Best Historical Fiction Books for 8th Grade

Eighth graders can read across eras here, from the islands off 1920s Massachusetts to Texas in the early 1980s. Thanhhà Lại's Butterfly Yellow follows a young Vietnamese refugee searching for the brother she lost at the end of the war, and Lauren Wolk's Beyond the Bright Sea follows a girl trying to learn where she came from. The list mixes middle-grade novels with books written for teens, and each one has won or been honored by a major award.