# The Grapes of Wrath

**Author:** John Steinbeck
**Lexile:** 680L
**Grade range:** Grades 10–12
**Age range:** 15–18
**First published:** 1939
**Page count:** 464
**Genre:** American Classic
**ISBN-13:** `9780143039433`
**ISBN-10:** `0143039431`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/the-grapes-of-wrath
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

The Joad family leaves Dust Bowl Oklahoma for California during the Great Depression, chasing a myth of plenty that meets them with exploitation and indifference. Steinbeck's Pulitzer-winning novel is a fixture of 11th and 12th grade American Literature courses and appears on AP Literature reading lists.

## Themes

- economic injustice
- family
- migration
- resilience
- American Dream

## Content notes

- crude language
- sexual content (brief)
- violence
- death

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 15+

## Where this book is assigned

### AP English Literature & Composition

- **required** · 11th grade — [source: AP Lit representative text list](https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition)

### Common Core State Standards (ELA)

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

## Banned / challenged record

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

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