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In this post, we’ve hand-picked the very best of the genre to bring you seventy must-read coming-of-age books. From experiencing the pangs of first love in Civil War America, to undergoing a spiritual awakening in the Egyptian desert, to navigating 1990’s London as a womanizing, thirty-something man-child, our picks prove that there’s ...
- Reedsy
- Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
- A Separate Peace by John Knowles
- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
- The American Boy’S Handy Book by Daniel C. Beard
- The Last Mission by Harry Mazer
- The First Edition of The Boy Scout Handbook
- Watership Down by Richard Adams
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- Canoeing with The Cree by Arnold Sevareid
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
Pretty much every boy’s favorite book. When the pilot of the small plane of which he is a passenger crash lands in the Canadian wilderness, 13 year old Brian Robeson must survive with only his wits and a hatchet. Utterly alone, Brian must learn to rely on himself. Gripping and vividly told, every boy pictures himself in Brian’s shoes and wonders wh...
Set at a boys prep school on the eve of World War II, A Separate Peacecenters on the friendship of Phineas and Gene. Phineas’ seeming perfection creates a jealously in Gene that results in a tragedy that will forever change both of their lives. A piercing look at both the light and the shadows of friendship and humanity. Every boy wishes he were Fi...
Take Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, replace the jungle with a graveyard and the animals with ghosts and you’ve got Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. The book begins with the mention of the murder of a family, but quickly moves on from there and is not a gruesome tale inappropriate for youngsters. The sole survivor of the murder is an 18 month o...
Long before The Dangerous Book for Boys became all the rage , there was the American Boy’s Handy Book. Every father and grandfather should have this on his shelf, waiting there for a boy to pull it off and start leafing through. Dozens of awesome (and unlike another book, some actuallydangerous) hands on projects for boys to tackle from how to buil...
The classic tale of the collision of a boy’s idealistic view of war with it’s ugly reality. Yet the book manages to avoid being a tired cliche. 15 year old Jack Raab lies his way into the Army Air Force and finds himself flying bombing missions over occupied territory. On his 25th mission, his last mission before being sent home, his plane is shot ...
If you have a son in Scouts, he’ll definitely dig this book. Today’s Scout manual is definitely watered down compared to the first edition. The first edition manual is crammed with info on tracking and trapping animals, building shelters from scratch, and sailing. Additionally, it has stories of bravery and adventure that inspire boys to be great m...
One of my favorite books as a boy-who knew the lives of rabbits could be so engrossing? I’m sure it’s rife with rich symbolism and whatnot to mull over, but it’s one of those books that creates a world so rich and evocative that it’s best to let yourself get totally wrapped up in it instead of constantly searching for deeper meaning. When a prophet...
The essence of boyhood distilled, transcribed and bound. This classic is packed with humor and wit and filled with episodes familiar to any American-Tom convincing his friends to whitewash the fence, Tom overhearing his own funeral, Tom exploring a cave with Becky. Twain called it a “hymn to boyhood,” and it’s a song that can be sung over and over.
Before he became a manly anchorman, Eric Sevareid did exactly what every boy dreams of doing-setting out on a wild, unstructured, crazy adventure. After graduating high school, Sevareid and his friend William Port decided to create their own rite-of-passage and set out on a 2,250 mile canoe trip from central Minnesota to the Hudson Bay. With only a...
What would you be willing to give up to live in a pain-free world, a world without chaos or disease or war? At what point would the sacrifice become too great to live in such an idyllic state? The Giver describes a world where the community leaders make all the decisions for the people-who to marry, what job to take, even who should live or die. Pe...
- Justin Torres, We the Animals. Torres’ slim, elegant, intense 2011 bildungsroman carries us deftly from the mania of childhood and brotherhood to the alienation of young adulthood and the self-knowledge that comes with it—or inspires it, as it were.
- André Aciman, Call Me By Your Name. If you read this space, you’ll know that I’m a fan of Call Me By Your Name, a perfect, deeply interior novel, steeped in desire, about a young man who falls in love with an older visitor, and discovers quite a bit about himself—and love, and family—in the process.
- Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex. A coming of age story that is also a coming of self story, as Callie becomes Cal, and the world becomes modern. See also: The Virgin Suicides, which rivals this one fiercely in my heart and is also in some ways a purer bildungsroman, though for a faceless chorus of boys instead of a single one.
- Katherine Dunn, Geek Love. So much more than a coming of age novel, of course, and not usually designated as such—and yet still it fits, as Olympia tells the monstrous story of her childhood (while endeavoring to protect her own daughter from the woman who would “normalize” her).
Mar 31, 2021 · Haruki Murakami, Dodie Smith and J.D. Salinger explore the highs and lows of teenage life in these classic coming-of-age tales, selected by you. 01 April 2021. Image: Alicia Fernandes / Penguin. Coming-of-age novels aren’t necessarily about age. They’re about growth, that defining moment in a character’s arc when the simple optimism of ...
Apr 5, 2018 · Non-Fiction Coming Of Age Books Born a Crime by Trevor Noah “Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist.
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Mar 23, 2023 · Something I think people forget is that coming-of-age novels aren’t just limited to YA. Yes, these are formative years, but there are countless examples of excellent adult coming-of-age stories. This list has a mix of both YA and adult, as well as diverse perspectives.
Book List. Best Teen & YA Coming-of-Age Novels of 2022. TEEN. APRIL 5, 2022. TEENS & YOUNG ADULT. THE COLOR OF THE SKY IS THE SHAPE OF THE HEART. by Chesil ; translated by Takami Nieda. Enigmatic and powerful. Full review > FULL REVIEW > get a copy. bookshelf. TEEN. MAY 10, 2022. TEENS & YOUNG ADULT. THE SUMMER OF BITTER AND SWEET. by Jen Ferguson.
