10th grade reading list
10th grade students in US schools are commonly assigned 264 books across Common Core Appendix B, AP, IB, Cambridge, and state ELA curricula. Each title links to its grade citations.
Reading difficulty: the typical 10th grade text-complexity band is 1050–1335L (Common Core Appendix A). Of the 56 titles here with a Lexile score, 17 are grade-level, 38 are more accessible (often chosen for theme over reading challenge), and 1 is a stretch text. Match a book to your reader’s measured Lexile rather than to the grade alone.
264 books with a 10th grade citation
Titles whose grade range covers 10th grade in a state ELA curriculum or a national reference (Common Core Appendix B, AP, IB).
1919 The Year That Changed AmericaMartin W. Sandler
1984George Orwell · 1090L
A Fate So ColdAmanda Foody
A Few Red DropsClaire Hartfield
A Lesson Before DyingErnest J. Gaines · 750L- A Life in the WildPamela S. Turner
A Midsummer Night's DreamWilliam Shakespeare
A Raisin in the SunLorraine Hansberry- A Ray of LightWalter Wick
A Separate PeaceJohn Knowles · 1110L
A Tale of Two CitiesCharles Dickens · 1170L- A World Without SummerNicholas Day
- Abigail AdamsNatalie S. Bober
- African TownIrene Latham
All My RageSabaa Tahir
All Quiet on the Western FrontErich Maria Remarque · 830L- All the Noise at OnceDeAndra Davis
American Born ChineseGene Luen Yang · 530L- An American PlagueJim Murphy
- An American PlagueJim Murphy
- Anger Is a GiftMark Oshiro
Animal FarmGeorge Orwell · 1170L
AnthemAyn Rand · 880L- Anthony BurnsVirginia Hamilton
Show all 264 titles
- Antigone · Sophocles
- Apple · Eric Gansworth
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe · Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- Ashley Bryan · Ashley Bryan
- Behind Barbed Wire · Daniel S. Davis
- Black Boy · Richard Wright
- Black Enough · Ibi Zoboi
- Black Potatoes · Susan Campbell Bartoletti
- Black Potatoes · Susan Campbell Bartoletti
- Blood Water Paint · Joy McCullough
- Bone Gap · Laura Ruby
- Brownstone · Samuel Teer
- Burn Down, Rise Up · Vincent Tirado
- Butterfly Yellow · Thanhhà Lại
- Challenger Deep · Neal Shusterman
- Children of the Great Depression · Russell Freedman
- Chimney Sweeps · James Cross Giblin
- Chronically Dolores · Maya Van Wagenen
- Claudette Colvin · Phillip Hoose
- Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun · Rhoda Blumberg
- Conviction · Kelly Loy Gilbert
- Copper Sun · Sharon Draper
- Cursed · Karol Ruth Silverstein
- Day of Tears · Julius Lester
- Death in the Jungle · Candace Fleming
- Dig · A. S. King
- Divergent · Veronica Roth
- Divine Rivals · Rebecca Ross
- Dooby Dooby Moo · Doreen Cronin
- Dust to Eat · Michael L. Cooper
- Electric Ben · Robert Byrd
- Enchanted Air · Margarita Engle
- Ender's Game · Orson Scott Card
- Everything Sad Is Untrue · Daniel Nayeri
- Everything We Never Had · Randy Ribay
- FIREBOAT · Maira Kalman
- Fahrenheit 451 · Ray Bradbury
- Far From The Tree · Robin Benway
- Fences · August Wilson
- Firekeeper's Daughter · Angeline Boulley
- Five Flavors of Dumb · Antony John
- Flowers for Algernon · Daniel Keyes
- Forever Is Now · Mariama J. Lockington
- Forged by Fire · Sharon M. Draper
- Four for the Road · K.J. Reilly
- Frankenstein · Mary Shelley
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt · Russell Freedman
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt · Russell Freedman
- From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry · Paula Yoo
- Furia · Yamile Saied Méndez
- Girls Like Us · Gail Giles
- Going Bovine · Libba Bray
- Great Expectations · Charles Dickens
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows · J. K. Rowling
- Hearts Unbroken · Cynthia Leitich Smith
- Hold Me Closer, Necromancer · Lish McBride
- Hold Still · Nina LaCour
- House of Purple Cedar · Tim Tingle
- How I Live Now · Meg Rosoff
- How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe · Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
- How to Survive Your Murder · Danielle Valentine
- Hurt Go Happy · Ginny Rorby
- I Am Malala (Young Readers Edition) · Malala Yousafzai
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings · Maya Angelou
- I'll Give You the Sun · Jandy Nelson
- If I Ever Get Out of Here · Eric Gansworth
- In Darkness · Nick Lake
- Infinite Hope · Ashley Bryan
- Jane Eyre · Charlotte Brontë
- Jellicoe Road · Melina Marchetta
- Julius Caesar · William Shakespeare
- Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults) · Bryan Stevenson
- Last Night at the Telegraph Club · Malinda Lo
- Laura Ingalls Wilder · Tanya Lee Stone
- Leon's Story · Leon Walter Tillage
