I recently finished Clover Moon by Jacqueline Wilson at the insistence of my 8 year old. It was very good, and ties win the the Hetty Feather books too, in case you're after something an 8 year old girl might like.
Onto more adult subjects I'm currently 80% of the way through The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz. It's very good, and tells the story of, er, a long walk to escape the soviet labour camps of Siberia. However, a quick Google suggests it's all a load of balls. Nonetheless, the guy spent an interesting life:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/may/05/guardianobituariesBUT (from Wiki)
"The missing link came through documents discovered by an American researcher, Linda Willis, in Polish and Russian archives. One, in Rawicz's own hand described how he was released from the gulag in 1942, apparently as part of a general amnesty for Polish soldiers. These are backed up by his amnesty document and a permit to travel to rejoin the Polish Army. These papers make it almost impossible to believe that Rawicz escaped, unless there is a case of mistaken identity. However, the name and place and date of birth all match. The documents also show that rather than being imprisoned on trumped-up charges as he claimed, Rawicz was actually sent to the gulag for killing an officer with the NKVD, the forerunner of the Soviet secret police, the KGB. "
There is some thought that Rawicz essentially re-told another person's story of a long walk to freedom. Either way, it is an engagingly written story, even if it is probably fiction.