Here are the top 30 bestselling classics books for teen & young adults. Please click Read Review to read book reviews on Amazon. You can also click Find in Library to check book availability at your local library. If the default library is not correct, please follow Change Library to reset it.
1. The Outsiders
by: S. E. Hinton Release date: Apr 20, 2006 Number of Pages: 224 Find in Library Read Review |
No one ever said life was easy. But Ponyboy is pretty sure that he’s got things figured out. He knows that he can count on his brothers, Darry and Sodapop. And he knows that he can count on his friends—true friends who would do anything for him, like Johnny and Two-Bit. But not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idea of a good time is beating up on “greasers” like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect—until the night someone takes things too far.
The Outsiders is a dramatic and enduring work of fiction that laid the groundwork for the YA genre. S. E. Hinton’s classic story of a boy who finds himself on the outskirts of regular society remains as powerful today as it was the day it was first published.
“The Outsiders transformed young-adult fiction from a genre mostly about prom queens, football players and high school crushes to one that portrayed a darker, truer world.” —The New York Times
“Taut with tension, filled with drama.” —The Chicago Tribune
“[A] classic coming-of-age book.” —Philadelphia Daily News
A New York Herald Tribune Best Teenage Book
A Chicago Tribune Book World Spring Book Festival Honor Book
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
Winner of the Massachusetts Children’s Book Award
2. The Catcher in the Rye
by: J.D. Salinger Release date: May 01, 1991 Number of Pages: 240 Find in Library Read Review |
3. You’re Only Old Once!: A Book for Obsolete Children
by: Dr. Seuss Release date: Jan 27, 2009 Number of Pages: 56 Find in Library Read Review |
4. The Little Prince
by: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Richard Howard Release date: Jun 29, 2000 Number of Pages: 96 Find in Library Read Review |
Few stories are as widely read and as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince. Richard Howard’s translation of the beloved classic beautifully reflects Saint-Exupéry’s unique and gifted style. Howard, an acclaimed poet and one of the preeminent translators of our time, has excelled in bringing the English text as close as possible to the French, in language, style, and most important, spirit. The artwork in this edition has been restored to match in detail and in color Saint-Exupéry’s original artwork. Combining Richard Howard’s translation with restored original art, this definitive English-language edition of The Little Prince will capture the hearts of readers of all ages.
This title has been selected as a Common Core Text Exemplar (Grades 4-5, Stories).
5. The Wrinkle in Time Quintet Boxed Set (A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, An Acceptable Time)
by: Madeleine L’Engle Release date: Oct 02, 2007 Number of Pages: 244 Find in Library Read Review |
The Time Quintet by Madeleine L’Engle consists of A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. The digest box set features the art of Taeeun Yoo.
A Wrinkle in Time is one of the most significant novels of our time. This fabulous, ground-breaking science-fiction and fantasy story is the first of five in the Time Quintet series about the Murry family. A Wrinkle in Time is soon to be a major motion picture from Disney, directed by Ava DuVernay, starring Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling.
A Wind in the Door?When Charles Wallace falls ill, Meg, Calvin, and their teacher, Mr. Jenkins, must travel inside C.W. to make him well, and save the universe from the evil Echthros.
A Swiftly Tilting Planet?The Murry and O’Keefe families enlist the help of the unicorn, Gaudior, to save the world from imminent nuclear war.
Many Waters?Meg Murry, now in college, time travels with her twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys, to a desert oasis that is embroiled in war.
An Acceptable Time?While spending time with her grandparents, Alex and Kate Murry, Polly O’Keefe wanders into a time 3,000 years before her own.
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by: Stephen Chbosky Release date: Aug 14, 2012 Number of Pages: 224 Find in Library Read Review |
The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
A #1 New York Times best seller for more than a year, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults (2000) and Best Book for Reluctant Readers (2000), and with millions of copies in print, this novel for teen readers (or “wallflowers” of more-advanced age) will make you laugh, cry, and perhaps feel nostalgic for those moments when you, too, tiptoed onto the dance floor of life.
7. Thirteen Reasons Why
by: Jay Asher Release date: Jun 14, 2011 Number of Pages: 288 Find in Library Read Review |
“Eerie, beautiful, and devastating.” —Chicago Tribune
“A stealthy hit with staying power. . . . thriller-like pacing.” —The New York Times
“Thirteen Reasons Why will leave you with chills long after you have finished reading.” —Amber Gibson, NPR’s “All Things Considered”
You can’t stop the future.
You can’t rewind the past.
The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.
Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.
