Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Ben Clanton
PAPILIO
March 2025, Viking/Penguin, 48 pp
A tale told in three parts by three friends! Powerhouse creators, Ben Clanton, Corey R. Tabor, and Andy Chou Musser, have come together to create a wholly inventive picture book that is perfect for fa...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Jess Callans
OLLIE IN BETWEEN
April 2025, Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, 256 pp
As endearing as it is humorous, this debut middle grade novel by Jess Callans is a tender, queer coming of age story about the courage it takes to find your own voice and choosing to just be. Puberty...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Yamile Saied Méndez
THE REEL WISH
April 2025, Tu Books/Lee and Low, 368 pp
After a panic attack prevents Florencia from performing as Clara in The Nutcracker and her best friend takes the lead, a new dance style helps her face her anxiety as well as a troubled friendship. B...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Robin Yardi
THE MIDNIGHT WAR OF MATEO MARTINEZ
March 2016, Carolrhoda Books/Lerner, 184 pp
Life is confusing for Mateo Martinez. He and Johnny Ramirez don’t hang out anymore, even though they used to be best friends. He and his new friend Ashwin try to act like brave, old-time knights, but...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
H.D. Hunter
SOMETHING LIKE RIGHT
August 2024, Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Macmillan, 336 pp
Zay’s ma always said his mouth would get him in trouble. Sure enough, it got him into his first and only fight in his junior year of high school. Expelled from his district, Zay’s only hope for redemp...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Sarah Dvojack
WELCOME TO FEAR CITY
September 2024, Union Square Kids, 464 pp
New York City, summer of '77—in a city on the edge and obsessed with a serial killer, Sylvie Stroud is dealing with an entirely different kind of evil when she awakens a dark magic hellbent on consumi...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Yamile Saied Méndez
THE BEAUTIFUL GAME
September 2024, Little Brown/Hachette, 336 pp
A powerful story about family, fútbol, and playing like a girl from the award-winning author of Furia. At thirteen years old, Valeria "Magic" Salomón is already the best soccer player her town has ev...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Dana Alison Levy
NOT ANOTHER BANNED BOOK
September 2024, Delacorte/Random House, 320 pp
A ripped from the headlines middle grade novel about a group of students who must fight book banning at their school to save their club…and their world as they know it. No matter what was going on i...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Randy Ribay
EVERYTHING WE NEVER HAD
August 2024, Kokila/Penguin Random House, 288 pp
From the author of the National Book Award finalist Patron Saints of Nothing comes an emotionally charged, moving novel about four generations of Filipino American boys grappling with identity, mascul...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Bianca Xunise
PUNK ROCK KARAOKE
April 2024, Viking/Penguin Random House, 256 pp
A debut young adult graphic novel from Ignatz Award-winning and nationally syndicated cartoonist, Bianca Xunise. School is out for summer and Ariel Grace Jone When life gives you guitars, smash them!...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Wendy Xu
THE INFINITY PARTICLE
August 2023, Quill Tree/HarperCollins, 272 pp
This thought-provoking limited palette graphic novel by the co-creator of Mooncakes explores big questions through the eyes of an aspiring inventor and the lifelike AI she finds herself falling for. ...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Bessie Flores Zaldívar
LIBERTAD
August 2024, Dial/Penguin Young Readers, 432 pp
A queer YA coming-of-age set during the rigged Honduran presidential election, about a young poet discovering the courage it takes to speak her truth about the people and country she loves. As the c...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Justin A. Reynolds
HOUSE PARTY
June 2023, Joy Revolution/Random House, 384 pp
Welcome to HOUSE PARTY. The biggest event of the year is happening tonight, and you’re invited! Join us for Florence Hills High seniors’ last hurrah before graduation. Over a few wild, transformativ...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Madeline McGrane
THE ACCURSED VAMPIRE: CURSE AT WITCH CAMP
February 2023, HarperCollins, 256 pp
Vampires at witch camp? What could go wrong? It’s summertime in Baneberry Falls and Drago and their vampire pals Eztli and Quintus are heading to witch camp where they’ll learn spells and magic along...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Kacen Callender
MOONFLOWER
September 2022, Scholastic, 272 pp
The award-winning author of Hurricane Child and King and the Dragonflies brings another unflinching story of identity and hope to young readers. Every night, twelve-year-old Moon leaves for the spiri...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Schuyler Bailar
OBIE IS MAN ENOUGH
September 2021, Crown/Random House, 352 pp
A coming-of-age story about transgender tween Obie who didn't think being himself would cause such a splash. For fans of Alex Gino's George and Lisa Bunker's Felix Yz. Obie knew his transition would ...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Lin Thompson
THE BEST LIARS IN RIVERVIEW
March 2022, Little, Brown/Hachette, 336 pp
In the woods of a small Kentucky town, Aubrey sets off on a journey about growing up, self-discovery, and acceptance while searching for their missing best friend—perfect for fans of KING AND THE DRAG...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Madeline McGrane
THE ACCURSED VAMPIRE
July 2021, HarperCollins, 176pp
A spooky and funny graphic novel debut that’s perfect for fans of Molly Knox Ostertag’s THE WITCH BOY and Kristen Gudsnuk’s MAKING FRIENDS. Dragoslava is a vampire kid. And that’s not even the worst ...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Kathryn Ormsbee
CANDIDLY CLINE
November 2021, HarperCollins, 320pp
Born in Paris, Kentucky and raised on her Gram’s favorite country music, Cline dreams of making it big with her own songs—even if her mother has always told her that music won’t pay the bills. So whe...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Kathryn Ormsbee
LUCKY FEW
June 2016, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 384 pp
