Teen Favorites

 I asked, you answered! I asked you what your teens & tweens favorite books were and here are some of the results!

All of these books are available on Amazon in a physical copy or Kindle version. Many of these books (if not all) are popular and are available at your local library. If your local library doesn't have the book or a copy, request one through interlibrary loan!

Restart by Gordon Korman

Charlie hits his head and doesn't remember who he is. When he goes to school he gets a lot of different reactions. Who was he and who does he want to be? This sounds like a great book that touches on self-identity as well. Recommended grade level: 4-7.

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Since I haven't read this book, and this is a really popular one and has a TV series on Prime Video, I'm including the Amazon synopsis of this book below. This is also free with Kindle Unlimited. Recommended grade level: 6-high school.

Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer—they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along. (amazon.com).

The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins

I had to include The Hunger Games series since it came up a few times as a favorite book. As a classic dystopian, teenage empowerment book, I'm so glad to see teens are still getting into Katniss' story about basically overthrowing the government. Go teens! Just a small warning, my son read this at school this year, so may be required reading but I'm thinking this is why my local friends' kids were loving this, book 1 was a jumping off point for the other books in the series (there's 4). Sunrise on the Reaping just came out as well, which may also have lead to the recent popularity of the series. Recommended grade level: 7-high school.

Wings of Fire: The DragonNet Prophecy: The Graphic Novel by Tui T. Sutherland

I wanted to include some graphic novels, and the Wings of Fire graphic novel series was mentioned a few times. This is a solid tween choice, and I'm sure middle grade students who are in to fantasy would love this. If they're already Wings of Fire fans, even better! Recommended grade level: 3-8.

Not every dragonet wants a destiny ...

Clay has grown up under the mountain, chosen along with four other dragonets to fulfill a mysterious prophecy and end the war between the dragon tribes of Pyrrhia. He's not so sure about the prophecy part, but Clay can't imagine not living with the other dragonets; they're his best friends.

So when one of the dragonets is threatened, all five spring into action. Together, they will choose freedom over fate, leave the mountain, and fulfill their destiny -- on their own terms (amazon.com).

The Baby-Sitters Club: Kristy's New Idea (Graphic Novel) adapted by Reina Telgemeier

This is probably old news by now, but I had to include my tween's favorite series, The Baby-Sitters Club graphic novel. Reina Telgemeier started faithfully adapting my favorite books as a tween/teen to the graphic novel format and they are flying off the shelves! Mallory and the Trouble with Twins #17 is the most recent book in this series, that now has various adapting authors/illustrators, but is still a solid story about a group of girls starting the Baby-Sitters Club.

If your tween has flown through these books, as mine has, the original books have been repackaged (see below), and they can be found on the Scholastic.com website in a "vintage" tin, or even at your school library. I know I've kept mine just in case the kids want to read them. Recommended grade level: 3-7.

Honorable Mentions

Since these books are all pretty popular I'm going to list others that were mentioned if your teens are looking for new reads:

• Children of the Fox (Thieves of Shadow series) by Kevin Sands
• Also The Blackthorn Key series by Kevin Sands
• Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan
• Heroes of Olympus Series by Rick Riordan
• His Dark Materials series, starting with The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
• Pages & Co series: The Bookwanderer by Anna James and Paola Escobar
• The Legend of Zelda manga by Akira Himekawa has been a really popular manga series that is appropriate for tweens.

Thank you to everyone for the book recommendations! I hope your teens find something new to read here as summer is closing. Happy Reading!