8. The Hobbit
by: J. R. R. Tolkien Release date: Sep 18, 2012 Number of Pages: 300 Find in Library Read Review |
A great modern classic and the prelude to THE LORD OF THE RINGS
“A glorious account of a magnificent adventure, filled with suspense and seasoned with a quiet humor that is irresistible . . . All those, young or old, who love a fine adventurous tale, beautifully told, will take The Hobbit to their hearts.” – New York Times Book Review
9. Scott Pilgrims Precious Little Boxset
by: Bryan Lee O’Malley Release date: Nov 23, 2010 Number of Pages: 1208 Find in Library Read Review |
10. The Fire Next Time
by: James Baldwin Release date: Dec 01, 1992 Number of Pages: 128 Find in Library Read Review |
11. The Outsiders 50th Anniversary Edition
by: S.E. Hinton Release date: Nov 01, 2016 Number of Pages: 224 Find in Library Read Review |
This special edition of the groundbreaking novel contains:
Never before seen photos and letters from the publisher’s archives
Original review clippings and media coverage
Photos from the author’s personal collection
A gallery of covers around the world
New material from the stars and director of the iconic film–including Francis Ford Coppola, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, and others
And much more!
Celebrating 50 years of the novel that laid the groundwork for the YA genre, this is the ultimate edition for fans of THE OUTSIDERS. A perfect way to honor this impressive milestone and a must-have for fans of all ages.
Ponyboy can count on his brothers. And on his friends. But not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idea of a goo d time is beating up on “greasers” like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect—until the night someone takes things too far.
12. Meditations (Dover Thrift Editions)
by: Marcus Aurelius Release date: Jul 11, 1997 Number of Pages: 112 Find in Library Read Review |
One of the world’s most famous and influential books, Meditations, by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121–180), incorporates the stoic precepts he used to cope with his life as a warrior and administrator of an empire. Ascending to the imperial throne in A.D. 161, Aurelius found his reign beset by natural disasters and war. In the wake of these challenges, he set down a series of private reflections, outlining a philosophy of commitment to virtue above pleasure and tranquility above happiness.
Reflecting the emperor’s own noble and self-sacrificing code of conduct, this eloquent and moving work draws and enriches the tradition of Stoicism, which stressed the search for inner peace and ethical certainty in an apparently chaotic world. Serenity was to be achieved by emulating in one’s personal conduct the underlying orderliness and lawfulness of nature. And in the face of inevitable pain, loss, and death — the suffering at the core of life — Aurelius counsels stoic detachment from the things that are beyond one’s control and a focus on one’s own will and perception.
Presented here in a specially modernized version of the classic George Long translation, this updated and revised edition is easily accessible to contemporary readers. It not only provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind and personality of a highly principled Roman of the second century but also offers today’s readers a practical and inspirational guide to the challenges of everyday life.
13. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
by: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gregory Rabassa Release date: Feb 21, 2006 Number of Pages: 417 Find in Library Read Review |
14. The Essential Calvin and Hobbes: a Calvin and Hobbes Treasury
by: Bill Watterson Release date: Jan 05, 1988 Number of Pages: 256 Find in Library Read Review |
Perhaps the most brilliant comic strip ever created, Calvin and Hobbes continues to entertain with dazzling cartooning and tremendous humor.
Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes has been a worldwide favorite since its introduction in 1985. The strip follows the richly imaginative adventures of Calvin and his trusty tiger, Hobbes. Whether a poignant look at serious family issues or a round of time-travel (with the aid of a well-labeled cardboard box), Calvin and Hobbes will astound and delight you.
Beginning with the day Hobbes sprang into Calvin’s tuna fish trap, the first two Calvin and Hobbes collections, Calvin and Hobbes and Something Under The Bed Is Drooling, are brought together in this treasury. Including black-and-white dailies and color Sundays, The Essential Calvin and Hobbes also features an original full-color 16-page story.
15. A Confederacy of Dunces
by: John Kennedy Toole, Walker Percy Release date: Sep 01, 2019 Number of Pages: 405 Find in Library Read Review |
16. A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel
by: Madeleine L’Engle, Hope Larson Release date: Mar 31, 2015 Number of Pages: 416 Find in Library Read Review |
A graphic novel adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s ground-breaking science fiction and fantasy classic, soon to be a major motion picture.
The world already knows Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, Calvin O’Keefe, and the three Mrs?Who, Whatsit, and Which?the memorable and wonderful characters who fight off a dark force and save our universe in the Newbery Award–winning classic A Wrinkle in Time. But in 50 years of publication, the book has never been illustrated. Now, Hope Larson takes the classic story to a new level with her vividly imagined interpretations of tessering and favorite characters, like the Happy Medium and Aunt Beast. Perfect for delighting old fans and winning over new ones, this graphic novel adaptation is a must-read.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle is soon to be a major motion picture from Disney, directed by Ava DuVernay, starring Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling.
