Lexile by 546L to 760L

Two main factors influence reader engagement – how interesting the books are and how difficult they are to read. Lexile measures are indicators of book difficulty or text complexity. MetaMetrics’ Lexile Framework for Reading calculates a book’s text complexity based on word frequency and sentence length. According to the Common Core State Standards, students should read books at a Lexile level of 770 or above by the time they are in Grade 4; a Lexile level of 955 or above by the time they are in Grade 6; and a Lexile level of 1080 or above by the time they are in Grade 9. However, some books may have a lower Lexile level but have a highly complex narrative due to their content and length. For this reason, the Common Core State Standards encourage teachers to consider other criteria, such as the plot and character themes and book-length when selecting books for their classroom.

A Christmas Carol

"Bah Humbug!" said Scrooge. With those famous words a tale unfolds that renews the joy and caring that are Christmas.

A Lesson Before Dying

Two young black men, one condemned to death for a murder and the other a teacher, form a bond in a small Cajun Louisiana community in the late 1940s.

Any Small Goodness: A Novel of the Barrio

This story is about a Mexican-American family in East L.A. where random acts of generosity and goodwill improves the lives of the community.

Anything But Typical

A 12-year-old with autism spectrum disorder meets his first real friend online when he posts his original stories.

Breaking Through

Since coming from Mexico to California ten years ago, fourteen-year-old Francisco is still working in the fields, fighting to "break through" to improve his life and complete his education.

Bronx Masquerade

Grimes features the voices of 18 urban youths who share their innermost feelings in their open mike poetry presentations.

Children of the River

At thirteen, Sundara fled Cambodia with her aunt's family to escape the Khmer Rouge army, leaving her parents, two siblings and the boy she has loved since childhood behind.

Crossing the Wire

Fifteen-year-old Victor Flores heads north from Mexico so he can find work and send money home to his family.

Esperanza Rising

This novel tells of a Mexican girl's fall from riches and her immigration to California in the 1930s. The story highlights her awareness of Mexico's post-revolution tensions, the rivalry with Oklahoma Dust Bowl victims, and struggles of Mexican workers trying to organize themselves to ask the U.S. government for better living conditions.

Fallen Angels

Active duty in Vietnam is seen through the eyes of a seventeen-year-old African American private. He and his new buddies experience bonding, battles, grave wounds, and the brutal fact that not all will return home.

Friedrich

In chronological episodes a young boy tells about the fate of his Jewish friend, Friedrich, in Nazi Germany. Friedrich’s life becomes a torment as his family is destroyed and he himself is forced into hiding, alone and in secrecy.

Grapes of Wrath

The hardships faced by migrant agricultural workers who arrived in California during the Great Depression are depicted by this Nobel Prize-winning California author.

Holes

Stanley Yelnats is sent to a correctional boot camp for a crime he did not commit.

HUSH

A middle-class African American family is forced to enter the federal witness protection program after the father decides to testify against two policemen who killed an innocent boy.

If You Come Softly

This novel presents a gently told story of an interracial romance between Jeremiah, a fifteen-year-old African American, whose parents have just separated, and Ellie, an upper-middle-class Jewish girl. The story is told in alternating chapters by Ellie and Jeremiah.

Journey of the Sparrows

This moving story is about the secret lives of immigrants struggling to find work and are fearful of arrest and deportation.

Kindred

A contemporary Los Angeles woman travels back in time to an Antebellum plantation, where she is assumed to be a slave and discovers the identity of her ancestors. Violent confrontations and emotional intensity are aspects of this novel depicting the political, ethical, and social influences of slavery on both black and white Americans.

Iqbal

When young Iqbal is sold into slavery at a carpet factory, his arrival changes everything for the other overworked and abused children there. It is Iqbal who explains to them that despite their master's promises, he plans on keeping them as his slaves indefinitely.

Jesse

To escape a home dominated by his alcoholic stepfather, 17-year-old Jesse abruptly leaves high school, moves into an apartment with his older brother, and takes classes at Fresno City College.

Lisa, Bright and Dark

Lisa is smart, attractive, and seemingly successful, so her parents and teachers are unwilling to admit that she is struggling with a mental illness.

Masterminds

A group of kids living in a Pleasantville-type town connect to some of the greatest criminal masterminds of their time after discovering a dark secret.

Miracle's Boys

Set in contemporary Harlem, this novel tells of three African-American brothers who are left alone after their mother's passing.

