Texas 7th grade reading list

Only 4 titles are cited to Texas for 7th grade: Out of the Dust, The Giver and The Outsiders. The other 714 books on this page are grade-appropriate titles from national reading lists and awards, not Texas assignments. Each book shows its reading level and a cited source. Lexile levels on the list run from 410L to 1300L.

Top Texas 7th grade pick: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse — on 2 Texas lists

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Books on this page718Cited to Texas4Lexile410L–1300LSourceTEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills)✓ sources cited per book

Most-assigned on state lists: across every US state’s official reading and award lists, the Middle (6–8) titles appearing in the most states are The Giver (20 states), The Hunger Games (14 states), and Ground Zero (8 states). From our 2026 study of 13,258 source-cited assignments (as of 2026-07-13).

Our pick to start — most-cited for Texas 7th grade

These are the 4 titles named in Texas’s own curriculum documents for this grade — everything below is the wider national list. Read against the Common Core Appendix A complexity band; reading level is not thematic maturity, and several sit below the band because they are assigned for discussion.

  1. Out of the Dust

    Karen Hesse

    Cited in 2 Texas curriculum documents and 3 national references, taught from grade 5 to 8. Covers Great Depression, Dust Bowl, grief and loss. At 740L it sits just under the 925–1185L band for this grade.

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  2. The Giver

    Lois Lowry

    Cited in 2 Texas curriculum documents and 3 national references, taught from grade 6 to 8. Covers conformity vs individuality, memory, utopia and dystopia. At 760L it sits just under the 925–1185L band for this grade.

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  3. The Outsiders

    S.E. Hinton

    Cited in 2 Texas curriculum documents and 1 national reference, taught from grade 7 to 9. Covers class conflict, friendship and loyalty. At 750L it sits just under the 925–1185L band for this grade.

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  4. The House on Mango Street

    Sandra Cisneros

    Cited in 2 Texas curriculum documents, taught from grade 7 to 10. Covers identity, poverty and Chicano/Latina experience. At 870L it sits just under the 925–1185L band for this grade.

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4 books cited for Texas 7th grade

Assignments tied directly to Texas’s TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) with a Texas-specific citation.

714 additional grade-appropriate books for 7th grade readers

The 718-book total above includes 4 titles with direct Texas citation; these 714 additional titles cover 7th grade in the broader canon. They don't have a Texas-specific citation yet but are commonly taught at this level.

Show all 714 titles

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Other Texas grades

6th grade · 8th grade · 5th grade · 9th grade

Reading lists by grade (all states)

6th grade · 8th grade · 5th grade · 9th grade

Same 7th grade in other states

California · Florida · New York · Pennsylvania · Illinois · Ohio

Browse 7th grade reading by theme

About the Texas 7th grade reading list

This list combines books cited in TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) with books from national sources that list titles for 7th grade: the Common Core State Standards (ELA), plus awards such as the Andre Norton Award for Middle Grade & Young Adult Fiction, the Newbery Medal and the Golden Kite Award. ReadingList currently tracks 718 titles for 7th grade in Texas, of which 4 carry a direct Texas citation and 714 are grade-appropriate titles whose reading level overlaps 7th grade. Across the list, Lexile measures span 410L–1300L.

7th grade sits in the 6-8 grade band, where students are middle-grade readers. At this stage the emphasis is on analyzing theme, character, and author's craft across full-length novels and their first classics. Assigned reading skews toward full-length novels, plays, memoir, and frequently-challenged contemporary titles, with text complexity that, per Common Core’s Appendix A reading bands, typically falls around roughly 700L to 1010L. Measured against that 925–1185L range, of the 62 titles here with a Lexile score 10 are grade-level, 51 are more accessible (often assigned for theme over challenge), and 1 is a stretch text that may need scaffolding. Because readers in a single 7th grade classroom can span several hundred Lexile points, this list is best read as a starting point rather than a fixed requirement.

Texas’s English Language Arts requirements are set by TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) (tea.texas.gov). Most states pair their own standards with the Common Core text-complexity framework. The 7th grade list below blends Texas-specific assignments with widely taught national titles. Every title links to its primary source on the book’s detail page, so you can confirm exactly where and why it is assigned.

How to use this list:match a title to your child’s most recent Lexile or guided-reading level rather than to the grade alone. Teachers building a 7th grade unit can pair a Texas-cited core text with a grade-appropriate companion novel; parents previewing summer or supplemental reading can check each book’s content notes and challenge history before assigning it.

Common questions

What books do 7th grade students read in Texas?
Books with a Texas-specific citation for 7th grade include Out of the Dust, The Giver, The Outsiders and The House on Mango Street. Individual schools and districts choose their own titles, so check with your child's teacher for the exact list.
How many books are assigned to 7th grade students in Texas?
This list has 718 books for 7th grade students in Texas. 4 of them have a Texas-specific citation; the other 714 are grade-appropriate titles from national reading lists and awards, not Texas assignments.
What's the Lexile range for 7th grade reading in Texas?
Lexile measures across the 7th grade Texas reading list range from 410L to 1300L. Books without a published Lexile (poetry, drama, picture books) are not included in this range.
Where does this reading list come from?
Texas-specific entries reference TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) (published at tea.texas.gov). The other books come from national sources that list books for 7th grade: the Common Core State Standards (ELA), plus awards such as the Andre Norton Award for Middle Grade & Young Adult Fiction, the Newbery Medal and the Golden Kite Award. Each book's page links the primary source for every listing.

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State-specific entries sourced from tea.texas.gov. National references cited on each book’s detail page.

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