High School Reading List

High School Book List / 9th-12th grade Book List

What books do we recommend for our highschool kids?

In addition to this GREAT list of books for 9th-12th grade homeschool kids, all of the following are classes we've taught in our homeschool group. Each of the titles has completed lesson plans for our co-op.


  • If you are teacher for Life Adventures, get with your site coordinator for access to the lesson plans.

It is suggested that you choose a version appropriate to your student. While certain editions and translations are easier to read, it's best if one student does NOT read the abridged version while the rest of the kids are reading unabridged. It is highly recommended that the avarage reading expectation be limited to under 100 pages per week.

American High School Literature

24 weeks of lesson plans

Classics of American Literature can be hard to tackle on our own. In our class we’ll pull those big and smaller works apart together, making them much more accessible. In addition to some of the great works, we’ll cover a few lesser known works. We’ll have a segment on American short stories and another sampling of American poets. 


For our final week, sign up with your teacher to bring an “American” dish to share for our Celebrate America Party.


This is mainly a group discussion class with a paper required after each major work. Finally, we will see the culture in America abandoning her roots evidenced in the literature of the time. We’ll look for the attitudes present in seeking or rejecting God and the psychological effects of those choices during discussion of these novels. 


Students are expected to come to class with their assignments read. Many of the books in this list are available at the library or free online.

Semester 1   


  1. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
  2. Moby Dick, Herman Melville *An abridged version of this is fine, but your version must be around 500 pages or more.
    8th grade parents may want to preview this book before allowing their students to read it.
  3. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
  4. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne


Semester 2 


  1. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather
  2. Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
  3. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury **8th grade parents may want to preview this book before allowing their students to read it.


American Short Stories


  1. The Ransom, O. Henry
  2. A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor


American Poets Sampling


  1. The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe
  2. Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson
  3. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ***Works will be provided in class - no need to purchase
  4. Walt Whitman ***In class
  5. Emily Dickinson (any 5 of her poems)
  6. Robert Frost ***In class

In addition to this GREAT list of books for 9th-12th grade homeschool kids, all of the following are classes we've taught in our homeschool group. Each of the titles has completed lesson plans for our co-op.


  • If you are teacher for Life Adventures, get with your site coordinator for access to the lesson plans.

Modern World High School Literature

24 weeks of lesson plans

We’ll study classic literature and those fiction works that make the time period of the Modern World come alive.  Through guided reading and group discussion, your student will be trained in literary analysis.  Grades will be based on homework completed, class discussion and papers, as the teacher and parents choose.


Studying modern authors from a global perspective means seeing the nature of man and the nature of life from people who have largely abandoned their Christian worldview. This class will look through the lens of Christianity to see the consequences of man abandoning God. Although many of these works are “darker” than many of the classical works we’ve covered thus far, studying them through a Christian lens makes them more palatable.  This year, as the sentence structure, vocabulary and world view is closer to our own, these books are easier to read than in previous years. 


Many of these can be found at the library or online.


Note:  There are no American authors as they’ll be studied with our American History year.

In addition to this GREAT list of books for 9th-12th grade homeschool kids, all of the following are classes we've taught in our homeschool group. Each of the titles has completed lesson plans for our co-op.


  • If you are teacher for Life Adventures, get with your site coordinator for access to the lesson plans.

Middle Ages Literature for High School

24 weeks of lesson plans

We’ll study classic literature and those fiction works that make the time period of the Middle Ages come alive.  Through guided reading and group discussion, your student will be trained in literary analysis.  Grades will be based on homework completed, class discussion and papers as parents and teachers see fit.

In addition to this GREAT list of books for 9th-12th grade homeschool kids, all of the following are classes we've taught in our homeschool group. Each of the titles has completed lesson plans for our co-op.


  • If you are teacher for Life Adventures, get with your site coordinator for access to the lesson plans.

Ancient Literature for High School

24 weeks of lesson plans

Semester 1 – Ancient Greek Literature


  • The Iliad

*Samuel Butler or Fitzgerald recommended for 9th-10th grades

* Fagels or Lattimore translations recommend for upper high school

  • The Odyssey

*Samuel Butler or Fitzgerald recommended for 9th-10th grades

* Fagels or Lattimore translations recommend for upper high school


Semester 2 – Ancient Roman Literature



In addition to this GREAT list of books for 9th-12th grade homeschool kids, all of the following are classes we've taught in our homeschool group. Each of the titles has completed lesson plans for our co-op.


  • If you are teacher for Life Adventures, get with your site coordinator for access to the lesson plans.

Shakespeare & Classic Literature for High School

24 weeks of lesson plans

In addition to this GREAT list of books for 9th-12th grade homeschool kids, all of the following are classes we've taught in our homeschool group. Each of the titles has completed lesson plans for our co-op.


  • If you are teacher for Life Adventures, get with your site coordinator for access to the lesson plans.

High School Book Club

12 weeks of lesson plans

High school literature can feel like endless overwhelming lists of books. This exploration into story-telling will be more like an adventure. We will attempt to turn the "have to" into a "get to". There are no papers due, no lectures, and other than reading or listening to the books, assignments will all be completed in class. Grades are based on homework completed and in-class participation. This is student-centered education, as opposed to teacher-centered. Throughout the semester we'll explore the genres of short story, historical fiction, fantasy, biography, graphic novel and non-fiction as students choose from in class and at-home books.

Through games, videos, and models, we'll explore and uncover life lessons to take with us on our journey. This would be a great class for 7th-12th grades or for less academic high schoolers.

In addition to this GREAT list of books for 9th-12th grade homeschool kids, all of the following are classes we've taught in our homeschool group. Each of the titles has completed lesson plans for our co-op.


  • If you are teacher for Life Adventures, get with your site coordinator for access to the lesson plans.

Book Club Beyond Grim

24 weeks of lesson plans

Fairy Tales aren't just for kids! Let's explore the deeper truths in them together!

“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” C.S. Lewis, On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature


Book List

 [teens version of courage and

faithfulness -- spin off the fairy tale]

   George MacDonald was part of C.S. Lewis' path to faith; his stories breathe holiness.

In addition to this GREAT list of books for 9th-12th grade homeschool kids, all of the following are classes we've taught in our homeschool group. Each of the titles has completed lesson plans for our co-op.


  • If you are teacher for Life Adventures, get with your site coordinator for access to the lesson plans.

C.S. Lewis Teen Book Club

24 weeks of lesson plans

C.S. Lewis, one of the most famous converts from atheism to Christianity, is most widely known for his fiction and his Christian apologetics. However, he was also a professor at Oxford—and later Cambridge—where he was a first-rate scholar of English literature. In his philosophical work, The Abolition of Man, Lewis argued that truth, beauty, and the good are not merely a matter of personal preference.


By the end of the year, after immersing ourselves in everything C.S. Lewis, we'll read of one of the Chronicles of Narnia books per week.