Which books are in the GCSE literature reading list this year?

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00:00Hello, my name's Amber Allitt, and I'm a journalist specialising in education.

00:05A whole new cohort of secondary school pupils have begun working towards their GCSEs this

00:10year, and for the lion's share of them, that includes their English Literature GCSE.

00:16As you can probably imagine, they'll be reading a few different books and plays as part of

00:20their studies, from the Shakespearean, through to the 19th century Dickensian, through to

00:25more modern novels.

00:27Each exam board actually sets a list of texts that teachers are able to choose from, and

00:32these are periodically updated.

00:34Recently, there's been a push to include literature from a more diverse array of authors, to hopefully

00:40connect with pupils from a wider variety of backgrounds.

00:44Here are three of the newest texts added to the reading list by AQA, England's biggest

00:49exam board.

00:51The first is My Name is Leon by Kit Duvall, which started being taught for the first time

00:56in 2023.

00:58This is a book about a young mixed-race boy growing up in the 1980s and his experience

01:03with foster care, set in Birmingham during the Handsworth Riots.

01:08The next two are both plays.

01:10Leave Taking by Winsome Pinnock is about a family which has migrated from Jamaica to

01:14London and the family members' different ways of navigating their sense of identity and

01:18belonging.

01:20The last is Princess and the Hustler by Chinonurru Modimba, a play about a Windrush-era family

01:26living in Bristol during the discrimination-fuelled bus boycott of the 1960s.

01:32Young daughter Princess dreams of winning a beauty contest and it ends up being a powerful

01:36story of self-love.