You Pick BestYouPickBest

What is the best novel every American reads in high school?

By YPB Team

The American syllabus barely changes: the same dozen novels, handed out at fifteen, argued about forever. Decide which one earned the assignment.

  1. To Kill a Mockingbird — ranked #11
    To Kill a Mockingbird
    Harper Lee's 1960 novel of a Depression-era rape trial seen through a lawyer's young daughter.
    1000pts
  2. Beloved — ranked #22
    Beloved
    Toni Morrison's 1987 Pulitzer winner about an escaped enslaved woman haunted by the daughter she killed.
    949pts
  3. The Great Gatsby — ranked #33
    The Great Gatsby
    Fitzgerald's Jazz Age tragedy, the most assigned novel in American high schools after Shakespeare.
    754pts
  4. Their Eyes Were Watching God — ranked #44
    Their Eyes Were Watching God
    Zora Neale Hurston's 1937 novel following a Black woman through three marriages in Florida.
    639pts
  5. Fahrenheit 451 — ranked #55
    Fahrenheit 451
    Bradbury's 1953 novel about a fireman whose job is burning books until he starts reading one.
    511pts
  6. Of Mice and Men — ranked #66
    Of Mice and Men
    Steinbeck's 1937 novella about two migrant ranch hands and a plan that never had a chance.
    511pts
  7. The Scarlet Letter — ranked #77
    The Scarlet Letter
    Hawthorne's 1850 novel of a Puritan woman sentenced to wear the mark of her adultery.
    511pts
  8. The Catcher in the Rye — ranked #88
    The Catcher in the Rye
    Salinger's 1951 novel of a boy expelled from prep school and loose in Manhattan for three days.
    511pts
  9. The Old Man and the Sea — ranked #99
    The Old Man and the Sea
    Hemingway's novella of an old fisherman's three-day fight with a marlin, short enough to finish in a week of class.
    443pts
  10. Lord of the Flies — ranked #1010
    Lord of the Flies
    Golding's 1954 novel of shipwrecked schoolboys inventing their own government, then their own violence.
    443pts
  11. A Separate Peace — ranked #1111
    A Separate Peace
    John Knowles's 1959 novel of friendship and one shove on a tree branch at a New England prep school.
    365pts
  12. Frankenstein — ranked #1212
    Frankenstein
    Mary Shelley's 1818 novel about a student who assembles a living creature and then abandons it.
    365pts
  13. 1984 — ranked #1313
    1984
    Orwell's 1949 dystopia of surveillance, rewritten history, and a language built to shrink thought.
    365pts
  14. Animal Farm — ranked #1414
    Animal Farm
    Orwell's 1945 fable of farm animals whose revolution hardens into the regime it replaced.
    275pts
  15. The Grapes of Wrath — ranked #1515
    The Grapes of Wrath
    Steinbeck's 1939 novel of a tenant-farming family driven from Oklahoma to California.
    275pts
  16. Slaughterhouse-Five — ranked #1616
    Slaughterhouse-Five
    Vonnegut's 1969 novel of a soldier who survives Dresden and comes unstuck in time.
    170pts
  17. Brave New World — ranked #1717
    Brave New World
    Huxley's 1932 dystopia where citizens are engineered, entertained, and sedated into contentment.
    170pts
  18. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn — ranked #1818
    Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
    Twain's 1884 novel of a boy and an escaping enslaved man rafting down the Mississippi.
    46pts

#usa291#books87#classics474#fiction16#school1

Nobody has rated this ranking yet. Vote first, then say whether the ranking was worth it.

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first!

0/1000
Make your own rankingAny question with 2–50 answers. AI fills in options and pictures in a minute.Create →Add rankings to your siteEmbed any ranking. Your readers vote right on your page.How it works →