Mud City

Parvana’s best friend, Shauzia, has escaped the misery of her life in Kabul, only to end up in a refugee camp in Pakistan.

Night

This true account relates the author's experiences as a Jewish boy with his family in a Nazi concentration camp.

Nightjohn

Nightjohn, an enslaved African American, risks severe punishments by teaching a young slave girl to read.

Number the Stars

In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be courageous when she helps to shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.

Of Mice and Men

George and Lenny are migrant workers in the Salinas Valley of California during the Great Depression, they dream of a time when they will have enough money to buy their own farm.

Parvana's Journey

After her father's death, 13-year-old Parvana, disguised as a boy, wanders alone through the war-torn Afghanistan looking for her mother and siblings who had disappeared in the tumult of the Taliban takeover of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Riding Freedom

Posing as a boy, Charley Parkhurst ran away from an orphanage in the mid-nineteenth century, moved to California as a stagecoach driver, and fooled everyone by her appearance.

Seedfolks

When a young Vietnamese girl plants some bean seeds in a vacant lot because she misses her family, the beginnings of a community project emerge.

Shadow Spinner

In this story, Jimmy learns about his father and about himself, finding out that while things can’t always be fixed, sometimes they can be understood, and maybe even forgiven.

Somewhere in the Darkness

In this story, Jimmy learns about his father and about himself, finding out that while things can't always be fixed, sometimes they can be understood, and maybe even forgiven.

Speak

Melinda is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now nobody will talk or listen to her.

Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti

Seventeen-year-old Dijo (a victim in the real-life 1991 firebombing of a boys' shelter) is remembered by a girl named Jeremie, who cares for him in the hospital after he has been beaten in an unprovoked attack.

The Art of Keeping Cool

Fear permeates the Rhode Island coastal town where Robert, his mother, and sister are living out the war with his paternal grandparents: Fear of Nazi submarines offshore. Fear of Abel Hoffman, a German artist living reclusively outside of town. And for Robert, a more personal fear, of his hot-tempered, controlling grandfather.

The Book Thief

Liesel is a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding.

The Breadwinner

Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, 11-year-old Parvana has rarely been outdoors. Barred from attending school, shopping at the market, or even playing in the streets of Kabul, the heroine of The Breadwinner is trapped inside her family's one-room home.

Contender

Alfred begins going to Donatelli’s Gym, a boxing club in Harlem that has trained champions. There he learns it’s the effort, not the win, that makes the man.

The Girl Who Owned a City

When a plague sweeps over the earth killing everyone except children under twelve, ten-year-old Lisa organizes a group to rebuild a new way of life.

The Giver

Jonas lives in a seemingly utopian society. He is about to experience the Ceremony of Twelve to determine his role in life. Little does he know that he will discover the secret memories of his dystopian society.

The Help

Three women will come together for a project that will put them all at risk. They are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their time.

The Lightning Thief

After learning that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea, twelve-year-old Percy is sent to a summer camp for demigods like himself, and joins his new friends on a quest to prevent a war between the gods.

The Maze

Rick Walker is a troubled teen who breaks out of Blue Canyon Youth Detention Center and becomes a stowaway in a pickup truck headed into Utah's canyons.

The Mighty Miss Malone

Deza is the smartest girl in her class in Gary, Indiana, singled out by teachers for a special path in life. But it's 1936 and the Great Depression has hit Gary hard, and there are no jobs for black men.

The Outside Shot

Recruited by a small Midwestern college to play basketball, Lonnie Jackson, a Harlem boy has many new experiences, including working with a child who needs physical therapy and dealing with corruption in college sports.

The Outsiders

Fourteen-year-old Ponyboy is loyal to his brothers and his gang from the wrong side of the tracks. Ponyboy is caught in a turbulent chain of events after his best friend kills a member of a rival gang.

The Skin I'm In

Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face. She learns how to value who she is and to accept what she looks like.

The Truth about Truman School

Zebby and Amr create a website about the real Truman Middle School. They want to say things that the school newspaper would never say.

The Westing Game

A bizarre chain of events begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of Samuel W. Westing’s will.

Under the Blood Red Sun

This novel depicts 1941 Hawaii through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old Japanese American boy, Tomi Nakaji, as he struggles with the racism, violence, and hardship that arise when his father and grandfather are wrongfully arrested after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.