# 9th grade books about coming of age

**11** books commonly assigned to 9th grade students in US schools that explore coming of age. Every title's grade range covers 9th grade, so each is grade-appropriate by curriculum placement. Sourced from Common Core exemplars, AP, IB, Cambridge, and 50 state ELA curricula.

**Reading difficulty:** the typical 9th grade band is 1050–1335L (Common Core Appendix A). Of the 10 titles here with a Lexile score, 3 are grade-level, 7 more accessible, and 0 a stretch.

**Grade:** 9th grade  ·  **Theme:** coming of age
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/grade/9/coming-of-age
**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://achievethecore.org/page/2699

## 9th grade coming of age reading list

- [American Born Chinese](https://readinglist.school/book/american-born-chinese) by Gene Luen Yang _(530L · Grades 7–12 · pub 2006)_
- [Great Expectations](https://readinglist.school/book/great-expectations) by Charles Dickens _(1150L · Grades 9–12 · pub 1861)_
- [Little Women](https://readinglist.school/book/little-women) by Louisa May Alcott _(1300L · Grades 7–10 · pub 1868)_
- [Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood](https://readinglist.school/book/persepolis) by Marjane Satrapi _(Grades 9–12 · pub 2000)_
- [The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian](https://readinglist.school/book/the-absolutely-true-diary-of-a-part-time-indian) by Sherman Alexie _(600L · Grades 7–10 · pub 2007)_
- [The Diary of a Young Girl](https://readinglist.school/book/the-diary-of-a-young-girl) by Anne Frank _(1080L · Grades 7–10 · pub 1947)_
- [The Fault in Our Stars](https://readinglist.school/book/the-fault-in-our-stars) by John Green _(850L · Grades 9–12 · pub 2012)_
- [The Perks of Being a Wallflower](https://readinglist.school/book/the-perks-of-being-a-wallflower) by Stephen Chbosky _(720L · Grades 9–12 · pub 1999)_
- [The Poet X](https://readinglist.school/book/the-poet-x) by Elizabeth Acevedo _(800L · Grades 8–12 · pub 2018)_
- [The Secret Life of Bees](https://readinglist.school/book/the-secret-life-of-bees) by Sue Monk Kidd _(840L · Grades 9–11 · pub 2002)_
- [To Kill a Mockingbird](https://readinglist.school/book/to-kill-a-mockingbird) by Harper Lee _(870L · Grades 7–10 · pub 1960)_

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_Generated from primary-source citations indexed on ReadingList.school. HTML view: https://readinglist.school/grade/9/coming-of-age._