Cover of African Town

African Town

by Irene Latham

African Town by Irene Latham is assigned in US schools at grades 7–12. It appears across 1 curriculum reference, sourced from state DOE pages and AP/IB/Common Core syllabi. Every citation below links to the primary source.

This page shows where African Town is assigned in US schools — curricula, states, grades, and the primary-source citations behind each placement. Not a summary or study guide.

Grade range
Grades 7–12
Pages
449
Reading time
about 8h 15m (est.)
First published
2022
ISBN-13
9780593322895
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About this book

Chronicling the story of the last Africans brought illegally to America in 1860, African Town is a powerful and stunning novel-in-verse. In 1860, long after the United States outlawed the importation of enslaved laborers, 110 men, women and children from Benin and Nigeria were captured and brought to Mobile, Alabama aboard a ship called Clotilda. Their journey includes the savage Middle Passage and being hidden in the swamplands along the Alabama River before being secretly parceled out to various plantations, where they made desperate attempts to maintain both their culture and also fit into the place of captivity to which they'd been delivered. At the end of the Civil War, the survivors created a community for themselves they called African Town, which still exists to this day. Told in 1

Where this book is assigned

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Common questions

What grade level is African Town?
African Town is most commonly assigned in US schools in grades 7–12. Specific grade placement varies by curriculum — AP Literature and IB English Literature typically use it in grades 11-12.
How long does it take to read African Town?
It takes about 8h 15m to read African Town (449 pages) at an average adult reading pace of about 250 words per minute — roughly 495 minutes. Faster or slower readers will vary; the estimate is a planning guide for assigning the book.
What curricula assign African Town?
African Town appears on reading lists for Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Each assignment on this site links to its primary-source citation.
Is African Town banned in schools?
African Town does not appear in PEN America's Index of School Book Bans 2022-2024. No documented multi-district removals on record, but individual districts may challenge titles locally.

Why this book is on this list

Each dimension below is sourced from a public reference. The full framework is documented on the classification standard page.

Lexile measure
Not classified — this book has no published Lexile measure.
Grade band
Grades 7–12 — drawn from state ELA frameworks and AP/IB syllabi citing this book.
Curriculum alignment
Cited in 1 curriculum on this site (see “Where assigned” above for primary-source links).
State-level evidence
Not yet documented in a state-level framework on this site.
Removal / banning records
No tracked removal or challenge records in cited sources.
Seasonal / contextual tags
Tagged for: award-winner.