- Life as We Knew It · Susan Beth Pfeffer
- Life of Pi · Yann Martel
- Little Women · Louisa May Alcott
- Long Way Down · Jason Reynolds
- Looking for Alaska · John Green
- Lord of the Flies · William Golding
- Louder Than Hunger · John Schu
- Macbeth · William Shakespeare
- Marcelo in the Real World · Francisco X. Stork
- March Book Three · John Lewis
- Marching For Freedom · Elizabeth Partridge
- Martha Graham · Russell Freedman
- Maus: A Survivor's Tale · Art Spiegelman
- Me, the Missing, and the Dead · Jenny Valentine
- Midwinterblood · Marcus Sedgwick
- Monster · Walter Dean Myers
- Most Dangerous · Steve Sheinkin
- Much Ado About Nothing · William Shakespeare
- Murder Among Friends · Candace Fleming
- My Ántonia · Willa Cather
- Mystery Fish · Sally M. Walker
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave · Frederick Douglass
- Never Thought I'd End Up Here · Ann Liang
- Nigeria Jones · Ibi Zoboi
- Night · Elie Wiesel
- Not Quite Dead Yet · Holly Jackson
- Now Let Me Fly: A Portrait of Eugene Bullard · Ronald Wimberly
- Oedipus Rex · Sophocles
- Of Mice and Men · John Steinbeck
- Orbiting Jupiter · Gary D. Schmidt
- Orphan Train Rider · Andrea Warren
- Othello · William Shakespeare
- Our Town · Thornton Wilder
- Panama Canal · Judith St. George
- Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood · Marjane Satrapi
- Photographic · Isabel Quintero
- Piecing Me Together · Renée Watson
- Poverty in America · Milton Meltzer
- Pride and Prejudice · Jane Austen
- Purple Hibiscus · Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Pygmalion · George Bernard Shaw
- Rani Patel In Full Effect · Sonia Patel
- Red Flags and Butterflies · Sheryl Azzam
- Rez Ball · Byron Graves
- Romeo and Juliet · William Shakespeare
- Romiette and Julio · Sharon M. Draper
- Rose Under Fire · Elizabeth Wein
- Saints of the Household · Ari Tison
- Salt to the Sea · Ruta Sepetys
- Scythe · Neal Shusterman
- Seraphina · Rachel Hartman
- Seriously Wicked · Tina Connolly
- Ship Breaker · Paolo Bacigalupi
- Shut Up, This Is Serious · Carolina Ixta
- Sky's End · Marc J. Gregson
- Sojourner Truth · Pat McKissack
- Speak · Laurie Halse Anderson
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You · Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- Steelheart · Brandon Sanderson
- Stuck in Neutral · Terry Trueman
- Sunrise on the Reaping · Suzanne Collins
- Sunshine: A Graphic Novel · Jarrett J. Krosoczka
- Surviving the City · Tasha Spillett
- Tell Me Something Real · Calla Devlin
- That's Not My Name · Megan Lally
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian · Sherman Alexie
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn · Mark Twain
- The Agathas · Kathleen Glasgow
- The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I · M. T. Anderson
- The Bird House · Cynthia Rylant
- The Black Kids · Christina Hammonds Reed
- The Bomb · Theodore Taylor
- The Book Thief · Markus Zusak
- The Call of the Wild · Jack London
- The Catcher in the Rye · J.D. Salinger
- The Collectors Stories · A. S. King
- The Color Purple · Alice Walker
- The Color of a Lie · Kim Johnson
- The Crucible · Arthur Miller
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time · Mark Haddon
- The Diary of a Young Girl · Anne Frank
- The Double Life of Pocahontas · Jean Fritz
- The Everafter · Amy Huntley
- The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia · Candace Fleming
- The Fault in Our Stars · John Green
- The Field Guide to the North American Teenager · Ben Philippe
- The Forbidden Book · Sacha Lamb
- The Freak Observer · Blythe Woolston
- The Girl of Fire and Thorns Stories · Rae Carson
- The Grapes of Wrath · John Steinbeck
- The Great Gatsby · F. Scott Fitzgerald
- The Great Little Madison · Jean Fritz
- The Hate U Give · Angie Thomas
- The Hired Girl · Laura Amy Schlitz
- The House of the Scorpion · Nancy Farmer
- The House on Mango Street · Sandra Cisneros
- The Importance of Being Earnest · Oscar Wilde
- The Joy Luck Club · Amy Tan
- The Kite Runner · Khaled Hosseini
- The Land · Mildred D. Taylor
- The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler · James Cross Giblin
- The Lincolns · Candace Fleming
- The Lion Hunters Novels · Elizabeth Wein
- The Longitude Prize · Joan Dash
- The Maze Runner · James Dashner
- The Mona Lisa Vanishes · Nicholas Day
- The Notorious Benedict Arnold · Steve Sheinkin
- The Odyssey · Homer
- The Old Man and the Sea · Ernest Hemingway
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower · Stephen Chbosky
- The Pilgrims of Plimoth · Marcia Sewall
- The Poet Slave of Cuba · Margarita Engle
- The Poet X · Elizabeth Acevedo
