EplusL Edu
Library
Great books and big ideas — curated by level, theme, and purpose.
Reading roadmap
Four stages, one reading life.
Ages 9–11
Emerging Thinkers
Upper elementary & lower middle school
Coming soon
Ages 11–13
Growing Thinkers
Middle school
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe · The Hobbit · A Wrinkle in Time · The Outsiders · +22 more
Ages 13–15
Deep Readers
Before high school
Animal Farm · Brave New World · To Kill a Mockingbird · Of Mice and Men · +29 more
Ages 15–18
Expert Readers
High school & AP
The Great Gatsby · A Tale of Two Cities · Pride and Prejudice · The Odyssey · +5 more
Themed reading lists
Curated by theme and level
Lists built around big ideas that cut across grade levels.
Power of Language
High School5 Books that every future writer should read
Books where language is the story. These authors chose every word with precision — reading them is a masterclass in how vocabulary shapes meaning, character, and power.
+2 more
Identity & Becoming
High School5 Books that ask who you really are
High school is where the question stops being abstract. These five books follow characters who are forced — by circumstance, by loss, by love, by the world — to decide who they are and what they will not compromise. Each one is a different answer to the same question.
+2 more
Identity & Becoming
Middle School5 Books for the years that change everything
These are the years when everything shifts — friendships, family, identity, belonging. These five books put middle schoolers at the center of that experience and tell the truth about it. Not the tidy version. The real one.
+2 more
Science & Evidence
Middle School5 Books that teach kids to ask why
These five books follow kids (and one robot) who get somewhere by paying close attention — testing what they see, building what they imagine, and trusting evidence over assumption. Some are inventing solutions from scrap parts; others are just insisting on asking one more question. Either way, curiosity turns out to be a skill, not a personality trait.
+2 more
Understanding People
High School5 Books that challenge how you see the world
+2 more
Understanding People
Middle School5 Books that teach kids to see through different eyes
Stories that help young readers look beyond first impressions, understand different experiences, and discover the stories hidden inside others.
+2 more
Science & Evidence
High School5 Books where evidence changes everything
These five books take curiosity somewhere heavier — cells taken without consent, a chemical spring gone silent, a mass extinction already underway. Real evidence, doggedly gathered, changing what an entire field, or an entire planet, understood to be true. One entry breaks the pattern on purpose: a novel where evidence is simply what keeps a person alive.
+2 more
Power of language
High School5 Books that break the rules of how a story gets told
Books where voice is the story. These authors built form into meaning — a diary, a parable, a mosaic, a mystery, a dystopia — reading them is a masterclass in how voice shapes truth, memory, and power.
+2 more
Courage & Character
High School5 Books that ask what you'd risk to stay yourself
Stories that test what courage actually costs — resisting pressure, keeping a promise, staying true to yourself when it would be easier not to. Not every character in this list holds; it's honest about that too.
+2 more
Full depository
Every book in the library
68 books

Animal Farm
George Orwell

Brave New World
Aldous Huxley

The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald

To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee

A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens

Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen

The Odyssey
Homer (translated by Emily Wilson)

Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck

The Giver
Lois Lowry

Lord of the Flies
William Golding

Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë

The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury

Frankenstein
Mary Shelley

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis

The Hobbit
J.R.R. Tolkien

A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L'Engle

The Outsiders
S.E. Hinton

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
Mildred D. Taylor

Number the Stars
Lois Lowry

The Phantom Tollbooth
Norton Juster

Anne of Green Gables
L.M. Montgomery

Island of the Blue Dolphins
Scott O'Dell

My Ántonia
Willa Cather

The Pearl
John Steinbeck

Ghost
Jason Reynolds

The House on Mango Street
Sandra Cisneros

Esperanza Rising
Pam Muñoz Ryan

Hatchet
Gary Paulsen

Refugee
Alan Gratz

Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston

Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe

The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini

Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi

A Raisin in the Sun
Lorraine Hansberry

Flowers for Algernon
Daniel Keyes

The Good Earth
Pearl S. Buck

The Watsons Go to Birmingham
Christopher Paul Curtis

Walk Two Moons
Sharon Creech

Tuck Everlasting
Natalie Babbitt

The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Elizabeth George Speare

Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton

The Awakening
Kate Chopin

Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse

Cannery Row
John Steinbeck

The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger

The Martian
Andy Weir

1984
George Orwell

Beloved
Toni Morrison

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
Jacqueline Kelly

The Wild Robot
Peter Brown

Hidden Figures, Young Readers' Edition
Margot Lee Shetterly

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Young Readers' Edition
William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer

Silent Spring
Rachel Carson

Lab Girl
Hope Jahren

Death of a Salesman
Arthur Miller

Fish in a tree
Lynda Mullaly Hunt

A Monster Calls
Patrick Ness

Scythe
Neal Shusterman

I Am the Messenger
Markus Zusak

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie

Bridge to Terabithia
Katherine Paterson

The Sixth Extinction
Elizabeth Kolbert

A Room with a View
E.M. Forster

Wonder
R.J. Palacio

A Separate Peace
John Knowles

The Book Thief
Markus Zusak

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot