CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "The Wave" by Todd Strasser
Selected (4) reading passages (grades 7-11) to pair with "The Wave" by Todd Strasser. A high school teacher conducts a social experiment to teach his students about the atrocities of the Holocaust. However, the wave starts to spin out of...
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Common Lit: "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" by Fredrick Douglass
Selected (11) reading passages (grades 7-11) to pair with the autobiography "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" by Fredrick Douglass. Frederick Douglass recounts his experiences as a slave in Maryland, and his treatment at the...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare
Selected (6) reading passages (grades 7-10) to pair with the drama "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare. The overlapping story of several couples and the inevitably complicated road to love encompasses a play within a play,...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Selected (9) reading passages (grades 10-12) to pair with "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. After being forced to wear a scarlet "A" and live on the outskirts of the colonial Puritan settlement, Hester Prynne struggles to...
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Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Sahara Special" by Esme Raji Codell
Selected (8) reading passages (grades 5-8) to pair with "Sahara Special" by Esme Raji Codell. Sahara Special is the story of Sahara Jones's 5th grade school year and the struggles she overcomes to make friends and reach her potential as...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" by Mildred D. Taylor
Selected (8) reading passages (grades 6-10) to pair with "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" by Mildred D. Taylor. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry tells the story of the Logan family combating racial tension and segregation in Mississippi during...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro
Selected (9) reading passages (grades 9-11) to pair with "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro. After decades of striving to be the perfect butler, Stevens embarks on a drive through postwar England that prompts him to reflect on...
CommonLit
Common Lit: "Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America" S. Robinson
Selected (17) reading passages (grades 5-11) to pair with "Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America" by Sharon Robinson. In Promises To Keep, Sharon Robinson, daughter of the baseball legend, shares memories of her famous...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
Selected (8) reading passages (grades 9-11) to pair with "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. Elizabeth Bennet clashes with the proud Mr. Darcy, but soon questions her rush to judgement - in this classic commentary on love, propriety,...
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Common Lit: Book Pairings: "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Selected (11) reading passages (grades 8-11) to pair with "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver. This story follows the wife and four daughters of a Baptist preacher who moves them to the Belgian Congo in 1959, setting the...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi
Selected (7) reading passages (grades 7-9) to pair with the autobiography "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi. "Persepolis" is an autobiographical graphic novel depicting Marjane Satrapi's experience during the Islamic revolution of 1979....
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Othello" by William Shakespeare
Selected (7) reading passages (grades 10-12) to pair with the drama "Othello" by William Shakespeare. Othello, a revered general of the Venetian army, has his newlywed wife meet him in Cyprus where he's stationed. But while there his...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "The Outsiders" by S. E. Hinton
Selected (9) reading passages (grades 7-11) to pair with the coming-of-age novel "The Outsiders" by S. E. Hinton. Ponyboy Curtis, a member of the Greaser gang, learns the value of family and friendship through his conflict with a rival...
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Common Lit: Book Pairings: "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway
Selected (6) reading passages (grades 8-12) to pair with the novella "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway. This novella tells the story of Santiago, an old fisherman who struggles to reel in a giant marlin far off the coast of...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck
Selected (7) reading passages (grades 9-11) to pair with the novel "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck. George and Lennie are two migrant workers trying to stay employed and out of trouble. Their dream of having their own farm may be...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "The Odyssey" by Homer
Selected (6) reading passages (grades 8-11) to pair with the epic poem "The Odyssey" by Homer. Odysseus, an ancient Greek war hero and leader of Ithaca, embarks on a twenty-year long return to his homeland after the fall of Troy. It is...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Number the Stars" by Lois Lowry
Selected (9) reading passages (grades 5-11) to pair with "Number the Stars" by Lois Lowry. Number the Stars is historical fiction set during WWII in Nazi occupied Denmark. 10-year-old Annemarie Johansen risks her life to help the Rosens,...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Night" by Elie Wiesel
Selected (10) reading passages (grades 8-11) to pair with the autobiography "Night" by Elie Wiesel. In this autobiographical account, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel recounts his horrifying experiences at the Auschwitz and Buchenwald...
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Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte
This Gothic-Romantic novel, set in Victorian England, chronicles the life of Jane Eyre: a plain governess who falls in love with her employer and discovers a terrible secret within Thornfield. Selected (11) reading passages (grades 8-12)...
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Common Lit: Book Pairings: "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros
Told through a series of vignettes, Esperanza Cordero narrates her life growing up as a Latina girl in a Chicago neighborhood, and her desire to grow up and leave. Selected (8) reading passages (grades 5-8) to pair with "The House on...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Holes" by Louis Sacher
Stanley Yelnats is sent to a juvenile correctional camp for boys where each day he is forced to dig holes into a dry lake bed. Selected (8) reading passages (grades 5-8) to pair with the novel "Holes" by Louis Sacher. [Free account...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "The Hobbit" by j.r.r. Tolkien
Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit homebody, joins a party of dwarves and their wizard companion in a series of adventures to reclaim the dwarves' homeland from the great dragon Smaug. Selected (8) reading passages (grades 5-9) to pair with the...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad
In the novel "Heart of Darkness," Marlow travels up the Congo River on behalf of a Belgian trading company. Once he is far upriver he encounters the mysterious Kurtz, a man who has set himself up as a god amongst the natives. Selected...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
In this novel, Louise dreams of leaving her tiny island home in Chesapeake Bay, but first she must escape the shadow of her twin sister who seems to rob her of everything. Selected (11) reading passages (grades 6-10) to pair with "Jacob...