How many Science Fiction & Fantasy books do US schools assign?

118 books classified as Science Fiction & Fantasy appear across the curricula and state ELA standards tracked by ReadingList. Each is cited from a state department of education, AP/IB syllabus, Common Core exemplar list, or peer-reviewed source.

What grades read Science Fiction & Fantasy?

Books in the Science Fiction & Fantasy genre are assigned across grades 5 through 12 in US schools tracked by ReadingList. Specific grade placements are listed on each book's detail page.

Science Fiction & Fantasy books assigned in US schools

Name: Science Fiction & Fantasy books assigned in US schools
Creator: ReadingList
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

US schools assign 118 books in the Science Fiction & Fantasy genre, sourced from state ELA standards, AP/IB syllabi, and Common Core exemplar lists. Each title links to its grade range, Lexile, and the specific curricula citing it.

Most assigned science fiction & fantasy book

Children of Blood and Bone

Tomi Adeyemi · on 5 reading lists

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Books on file: 118
Grade span: 5–12

Authors in this genre

Holly Black (4) · Scott Westerfeld (4) · Greg van Eekhout (3) · Jenn Reese (3) · Sarah Beth Durst (3) · A.S. King (2)

Science Fiction & Fantasy by grade

Science Fiction & Fantasy titles

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Show all 118 titles

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Arabella of Mars · David D. Levine
Archivist Wasp · Nicole Kornher-Stace
Behemoth · Scott Westerfeld
Benny Ramírez and the Nearly Departed · José Pablo Iriarte
Black Heart · Holly Black
Braided · Leah Cypess
Catfishing on CatNet · Naomi Kritzer
Chime · Franny Billingsley
Cog · Greg van Eekhout
Court of Fives · Kate Elliott
Cuckoo Song · Frances Hardinge
Daughter of Smoke and Bone · Laini Taylor
Daydreamer · Rob Cameron
Devilish · Maureen Johnson
Dirty Wings · Sarah McCarry
Dragon Pearl · Yoon Ha Lee
Elatsoe · Darcie Little Badger
Enchanted · Alethea Kontis
Every Bird a Prince · Jenn Reese
Everybody Sees the Ants · A.S. King
Exo · Fonda Lee
Eyes Like Stars · Lisa Mantchev
Fair Coin · E.C. Myers
Flora Segunda · Ysabeau S. Wilce
Flora's Dare · Ysabeau S. Wilce
Gemini Rising · Jonathan Brazee
Glory O'Brien's History of the Future · A.S. King
Goblin Girl · K a Mielke
Greenglass House · Kate Milford
Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow, Book 2) · Xiran Jay Zhao
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword · Barry Deutsch
I Shall Wear Midnight · Terry Pratchett
Ice · Sarah Beth Durst
Into the Wild · Sarah Beth Durst
Into the Wild Magic · Michelle Knudsen
Love Is the Drug · Alaya Dawn Johnson
Midnighters #2: Touching Darkness · Scott Westerfeld
Monster Blood Tattoo: Lamplighter · D. M. Cornish
Moonstorm · Yoon Ha Lee
Peasprout Chen, Future Legend of Skate and Sword · Henry Lien
Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions · Henry Lien
Peeps · Scott Westerfeld
Railhead · Philip Reeve
Railsea · China Miéville
Redemptor (Raybearer Book 2) · Jordan Ifueko
Riverland · Fran Wilde
Rocks Fall Everyone Dies · Lindsay Ribar
Ruby Finley Vs. the Interstellar Invasion · K. Tempest Bradford
Salvage · Alexandra Duncan
Scott Westerfeld: Leviathan Trilogy · Scott Westerfeld
September Girls · Bennett Madison
Seriously Wicked · Tina Connolly
Shadowshaper · Daniel José Older
Siberia · Ann Halam
Sister Mine · Nalo Hopkinson
Star Daughter · Shveta Thakrar
Stormwitch · Susan Vaught
Summer of the Mariposas · Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Tess of the Road · Rachel Hartman
The Adoration of Jenna Fox · Mary E. Pearson
The Amethyst Road · Louise Spiegler
The Art of Starving · Sam J. Miller
The Boy at the End of the World · Greg van Eekhout
The Boy from Ilysies · Pearl North
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown · Holly Black
The Diviners · Libba Bray
The Freedom Maze · Delia Sherman
The Ghost Job · Greg van Eekhout
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making · Catherynne M. Valente
The Hotel Under the Sand · Kage Baker
The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern · J. Dianne Dotson
The King of Attolia · Megan Whalen Turner
The Lion Hunters Novels · Elizabeth Wein
The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester · Maya MacGregor
The Mirrorwood · Deva Fagan
The Scratch Daughters · H.A. Clarke
The Star-Touched Queen · Roshani Chokshi
The Summer Prince · Alaya Dawn Johnson
The Young Necromancer's Guide to Ghosts · Vanessa Ricci-Thode
Thornwood · Leah Cypess
To Shape a Dragon's Breath · Moniquill Blackgoose
Ultraviolet · R.J. Anderson
Unmade (The Lynburn Legacy Book 3) · Sarah Rees Brennan
Updraft · Fran Wilde
Valiant · Holly Black
Vessel · Sarah Beth Durst
Victories Greater Than Death · Charlie Jane Anders
Vintage · Steve Berman
Want · Cindy Pon
Weave a Circle Round · Kari Maaren
When We Wake · Karen Healey
White Cat · Holly Black
Zeroboxer · Fonda Lee
Zoe's Tale · John Scalzi

