CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Wonder" by R. J. Palacio
Selected (8) reading passages (grades 5-10) to pair with "Wonder" by R. J. Palacio. Wonder is the story of Auggie, a 10-year-old boy who has Treacher Collins Syndrome, a condition that causes numerous physical deformities and...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "When I Was a Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
Selected (7) reading passages (grades 6-8) to pair with the nonfiction book "When I Was a Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago. Esmeralda Santiago, also known as Negi, describes her childhood growing up in Puerto Rico and her eventual...
CommonLit
Common Lit: The Watson's Go to Birmingham 1963" by Christopher Paul Curtis
Selected (7)reading passages (grades 7-11) to pair with "The Watson's Go to Birmingham -- 1963" by Christopher Paul Curtis. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Kenny Watson and his family embark on a road trip from Michigan to...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
Selected (12) reading passages (grades 7-11) to pair with "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. A young Scout watches her father, prominent lawyer Atticus Finch, defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman in the...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe
Selected (12) reading passages (grades 6-11) to pair with "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe. In this classic novel, Okonkwo, a wealthy and respected member of the Umuofia clan, resists the forces of change brought to Africa by...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
Selected (8) reading passages (grades 8-12) to pair with "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway. In the years following World War I, a group of disillusioned expatriates travel from Paris to Spain to watch bullfighting and participate...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "World Without Fish" by Mark Kurlansky
Selected (8) reading passages (grades 6-10) to pair with "World Without Fish" by Mark Kurlansky. Mark Kurlansky discusses how humans treat the oceans and the fish that live in them, and what the world will likely look like if fish...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys
Selected (10) reading passages (grades 8-12) to pair with "Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys. Written as a prequel to Jane Eyre, "Wide Sargasso Sea" follows the life of Antoinette Cosway from her tumultuous childhood in Jamaica following...
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...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry
Selected (7) reading passages (grades 8-10) to pair with the drama "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry. When a struggling African-American family receives a large insurance check, a conflict erupts on how to spend the money....
CommonLit
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: "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams
Selected (6) reading passages (grades 8-12) to pair with "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams. After losing her family estate to creditors, Blanche DuBois moves in with her younger sister, Stella, and her working class...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Book Pairings: "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
Selected (9) reading passages (grades 10-12) to pair with "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. In this novel about family connections and racial equality, Lily Owens and Rosaleen, Lily's housekeeper, run away to Tiburon, South...
CommonLit
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,...
CommonLit
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...
CommonLit
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...