# Beloved

**Author:** Toni Morrison
**Lexile:** 870L
**Grade range:** Grades 11–12
**Age range:** 16–18
**First published:** 1987
**Page count:** 324
**Genre:** Literary Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9781400033416`
**ISBN-10:** `1400033411`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/beloved
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Set after the Civil War in Cincinnati, Morrison's novel follows Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman haunted — literally — by the daughter she killed to keep her from being returned to slavery. The nonlinear narrative moves between memory and present and won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It is commonly taught in AP Literature and 12th-grade English.

## Themes

- slavery and its aftermath
- motherhood
- memory and trauma
- identity
- community
- the supernatural

## Content notes

- graphic depictions of slavery
- sexual violence
- infanticide
- physical abuse

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 16+

## Where this book is assigned

### AP English Literature & Composition

- **required** · 12th grade — [source: AP Lit — frequently cited free-response text](https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition)
- **recommended** · 12th grade · California — [source: LAUSD AP Lit frequently taught text](https://achieve.lausd.net/)

### Common Core State Standards (ELA)

- **recommended** · 12th grade · California — [source: CA CCSS ELA grade 12 aligned reading](https://www.cde.ca.gov/)
- **recommended** · 12th grade · New York — [source: NY Next Gen Learning Standards grade 12 aligned reading](https://www.nysed.gov/)

### IB Diploma Programme — English A: Literature

- **required** · 12th grade — [source: IB DP English A: Literature Prescribed Reading List](https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/)

## Banned / challenged record

Documented removals or formal challenges in at least one school district in 6 states: TX, FL, VA, MO, IA, UT. Source: [PEN America's Index of School Book Bans](https://pen.org/banned-book-list/) 2022-2024.

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