How Science Fiction & Fantasy fits US school reading lists

Science Fiction & Fantasy appears in 118 titles across the US-school assigned-reading canon ReadingList tracks. The genre is assigned across grades 5 through 12, with Lexile measures spanning the standard Lexile bands. Science Fiction & Fantasy occupies a specific pedagogical slot in US ELA standards: state frameworks pair the genre with reading-skill anchors that the form is structurally well-suited to teach — Common Core's RL.3 (character development) and RL.5 (structure of texts) tasks lean on Science Fiction & Fantasy conventions, and AP English Literature's free-response prompts regularly draw on works of Science Fiction & Fantasy as exemplar texts.

Within US schools, Science Fiction & Fantasy is taught with explicit attention to genre conventions: students are expected to identify the genre's defining structural moves, the standard narrative or rhetorical patterns Science Fiction & Fantasy follows, and the way authors either honor or subvert those patterns. Each Science Fiction & Fantasy title approaches its thematic material through the genre's specific structural conventions. For teachers assembling a thematic unit, this means a Science Fiction & Fantasy text usually slots into the curriculum at a particular skill-targeting moment — not interchangeably with texts from other genres.

Authors whose Science Fiction & Fantasy work appears most frequently in US-school canons include Holly Black, Scott Westerfeld, Greg van Eekhout. Each works in Science Fiction & Fantasy with a distinct voice and structural emphasis — meaning the corpus is not a single uniform reading experience but a range of approaches to the form. Students moving through Science Fiction & Fantasy titles across grade levels typically encounter the genre's most accessible exemplars in middle school (focused plots, clear character arcs) and its most demanding exemplars in AP and IB courses (multiple narrators, period-specific vocabulary, sustained ambiguity).

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Common questions

How many Science Fiction & Fantasy books do US schools assign?: 118 books classified as Science Fiction & Fantasy appear across the curricula and state ELA standards tracked by ReadingList. Each is cited from a state department of education, AP/IB syllabus, Common Core exemplar list, or peer-reviewed source.
What grades read Science Fiction & Fantasy?: Books in the Science Fiction & Fantasy genre are assigned across grades 5 through 12 in US schools tracked by ReadingList. Specific grade placements are listed on each book's detail page.

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