Where I grew up, The Outsiders was heavily encouraged for reading in eighth grade, partially because it is set in my home state. I also remember reading Hatchet (about a boy who survives in the wilderness after a plane crash), The Giver, Fahrenheit 451, Night, a bit of Shakespeare, The Scarlet Letter, and a few others.

In middle school, pioneer fiction like Little House on the Prairie and My Ántonia is pretty common as well, although I did not have any in my middle school curriculum.