A Reading List for The Young Adult in Your Life

Just in time for all those long car trips, and hours spent with family I bring you a short reading list for the young adult in your life, that is not riddled with “young adult” books but should still be appropriate for the slightly younger set.

Before I get to the list, let me start by saying that, this is not an inclusive list. There are a lot of other books out there that are great reads for both young adults and adults alike, and if you have a recommendation please feel free to leave it in the comments below.

This is the last thing before I get to the list I promise. I have a personal philosophy about reading. It is good. Yes, there are books that maybe your younger kids should not read, subjects that they are not ready to handle, but knowing what your child is reading is probably one of the most important things you can do. Books can have some more adult subjects but if you know that and are ready to discuss those things with your “kids” then you can head off any problems before they start.

If a child wants to read a book and you forbid it, they will find a way to read it without you, and they won’t talk to you about it. It is much better to let them read something that might be just this side of questionable and be ready to talk to them about it than to have them read it, have questions and either A) not ask, or B) ask someone else who might give answers you are not going to like.

So here is the list:

The Riyria Revelations and The Riyria Chronicles – Michael J. Sullivan
Quarter Share – Nathan Lowell (the later books in this series do
involve “adult subjects”)
Ravenwood – Nathan Lowell
Zypheria’s Call (Tanyth Fairport Adventures Book 2) – Nathan Lowell
The Hermit of Lammas Wood (Tanyth Fairport Adventures Book 3) – Nathan Lowell
Shooting Stars: A Teenage Vampire Love Story from a Boy’s Perspective – Philip Carroll
Flypaper Boy: Coming of Age – Philip Carroll
Mick Murdoch: Boy Super Hero – Michell Plested
Mik Murdoch: The Power Within – Michell Plested
Mik Murdoch: Crisis Of Conscience – Michell Plested
Elf Stones of Shannara – Terry Brooks
Magic kingdom for Sale – Terry Brooks
Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
Ginnie Dare – Scott Roche
A Method To the Madness: A Guide To the Super Evil – Jeff Hite and Michell Plested
Dimensional Abscesses: Portals to Places You don’t Want to Go – Jeff Hite and Michell Plested
The Rookie – Scott Sigler
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Leviathan / Goliath / Behemoth – by Scott Westerfeld
Any of the Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Belgariad – David Eddings (Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician’s Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, Enchanter’s End Game)
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Riddlemaster of Hed – Patricia A. McKillip, followed by Heir of Sea and Fire and Harper in the Wind…
Spellsinger / Hour of the Gate – Alan Dean Foster
For Love of Mother-Not, The Tar-Ayim Krang, Orphan Star, and The End of the Matter, also by Alan Dean Foster.
Troy Rising (Live Free or Die, Citadel, The Hot Gate), by John Ringo
The Chronicles of Prydain – The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, the High King.
The Three Musketeers / Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
The Damned Alan Dean Foster’s three book series in there. Call to Arms, The False Mirror, and Spoils of War.
Legacy of Heorot – Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Steven Barnes.
First four X-Wing books – Rogue Squadron, Wedge’s Gambit, something something and The Bacta War. _ Michael Stackpole
A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
The Hobbit – J. R. R. Tolkien
The Crystal Cave (The Arthurian Saga, Book 1) and the other books in that series – Mary Stewart