17. Hamlet ( Folger Library Shakespeare)
by: William Shakespeare, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine Ph.D. Release date: Jul 01, 2003 Number of Pages: 342 Find in Library Read Review |
Among them: What is the Ghost–Hamlet’s father demanding justice, a tempting demon, an angelic messenger? Does Hamlet go mad, or merely pretend to? Once he is sure that Claudius is a murderer, why does he not act? Was his mother, Gertrude, unfaithful to her husband or complicit in his murder?
The authoritative edition of Hamlet from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes:
-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
-Newly revised explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
-Scene-by-scene plot summaries
-A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases
-An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language
-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books
-An up-to-date annotated guide to further reading
Essay by Michael Neill
18. Macbeth (Folger Shakespeare Library)
by: William Shakespeare, Dr. Barbara A. Mowat, Paul Werstine Ph.D. Release date: Jul 01, 2003 Number of Pages: 304 Find in Library Read Review |
In depicting a man who murders to become king, Macbeth teases us with huge questions. Is Macbeth tempted by fate, or by his or his wife’s ambition? Why does their success turn to ashes?
Like other plays, Macbeth speaks to each generation. Its story was once seen as that of a hero who commits an evil act and pays an enormous price. Recently, it has been applied to nations that overreach themselves and to modern alienation. The line is blurred between Macbeth’s evil and his opponents’ good, and there are new attitudes toward both witchcraft and gender.
The authoritative edition of Macbeth from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes:
-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
-Newly revised explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
-Scene-by-scene plot summaries
-A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases
-An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language
-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books
-An up-to-date annotated guide to further reading
Essay by Susan Snyder
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.
19. Cat’s Cradle: A Novel
by: Kurt Vonnegut Release date: Sep 08, 1998 Number of Pages: 304 Find in Library Read Review |
20. The Prince (Dover Thrift Editions)
by: Niccolò Machiavelli, N. H. Thompson Release date: Sep 21, 1992 Number of Pages: 80 Find in Library Read Review |
21. Bridge to Terabithia
by: Katherine Paterson, Donna Diamond Release date: Dec 28, 2004 Number of Pages: 208 Find in Library Read Review |
This Newbery Medal-winning novel by bestselling author Katherine Paterson is a modern classic of friendship and loss.
Jess Aarons has been practicing all summer so he can be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. And he almost is, until the new girl in school, Leslie Burke, outpaces him. The two become fast friends and spend most days in the woods behind Leslie’s house, where they invent an enchanted land called Terabithia. One morning, Leslie goes to Terabithia without Jess and a tragedy occurs. It will take the love of his family and the strength that Leslie has given him for Jess to be able to deal with his grief.
In addition to being a Newbery Medal winner, Bridge to Terabithia was also named an ALA Notable Children’s Book and has become a touchstone of children’s literature, as have many of Katherine Paterson’s other novels, including The Great Gilly Hopkins and Jacob Have I Loved.
Supports the Common Core State Standards
22. The Souls of Black Folk (Dover Thrift Editions)
by: W. E. B. Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois Release date: May 20, 1994 Number of Pages: 176 Find in Library Read Review |
Publication of The Souls of Black Folk was a dramatic event that helped to polarize black leaders into two groups: the more conservative followers of Washington and the more radical supporters of aggressive protest. Its influence cannot be overstated. It is essential reading for everyone interested in African-American history and the struggle for civil rights in America.
23. The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
by: William Goldman Release date: Oct 08, 2007 Number of Pages: 512 Find in Library Read Review |
William Goldman’s modern fantasy classic is a simple, exceptional story about quests—for riches, revenge, power, and, of course, true love—that’s thrilling and timeless.
Anyone who lived through the 1980s may find it impossible—inconceivable, even—to equate The Princess Bride with anything other than the sweet, celluloid romance of Westley and Buttercup, but the film is only a fraction of the ingenious storytelling you’ll find in these pages. Rich in character and satire, the novel is set in 1941 and framed cleverly as an “abridged” retelling of a centuries-old tale set in the fabled country of Florin that’s home to “Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passions.”
24. Harry Potter – The Ultimate Book of Facts
by: Jack Goldstein, Frankie Taylor Release date: Dec 03, 2013 Number of Pages: 60 Find in Library Read Review |
25. The Grapes of Wrath
by: John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott Release date: Mar 28, 2006 Number of Pages: 464 Find in Library Read Review |
First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.
