# The Things They Carried

**Author:** Tim O'Brien
**Lexile:** 880L
**Grade range:** Grades 11–12
**Age range:** 15–18
**First published:** 1990
**Page count:** 256
**Genre:** War Novel
**ISBN-13:** `9780618706419`
**ISBN-10:** `0618706410`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/the-things-they-carried
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Tim O'Brien's linked collection blends fiction and memoir to convey the physical and emotional weight carried by a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War — and by the men who survived it. Blurring the line between what happened and what feels true, the book interrogates storytelling itself as a way to carry memory and guilt. A common grades 11-12 and AP text for war literature and narrative-truth units.

## Themes

- war
- memory
- guilt and memory
- storytelling
- mortality

## Content notes

- war violence
- death
- strong language

## Where this book is assigned

### AP English Literature & Composition

- **recommended** · 11th grade — [source: AP Lit representative text](https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition)
- **recommended** · 12th grade — [source: AP Lit representative text](https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition)

### IB Diploma Programme — English A: Literature

- **recommended** · 11th grade — [source: Tim O'Brien is on the IB Diploma Programme English A: Literature Prescribed Reading List (author-eligible; schools select from the full PRL). Verified via independent author-roster cross-reference, 2026-09-04.](https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/)
- **recommended** · 12th grade — [source: Tim O'Brien is on the IB Diploma Programme English A: Literature Prescribed Reading List (author-eligible; schools select from the full PRL). Verified via independent author-roster cross-reference, 2026-09-04.](https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/)

### Summer reading lists

- **recommended** · 12th grade · Massachusetts — [source: Middleborough High School (MA) — Summer Reading 2025, choose one per incoming grade](https://www.midlib.org/sites/midlib.org/files/images/MHS%20Summer%20Reading%202025.pdf)

## Banned / challenged record

Documented removals or formal challenges in at least one school district in 3 states: FL, IA, WI. Source: [PEN America's Index of School Book Bans](https://pen.org/banned-book-list/) 2022-2024.

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_Generated from primary-source citations indexed on ReadingList.school. For the full HTML view with reading-list cross-references, see https://readinglist.school/book/the-things-they-carried._