
The Boy's War
by Jim Murphy · Grades 4–10 · Children's
The Boy's War by Jim Murphy is on US reading lists at grades 4–10. It appears on 1 list: the Golden Kite Award. Every citation below links to the primary source.
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Assigned across 1 curriculum list
Grade placement varies by school — the median assigned book spans 4 grade levels (83% span three or more, across 13,258 source-cited assignments).
This page shows where The Boy's War is assigned in US schools — curricula, states, grades, and the primary-source citations behind each placement. Not a summary or study guide.
Reading level at a glance
- Grade range
- Grades 4–10
- Pages
- 132
- Reading time
- about 2h 25m (est.)
- First published
- 1991
- Genre
- Children's
- ISBN-13
- 9780590456043
Sources: grade range from the cited lists below, last checked 2026-06-20; pages and year from our catalog record (sources); reading time is an estimate at 250 words a minute.
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Why it is assigned
This children's title is typically read at grades 4–10. Written in the 1990s; cited on the Golden Kite Award.
Where this book is recommended
Golden Kite Award
- recommended·4th gradesource: Golden Kite Award (SCBWI) winners, via Wikipedia — 1991 Winner
- recommended·5th gradesource: Golden Kite Award (SCBWI) winners, via Wikipedia — 1991 Winner
- recommended·6th gradesource: Golden Kite Award (SCBWI) winners, via Wikipedia — 1991 Winner
- recommended·7th gradesource: Golden Kite Award (SCBWI) winners, via Wikipedia — 1991 Winner
- recommended·8th gradesource: Golden Kite Award (SCBWI) winners, via Wikipedia — 1991 Winner
- recommended·9th gradesource: Golden Kite Award (SCBWI) winners, via Wikipedia — 1991 Winner
- recommended·10th gradesource: Golden Kite Award (SCBWI) winners, via Wikipedia — 1991 Winner
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Common questions
- What grade level is The Boy's War?
- The Boy's War is listed for grades 4–10. It appears on 1 book-award list. Exact placement varies by school and district.
- How long does it take to read The Boy's War?
- It takes about 2h 25m to read The Boy's War (132 pages) at an average adult reading pace of about 250 words per minute — roughly 145 minutes. Faster or slower readers will vary; the estimate is a planning guide for assigning the book.
- What curricula assign The Boy's War?
- The Boy's War appears on reading lists for Golden Kite Award. Each assignment on this site links to its primary-source citation.
- Is The Boy's War banned in schools?
- The Boy's War 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
How we classifyHide
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 4–10 — drawn from the book-award lists citing this book.
- Curriculum alignment
- Cited in 1 curriculum on this site (see “Where recommended” 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: read-aloud.