Animal Farm
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Among the most widely assigned — 6 curriculum lists · 2 states
Grade placement varies by school — the median assigned book spans 4 grade levels (83% span three or more, across 13,258 source-cited assignments).
Animal Farm by George Orwell is assigned in US schools at grades 7–10, with a Lexile measure of 1170L. It appears across 6 curriculum references and 2 states, sourced from state DOE pages and AP/IB/Common Core syllabi. Every citation below links to the primary source.
This page shows where Animal Farm is assigned in US schools — curricula, states, grades, and the primary-source citations behind each placement. Not a summary or study guide.
- Lexile
- 1170L
- Grade range
- Grades 7–10
- Difficulty for grade
- Within the grade 6–8 band (925–1185L)
- Age range
- Ages 12–16
- Pages
- 112
- Reading time
- about 2h 5m (est.)
- First published
- 1945
- Genre
- Allegorical Fiction
- ISBN-13
- 9780452284241
Reading difficulty: At 1170L, Animal Farm falls within the typical 925–1185L text-complexity range for 7th grade (Common Core Appendix A) — a grade-appropriate reading challenge.
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About this book
Animals on a British farm overthrow their human owner and establish a cooperative state run by the pigs, led by Napoleon. As the regime consolidates, its revolutionary principles are rewritten and its dissenters disappear. Orwell's short allegory of the Russian Revolution is widely assigned at middle- and early high-school level alongside propaganda and rhetoric units.
Assigned in homeschool curricula
Similar grade-level books
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee · 870L
The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald · 1070L
Of Mice and MenJohn Steinbeck · 630L
Lord of the FliesWilliam Golding · 770L
See all books like Animal Farm→ — matched on theme + reading level.
Why widely assigned
This Allegorical Fiction title, reads at high-school literary complexity, typically at grades 7–10. Written in the 1940s; pairs with curriculum units on revolution and power and propaganda; cited across 6 curriculum frameworks.
Themes
revolution and power · propaganda · language and thought · class and labor · corruption · allegory
Content notes
political violence · animal cruelty · execution
Common Sense Media recommends age 12+.
Where this book is assigned
AP English Literature & Composition
AQA GCSE English Literature (8702)
- required·9th gradesource: Set text in the AQA GCSE English Literature (8702) specification, component: Modern prose. Specification for first teaching in 2015. Read 2026-10-03.
- required·10th gradesource: Set text in the AQA GCSE English Literature (8702) specification, component: Modern prose. Specification for first teaching in 2015. Read 2026-10-03.
Common Core State Standards (ELA)
OCR GCSE English Literature (J352)
- required·9th gradesource: Set text in the OCR GCSE English Literature (J352) specification, component: Modern prose or drama. Version 3.0 (November 2025). Read 2026-10-03.
- required·10th gradesource: Set text in the OCR GCSE English Literature (J352) specification, component: Modern prose or drama. Version 3.0 (November 2025). Read 2026-10-03.
Pearson Edexcel GCSE English Literature (1ET0)
- required·9th gradesource: Set text in the Pearson Edexcel GCSE English Literature (1ET0) specification, component: Post-1914 British play or novel. Specification Issue 2, June 2019. Read 2026-10-03.
- required·10th gradesource: Set text in the Pearson Edexcel GCSE English Literature (1ET0) specification, component: Post-1914 British play or novel. Specification Issue 2, June 2019. Read 2026-10-03.
Summer reading lists
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Animal Farm by the numbers: pages, reading time and where it is listed, on Book Statistics.
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Common questions
- What grade level is Animal Farm?
- Animal Farm is most commonly assigned in US schools in grades 7–10, with a Lexile measure of 1170L. It appears on 7 school reading lists across 2 states, from grade 8 to grade 11. Exact placement varies by school and district.
- What is the Lexile level of Animal Farm?
- Animal Farm has a Lexile measure of 1170L according to MetaMetrics. Lexile measures text complexity, not content maturity — check the grade range and content notes separately for age-appropriateness.
- How long does it take to read Animal Farm?
- It takes about 2h 5m to read Animal Farm (112 pages) at an average adult reading pace of about 250 words per minute — roughly 125 minutes. Faster or slower readers will vary; the estimate is a planning guide for assigning the book.
- Is Animal Farm hard to read for 7th grade?
- At 1170L, Animal Farm falls within the typical 925–1185L text-complexity range for 7th grade (Common Core Appendix A) — a grade-appropriate reading challenge. Lexile measures text complexity, not thematic maturity — check the content notes for age-appropriateness separately.
- What curricula assign Animal Farm?
- Animal Farm appears on reading lists for AP English Literature & Composition, AQA GCSE English Literature (8702), Common Core State Standards (ELA), and 3 others. Each assignment on this site links to its primary-source citation.
Why this book is on this list
How we classifyHide
Each dimension below is sourced from a public reference. The full framework is documented on the classification standard page.
- Lexile measure
- 1170L — sourced from MetaMetrics’ Lexile Hub.
- Grade band
- Grades 7–10 — drawn from state ELA frameworks and AP/IB syllabi citing this book.
- Curriculum alignment
- Cited in 7 curricula on this site (see “Where assigned” above for primary-source links).
- State-level evidence
- Cited in 2 states ELA frameworks or DOE list (see citations above).
- Removal / banning records
- Documented as challenged or removed in 2 states per PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans — see the full banned & challenged books list.
- Seasonal / contextual tags
- Tagged for: Modern prose, Modern prose or drama, Post-1914 British play or novel, summer.