Classic American Literature
As a Junior, you are required to read one Classic American Novel a quarter for a total of two a semester. Each novel needs to be 225-250 pages. If you choose to read a large novel, 400-500 pages, you may “carry” the excess pages over to the next semester if your second novel is short a few pages. Even if your novel of choice for the first quarter is 450 pages or more, you still have to read a second novel for the second quarter.
After reading the novel, you will need to take an AR test or complete a book talk if an AR test is not available for your novel. This assignment will be one that is added to the Tests, Essays, Projects and Quizzes category of your grade.
Below is a list of possible books; it is not an exclusive list. If you have a different book that you would like to read, please see me to have it approved. Here are additional authors that are significant American writers: Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allen Poe, Henry David Thoreau, William Dean Howells, Eugene O’Neill, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Dickey, Joyce Carol Oates, John Irving, Chaim Potok, Flannery O’Connor.
**You are not allowed to earn LE credit for books previously read or studied in other English classes even if they appear on the Reading List. (i.e. To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, etc.)
Absalom, Absalom William Faulkner
Beloved Toni Morrison
The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood
Invisible Man Ralph Ellison
All the King’s Men Robert Penn Warren
The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne
Daisy Miller Henry James
My Antonia Willa Cather
For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway
Their Eyes Were Watching God Nora Zeale Hurston
Native Son Richard Wright
Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger
The Color Purple Alice Walker
The Awakening Kate Chopin
Slaughterhouse-five* Kurt Vonnegut
The Bonesetter’s Daughter Amy Tan
Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe
Moby Dick Herman Melville
Sister Carrie Theodore Dreiser
Catch-22* Joseph Heller
Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell
Main Street Upton Sinclair
The Water is Wide Pat Conroy
The Jungle Upton Sinclair
The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder
The Executioner’s Song Norma Mailer
All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy
The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers
Angela’s Ashes Frank McCourt
Travels with Charley John Steinbeck
April Morning Howard Fast
The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck
Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin
The Turn of the Screw Henry James
Rabbit Run John Updike
The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath
House Made of Dawn N. Scott Momaday
The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton
Billy Budd Herman Melville
In Cold Blood Truman Capote
Cannery Row John Steinbeck
The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou
Snow Falling on Cedars David Gutterson
The Killer Angels Michael Shaara
Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry
A Lesson Before Dying Ernest Gaines
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Dee Brown
Black Like Me John Griffin
The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien
Ethan Frome Edith Wharton
Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes
I, Robot Isaac Asimov
Illustrated Man Ray Bradbury
Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo
Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper
Little Women Lousia May Alcott
Middle Passage Charles Johnson
O’ Pioneers Willa Cather
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey
Three Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith
Yearling Marjorie Rawlins
Cold Mountain Charles Frazier
Undaunted Courage Stephen Ambrose
Band of Brothers Stephen Ambrose
Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya
As I Lay Dying William Faulkner
The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway
Call of the Wild Jack London
White Fang Jack London
Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain