IB Diploma Programme — English A: Literature

About the IB Diploma Programme

The International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme is a two-year pre-university curriculum for ages 16-19, taught at over 3,500 schools in more than 150 countries. The IB English courses — Language A: Literature; Language A: Language and Literature; and Language A: Literature and Performance — each prescribe study by literary period, region, and genre rather than a single fixed text list.

Each IB English course requires students to study texts from at least three of four literary forms (prose: fiction; prose: non-fiction; poetry; drama), across at least three time periods, and across at least three places. The IB publishes a 'Prescribed Reading List' (PRL) — a multi-thousand-title pool from which teachers select the actual classroom texts. The pool is updated periodically and varies by language (English, Spanish, French, etc.).

Students complete a Higher Level (HL) Essay, an Individual Oral (IO), and external Papers 1 and 2. Reading lists on this page that cite IB courses pull from the current English-A PRL plus the most-frequently-selected titles reported by IB Diploma Programme schools.

External references: IB Diploma Programme — Language A

How to use this IB Diploma Programme — English A: Literature reading list

The book list above represents titles ReadingList has confirmed as referenced by IB Diploma Programme — English A: Literature— either through the framework’s own published documentation, through audited classroom syllabi citing the framework, or through US state and district curriculum guides that map their reading expectations to it. Each book’s detail page links the specific primary source so parents, teachers, and students can verify the citation and locate the official document.

Reading lists evolve. IB Diploma Programme — English A: Literature citations on ReadingList are reviewed on a rolling basis as primary sources publish updates. If you teach or learn under this framework and a title on this page is no longer used (or you know of one that should appear), the ReadingList methodology page explains how to submit a correction with a citation.