# A Raisin in the Sun

**Author:** Lorraine Hansberry
**Grade range:** Grades 9–12
**Age range:** 14–18
**First published:** 1959
**Page count:** 151
**Genre:** Drama
**ISBN-13:** `9780679755333`
**ISBN-10:** `0679755330`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/a-raisin-in-the-sun
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

The first play by a Black woman to be produced on Broadway, set in a cramped Chicago South Side apartment in the 1950s. The Younger family debates what to do with a $10,000 insurance check — a new business, medical school, a house in a white neighborhood. A frequent 9th-11th grade drama text paired with civil-rights history units.

## Themes

- American Dream
- Black family life
- housing segregation
- gender and work
- assimilation vs heritage
- generational conflict

## Content notes

- racial slurs (historical context)
- housing discrimination
- family conflict

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 12+

## Where this book is assigned

### AP English Literature & Composition

- **recommended** · 11th grade — [source: AP Lit drama representative text](https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition)

### Common Core State Standards (ELA)

- **recommended** · 9th grade — [source: CCSS ELA Appendix B, grades 9-10 drama exemplar](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)
- **required** · 10th grade · Illinois — [source: Illinois Learning Standards grade 10 drama text (Chicago setting)](https://www.isbe.net/)
- **required** · 10th grade · Illinois — [source: Chicago PS grade 10 American drama core text (local setting)](https://www.cps.edu/academics/)
- **recommended** · 10th grade · New York — [source: NY Next Gen Learning Standards grade 10 drama](https://www.nysed.gov/)

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