English Benchmarks — Books, Movies & TV (Working List)
*This post is a wiki — please edit it directly to add a title
Status key: 
Enacted · 
Proposed
Notes on projections from other languages: Some language ratings consitently are higher than other languages. Namely, JPN is +3, KOR +1/+2, ESP/ENG are the same level. When projecting from other languages, I alter the level accordingly.
Books
| Status | Level | Title | CEFR | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
22 | Little House on the Prairie (series) | B1 | Series suggestion — mic |
|
22 | The Wind in the Willows | B1 | mic |
|
24 | The Giver | B1 | Recommended to learners around that level — cat |
|
25 | The Jungle Book | B1 | mic |
|
26 | Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Book 1) | B1 | Slightly more difficult with each volume — mic |
|
26 | Holes (series) | B1 | Taught in upper elementary / early middle school — cat |
|
30 | His Dark Materials (series) | B2 | Series suggestion — mic |
|
34 | This Is How You Lose the Time War | C1 | Popular book; vocab stretch and grammatical complexity — cat |
|
35 | Darkness Visible | C1 | mic |
|
35 | Rites of Passage | C1 | mic |
|
38 | A Clockwork Orange | C1–C2 | Full of nonsense words and unusual ways of saying things — cat |
|
40 | Moby-Dick | C1–C2 | Basic story not that hard, but complex plot deviations and allusions — mic |
|
50 | Ulysses | C2 | Extensive amount of vocab necessary — mic |
|
25 | The House in the Cerulean Sea (Book 1) | B1 | Graded same as Harry Potter 1, easier than Northern Lights — projected from community gradings |
|
25 | The Midnight Library | B1 | Graded same as Harry Potter 1, easier than Northern Lights — projected from community gradings |
|
25 | The Travelling Cat Chronicles | B1 | Graded same as Harry Potter 1, easier than Northern Lights; translation from Japanese — projected from community gradings |
|
25 | Podkin One-Ear (Book 1) | B1 | Graded same as Harry Potter 1, easier than Northern Lights — projected from community gradings |
|
28 | Howl’s Moving Castle | B2 | Bracketed between Harry Potter 1 and Northern Lights; fills the 27–29 gap — projected from community gradings |
|
32 | A Game of Thrones (Book 1) | B2 | Bracketed between Northern Lights and This Is How You Lose the Time War — projected from community gradings |
|
32 | The Lord of the Rings (3-in-1 edition) | B2 | Bracketed between Northern Lights and This Is How You Lose the Time War — projected from community gradings |
|
8 | The Very Hungry Caterpillar | A1 | Projected from Japanese L10 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
16 | Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House 1) | A2 | Projected from Korean 16 / Spanish 17 / German 18 / Japanese 19 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
19 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book 1) | A2 | Projected from Spanish 19 / Korean 22 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
23 | Matilda | B1 | Projected from Spanish 23 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
25 | Coraline | B1 | Projected from Spanish 25 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
25 | The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | B1 | Projected from German 25 / Spanish 26 / Japanese 29 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
28 | The Hobbit | B2 | Projected from Spanish 28 / Japanese 31 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
30 | Anne of Green Gables | B2 | Projected from Spanish 30 / Japanese 32 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
31 | 1984 | B2 | Projected from Japanese 34 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
33 | Lord of the Flies | B2 | (no gradings yet, on hold) literary vocabulary requiring a glossary even for natives, dense syntax, dialect, symbolism - chibi-native |
|
30 | The Metamorphosis | B2 | (no gradings yet, on hold) Feels like it’s around L30 - HopeWaterfall |
Movies & TV
| Status | Level | Title | CEFR | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
20 | SpongeBob SquarePants (S1) | B1 | Projected from Spanish 21 / Japanese 19 / Korean 18 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
20 | Pokémon Indigo League | B1 | Projected from Japanese 23 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
21 | Kung Fu Panda | B1 | Projected from Spanish 21 — catalog tmdb sweep |
|
21 | Avatar: The Last Airbender (Book One) | B1 | Projected from Spanish 21 / Japanese 25 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
22 | Spirited Away | B1 | Projected from Japanese 24 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
23 | Naruto (S1) | B1 | Projected from Spanish 22 / Japanese 27 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
24 | Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (film) | B1 | Projected from Spanish 24 / Japanese 29 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
25 | The Simpsons (S1) | B1 | Projected from Spanish 25 / German 25 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
25 | Alice in Borderland (S1) | B1 | Projected from Japanese 28 (49 graders) — catalog tmdb sweep |
|
26 | Jurassic Park | B1 | Projected from Japanese 29 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
27 | Friends (S1) | B2 | Projected from Japanese 30; fast colloquial dialogue — gillianfaith’s list |
|
27 | Solo Leveling | B2 | Projected from Japanese 30 (50 graders) — catalog tmdb sweep |
|
29 | Breaking Bad (S1) | B2 | Projected from Japanese 32 — catalog tmdb sweep |
|
30 | Attack on Titan (S1) | B2 | Projected from Japanese 33 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
31 | Akira | B2 | Projected from Japanese 34 — gillianfaith’s list |
|
32 | Neon Genesis Evangelion (S1) | B2 | Projected from Japanese 35 — gillianfaith’s list |
