# A Lesson Before Dying

**Author:** Ernest J. Gaines
**Lexile:** 750L
**Grade range:** Grades 8–12
**Age range:** 13–18
**First published:** 1993
**Page count:** 256
**Genre:** Literary Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780375702709`
**ISBN-10:** `0375702709`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/a-lesson-before-dying
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

In 1940s Jim Crow Louisiana, a young Black man named Jefferson is wrongly condemned to death, and teacher Grant Wiggins is asked to help him reclaim his dignity before his execution. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and an NEA Big Read selection, it is widely assigned in high-school English for its treatment of injustice, race, and manhood.

## Themes

- racial injustice
- dignity
- death penalty
- education
- manhood

## Content notes

- racism
- execution
- period racial slurs

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 14+

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