GUIDE TO CHALLENGING READING: Books of Literary Merit
HF="Historical" Fiction F="Fiction" SF="Science" Fiction
MEDIUM (close to grade level):
Dune by Frank Herbert (7.4) SF
The Andromeda Strain and others by Michael Crichton HF
Sounder by William Armstrong (6.9) F
The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill (7.6) F
Caves of Steel, Second Foundation and others by Isaac Asimov SF
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (6.5) F
Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Houston (7.4) NF
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi (7.2) F
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Breathing Lessons or others by Anne Tyler (6.5) F
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (7.6) HF
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (8.0)
Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther (8.0) F
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Tell Me If the Lovers are Losers by Cynthia Voigt (8.0)
The Twenty-One Balloons (7.9) by William duBois F
The Long Road to Gettysburg by Jim Murphy (7.6)
CHALLENGE FICTION:
Across Five Aprils, No Promises in the Wind, and others by Irene Hunt (8.9)
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (8.1)
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Texas and others by James Michener
The Town by Conrad Richter
A Fable by William Faulkner
Theophilus North and others by Thornton Wilder
Ethan Frome, The House of Mirth, or others by Edith Wharton
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (11.0)
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (9.2) F
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury SF (9.8)
Portrait of a Lady and others by Henry James F — set in Europe and U.S.
The Chosen, The Promise and others by Chaim Potok (9.4) HF
Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (8.3) F
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (8.9) F — set in Cuba
Death Comes for the Archbishop, Oh, Pioneers, by Willa Cather (7.9) HF
The Scarlet Letter, The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne (11.7) HF
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (8.6)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (8.3)
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (8.2)
The Fall of the House of Usher and other stories by Edgar Allan Poe
The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (8.5)
CHALLENGE NONFICTION:
Three Cups of Tea (8.4) by Greg Mortenson and David Relin — set in Pakistan and U.S.
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder (8.0) * NF — set in Haiti and U.S.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac and others by Benjamin Franklin
Eleanor and Franklin by Joseph P. Lash
Harriett Beecher Stowe: A Life by Joan Hedrick
The 50 Most Influential Women in American Law by Dawn Bradley Berry, J.D.
Into Thin Air by John Krakauer (9.4)*
Bill Gates by Alan Woog
More Than Houses by Millard Fuller
Invisible Allies: Microbes That Shape Our Lives by Jeanette Farrell
Moby Dick by Hermann Melville (10.3)
Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose
My Life by Golda Meier
American Hero: The True Story of Charles A. Lindbergh by Barry Denenberg (8.2)
Lincoln and Slavery by Peter Burchard (8.9)
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts
Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
SPECIAL CHALLENGE:
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (12.0) by Edmund Morris NF
The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs (9.4) NF
Personal History by Katherine Graham NF
*These books have either a lot of violence or some swear words. Please discuss with your parents whether or not they want you to read them.
