12th grade reading list

Name: 12th grade reading list
Creator: ReadingList
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

12th grade students in US schools are commonly assigned 374 books across Common Core Appendix B, AP, IB, Cambridge, and state ELA curricula. Each title links to its grade citations.

Reading difficulty: the typical 12th grade text-complexity band is 1185–1385L (Common Core Appendix A). Of the 49 titles here with a Lexile score, 0 are grade-level, 48 are more accessible (often chosen for theme over reading challenge), and 1 is a stretch text. Match a book to your reader’s measured Lexile rather than to the grade alone.

374 books with a 12th grade citation

Titles whose grade range covers 12th grade in a state ELA curriculum or a national reference (Common Core Appendix B, AP, IB).

Show all 374 titles

Akata Witch · Nnedi Okorafor
All My Rage · Sabaa Tahir
All Quiet on the Western Front · Erich Maria Remarque
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team · Christina Soontornvat
All the Fighting Parts · Hannah V. Sawyerr
All the Noise at Once · DeAndra Davis
American Born Chinese · Gene Luen Yang
Anger Is a Gift · Mark Oshiro
Anthem · Ayn Rand
Antigone · Sophocles
Apple · Eric Gansworth
Arabella of Mars · David D. Levine
Archivist Wasp · Nicole Kornher-Stace
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe · Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Aru Shah and the End of Time · Roshani Chokshi
Ash · Malinda Lo
Beautiful Creatures: The Manga (A Graphic Novel) · Cassandra Jean
Because You'll Never Meet Me · Leah Thomas
Belle Époque · Elizabeth Ross
Beloved · Toni Morrison
Beneath the Wide Silk Sky · Emily Inouye Huey
Benny Ramírez and the Nearly Departed · José Pablo Iriarte
Black Boy · Richard Wright
Black Girl Unlimited · Echo Brown
Black Heart · Holly Black
Blood Water Paint · Joy McCullough
Bone Gap · Laura Ruby
Boots on the Ground · Elizabeth Partridge
Braided · Leah Cypess
Brave New World · Aldous Huxley
Brownstone · Samuel Teer
Burn Down, Rise Up · Vincent Tirado
Butterfly Yellow · Thanhhà Lại
Catfishing on CatNet · Naomi Kritzer
Challenger Deep · Neal Shusterman
Charm & Strange · Stephanie Kuehn
Check, Please! Book 1: # Hockey · Ngozi Ukazu
Children of Blood and Bone · Tomi Adeyemi
Chime · Franny Billingsley
Chronically Dolores · Maya Van Wagenen
Cog · Greg van Eekhout
Conviction · Kelly Loy Gilbert
Copper Sun · Sharon Draper
Court of Fives · Kate Elliott
Crossing the Tracks · Barbara Stuber
Cuckoo Song · Frances Hardinge
Cursed · Karol Ruth Silverstein
Darius the Great Is Not Okay · Adib Khorram
Daughter of Smoke and Bone · Laini Taylor
Day of Tears · Julius Lester
Daydreamer · Rob Cameron
Dead Things Are Closer Than They Appear · Robin Wasley
Dear Martin · Nic Stone
Dearest · Alethea Kontis
Death of a Salesman · Arthur Miller
Devilish · Maureen Johnson
Devils Within · S. F. Henson
Dig · A. S. King
Dirty Wings · Sarah McCarry
Divergent · Veronica Roth
Divine Rivals · Rebecca Ross
Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets · Evan Roskos
Dragon Pearl · Yoon Ha Lee
Dread Nation · Justina Ireland
Elatsoe · Darcie Little Badger
Every Bird a Prince · Jenn Reese
Every Day · David Levithan
Everybody Sees the Ants · A.S. King
Everything Sad Is Untrue · Daniel Nayeri
Everything We Never Had · Randy Ribay
Exo · Fonda Lee
Eyes Like Stars · Lisa Mantchev
Fahrenheit 451 · Ray Bradbury
Fair Coin · E.C. Myers
Far From The Tree · Robin Benway
Fences · August Wilson
Firekeeper's Daughter · Angeline Boulley
First Love Language · Stefany Valentine
Five Flavors of Dumb · Antony John
Flash Burnout · L. K. Madigan
Flora Segunda · Ysabeau S. Wilce
Flora's Dare · Ysabeau S. Wilce
Forever Is Now · Mariama J. Lockington
Four for the Road · K.J. Reilly
Frankenstein · Mary Shelley
Frankly in Love · David Yoon
Furia · Yamile Saied Méndez
Gabi, a Girl in Pieces · Isabel Quintero
Gemini Rising · Jonathan Brazee
Girl Mans Up · M-E Girard
