10th grade books made into movies

My kids are careening ever closer to graduating high school. Okay, we’re all of one semester into their high school career, but it seems to be flying by. To keep ahead of the freight train that is high school, I give you 10th-grade books made into movies, part of my ever-expanding book and a movie series. Let me remind you of my ground rules for picking book and movie combos:

1. There has to be something you can discuss, and I have pretty generous requirements for this
2. I won’t knowingly post books/movies that endorse abuse
3. Putting the book on the list does not mean I endorse it or agree with it. I actually want my kids to read books I disagree with so they can approach ideas we disagree with
4. This is not the definitive grade level for these books, for high school I split up the books to have a wide variety on each grade level. I tried to have a minimum of one Charles Dickens, one Shakespeare, and one Jane Austen per grade level. I LOVE Shakespeare and Jane Austen. I vaguely tolerate Dickens, but recognize he’s got some great material to discuss. I included a few other plays, and also tried to spread out the Hemmingway and other frequent required reading authors over the high school grades.

And since this is a whole slew of 40 10th grade books made into movies, there are a whole slew of affiliate links in here.

I’m also going to add, my kids, are not actually reading the 10th-grade books in 10th grade. I arranged our high school books made into movies list by what fit our themes for school. Freshman year had a speculative fiction theme, sophomore year is going to have a history theme, and I’ll have to look for junior and senior year.

Update from Future Ticia 2023

Okay, I’ve done lots and lots of updating and moving things around. This means all of these pretty images I made are out of date. Also, I’ve figured out it is more user friendly to arrange them in the lists I made for the bookmarks than rearranging into the different categories I made up.

So, now I’m changing it back to the original list order.

Classic 10th-Grade Books Made into Movies list 1

There is a very good chance you read at least one of the books on this list during your sophomore year of high school. There is an equally good chance you then watched the movie adaptation in your class.

1. Pride and Prejudice [mini-series that I love] I would recommend reading something like Bridget Jones Diary or Lizzie Bennet Diaries to compare a modern remake (I personally like Lizzie Bennet Diaries better, YouTube playlist)   (Pride and Prejudice book club and movie night)
2. 1984  [movie] I found this book fascinating in high school when I read it, and can’t wait for my kids to read it (1984 book club)
3. The Man in the Iron Mask  [movie] Batman decided to read this one last year for our summer free reading (The Man in the Iron Mask book club)
4. All Quiet on the Western Front   [movie] I was reading a biography of Dietrich Bonhoffer, and learned this was a wildly popular anti-war book (and movie, during the early years of cinema) before World War 2, which reminds me at some point I need to make a World War 1 movies to go with my World War 2 movies list. (All Quiet on the Western Front book club post)
5. Scarlet Pimpernel  [movie] (Scarlet Pimpernel book club post)
6. Phantom of the Opera  [movie] we’re actually reading this freshman year…. (Phantom of the Opera book club)- I guess I haven’t written that yet
7. Tale of Two Cities [movie] Jeff swears by this book, we’ll definitely be reading this next year as sophomores because we’ll also be covering the French Revolution… (Tale of Two Cities book club)- also not written yet
8. Zookeeper’s Wife (movie)- my son read this in 11th grade, and here’s our Zookeeper’s Wife book club
9. Ready Player One [movie] [Ready Player One book club] we read this Freshman year as part of our speculative fiction theme. It led to a lot of great conversations about worldview and other questions.
10. A Farewell to Arms [movie] It’s Ernest Hemmingway, so totally honest it’s not likely we’ll read it

Yes, I did change it to numbers instead of bullets solely because I was having trouble figuring out why I was missing a picture in the collage, and then after making the collage I moved one of the books down into another section. So yes, this section only has 10 books. Did you figure out which book I moved?

10th-grade books made into movies list 2

I know, technically these are not books, but I think some of these plays are referenced a fair amount, or it’s useful to know a bit about some of these playwrights. Also, let’s be honest, I just like Shakespeare and want an excuse to get others to watch/read him.

I was kind of amazed how many books from my first list we had already read, this list does not have as many that we have read.

1. Nothing Lasts Forever [Die Hard] My boys tried to advocate to read this as a Christmas book…
2. Julius Caesar [movie] we mostly did this in 8th grade because we were studying Ancient History
3. Twelfth Night [movie] This play has special memories for me because I got to see it at the Globe on my honeymoon (Twelfth Night book club)
4. Murder on the Orient Express [movie] This is totally a classic, but like I said, I wanted another category
5. Crime and Punishment [movie]
6. Cannery Row [movie] Oops, I just realized when I was identifying this book the other day, I had told her it was a Hemmingway book. I was wrong, this is Steinbeck. To my mind that is only marginally better.
7. Catch 22 [movie] Find out where the phrase came from
8. Canterbury Tales [movie] We’ve read excerpts, at some point I should try doing the movie for this, but after watching a BBC production on Netflix or Amazon when the kids were super little and it started with nudity and a sex scene…. Yeah, that was a problem. Ha ha ha ha ha, when I went to look for the DVD, one of the top searches was “a selection of the most erotic and ribald tales from Chaucer,” thankfully I read that description before linking to that version.
9. The Way We Live Now [movie] I know absolutely nothing about this, but the quick description has it set in the mid-Victorian era
10. Death of a Salesman [movie] I read/watched this play as a junior in high school and still remember not liking any of the characters

This is completely random, but I think the square version of the picture turned out better than the rectangle, so I decided to insert it as well because I like the look better……

Books made into movies to read in 10th grade list 3

Some of these are now classics in their own right, either way, they made it onto my list of 10th-grade books made into movies. Also, what do you think qualifies as a modern book and when is the line for classics?

