If your home school student plans to go to college, there are certain books that he or she will probably be expected to have some level of familiarity with. College English professors often assume their students have read Shakespeare, Faulkner, Orwell, and other famous authors from the past few hundred years.

Below are lists of books that commonly appear on reading lists in high schools across America. Most of these books are secular in nature; a few contain profanity and mature content or themes that would not be suitable for younger readers. The Education Alliance, as a Christian organization, does not endorse content that some of our friends may find offensive, but we want you to be aware that these books are read by many students preparing for college, and that it may be advisable for you to incorporate some of them into your home school curriculum.

9th Grade

  1. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
  2. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
  3. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
  4. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  5. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  6. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

10th Grade

  1. The Iliad by Homer*
  2. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
  3. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
  4. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
  5. Animal Farm by George Orwell
  6. The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
  7. Lord of the Flies by William Golding*

11th Grade

  1. 1984 by George Orwell*
  2. The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck**
  3. Alas Babylon by Pat Frank
  4. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne*
  5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald*
  6. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
  7. Moby Dick by Herman Melville

12th Grade

  1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee*
  2. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger**
  3. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
  4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  5. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
  6. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  7. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque*

Other Notable Books

  • The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • Lord of the Rings: Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
  • A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
  • The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
  • Catch-22 by Joesph Keller**
  • The Tempest by William Shakespeare
  • The Call of the Wild by Jack London
  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
  • Dracula by Bram Stoker*
  • Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
  • Hamilton’s Mythology by Hamilton
  • Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
  • Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
  • Emma by Jane Austen
  • A Separate Peace by John Knowles**
  • The Yearling by  Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
  • Last of the Breed by Louis L’Amour
  • Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

*Contains mature content or themes

**Contains profanity and mature content or themes