READING LIST ROSTER

California Senate Bill 813, enacted in 1983, asks that the content of secondary-school courses stimulate an improvement in the effort and performance of students nationwide. Thus spurred, the State Board of Education adopted school curriculums (developed by the superintendent of public instruction) with literary works of “compelling, intellectual, social or moral content,” whose example by way of excellent use of language would encourage writing and discussion.

Individual choices are made by Orange County school district committees, taking into account the perceived needs and abilities of their students. The Santa Ana Unified School District has a short core list of requirements for teachers to choose from (for example, one epic or one play among two or three). Extended readings are made at teachers’ discretion: English is a second language for a large percentage of students.

The Huntington Beach Union High School District, at the other end of the spectrum, offers four tracks from grades 10 to 12: Honors, College Prep, Readings List and Fundamental.

In the Capistrano Unified School District, junior and senior years don’t share a central curriculum: Students may choose from a variety of electives to fulfill the necessary credits. The lists below only include English, American and world literature classes; other elective classes offer such topics as sea literature, sports literature and science fiction.

The lists compiled here began as lists of novels. However, because plays are not distinguished from novels within the core list in the Santa Ana and Capistrano school districts, drama has been added into other school district lists for the sake of consistency.

ANAHEIM UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

Grade 9 * Animal Farm, by George Orwell * Bless the Beasts and Children, by Glendon Swarthout * Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens * Hiroshima, by John Hersey * The Ox-Bow Incident, by Walter Van Tilburg Clark * Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor * Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson * Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, by Paul Zindel * I Remember Mama, by John Van Druten * Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare * West Side Story, by Arthur Laurents

Grade 10 * Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo A. Anaya * Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury * Lord of the Flies, by William Golding * The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck * Ordinary People, by Judith Guest * Silas Marner, by George Eliot * To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee * Antigone, by Sophocles * Auntie Mame, by Patrick Dennis * Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare * A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry

Grade 11 * The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain * Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger * A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway * The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck * The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald * Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck * A Separate Peace, by John Knowles * The Crucible, by Arthur Miller * Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller * The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams * Our Town, by Thornton Wilder * You Can’t Take It With You, by Moss Hart & George S. Kaufman

Grade 12 * Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley * David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens * Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad * Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy * 1984, by George Orwell * Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham * Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen * The Razor’s Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham * Return of the Native, by Thomas Hardy * Secret Sharer, by Joseph Conrad * Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence * A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens * Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy * Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte * A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen * An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen * Hamlet, by William Shakespeare * Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw * Rivals, by Richard B. Sheridan * A School for Scandal, by Richard B. Sheridan * St. Joan, by George Bernard Shaw

GARDEN GROVE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Grade 9 * Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens * Lord of the Flies, by William Golding * The Ox-Bow Incident, by Walter Van Tilburg Clark * Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare * Sherlock Holmes and the Stockbrokers’ Clerk, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Grade 10 * The Pearl, by John Steinbeck * Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo * To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee * Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare * The Monkey’s Paw, by W.W. Jacobs

Grade 11 * The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain * The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne * The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane * Our Town, by Thornton Wilder * The Miracle Worker, by William Gibson

Grade 12 * Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton * Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen * All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque * Macbeth, by William Shakespeare * A Marriage Proposal, by Anton Chekhov

HUNTINGTON BEACH UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT

Grade 9 * Dandelion Wine or Fahrenheit 451 or The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury * A Christmas Carol or Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens * The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle * The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas * The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway * Lost Horizon, by James Hilton * Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes * A Separate Peace, by John Knowles * To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee * The Call of the Wild, by Jack London * Walkabout, by James Marshall * Never Cry Wolf, by Farley Mowat * Animal Farm, by George Orwell * The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings * The Light in the Forest, by Conrad Richter * The Human Comedy, by William Saroyan * Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck * The Pearl, by John Steinbeck * Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson * The Iliad or The Odyssey, by Homer * The Marriage Proposal, by Anton Chekhov * The Miracle Worker, by William Gibson * You Can’t Take It With You, by Moss Hart & George S. Kaufman * One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey * Arsenic and Old Lace, by Joseph Kesselring * West Side Story, by Arthur Laurents * Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare * I Remember Mama, by John Van Druten * Visit to a Small Planet, by Gore Vidal