I’m finding it amusing to leave what I originally wrote, maybe a Future Ticia 2025 when revising the post again will think that was a stupid conceit.

** Apparently for some of those books I put as classic, that line is “published before World War 2”

1. Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood [movie] I watched this too on my honeymoon, as a way to kill a few hours before our plane took off from Austin. That was a mistake, it was not the light hearted comedy I was expecting, more of a dramedy.
2. I Am Legend [movie]
3. Stepford Wives [movie] [remake] The remake twists the ending of the book completely (confession, I have not read the original book or seen the original movie, but I remember the controversy when that remake came out), which could make for a great discussion aside from the themes in the original book
4. Monument’s Men [movie] I’m super curious about this book and a movie combo
5. The Secret Life of Bees [movie]
6. Clockwork Orange [movie] I almost accidentally linked to a German copy of the book. Oops! Also, I’ve heard this can be very disturbing to read/watch
7. Streetcar Named Desire [movie] STELLLLAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8. The Darkest Hour [movie] I loved this movie, I need to read the book
9. Gone Girl [movie]
10. The Wolf of Wall Street [movie]

10th grade books made into movies list 4

In all honesty, I wasn’t quite sure if these were modern or classic, and I was too lazy to look it up. That’s terrible of me, I know it.

Yeah, that last sentence was a lie. I just wanted to create another category because it’s easier to read if I occasionally break things up.

So is that earlier lie, I’m just going to make a second classics category. Classics 2.0 if you will.

This list of classics seems to be books I might have been required to read in high school, or books friends had to read because I’m pretty sure some of these are written after World War 2….

List 4 is an interesting assortment of books.

1. Importance of Being Earnest [movie]
2. War and Peace [movie]- this is always listed as the example of impossibly long books to read, maybe at some point I’ll read it
3. Frankenstein [movie] there are so many adaptations of this book (Frankenstein book club) – apparently I haven’t written this up yet, my kids greatly enjoyed my pain as we read this
4. Schindler’s List [movie] prior to working on this book made into a movie list, I had not known it was originally a book
5. Dune [movie]
6. Hunt for Red October [movie]
7. Roots [movie] I chose to link to the original movie, starring the best Star Trek captain ever, Benjamin Sisko, also known in real life as Avery Brooks
8. Memoirs of a Geisha [movie] Okay, I don’t think I can really argue in the least bit these last two are classics, but I wanted a nice even 10…… I’m a terrible blogger, this is not a consistent list. 20 lashes with a wet noodle. – That comment made so much more sense before I rearranged the list order
9. Farenheit 451 [movie] We had a post-apocalyptic unit in my senior year, this was one of the three books I read and enjoyed in that unit. I also almost put this into classic books made into movies.
10. Moby Dick [movie] We’re unlikely to read this, maybe we’ll watch the movie… I’m not a big fan of big revenge things…

[Deep breath] And that’s all 40 of them.

Of those 40 books, I’m planning on us reading 12 of them during their middle/high school years, all of the bolded books. The other 28 books made into movies my kids will be reading during high school are on the other grade lists. You can get the entire list by either joining my newsletter and getting the coupon code to get them for free, or just buying the Book and a Movie bookmarks (FYI, I do occasionally update this, and send that information out to my newsletter list).

But wait! There’s more, 10th-grade books made into movies list 5!

Not to sound too much like a salesman, but as Future Ticia 2023 updated this list, I’ve added more to this list, not quite 10 books, but it’s close.

1. Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep (Blade Runner movie)
2. The White Tiger (movie on Netflix)
3. Where the Crawdads Sing (movie)
4. Gorillas in the Mist (movie)
5. Anatomy of a Scandal (movie on Netflix)- I’ve heard a lot about this TV series, I bet there could be a lot to talk about
6. The Reincarnationist Papers (Infinite)
7. The House of Gucci (movie)
8. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (movie)
9. Red Alert (Dr Strangelove) – I love this movie so much, I’m curious what I would think of the book
10. The Trial by Kafka (movie)

More High School Ideas not related to books made into movies

Since my kids aren’t yet in 10th grade, I don’t have anything for the sophomore year yet. Well, actually Princess did read Pride and Prejudice in middle school.

• How to describe characters writing lesson
• Homeschooling High School by Design Review
• High School Science Labs
• Middle Ages for High School
• High School Health and Nutrition

And for anyone following who knows why I’ve been mostly incommunicado for the month of November, I currently have around 28,000 words in my book and have around 6,000 words for a different fiction project, and then about 4,000 words for my blog.

That being said, that novel I’m working on, about 2/3 done.