Girls Like Us · Gail Giles
Glory O'Brien's History of the Future · A.S. King
Goblin Girl · K a Mielke
Going Bovine · Libba Bray
Graceling · Kristin Cashore
Great Expectations · Charles Dickens
Greenglass House · Kate Milford
Guardian of the Dead · Karen Healey
Hamlet · William Shakespeare
Heart of Darkness · Joseph Conrad
Hearts Unbroken · Cynthia Leitich Smith
Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow, Book 2) · Xiran Jay Zhao
Hell Followed with Us · Andrew Joseph White
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword · Barry Deutsch
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer · Lish McBride
Hold Still · Nina LaCour
House of Purple Cedar · Tim Tingle
How I Live Now · Meg Rosoff
How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe · Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
How to Survive Your Murder · Danielle Valentine
Hush · Eishes Chayil
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings · Maya Angelou
I Shall Wear Midnight · Terry Pratchett
I'll Give You the Sun · Jandy Nelson
Ice · Sarah Beth Durst
If I Ever Get Out of Here · Eric Gansworth
In Darkness · Nick Lake
In the Shadow of Blackbirds · Cat Winters
Into the Wild · Sarah Beth Durst
Into the Wild Magic · Michelle Knudsen
Invisible Man · Ralph Ellison
Iron Hearted Violet · Kelly Barnhill
It Sounded Better in My Head · Nina Kenwood
Jane Eyre · Charlotte Brontë
Jellicoe Road · Melina Marchetta
Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults) · Bryan Stevenson
King Lear · William Shakespeare
Last Night at the Telegraph Club · Malinda Lo
Life as We Knew It · Susan Beth Pfeffer
Life of Pi · Yann Martel
Long Way Down · Jason Reynolds
Looking for Alaska · John Green
Lord of the Flies · William Golding
Louder Than Hunger · John Schu
Love Is the Drug · Alaya Dawn Johnson
Love and other Perishable Items · Laura Buzo
Love, Misha · Askel Aden
Lovely War · Julie Berry
Macbeth · William Shakespeare
Madapple · Christina Meldrum
Mapping the Bones · Jane Yolen
Marcelo in the Real World · Francisco X. Stork
March Book Three · John Lewis
Maus: A Survivor's Tale · Art Spiegelman
Me (Moth) · Amber McBride
Me, the Missing, and the Dead · Jenny Valentine
Midnighters #2: Touching Darkness · Scott Westerfeld
Midwinterblood · Marcus Sedgwick
Mockingjay (Deluxe Edition) (Hunger Games, Book Three) · Suzanne Collins
Monster Blood Tattoo: Lamplighter · D. M. Cornish
Moonstorm · Yoon Ha Lee
Much Ado About Nothing · William Shakespeare
Murder Among Friends · Candace Fleming
My Ántonia · Willa Cather
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave · Frederick Douglass
Never Thought I'd End Up Here · Ann Liang
Nigeria Jones · Ibi Zoboi
Night · Elie Wiesel
Nimona · ND Stevenson
Not Like Other Girls · Meredith Adamo
Not Quite Dead Yet · Holly Jackson
Now Let Me Fly: A Portrait of Eugene Bullard · Ronald Wimberly
Oedipus Rex · Sophocles
Once There Was · Kiyash Monsef
Othello · William Shakespeare
Our Town · Thornton Wilder
Paper Covers Rock · Jenny Hubbard
Peasprout Chen, Future Legend of Skate and Sword · Henry Lien
Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions · Henry Lien
Peeps · Scott Westerfeld
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood · Marjane Satrapi
Piecing Me Together · Renée Watson
Pride and Prejudice · Jane Austen
Purple Hibiscus · Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Pygmalion · George Bernard Shaw
Railhead · Philip Reeve
Railsea · China Miéville
Rani Patel In Full Effect · Sonia Patel
Raybearer · Jordan Ifueko
Red Flags and Butterflies · Sheryl Azzam
Redemptor (Raybearer Book 2) · Jordan Ifueko
Rez Ball · Byron Graves
Riverland · Fran Wilde
Rocks Fall Everyone Dies · Lindsay Ribar
Root Magic · Eden Royce
Rose Under Fire · Elizabeth Wein
Ruby Finley Vs. the Interstellar Invasion · K. Tempest Bradford
Saints and Misfits · S. K. Ali
Saints of the Household · Ari Tison
Salt to the Sea · Ruta Sepetys
Salvage · Alexandra Duncan
Savvy · Ingrid Law
