# The Kite Runner

**Author:** Khaled Hosseini
**Lexile:** 840L
**Grade range:** Grades 10–12
**Age range:** 15–18
**First published:** 2003
**Page count:** 371
**Genre:** Literary Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9781594631931`
**ISBN-10:** `159463193X`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/the-kite-runner
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Set in Afghanistan from the 1970s through the early 2000s, the novel follows Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy Kabul merchant, and Hassan, the Hazara servant-boy he grows up with. Widely assigned in 10th-12th grade world literature units, the novel is frequently listed in districts' challenged-book lists.

## Themes

- guilt and atonement
- friendship
- father-son relationships
- Afghan history
- immigration
- ethnic prejudice

## Content notes

- sexual assault of a child
- ethnic violence
- war
- trauma

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 15+

## Where this book is assigned

### AP English Literature & Composition

- **recommended** · 12th grade — [source: AP Lit representative text — contemporary world literature](https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition)

### Common Core State Standards (ELA)

- **recommended** · 10th grade — [source: Common Core aligned summer-reading list — rising 10th grade](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)
- **recommended** · 11th grade — [source: CCSS ELA Appendix B adjacent — grade 11 world literature](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)
- **recommended** · 11th grade · California — [source: CA CCSS ELA grade 11 world literature text](https://www.cde.ca.gov/)

## Banned / challenged record

Documented removals or formal challenges in at least one school district in 4 states: TX, FL, MO, UT. Source: [PEN America's Index of School Book Bans](https://pen.org/banned-book-list/) 2022-2024.

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