- The Port Chicago 50 · Steve Sheinkin
- The Race to Save the Lord God Bird · Phillip Hoose
- The Reappearance of Rachel Price · Holly Jackson
- The River Between Us · Richard Peck
- The Road from Home · David Kherdian
- The Running Dream · Wendelin Van Draanen
- The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly · Stephanie Oakes
- The Scarlet Letter · Nathaniel Hawthorne
- The Secret Life of Bees · Sue Monk Kidd
- The Selection · Kiera Cass
- The Serpent King · Jeff Zentner
- The Silence That Binds Us · Joanna Ho
- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants · Ann Brashares
- The Strongest Man in the World · Nicolas Debon
- The Surrender Tree / El ábol de la rendición · Margarita Engle
- The Tempest · William Shakespeare
- The Tequila Worm · Viola Canales
- The Top of the World · Steve Jenkins
- The True Meaning of Smekday · Adam Rex
- The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B · Teresa Toten
- The Voice That Challenged a Nation · Russell Freedman
- The Wall · Peter Sís
- The Way Things Work Now · David Macaulay
- The Weaver's Gift · Kathryn Lasky
- The Weight of Feathers · Anna-Marie McLemore
- The White Darkness · Geraldine McCaughrean
- The Words We Keep · Erin Stewart
- The Words in My Hands · Asphyxia
- Their Eyes Were Watching God · Zora Neale Hurston
- Things Fall Apart · Chinua Achebe
- This Is My Brain in Love · I. W. Gregorio
- This Promise of Change · Jo Ann Allen Boyce
- To Kill a Mockingbird · Harper Lee
- Torch · Lyn Miller-Lachmann
- Trail of the Dead (Killer of Enemies #2) · Joseph Bruchac
- Twelfth Night · William Shakespeare
- Twelve Angry Men · Reginald Rose
- Twenty-Four Seconds from Now . . . · Jason Reynolds
- Under the Mesquite · Guadalupe Garcia McCall
- Under the Surface · Diana Urban
- Unwind · Neal Shusterman
- Upon the Head of the Goat · Aranka Siegal
- Vincent and Theo · Deborah Heiligman
- Voyaging to Cathay · Alfred H. Tamarin
- Warrior Girl Unearthed · Angeline Boulley
- We Are Okay · Nina LaCour
- What I Saw and How I Lied · Judy Blundell
- When We Collided · Emery Lord
- Where Things Come Back · John Corey Whaley
- Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass: The Graphic Novel · Meg Medina
- You're Welcome, Universe · Whitney Gardner
- Young Fredle · Cynthia Voigt
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- AP English Language & Composition
- AP English Literature & Composition
- AP European History
- AP Psychology
- AP US Government & Politics
- AP United States History (APUSH)
- AP World History: Modern
- American Indian Youth Literature Award
- Andre Norton Award for Middle Grade & Young Adult Fiction
- Arizona Grand Canyon Reader Award
Browse 10th grade by theme
- Identity (31)
- Family (22)
- Survival (13)
- Coming Of Age (12)
- Friendship (12)
- Love (11)
- Power (11)
- Justice (9)
- Courage (8)
- Mystery (7)
- Race (6)
- Resilience (6)
- Holocaust (5)
- Freedom (5)
- Grief (5)
- War (5)
- American Dream (4)
- Ambition (4)
- Class (4)
- Disability (4)
- Immigration (4)
- Loyalty (4)
- Marriage And Class (4)
- Mental Health (4)
- Mortality (4)
- Poverty (4)
- Racism (4)
- Religion (4)
- Voice And Silence (4)
- Colonialism (3)
- Education (3)
- Fate (3)
- Father-Son Relationships (3)
- Gender (3)
- History (3)
- Identity And Reputation (3)
- Language And Thought (3)
- Loss (3)
- Memory (3)
- Reputation (3)
- Sacrifice (3)
- Social Class (3)
Browse 10th grade by genre
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Frequently asked questions
What books do 10th grade students read in US schools?
264 books are commonly assigned to 10th grade students across US schools — sourced from Common Core exemplars, AP, IB, Cambridge, and 50 state curricula. Each title on this page links to its full curriculum citations.
How many books are on the 10th grade reading list?
This page lists 264 10th grade titles, of which 264 have a verified state or national curriculum citation at the 10th grade level.
Are these 10th grade books in Common Core?
Many 10th grade books on this list appear in the Common Core State Standards Appendix B exemplar texts. Each book card links to its full citation history including which states + curricula reference it. Look for the "Common Core" tag on individual book pages.
How do I pick a 10th grade book for my student?
Filter by curriculum using the pivots above (Common Core, AP, IB, Cambridge, state-specific). Each book page shows its grade range, themes, and which curricula list it. For homeschool or differentiation, books with overlapping grade ranges (±2 grades) work for 10th grade students.
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