A quirky black comedy about oddball teens facing mortality. Focused on strong friendships and madcap adventures, this is a John Hughes movie in novel form. The life of homeschooler Stevie Hart gets a...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Kathryn Ormsbee
TASH HEARTS TOLSTOY
June 2017, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 384 pp
A refreshing LGBTQ+ coming-of-age novel about Internet fame, peer pressure, and YouTube. After a shout-out from one of the Internet’s superstar vloggers, Natasha “Tash” Zelenka suddenly finds herself...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Kathryn Ormsbee
THE GREAT UNKNOWABLE END
February 2019, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 400 pp
A humorous, lightly speculative novel for fans of “Welcome to Nightvale” with points of view from two teens with opposing beliefs who come together at what might be the end of the world in a small Ame...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Kathryn Ormsbee
THE SULLIVAN SISTERS
May 2020, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 384 pp
For readers who were riveted by mysteries like SADIE by Courtney Summers and TWO CAN KEEP A SECRET by Karen McManus. The Sullivan Sisters used to be close, sharing secrets inside homemade blanket cas...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Yamile Saied Méndez
ON THESE MAGIC SHORES
April 2020, Tu Books/Lee & Low, 288 pp
Twelve-year-old Minerva Soledad Madrid does not believe in fairies (or peques, as mamá calls them), despite the fact that her family insists peques followed them from Argentina to the US watch over th...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Yamile Saied Méndez
FURIA
September 2020, Algonquin/Workman Publishing, 368 pp
Camila “Furia” Hassan has a dream—to play professional fútbol. She lives in the cradle of fútbol legends, Rosario, Argentina, but Rosario only exports fútbol players of the male kind. No one believes ...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Randi Pink
INTO WHITE
September 2016, Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, 288 pp
Sixteen-year-old Latoya Williams, who is black, attends a mostly white high school in the Alabama. In a moment of desperation, she prays for the power to change her race and wakes up white. Randi Pink...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Randi Pink
ANGEL OF GREENWOOD
January 2021, Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, 304pp
ANGEL OF GREENWOOD is a historical fiction novel set in the Tulsa, Oklahoma neighborhood of Greenwood, affectionately known as Black Wall Street, in which sixteen-year-old Angel and seventeen-year-old...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Ashley Woodfolk
THE BEAUTY THAT REMAINS
March 2018, Delacorte/Penguin Random House, 336 pp
Autumn always knew exactly who she was: a talented artist and a loyal friend. Shay was defined by two things: her bond with her twin sister and her love of music. And Logan has always turned to writin...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Ashley Woodfolk
FLYY GIRLS
TOBYN: THE IT GIRL
Book 4 - August 2021, Penguin Workshop/Penguin, 144 pp
Meet the Flyy Girls. The group of girls who seem like they can get away with anything. Veteran author Ashley Woodfolk pens a gorgeous and dynamic series about four Harlem highschoolers, each facing a ...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Randy Ribay
PATRON SAINTS OF NOTHING
June 2019, Kokila/Penguin Random House, 304 pp
A powerful coming-of-age story about grief, guilt, and the risks a Filipino-American teenager takes to uncover the truth about his cousin’s murder. Jay Reguero plans to spend the last semester of his...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Kelly Quindlen
LATE TO THE PARTY
April 2020, Roaring Brook/Macmillan, 304 pp
A story of friendship and first love, featuring a diverse cast of LGBTQ+ characters. Codi wants to score her first kiss—with a girl—but she may have to expand her social world first. Can she fall in ...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Mary E. Lambert
FAMILY GAME NIGHT AND OTHER CATASTROPHES
February 2017, Scholastic, 256 pp
A novel about throwing things out -- and letting people in. Annabelle has a secret so big she won’t allow friends within five miles of her home. Her mom collects things. Their house is overflowing wi...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Jessie Haas
RESCUE
April 2018, Boyds Mills, 200 pp
In this coming-of-age story perfect for horse fans, twelve-year-old animal lover Joni clashes with her new neighbor and animal rights activist Chess. Their bumpy friendship reaches a crisis when Chess...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Kat Fajardo
MISS QUINCES
May 2022, Graphix/Scholastic, 272 pp
A coming-of-age middle grade graphic novel about a girl forced to celebrate her quinceañera despite hating all things pretty and pink. Suyapa “Sue” Gutierrez was planning a fun summer at camp with he...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Arthur Salm
ANYWAY*
May 2012, Simon & Schuster, TBD pp
Max is a good kid floating in the netherworld of being not quite a teenager. A summertime interlude at a family camp allows him to re-invent himself for a week as Mad Max, a much wilder kid; he’s expe...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Kacen Callender
HURRICANE CHILD
March 2018, Scholastic, 224 pp
A lyrical, debut middle grade novel with a touch of magical realism and LGBTQ+ themes, about first friendship, first love, and finding self-acceptance. 12-year-old Caroline Murphy is a Hurricane Chil...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Kacen Callender
THIS IS KIND OF AN EPIC LOVE STORY
October 2018, Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, 304 pp
A fluffy romantic comedy that plays with the friends-to-lovers and second-chance tropes featuring diverse LBGTQ+ teens. Nathan Bird is a film buff, but he’s a firm disbeliever in real-life happy endi...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Kacen Callender
KING AND THE DRAGONFLIES
February 2020, Scholastic, 272 pp
From the Stonewall and Lambda Book Award-winning author of Hurricane Child comes a novel about loss, grief, and finding the courage to discover one’s identity. Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure ...
Sorted By: Coming-of-Age
Kacen Callender
FELIX EVER AFTER
May 2020, Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, 368 pp
From Stonewall and Lambda Literary Award-winning author Kacen Callender comes a poignant story of identity and self-discovery, layered with romance. Felix Love has never been in love, and he’s painfu...