Grade 10 * The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck * The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas * Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse * The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo * Les Miserables (abridged), by Victor Hugo * Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka * The Trial, by Franz Kafka * The German Lesson, by Siegfried Lenz * The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy * Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton * All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque * The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery * One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn * The Pearl, by John Steinbeck * Harp of Burma, by Michio Takeyama * The Once and Future King, by T.H. White * Epic of Gilgamesh * Divine Comedy, by Dante Alghieri * The Iliad, by Homer * An Enemy of the People, by Henrik Ibsen * Camelot, by Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe * Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand * As You Like It, by William Shakespeare * Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare * The Tempest, by William Shakespeare * Antigone, by Sophocles * Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles * Fiddler on the Roof, by Joseph Stein * Man of La Mancha, by Dale Wasserman

Grade 11 * The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury * Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury * My Antonia, by Willa Cather * The Ox-Bow Incident, by Walter Van Tilburg Clark * LeatherStocking Tales, by James Fenimore Cooper * The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane * The Unvanquished, by William Faulkner * The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald * The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne * A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway * The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway * The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James * A Separate Peace, by John Knowles * To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee * Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis * Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis * Billy Budd, by Herman Melville * Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger * The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair * The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck * Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck * East of Eden, by John Steinbeck * Mosquito Coast, by Paul Theroux * The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain * Roughing It, by Mark Twain * Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton * Native Son, by Richard Wright * I Never Sang for My Father, by Robert Anderson * Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee * The Crucible, by Arthur Miller * Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller * Our Town, by Thornton Wilder * A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams * The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams

Grade 12 * Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen * Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte * Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte * Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer * The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins * Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad * Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad * The Secret Sharer, by Joseph Conrad * A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens * David Copperfield , by Charles Dickens * Hard Times , by Charles Dickens * Oliver Twist , by Charles Dickens * A Tale of Two Cities , by Charles Dickens * Lord of the Flies, by William Golding * The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene * Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy * Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy * Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy * Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley * Sons and Lovers, by D.H. Lawrence * 1984, by George Orwell * Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott * Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley * Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson * Dracula, by Bram Stoker * Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift * Beowulf * Le Morte d’Arthur, by Sir Thomas Malory * Paradise Lost, by John Milton * Sir Gawain and the Green Knight * A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt * Charley’s Aunt, by Thomas Brandon * She Stoops to Conquer, by Oliver Goldsmith * Look Back in Anger, by John Osborne * Hamlet , by William Shakespeare * King Lear , by William Shakespeare * Macbeth , by William Shakespeare * Othello , by William Shakespeare * Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw * Saint Joan, by George Bernard Shaw * The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde

SANTA ANA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Grade 9 * Romeo and Juliet , by William Shakespeare * The Aeneid, by Virgil, The Iliad, by Homer, or The Odyssey , by Homer

Grade 10 * To Kill a Mockingbird , by Harper Lee * Antigone, by Jean Anouilh, or Oedipus Rex , by Sophocles

Grade 11 * The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain * The Great Gatsby , by F. Scott Fitzgerald * Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, The Glass Menagerie , by Tennessee Williams, or A * Raisin in the Sun , by Lorraine Hansberry

Grade 12 * The Good Earth , by Pearl Buck * The Secret Sharer , by Joseph Conrad * Hamlet, Macbeth or The Taming of the Shrew , by William Shakespeare