Scott Westerfeld: Leviathan Trilogy · Scott Westerfeld
Scott Westerfeld: Leviathan Trilogy · Scott Westerfeld
Scythe · Neal Shusterman
September Girls · Bennett Madison
Seraphina · Rachel Hartman
Seriously Wicked · Tina Connolly
Sex & Violence · Carrie Mesrobian
Shadowshaper · Daniel José Older
She Is a Haunting · Trang Thanh Tran
Ship Breaker · Paolo Bacigalupi
Shut Up, This Is Serious · Carolina Ixta
Siberia · Ann Halam
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda · Becky Albertalli
Sister Mine · Nalo Hopkinson
Sky's End · Marc J. Gregson
Slaughterhouse-Five · Kurt Vonnegut
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You · Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
Star Daughter · Shveta Thakrar
Starfish · Akemi Dawn Bowman
Steelheart · Brandon Sanderson
Stormwitch · Susan Vaught
Strange & Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender · Leslye Jo Anne Walton
Summer of the Mariposas · Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Sunrise on the Reaping · Suzanne Collins
Surviving the City · Tasha Spillett
Tell Me Something Real · Calla Devlin
Tess of the Road · Rachel Hartman
That's Not My Name · Megan Lally
The Adoration of Jenna Fox · Mary E. Pearson
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn · Mark Twain
The Agathas · Kathleen Glasgow
The Amethyst Road · Louise Spiegler
The Art of Starving · Sam J. Miller
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I · M. T. Anderson
The Awakening · Kate Chopin
The Black Kids · Christina Hammonds Reed
The Blood Years · Elana K. Arnold
The Blossom and the Firefly · Sherri L. Smith
The Bluest Eye · Toni Morrison
The Boy at the End of the World · Greg van Eekhout
The Boy from Ilysies · Pearl North
The Candle and the Flame · Nafiza Azad
The Carnival at Bray · Jessie Ann Foley
The Catcher in the Rye · J.D. Salinger
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown · Holly Black
The Collectors Stories · A. S. King
The Color Purple · Alice Walker
The Color of a Lie · Kim Johnson
The Crucible · Arthur Miller
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time · Mark Haddon
The Diviners Free Preview Edition (The First 11 Chapters) · Libba Bray
The Everafter · Amy Huntley
The Evil Wizard Smallbone · Delia Sherman
The Fault in Our Stars · John Green
The Field Guide to the North American Teenager · Ben Philippe
The Forbidden Book · Sacha Lamb
The Freak Observer · Blythe Woolston
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 Girl of Fire and Thorns Stories · Rae Carson
The Glass Menagerie · Tennessee Williams
The Grapes of Wrath · John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby · F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Handmaid's Tale · Margaret Atwood
The Hate U Give · Angie Thomas
The Hired Girl · Laura Amy Schlitz
The Hotel Under the Sand · Kage Baker
The Importance of Being Earnest · Oscar Wilde
The Joy Luck Club · Amy Tan
The King of Attolia · Megan Whalen Turner
The Kite Runner · Khaled Hosseini
The Land · Mildred D. Taylor
The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School · Sonora Reyes
The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen · Isaac Blum
The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler · James Cross Giblin
The Lion Hunters Novels · Elizabeth Wein
The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester · Maya MacGregor
The Maze Runner · James Dashner
The Mirrorwood · Deva Fagan
The Miseducation of Cameron Post · Emily Danforth
The Odyssey · Homer
The Old Man and the Sea · Ernest Hemingway
The Perks of Being a Wallflower · Stephen Chbosky
The Poet Slave of Cuba · Margarita Engle
The Poet X · Elizabeth Acevedo
The Reappearance of Rachel Price · Holly Jackson
The River Between Us · Richard Peck
The Running Dream · Wendelin Van Draanen
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly · Stephanie Oakes
The Scar Boys · Len Vlahos
The Scarlet Letter · Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scratch Daughters · H.A. Clarke
