# Literary Fiction books about poverty

**3** literary fiction books that explore poverty, drawn from the US-school assigned-reading canon. Sourced from Common Core exemplars, AP, IB, Cambridge, and 50 state ELA curricula.

**Reading levels:** Lexile measures range from 670L to 920L across these 3 titles.

**Genre:** Literary Fiction  ·  **Theme:** poverty
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/genre/literary-fiction/theme/poverty
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.
**Primary source — Common Core ELA exemplars:** https://www.nysed.gov/sites/default/files/programs/standards-instruction/appendix-b-text-exemplars-and-sample-performance-tasks.pdf

## Literary Fiction poverty reading list

- [The Bluest Eye](https://readinglist.school/book/the-bluest-eye) by Toni Morrison _(920L · Grades 11–12 · pub 1970)_
- [The Color Purple](https://readinglist.school/book/the-color-purple) by Alice Walker _(670L · Grades 9–12 · pub 1982)_
- [A Tree Grows in Brooklyn](https://readinglist.school/book/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn) by Betty Smith _(Grades 9–12 · pub 1943)_

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_Generated from primary-source citations indexed on ReadingList.school. HTML view: https://readinglist.school/genre/literary-fiction/theme/poverty._