Reading Lists · High School (9–12)
Ninth Grade Reading List
Ninth grade: the rhetoric stage begins with the Greeks: Homer, the tragedians, Plato and Plutarch.
Core
- The Iliad · Homer · grades 9–12Homer's war epic, the first great book of Western literature.
- The Odyssey · Homer · grades 9–12Homer's story of Odysseus's long journey home.
- Theogony and Works and Days · Hesiod · grades 9–12Hesiod's account of the Greek gods and of honest work.
- The Homeric Hymns · Anonymous (Homeric) · grades 9–12Early Greek hymns to the gods, background for Greek religion.
- The Oresteia · Aeschylus · grades 9–12Aeschylus's trilogy about justice, revenge and the founding of a court.
- The Theban Plays · Sophocles · grades 9–12Sophocles's Oedipus plays and Antigone, on fate, pride and conscience.
- The Last Days of Socrates · Plato · grades 9–12Plato's dialogues on Socrates's trial and death.
- Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans · Plutarch · grades 9–12Plutarch's paired lives of Greeks and Romans, studied for virtue and vice.
- The Bible · Anonymous · grades K–12Scripture read alongside the Greeks to compare their worldviews.
- The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity · Vibia Perpetua and an anonymous editor · grades 9–12A short early Christian account of courage under persecution.
Stretch
For strong readers or extra time.
- Meditations · Marcus Aurelius · grades 9–12Marcus Aurelius's Stoic notebook, for comparison with Christian ethics.
- Discourses (selection) and Encheiridion · Epictetus · grades 9–12Epictetus's Stoic handbook.
- First Oration Against Catiline · Marcus Tullius Cicero · grades 9–12Cicero's famous speech, a model for rhetoric.
- Julius Caesar · William Shakespeare · grades 9–10Shakespeare's Roman tragedy, for rhetoric practice.
The sequence follows the general pattern of classical Christian schools: nursery rhymes, fables, fairy tales and Bible stories in the early grades; myths, Greek, Roman and medieval stories in the logic years; and the Great Books and theology in the rhetoric years. These are suggestions, not any publisher's or school's official list. Core titles are the main reading for the year; Stretch titles suit stronger readers or extra time. Each title sits within the grade range given on its library page; check a work's notes for content parents and teachers may want to know about.