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: A Comedian's Guide to Life on the Spectrum
Funny, You Don't Look Autistic: a comedian's guide to life on the spectrum by Like many others on the autism spectrum, 20-something stand-up comic Michael McCreary has been told by more than a few well-meaning folks that he doesn't "look" autistic. But, as he's quick to point out in this memoir, autism "looks" different for just about everyone.
The Awakening
The Awakening by When this book was first published in 1899 it was labeled immoral, and now is recognized as an early feminist classic. The Awakening is the story of Edna Pontellier, a married mother living an upper-class life in male-dominated, who seeks more intellectual and sexual freedom.
A Court of Thorns and Roses
A Court of Thorns and Roses by First book in a fantasy series that follows the journey of Feyre Archeron, who is brought into the faerie lands of Prythian and embarks on an epic love story and fierce struggle to break an ancient curse.
Every Day
Every Day by Every morning A wakes in a different person's body, in a different person's life, learning over the years to never get too attached, until he wakes up in the body of Justin and falls in love with Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon. Young adult fiction, also made into a movie.
The Marrow Thieves
The Marrow Thieves by In a future world ravaged by global warming, most people have lost the ability to dream, and this dreamlessness has led to widespread madness. The only people still able to dream are North America's Indigenous population-- and it is their marrow that holds the cure for the rest of the world.
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