Time Magazine 1923-2005

TIME's all-time hundred novels: the best English-language novels published between TIME's first year, 1923, and 2005, when the list was made.

40 books in the catalog stand on this list. The list itself (opens the list's own website) ↗

A reader aged

Any age
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
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17
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19
20
21

30 of these books cover age 17. The 9 that name no age at all are left off rather than guessed at — choose any age to bring them back.

1984 by George Orwell, 1949 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1090L · AR 8.9 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
also on Mensa Kids, TJEd Adult Recommended
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren, 1946 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1060L · AR 6.8 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, 1981 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1170L · AR 8.5 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
Animal Farm by George Orwell, 1945 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1090L · AR 7.3 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
also on Mensa Kids, TJEd Youth Recommended
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster, 1924 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 950L · AR 7.7 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
also on Mensa Kids
Atonement by Ian McEwan, 2001 · ages 14–18 · AR 7.5 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
Beloved by Toni Morrison, 1987 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 870L · AR 6.0 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, 1945 · ages 16–18
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, 1961 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1140L · AR 7.1 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather, 1927 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1150L · AR 7.9 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, 1936 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1030L · AR 7.1 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, 1952 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1400L · AR 7.2 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
also on Mensa Kids
Light in August by William Faulkner, 1932 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 930L · AR 6.7 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
Lord of the Flies by William Golding, 1954 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 770L · AR 5.0 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
also on Halsted - Best Friends, Mensa Kids
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, 1973 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 860L · AR 6.1
also on Davidson Gifted, Mensa Kids, TJEd Youth Recommended
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie, 1981 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1120L · AR 8.4 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, 1981 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 950L · AR 7.2 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
also on St. John's College
Native Son by Richard Wright, 1940 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 700L · AR 6.1 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
also on Mensa Kids
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 970L · AR 6.0 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, 1962 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1040L · AR 6.2 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, 1969 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 850L · AR 6.0 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
also on Halsted - Best Friends
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, 1953 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 1040L · AR 6.8 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
The Assistant by Bernard Malamud, 2000 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 880L · AR 5.9 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, 2000 · ages 14–18 · AR 6.8 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, 1969 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 790L · AR 4.7 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
also on Mensa Kids
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 1939 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 680L · AR 4.9 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1969 · ages 15–17 · Lexile 1010L · AR 7.3 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
also on Mensa Kids
The Heart is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, 1940 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 760L · AR 6.3 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
also on Mensa Kids
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, 1929 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 800L · AR 4.4 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
also on Halsted - Best Friends, Mensa Kids
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 1960 · ages 13–17 · Lexile 790L · AR 5.6 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
also on Beautiful Feet, Davidson Gifted, Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids