# Black Boy

**Author:** Richard Wright
**Lexile:** 950L
**Grade range:** Grades 9–12
**Age range:** 14–18
**First published:** 1945
**Page count:** 448
**Genre:** Memoir
**ISBN-13:** `9780061443084`
**ISBN-10:** `0061443085`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/black-boy
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Richard Wright's 1945 memoir of growing up Black in the Jim Crow South and moving north during the Great Migration. A Common Core Appendix B exemplar for grades 9-10 and widely assigned in 11th grade American literature units alongside Their Eyes Were Watching God and Invisible Man.

## Themes

- race
- identity
- poverty
- great migration
- education

## Content notes

- racial violence
- poverty
- family abuse

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 14+

## Where this book is assigned

### Common Core State Standards (ELA)

- **recommended** · 11th grade — [source: CCSS ELA Appendix B, grades 11-CCR informational exemplar](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)
- **recommended** · 12th grade — [source: CCSS ELA Appendix B, grades 11-CCR informational exemplar](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)

## Banned / challenged record

Documented removals or formal challenges in at least one school district in 1 state: NY. 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/black-boy._