The Secret of the Sapphire Sentinel · J. Dianne Dotson
The Selection · Kiera Cass
The Serpent King · Jeff Zentner
The Silence That Binds Us · Joanna Ho
The Smell of Other People's Houses · Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
The Star-Touched Queen · Roshani Chokshi
The Story of Owen · E. K. Johnston
The Summer Prince · Alaya Dawn Johnson
The Summer of Bitter and Sweet · Jen Ferguson
The Surrender Tree / El ábol de la rendición · Margarita Engle
The Tempest · William Shakespeare
The Tequila Worm · Viola Canales
The Things They Carried · Tim O'Brien
The True Meaning of Smekday · Adam Rex
The Twenty-One · Elizabeth Rusch
The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B · Teresa Toten
The Weight of Feathers · Anna-Marie McLemore
The White Darkness · Geraldine McCaughrean
The Wilderness of Girls · Madeline Claire Franklin
The Words We Keep · Erin Stewart
The Words in My Hands · Asphyxia
The Young Necromancer's Guide to Ghosts · Vanessa Ricci-Thode
Their Eyes Were Watching God · Zora Neale Hurston
There Will Come a Darkness · Katy Rose Pool
Things Fall Apart · Chinua Achebe
This Is My Brain in Love · I. W. Gregorio
Thornwood · Leah Cypess
To Shape a Dragon's Breath · Moniquill Blackgoose
Torch · Lyn Miller-Lachmann
Torpedoed · Deborah Heiligman
Trail of the Dead (Killer of Enemies #2) · Joseph Bruchac
Twelfth Night · William Shakespeare
Ultraviolet · R.J. Anderson
Under the Mesquite · Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Under the Surface · Diana Urban
Unmade (The Lynburn Legacy Book 3) · Sarah Rees Brennan
Unwind · Neal Shusterman
Updraft · Fran Wilde
Valiant · Holly Black
Vampires, Hearts & Other Dead Things · Margie Fuston
Vessel · Sarah Beth Durst
Victories Greater Than Death · Charlie Jane Anders
Vintage · Steve Berman
Wake the Bones · Elizabeth Kilcoyne
Want · Cindy Pon
Warrior Girl Unearthed · Angeline Boulley
We Are Okay · Nina LaCour
Weave a Circle Round · Kari Maaren
What Beauty There Is · Cory Anderson
What Girls Are Made Of · Elana K. Arnold
What I Saw and How I Lied · Judy Blundell
What the Night Sings · Vesper Stamper
When We Collided · Emery Lord
When We Wake · Karen Healey
When You Look Like Us · Pamela N. Harris
Where Things Come Back · John Corey Whaley
White Cat · Holly Black
White Lies · Ann Bausum
Wonder Show · Hannah Rodgers Barnaby
Woven in Moonlight · Isabel Ibañez
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass: The Graphic Novel · Meg Medina
You and Me on Repeat · Mary Shyne
You're Welcome, Universe · Whitney Gardner
Zeroboxer · Fonda Lee
Zoe's Tale · John Scalzi

Reading the whole 12th grade reading list? Kids who struggle with the print versions often finish the assigned books by listening.

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Frequently asked questions

What books do 12th grade students read in US schools?

374 books are commonly assigned to 12th grade students across US schools — sourced from Common Core exemplars, AP, IB, Cambridge, and 50 state curricula. Each title on this page links to its full curriculum citations.

How many books are on the 12th grade reading list?

This page lists 374 12th grade titles, of which 374 have a verified state or national curriculum citation at the 12th grade level.

Are these 12th grade books in Common Core?

Many 12th grade books on this list appear in the Common Core State Standards Appendix B exemplar texts. Each book card links to its full citation history including which states + curricula reference it. Look for the "Common Core" tag on individual book pages.

How do I pick a 12th grade book for my student?

Filter by curriculum using the pivots above (Common Core, AP, IB, Cambridge, state-specific). Each book page shows its grade range, themes, and which curricula list it. For homeschool or differentiation, books with overlapping grade ranges (±2 grades) work for 12th grade students.

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