This Penguin Classics edition contains an introduction and notes by Steinbeck scholar Robert Demott.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
26. Animal Farm: 1984
by: George Orwell, Christopher Hitchens Release date: Jun 01, 2003 Number of Pages: 400 Find in Library Read Review |
George Orwell’s classic satire of the Russian Revolution is an intimate part of our contemporary culture. It is the account of the bold struggle, initiated by the animals, that transforms Mr. Jones’s Manor Farm into Animal Farm–a wholly democratic society built on the credo that All Animals Are Created Equal. Out of their cleverness, the pigs Napoleon, Squealer, and Snowball emerge as leaders of the new community in a subtle evolution that proves disastrous. The climax is the brutal betrayal of the faithful horse Boxer, when totalitarian rule is reestablished with the bloodstained postscript to the founding slogan: But some Animals Are More Equal Than Others. . . .
1984
In 1984, London is a grim city where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.
27. A Clockwork Orange
by: Anthony Burgess Release date: Apr 17, 1995 Number of Pages: 213 Find in Library Read Review |
Great Music, it said, and Great Poetry would like quieten Modern Youth down and make Modern Youth more Civilized. Civilized my syphilised yarbles.
A vicious fifteen-year-old droog is the central character of this 1963 classic. In Anthony Burgess’s nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends’ social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. When the state undertakes to reform Alex to “redeem” him, the novel asks, “At what cost?” This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition and Burgess’s introduction “A Clockwork Orange Resucked.”
28. Flowers for Algernon
by: Daniel Keyes Release date: May 01, 2005 Number of Pages: 324 Find in Library Read Review |
29. The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition
by: J.R.R. Tolkien Release date: Oct 12, 2005 Number of Pages: 1178 Find in Library Read Review |
In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.
From Sauron’s fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion.
When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom.
The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider.
This new edition includes the fiftieth-anniversary fully corrected text setting and, for the first time, an extensive new index.
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973), beloved throughout the world as the creator of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a fellow of Pembroke College, and a fellow of Merton College until his retirement in 1959. His chief interest was the linguistic aspects of the early English written tradition, but while he studied classic works of the past, he was creating a set of his own.
30. The Color Purple
by: Alice Walker Release date: May 28, 2003 Number of Pages: 300 Find in Library Read Review |
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Winner of the National Book Award
Published to unprecedented acclaim, The Color Purple established Alice Walker as a major voice in modern fiction. This is the story of two sisters—one a missionary in Africa and the other a child wife living in the South—who sustain their loyalty to and trust in each other across time, distance, and silence. Beautifully imagined and deeply compassionate, this classic novel of American literature is rich with passion, pain, inspiration, and an indomitable love of life.
“Intense emotional impact . . . Indelibly affecting . . . Alice Walker is a lavishly gifted writer.” — New York Times Book Review
“Places Walker in the company of Faulkner.” — The Nation
“Superb . . . A work to stand beside literature of any time and place.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“A novel of permanent importance.” — Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek
Best Selling Books for teen & young adults:
- Action & Adventure
- Activities, Crafts & Games
- Animals
- Biographies
- Classics
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Technology
- Early Learning
- Education & Reference
- Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths
- History
- Holidays & Celebrations
- Humor
- Literature & Fiction
- Mysteries & Detectives
- Religions
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports & Outdoors
Recommended Books for teen & young adults:
- Action & Adventure
- Activities, Crafts & Games
- Animals
- Biographies
- Classics
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Technology
- Early Learning
- Education & Reference
- Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths
- History
- Holidays & Celebrations
- Humor
- Literature & Fiction
- Mysteries & Detectives
- Religions
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports & Outdoors
Best Selling Classics Books for:
- 1 Year Olds
- 2 Year Olds
- 3 Year Olds
- 4 Year Olds
- 5 Year Olds
- 6 Year Olds
- 7 Year Olds
- 8 Year Olds
- 9 Year Olds
- 10 Year Olds
- 11 Year Olds
- 12 Year Olds
- Teen & Young Adults
Recommended Classics Books for:
- 1 Year Olds
- 2 Year Olds
- 3 Year Olds
- 4 Year Olds
- 5 Year Olds
- 6 Year Olds
- 7 Year Olds
- 8 Year Olds
- 9 Year Olds
- 10 Year Olds
- 11 Year Olds
- 12 Year Olds
- Teen & Young Adults
Last updated: Monday, December 5, 2016 9:52 AM