Recommended texts for 8th grade ELA?

I'm a first-year teacher who will be teaching 8th grade English Language Arts this coming fall. I'm currently trying to put together some lesson plans and need a bit of help selecting literature to use in class.

For those of you who have taught 8th grade before, what texts have students enjoyed? What texts have they absolutely hated (or found difficult to understand)?

Also, could someone recommend plays other than Shakespeare plays to use in a drama unit? I'm going to teach at least one Shakespeare play, but I'd like to work something more modern into my class, too.

Thanks a bunch!

My son just completed the eighth grade. I wanted to pass on a few suggestions for books that he read as part of the class curriculum and those that he chose to read on his own for that age group.
A book that was required reading for his class is “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes. This book had a positive, emotional impact on my son. In fact he still mentions the study of neurological/ mental disorders as his “what do you want to be when you grow up” response.
Another book he read for a LA class exercise was Jules Verne; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

Other suggestions that my son has read:
• Jules Verne; Journey to the Center of the Earth
• H.G. Wells; The Time Machine, War of the Worlds
• Robert Louis Stevenson; Treasure Island
• Rebecca Rupp; The Waterstone

As far as plays go, I may not be much help, but here are a few suggestions:
• Fredrick G. Johnson; Fifty – Fifty . I found this book in my parent’s library. From “Denison’s Select Plays”. Published by T.S. Denison & Company. ©1921.
• Charles George; Mama’s Baby Boy. Another one from my parent’s library. Published by Samuel French, Inc. © 1933.
• Oliver Goldsmith; She Stoops to Conquer and The Good Natured Man.
• Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee; Inherit the Wind. This on may be a bit provocative for eighth grade and especially if this is a public school, since the basis of the play stems from the Scopes “Monkey” trial of 1925 dealing with Evolution and Creationism.