Eight-year-olds are becoming independent readers. They can read a short novel over a week or two, and they start to have strong tastes: some only want funny books, some only want animals, some want facts.
The trick at this age is variety. Short classics with real emotion, books with comic-strip pages, and true stories told in pictures all count as 'real reading'. If a child finds one book they love, they will go looking for the next.
These books won or were honored by the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal.
Winner2014
Kate DiCamillo
Great for a comic book fan
A squirrel is sucked into a vacuum cleaner and comes out able to type poetry and fly. Flora, a girl who reads comics and trusts nobody, decides he is a superhero. Part novel, part comic, very funny and secretly about loneliness and love.
2014 Newbery Medal winner
Winner1987
Sid Fleischman
Great for a fast, funny read
Jemmy is the boy who gets whipped whenever spoiled Prince Brat misbehaves. When the two run away and meet some outlaws, they have to swap roles. Fast, funny and under 100 pages.
1987 Newbery Medal winner
Winner1986
Patricia MacLachlan
Great for a quiet, thoughtful reader
A widowed farmer on the prairie places an ad for a wife, and Sarah comes from Maine with her cat and her love of the sea. Anna and Caleb wonder if she will stay. Short, gentle and full of feeling.
1986 Newbery Medal winner
Honor1953
E. B. White
Great for a first big novel
At eight, many children can read Charlotte's Web on their own. It is the perfect first 'big' novel: funny animals, a real friendship and an ending that stays with you.
1953 Newbery Medal Honor Book
Winner2013
Katherine Applegate
Great for animal lovers
Ivan is a gorilla who lives in a cage at a shopping mall and paints pictures. When a baby elephant arrives, he decides to find her a better life. Told in short, simple chapters, inspired by a real gorilla. A book that makes kids care.
2013 Newbery Medal winner
Winner2015
William Grill
Great for a fan of true adventures
In 1914 Ernest Shackleton set out to cross Antarctica; his ship was crushed by ice, and he and his crew survived for more than a year. This book tells the story in detailed, beautiful drawings of the men, dogs, ship and supplies.
2015 Carnegie Medal for Illustration winner
Winner1948
William Pène du Bois
Great for an inventor
Professor Sherman sets off to fly across the Pacific in a giant balloon and is found weeks later in the Atlantic, with twenty-one balloons. In between he stayed on a secret island of inventors. Funny, odd and full of amazing machines.
1948 Newbery Medal winner
Shortlist2003
Neil Gaiman
Great for a kid who likes a little scare
Lucy hears wolves in the walls of her house, and nobody believes her, until the wolves come out. A darkly funny picture book with collage art by Dave McKean, perfect for eight-year-olds who like being a little scared.
2003 Carnegie Medal for Illustration shortlisted
Short novels, illustrated chapter books, graphic novels and nonfiction. Variety matters more than difficulty at this age.
Yes. Reading pictures and words together is a real skill, and graphic novels often get reluctant readers reading for hours.
Not at all. Many picture books, like The Wolves in the Walls or Shackleton's Journey, are written for older children and are sophisticated reads.
See every award-winning book for ages 6 to 8