The 100 Best YA Books of All Time

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Time, 99 Books

With a panel of celebrated authors—Elizabeth Acevedo, Kacen Callender, Jenny Han, Jason Reynolds, Adam Silvera, Angie Thomas and Nicola Yoon—TIME presents the most compelling, enlightening and influential young-adult books, in chronological order beginning in the 1800s.

This list was originally published in 2021 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
93 Little Women Louisa May Alcott 1868 American English
250 Anne of Green Gables L. M. Montgomery 1908 Canadian English
243 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith 1943 American English
113 The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank 1947 Dutch Dutch
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
50 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
16 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 American English
1939 From The Mixed Up Files Of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler EL Konigsburg 1967 American English
277 A Wizard Of Earthsea Ursula K. Le Guin 1968 American English
8017 I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth The Trip John Donovan 1969 American English
573 Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume 1970 American English
8173 A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But A Sandwich Alice Childress 1973 American English
4142 Forever... Judy Blume 1975 American English
1878 Tuck Everlasting Natalie Babbitt 1975 American English
1307 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred D. Taylor 1976 American English
2822 A Swiftly Tilting Planet Madeleine L'Engle 1978 American English
5608 The Westing Game Ellen Raskin 1978 American English
8579 Homecoming Cynthia Voigt 1981 American English
1632 The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros 1984 American English
7774 Weetzie Bat Francesca Lia Block 1989 American English
1798 The Giver Lois Lowry 1993 American English
3885 Ella Enchanted Gail Carson Levine 1997 American English
5222 Holes Louis Sachar 1998 American English
9954 If You Come Softly Jacqueline Woodson 1998 American English
5740 Angus, Thongs And Full Frontal Snogging Louise Rennison 1999 British English
8531 Monster Walter Dean Myers 1999 American English
3502 Speak Laurie Halse Anderson 1999 American English
8608 Stargirl Jerry Spinelli 2000 American English
4060 The Princess Diaries Meg Cabot 2000 American English
10210 A Step From Heaven An Na 2001 American English
10210 Rainbow Boys Alex Sanchez 2001 American English
6555 The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants Ann Brashares 2001 American English
5139 Before We Were Free Julia Alvarez 2002 American English
8796 Feed M. T. Anderson 2002 American English
668 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 2000 French French
9031 How I Live Now Meg Rosoff 2004 British English
10767 Code Talker Joseph Bruchac 2005 American English
10767 Elsewhere Gabrielle Zevin 2005 American English
1081 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 2005 Australian English
2875 Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book One Rick Riordan 2005 American English
3474 American Born Chinese Gene Luen Yang 2006 American English
10839 Copper Sun Sharon M. Draper 2006 American English
10839 Tyrell Coe Booth 2006 American English
8384 Graceling Kristin Cashore 2008 American English
1387 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 2008 American English
11183 Ship Breaker Paolo Bacigalupi 2010 American English
3485 Akata Witch Nnedi Okorafor 2011 American English
9955 Daughter Of Smoke & Bone Laini Taylor 2011 American English
9955 Legend Marie Lu 2011 American English
4138 Aristotle And Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe Benjamin Alire Sáenz 2012 American English
7586 Code Name Verity Elizabeth Wein 2012 British English
10079 Every Day David Levithan 2012 American English
11394 Me And Earl And The Dying Girl Jesse Andrews 2012 American English
3482 The Fault in Our Stars John Green 2012 American English
11490 If You Could Be Mine Sara Farizan 2013 Iranian English
8439 March John Lewis 2013 American English
3211 Brown Girl Dreaming Jacqueline Woodson 2014 American English
10406 I'll Give You The Sun Jandy Nelson 2014 American English
11616 Noggin John Corey Whaley 2014 American English
9034 The Crossover Kwame Alexander 2014 American English
7121 To All The Boys I've Loved Before Jenny Han 2014 American English
4184 An Ember In The Ashes Sabaa Tahir 2015 American English
11838 Dumplin' Julie Murphy 2015 American English
10593 Everything, Everything Nicola Yoon 2015 American English
11838 More Happy Than Not Adam Silvera 2015 American English
6671 Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda Becky Albertalli 2015 American English
4699 Six Of Crows Leigh Bardugo 2015 American English
10794 Salt To The Sea Ruta Sepetys 2016 American English
10794 Scythe Neal Shusterman 2016 American English
4987 The Sun Is Also A Star Nicola Yoon 2016 American English
12009 We Are The Ants Shaun David Hutchinson 2016 American English
12009 When The Moon Was Ours Anna-Marie McLemore 2016 American English
12160 Allegedly Tiffany D. Jackson 2017 American English
12160 American Street Ibi Zoboi 2017 American English
9785 Dear Martin Nic Stone 2017 American English
10911 I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter Erika L. Sánchez 2017 American English
9785 Long Way Down Jason Reynolds 2017 American English
10911 The 57 Bus Dashka Slater 2017 American English
3276 The Hate U Give Angie Thomas 2017 American English
10911 The Marrow Thieves Cherie Dimaline 2017 Canadian English
10911 We Are Okay Nina LaCour 2017 American English
12160 When Dimple Met Rishi Sandhya Menon 2017 American English
12425 A Very Large Expanse Of Sea Tahereh Mafi 2018 American English
4072 Children Of Blood And Bone Tomi Adeyemi 2018 Nigerian English
11023 Darius The Great Is Not Okay Adib Khorram 2018 Iranian-American English
12425 The Astonishing Color Of After Emily X. R. Pan 2018 American English
9290 The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo 2018 American English
12710 Frankly In Love David Yoon 2019 American English
12710 Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me Mariko Tamaki, illustrated Rosemary Valero-O’Connell 2019 Canadian English
12710 Like A Love Story Abdi Nazemian 2019 American English
7173 Pet Akwaeke Emezi 2019 American English
12710 With The Fire On High Elizabeth Acevedo 2019 American English
11186 The Black Flamingo Dean Atta 2019 British English
13216 Felix Ever After Kacen Callender 2020 American English
13216 Stamped Ibram X. Kendi, Jason Reynolds 2020 American English
13216 The Henna Wars Adiba Jaigirdar 2020 Irish English
13216 We Are Not Free Traci Chee 2020 American English
13216 You Should See Me In A Crown Leah Johnson 2020 American English
10571 Firekeeper's Daughter Angeline Boulley 2021 American English