Books for Teens and Young Adults

With technology pulling young people in like never before we need to curate books that motivate teenagers to read, argues Susannah Richards, Associate Professor in Education at Eastern Connecticut State University and a specialist in literature for youth. From the large number of new books published for teens and young adults in 2025, she picks five of the best to ignite and delight young readers.

If anything can get a teen or young adult off their phone and immersed in a story, it's a good audiobook. Here, we present the best audiobooks for young adults of 2025, as recommended by the dedicated editors of AudioFile magazine, the best place for audiobook recommendations on the web.

From a love story set in Angola to a Hunger Games-style thriller, from the medieval Middle East and 19th century Ireland to the world of artificial intelligence and genetic engineering, our children's editor Tuva Kahrs recommends her best books for teens and young adults of 2024.

Thrillers for teens have to be fast paced, exciting and entertaining, argues Kathryn Foxfield, author of YA thriller Good Girls Die First. She recommends some of her favourite teen thrillers, from books published this year to classics of the genre.

New books are being published for teens and young adults all the time, but the ones given the most publicity are not always the best. If you don't have much time to browse or read reviews, it tends to be a safe bet to pick award-winning books for teens that have already been quality checked by judging panels of librarians and other experts.

Historical novelist K J Whittaker takes us on a time-travelling adventure as she selects five brilliant historical novels for teens and young adults.

Three award-winning US high school psychology teachers—authors of the website Books for Psychology Class—share their recommendations of the best psychology books for teenagers, students and their teachers, and reflect on why storytelling is a key aspect of the art of teaching.

It's tricky finding history books for teenagers at an age when they are too old for children's books, but not yet ready to read long, weighty tomes with lots of footnotes. Alex, a UK-based history fan who previously chose books for us age 10, returns to Five Books to recommend his selection of the best history books for teenagers.

Long associated with Japanese popular culture, manga are now found in translation across the world. In North America, this dynamic form of visual narration is overtaking comics and graphic novels in popularity. Oscar, age 13, recommends his favourite manga for children and teenagers.

Dr Andrew Brower Latz, Head of Philosophy at Manchester Grammar School, talks about why it's important to study philosophy and recommends five books to get an interested teen started.