Find your next great read for National Reading Month by exploring my reviews of these excellent coming of age books.

The “coming of age” genre is a bit tricky because you find all sorts of novels thrown into lists that don’t belong. There are also the classics: Catcher in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn, Little Women, To Kill a Mockingbird, and so on. I don’t want to offer those novels. You know what they are, and anyway, I’m not a huge fan of literature. I like modern authors.

So. What about the label itself: “coming of age”? I tend to agree with Vespe’s notion that these stories “focus on characters bridging the gap between childhood and teen years.” One might argue that childhood lasts longer in the 2020s than it did in the 1980s, when the latchkey kids were abandoned by their parents to fend for themselves, but the point is that coming of age YA books address some significant change and transition from childhood to maturity.

With that in mind, here is my list of excellent coming of age YA books you should read next. Some of these are classics, and others might be obscure. I hope you find something new to love.

The Cutting Edge of Friendship by Khristina Chess 

“My first time was supposed to be different. It wasn’t supposed to happen in darkness, dirt, and violence. It wasn’t supposed to be a two-man job.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from The Cutting Edge of Friendship

What is more transformative for a young girl than loss of innocence? Rape.

Sadie and Elana are keeping dangerous secrets.

Best friends since elementary school, they know everything about each other, but on the night of the fireworks, something terrible happened to Sadie that she hasn’t told anyone. She can’t even say the word to herself. Instead, she’s started cutting to deal with the pain.

Elana has a secret of her own; she’s texting Hunter and making plans for a clandestine meeting with him. She doesn’t know what he did or why he really wants to keep their relationship secret.

To end this dangerous cat-and-mouse game, Sadie must reclaim her courage and rescue Elana before a rapist can attack again.

So powerful! The Cutting Edge of Friendship instantly drew me into the tangled conflict, and I couldn’t look away until the girls were safe.

In this list of excellent coming of age YA books, what I love most about The Cutting Edge of Friendship is the character evolution as both Sadie and Elana lose their innocence about the world and face the harsh realities of adulthood. In particular, I love Sadie’s fierce and resilient character and the raw and authentic emotion as this painful story escalates toward its thrilling climax. This is the kind of novel that really shows how someone self harms to cope with pain in the aftermath of sexual assault. You won’t want to miss this powerful YA book that explores the complicated nature of friendship.

Wonder When You’ll Miss Me by Amanda Davis

“I'd lost forty-eight pounds and my skin had mostly cleared up. I'd missed a whole semester of school and disappeared for seven months. It seemed like no one had even noticed I was gone.” ― Amanda Davis, quote from Wonder When You’ll Miss Me

In Wonder When You’ll Miss Me, sixteen-year-old Faith Duckle still talks to The Fat Girl. She sees her too. Usually The Fat Girl is eating something and offering snarky commentary or advice. Sometimes Faith tells her to go away. Sometimes she listens to her.

Faith was sexually assaulted by a group of boys who made sport of her as the fat girl, and then she tried to kill herself. Then she ended up in a hospital, where she lost the weight but not The Fat Girl. She’s still hanging around.

This is the beginning of the story.

The real story is Faith’s journey when she runs away to join the circus, takes a new name, gets a tattoo, and becomes a handler of elephants. The real story is how Faith and The Fat Girl found healing after such a terrible event.

I loved this book when I read it twenty years ago, and I love it still. Amanda Davis was a gifted author, and you don’t want to miss this excellent coming of age YA book about an amazing girl who finds a path through trauma to redemption. Sadly, this author died in a small plane crash at the age of 32, and Wonder When You’ll Miss Me was her only novel.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

“A brave man helps. A coward just gives presents.” ― Stephen King, quote from Fairy Tale

You probably don’t think about Fairy Tale as Young Adult, but it’s about a boy and a dog on a journey in a magical realm. How much more Young Adult can you be, right?

In fact, Fairy Tale is Stephen King at his very best. This novel is multi-layered, with 3 distinct stories wrapped into a long, cascading, wonderful, and satisfying read.

The first story is how Charlie Reade meets Mr. Bowditch and his dog Radar in the first place. Settle in. There's a mystery here, and there's something supernatural, of course, because it's Stephen King.

That story leads Charlie on an epic journey with Radar to the center of another world, and this story is full of unique characters, dazzling details, and conflict in its own right. No sooner does this part of the story reach its conclusion than a new one begins, where Charlie is taken prisoner and is realized as the Prince That Was Promised, who has come to save the decaying kingdom.

Now the third story takes off, and there are monsters, giants, gladiator games, and all sorts of villains to be slain. There are princesses to be restored to kingdoms. There is a giant cricket king. It is a fairy tale, after all, as only Stephen King can tell.

