# A Separate Peace

**Author:** John Knowles
**Lexile:** 1110L
**Grade range:** Grades 9–11
**Age range:** 14–17
**First published:** 1959
**Page count:** 204
**Genre:** Literary Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780743253970`
**ISBN-10:** `0743253973`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/a-separate-peace
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

At a New Hampshire boarding school during World War II, Gene Forrester narrates his complicated friendship with the athletic, free-spirited Phineas. A common 9th-10th grade American Literature text paired with WWII history units.

## Themes

- friendship and rivalry
- coming of age in wartime
- guilt and memory
- envy
- loss of innocence

## Content notes

- accidental death
- war anxiety

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 12+

## Where this book is assigned

### Common Core State Standards (ELA)

- **recommended** · 10th grade — [source: CCSS ELA Appendix B, grades 9-10 exemplar](https://www.nysed.gov/sites/default/files/programs/standards-instruction/appendix-b-text-exemplars-and-sample-performance-tasks.pdf)
- **recommended** · 10th grade · New Hampshire — [source: NH CCR Standards grade 10 aligned text (NH boarding-school setting)](https://www.education.nh.gov/)

### Summer reading lists

- **required** · 10th grade · North Carolina — [source: Wesleyan Christian Academy (NC) — Summer Reading List 2025-2026, rising 9th-12th](https://www.wcatrojans.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Summer-Reading2025-26.pdf)

## Banned / challenged record

Documented removals or formal challenges in at least one school district in 2 states: IA, TX. Source: [PEN America's Index of School Book Bans](https://pen.org/banned-book-list/) 2022-2024.

---

_Generated from primary-source citations indexed on ReadingList.school. For the full HTML view with reading-list cross-references, see https://readinglist.school/book/a-separate-peace._