Good books for 8th/9th grader that high schools will be impressed with (Read entire desciption below)?

Try The Once and Future King series by T.H. White. If you like Harry Potter and action/adventure fantasies, you'll like these. And they're commonly considered classics of the genre.

Don't worry too much about trying to impress other people. If you read books but don't fully understand them or aren't truly enthusiastic about them, it will come off in your conversation and may actually work against you. As corny as it sounds, be yourself. Nobody is expecting an incoming freshman to be familiar with Proust or Tolstoy. Just do your best, and present your love of reading in the most enthusiastic light you can, and you should be just fine.

Good luck with your interviews!

Personally, I don't think "The Inheritance Cycle" will really IMPRESS a high school, it's still a child/teenage book. I'd go for classics, if I were in your shoes. Try "Lord of the Flies" if you don't know, it's about a group of boys who get marooned on an island, and in the end they end up going mad. It's considered one of the best books of all time. I suppose it's not techincally a classic, it was written in the '50s though, so it would looks as though you were branching out and broadening your horizons, and that's always good. They need to know you have an open mind. You could also try children's classics like Treasure Island, and maybe Jane Austen or Charles Dickens. That'd really impress them. I read Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" and it was very good!

Well, 8th grade is kind of young for most classics, but I'd say you should try some of the shorter ones. Give Fahrenheit 451 a shot. It's a good book and I found it pretty compelling when I read it at age 14. I also recommend 1984, which is sort of similar. You could also try Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest; I think it's pretty fun reading. I, too, hated the Hobbit, by the way :)

I understand your dilemma and the reason for your question, but I think you are old enough to read just about anything, whether written for kids or adults. The language in 19th century novels is harder for a young reader now because our way of communicating and use of language is so simplified. Dumbed down really. Publishers pigeon hole books as the market is so cut throat, hence every book ends up with a gazillion money racking sequels. So, for the most brilliant book that is accessible I'd say The Road by Cormac McCarthy; a grim and frightening story of a man and his son trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic US.

Other books I think have great stories and characters...

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Anything by Ray Bradbury, though my favourite is The Martian Chronicles

The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks (weird and horrifying)

Anything by Irving Welsh, though the content is very adult (drugs, alcohol and violence)

Northern Lights (plus two) by Phillip Pullman.

You could try reading different versions of the Greek myths.

I was in your shoes a while wanting more challenging yet still enjoyable books. and really, high schools don't care what you read on your own time as long as you read what they give you to read. as for some more challenging titles, here are a few i really enjoyed.

The Maze Runner/ Scorch trials and soon to be third book

The Golden Compass and following books

The First Betrayal - Patricia Bray, while more on the adult side, not as difficult to read as The Hobbit

The Inheritance Cycle is one of the best series out there, while made for teenagers, more challenging and entertaining than percy

Anthony Horowitzs new series, Gatekeepers doesnt appeal to all but i found them very enjoyable

just a few suggestions. some websites will recomend books for you if you search a book you liked

Try "The Maze Runner" and its sequel "The Scorch Trials" I absolutely loved these books and cant wait for the third and final one in Oct.

The Inheritance Cycle, Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr and Inheritance.

There's The Naming, The Riddle, The Crow, and The singing

I know its not much, but Im a girl and I prefer more romance ones, but Im not sure if you would be in to that.

Try going to barnes and noble's website and searching for books like Percy Jackson but in the teens

www.bn.com