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The best children's and young adult
Written for children or young adults. Ranked by tier, then by how often the lists chose them.
14 novels, ranked best first
Little Women is the highest-rated children's or young adult novel, on 5 of the 12 lists it could have made.
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More with children or young adult at their heart
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland leads these 11 books, each filed under another genre but with children or young adult at its heart.
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾
Sue Townsend, 1982
On 2 of the 19 lists it was eligible for
Lists used on this page
- The 100 best novels written in English, The Guardian / Observer (2015). Original list
- The 100 greatest novels of all time, The Observer (2003). Original list
- The 100 best books of the 21st century, The Guardian (2019). Original list
- The 100 greatest British novels, BBC Culture (2015). Original list
- 100 novels that shaped our world, BBC Arts (2019). Original list
- 100 novels everyone should read, The Telegraph (2009). Original list
- All-Time 100 Novels, Time (2005). Original list
- 100 books of the century, Le Monde (1999). Original list
- The Big Read top 100, BBC (2003). Original list
- Readers' top 100 novels, The Guardian (2026). Original list
- The Big Jubilee Read, BBC Arts and The Reading Agency (2022). Original list
- The Great American Read, PBS (2018). Original list
- 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime, Amazon.co.uk (2014). Original list