I loved this book. At times, it reminded me of The Talisman, The Gunslinger, and The Stand for different reasons. It had this beautiful, epic quality. I didn't want it to, but of course, every fairy tale must.

Even after more than sixty books, Mr. King's well of great ideas is overflowing. If you’re looking for an excellent coming of age YA book about a boy who goes through a portal to another world and is changed, Fairy Tale is one novel that definitely belongs at the top of your reading list. Charlie is no longer a child when he comes home.

The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island by Scott Semegran

I picked up this novel because it was the 2021 First Place winner for Middle-Grade/Young Adult Writers Digest Self-Published Book Awards. Wow! It hooked me immediately and didn’t let go.

Four middle-school boys find a backpack full of cash and pot left behind by their nemesis bullies, the Thousand Oaks Gang, and after evading them fails (they get beat up), they decide to retreat to an abandoned lake house for a few days. Being kids, they haven’t thought this through. The bullies find them. They end up stranded on an island with no food, water, or shelter and must survive until someone rescues them.

I didn’t know what to expect when I picked up this novel. I felt I was in great storytelling hands with Semegran. I don’t usually like Middle Grade novels; they usually are too young for me to really appreciate. But The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island has something special. As others have noted, it reminds me of The Body by Stephen King, which inspired Stand by Me (the movie). Perhaps it is the narrator’s voice, which seems older and wiser than his young years.

Treat yourself to this excellent coming of age YA book about four kids who are transformed through a suspenseful survival experience that forever changes how they see the world and their place in it.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

“If there was only one tree like that in the world, you would think it was beautiful. But because there are so many, you just can't see how beautiful it really is.” ― Betty Smith, quote from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

I first heard about this book from Oprah Winfrey and picked it up during the book club years. A classic YA novel published in 1943, before YA was really “a thing,” A Tree Grows in Brooklyn tells the story of a poor young girl growing up in Brooklyn, a child of struggling immigrant parents.

This excellent coming of age YA book about immigration and poverty has remained with me for decades. There’s a reason why this novel has stood the test of time and lands in the category of literary classics.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

“There comes a time when we realize that our parents cannot save themselves or save us, that everyone who wades through time eventually gets dragged out to sea by the undertow-that, in short, we are all going.” ― John Green, quote from Looking for Alaska

A quiet boy at boarding school meets a charismatic girl, then loses her.

Miles Halter goes away to boarding school, where he makes new friends, takes up drinking and smoking, breaks some rules, and meets a hot girl named Alaska Young. She’s the ringleader of the merry group’s adventures. She’s the one who can get alcohol and cigarettes.

She’s a bit wild.

Then one night while they’re all partying, she receives a phone call and takes off in her car. She never returns.

If you’re looking for an excellent coming of age YA book, you won’t want to miss this one. In fact, John Green is such a great author that he’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because he’s all-around amazing!

We Walked the Sky by Lisa Fiedler

“The show must go on, even when it's not the show you expected to be in.” ― Lisa Felder, quote from We Walked the Sky

Fiedler's multi-generational novel really captured and held my interest. Two parallel stories are running: the grandmother, Victoria, is a 16-year-old who runs away and joins the circus in 1965, and her granddaughter, Callie, is a teen who has followed in her circus footsteps, but now finds herself in a new place.

There are mysteries to unravel and friendships to develop. I loved all the circus lore and animals and characters. Really, it was an enchanting story. I want to read more by this author.

When compiling the list of amazing coming of age YA books that you missed, be sure to add this one.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

“I am haunted by humans.” ― Markus Zusak, quote from The Book Thief

No list of coming of age YA books would be complete without including The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. How could you have missed this one? It has been at the top of the best seller lists for years—and with good reason!

In this historical novel set in Nazi Germany, we meet a young foster girl named Liesel. She’s an orphan. She loves books. She and her foster parents are sheltering a Jewish man in their basement. He also likes to read.

The writing is lovely. Zusak paints Liesel’s world of poverty, anxiety, fear, and grief in shades of stark contrasts. He is both a poet and a novelist.

What a wonderful, heartbreaking, haunting, and gripping story! It makes you really ask deep questions. It’s so beautiful. It’s transformational. It’s the reason why I love books.

Other Excellent Coming of Age YA Books You Should Read

If you are looking for some other excellent coming of age YA books, check out the Young Adult Coming of Age Books list on Goodreads, as well as A Look at Coming-of-Age Stories, which reviews important films of the genre. You might also be interested in my post Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of reviews of YA books.

Do you have any personal favorites to recommend to me? I’m always looking for another great read in this category.

Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.