CAPISTRANO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Grade 9 * Animal Farm, by George Orwell * Bless the Beasts and the Children, by Glendon Swarthout * Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand * Death Be Not Proud, by John Gunther * Elephant Man, by Bernard Pomerance * Euripides, Four Tragedies, edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore * Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes * Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens * Greek Gods and Heroes, by Robert Graves * I Heard the Owl Call My Name, by Margaret Craven * The Iliad, by Homer * The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Geagle * The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery * Lord of the Flies, by William Golding * Man the Myth Maker, by Will T. Jewkes * Member of the Wedding, by Carson McCullers * The Miracle Worker, by William Gibson * Myth and Meaning, by James G. Head * Mythology, by Edith Hamilton * Mythology and You, by Donna Rosenberg and Sorelle Baker * Never Cry Wolf, by Farley Mowat * The Odyssey, by Homer * Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles * The Pearl, by John Steinbeck * Red Sky at Morning, by Richard Bradford * Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare * A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens * Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin * Wizard of Loneliness, by John Nichols

Grade 10 * 1984, by George Orwell * The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain * The Aeneid, by Virgil (Humphries, trans.) * Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton * All My Sons, by Arthur Miller * All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque * Black Like Me, by John H. Griffin * Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley * Cat’s Eye, by Margaret Atwood * Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger * The Chosen, by Chaim Potok * Cry, the Beloved Country, by Alan Paton * Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton * Eye of the Story, by Eudora Welty * The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck * House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton * In Country, by Bobbie Ann Mason * In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose, by Alice Walker * Inherit the Wind, by Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee * Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare * The Long Valley, by John Steinbeck * Macbeth, by William Shakespeare * Man the Voyager, by Will T. Jewkes * The Milagro Beanfield War, by John Nichols * Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck * The Perilous Journey, by Will T. Jewkes * Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard * A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry * A Separate Peace, by John Knowles * Skin of Our Teeth, by Thornton Wilder * The Stranger, by Albert Camus * The Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare * Walden Two, by B.F. Skinner * To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee * Twelve Angry Men, by Reginald Rose * The White Album, by Joan Didion * Wish and Nightmare, by Will T. Jewkes * World Mythology, by Donna Rosenberg

Grades 11 and 12

American Literature: * As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner * The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath * Book of Common Prayer, by Joan Didion * The Crucible, by Arthur Miller * Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller * Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, by Anne Tyler * Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway * The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams * Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck * The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald * Henderson the Rain King, by Saul Bellow * The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair * Men to Match My Mountains, by Irvine Stone * Moby Dick, by Herman Melville * Ordeal by Hunger, by George R. Stewart * Our Town, by Thornton Wilder * Portable Sherwood Anderson, by Sherwood Anderson * Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane * The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne * Sister Carrie, by Theodore Dreiser * The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway * Walden, by Henry David Thoreau

English Literature: * Beowulf * Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer * David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens * England in Lit, edited by James E. Miller Jr., Myrtle J. Jones & Helen McDonnell * Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift * Hamlet (Folger ed.), by William Shakespeare * Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte * Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy * King Lear, by William Shakespeare * Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens * Othello, by William Shakespeare * Paradise Lost, by John Milton * Passage to India, by E.M. Forster * Poems of John Donne, by John Donne * Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen * Richard III, by William Shakespeare * Room with a View, by E.M. Forster * Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy * Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte

World Literature: * Candide, by Voltaire * Darkness at Noon, by Arthur Koestler * Greek Experience, by Cecil M. Bowra * House of Spirits, by Isabel Allende * Inferno, by Dante Alighieri * A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt * Master Harold and the Boys, Athol Fugard * No Exit, by Jean-Paul Sartre * Nobel Parade, by Helen McDonnell * The Once and Future King, by T.H. White * One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn * Paradiso, by Dante Alighieri * Plays of Ibsen, by Henrik Ibsen * Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli * Purgatorio, by Dante Alighieri * The Tempest, by William Shakespeare * Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe * A Thousand Cranes, by Yasunari Kawabata * Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett

Source: Individual school districts