Favourite Books for Tweens and Teens

I’ve had lots of requests lately to share which books my older kids are reading, which prompted me to ask them to write down their favourites. (This was actually a cute exercise, because it got them talking about books with each other and reminiscing about favourites!) At the same time, I asked followers on Instagram to share which books their tweens & teens have enjoyed lately and I received lots of wonderful book recommendations. Below I’ve shared a list of our favourites, as well as a list of the recommendations we received.

Tip! In my experience with our kids, it takes one great book to get your child into a good reading rhythm, especially if that book is part of a series. What happens is they read the first book, and then they’re hungry for more. If you’re hoping to encourage your tweens and teens to read a bit more, have a look through the list and see if there’s a series that will resonate. All four of my big kids have read the Harry Potter books (some of them have read it three times!) as well as the Wings of Fire series. Ivy and Marlow loved The Rosewood Chronicles. Ivy also tore through all of the Judy Blume books a couple of years ago, and now she’s loving the Holly Jackson murder mysteries.

Happy reading!

Novels for Tweens (ages 8 -12)

Recommendations from my children:

• The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (of course) 
• The Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall
• The Girl with the Glass Bird by Esme Kerr
• The Rosewood Chronicles by Connie Glynn
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
• The Girl Who Walked on Air by Emma Carroll
• Philomella and the Impossible Forest by Doris Brett
• We are Wolves and other books by Katrina Nannestad
• Are you There God, It’s Me, Margaret and other books by Judy Blume
• The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
• The Magnus Chase series by Rick Riordan
• The Girl who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
• The War that Saved my Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• The Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy
• Stella Montgomery Series by Judith Rossell
• The Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland
• Awful Auntie and other books by David Walliams
• The Famous Five by Enid Blyton
• Journey to the River Sea by Iva Ibbotson
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien’
• Wonder by R.J. Polacio
• Two Wolves by Tristan Bancks
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• The Nevermoor series by Jessica Townsend
• The Whimsy & Woe series by Rebecca McRitchie
• The Kingdoms & Empires series by Jaclyn Moriarty
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Recommendations from others:

• The Can you See Me? series by Libby Scott
• The Unwanteds series by Lisa McMann
• The Land of Stories series by Chris Colfer
• The Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan
• Keeper of the Lost Cities series by Shannon Messenger
• The Enola Holmes graphic novels by Serena Blasco
• Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper
• The Endling Series by Katherine Applegate
• The Silverwing Trilogy by Kenneth Oppel
• His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman
• The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
• Catherine Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
• Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell
• The Dauntless Path series by Intisar Khanani
• The Firefly Summer by Morgan Matson

Novels for Teenagers (ages 13+)

*Note: some of these have adult themes! 

Recommendations from my children:

• We Were Liars by E Lockhart
• The Tomorrow Series by John Marsden
• It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
• One of us is Lying series by Karen McManus
• City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
• The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer
• A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series by Holly Jackson
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
• All this Time and Five Feet Apart and other books by Mikki Daughtry and Rachel Lippincott
• The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
• The Summer I Turned Pretty series by Jenny Han
• Completely Normal and Other Lies by Biffy James
• The Divergent series by Veronica Roth
• The Upside of Falling by Alex Light
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
• Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
• Educated by Tara Westover

Recommendations from others:

• The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
• Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
• The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
• The Fable series by Adrienne Young
• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children series by Ransom Riggs
• The Knockemout series by Lucy Score
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
• You Have a Match by Emma Lord
• The Everest Files by Matt Dickinson
• The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron

For more information on tweens & teens, including helpful resources and interviews with experts, check out my Tweens & Teens online course.