pileofbooks“Crossover” is what the publishing industry calls books that appeal to both adults and teenagers. Books can cross over in both directions: they’re especially popular if they win awards, or reviewers rave about them. Here are thirty great reads that both adults and young adults might enjoy, organised by date of first publication.

Updated January 2024

  1. Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen, 1817
  2. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte, 1847
  3. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte, 1847
  4. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens, 1861
  5. Animal Farm, George Orwell, 1945
  6. Lord of the Flies, William Golding, 1954
  7. Night, Ellie Wiesel, 1956
  8. The Princess Bride, William Goldman, 1973
  9. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood, 1985
  10. The Whale Rider, Witi Ihimaera, 1987
  11. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson, 2003
  12. Blankets, Craig Thompson, 2003
  13. Dreamhunter (duology), Elizabeth Knox, 2005
  14. The 10pm Question, Kate De Goldi, 2008
  15. The Mirror Visitor (series), Christelle Dabos, 2013 (2018 in English)
  16. Wayfarers (series), Becky Chambers, 2014
  17. This One Summer, Mariko Tamaki, 2014
  18. A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J Maas, 2015
  19. The Chimes, Anna Smaill, 2015
  20. The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas, 2017
  21. The Daevabad Trilogy (series), S. A. Chakraborty, 2017
  22. The Book of Dust (series), Philip Pullman, 2017
  23. Washington Black, Esi Edugyan, 2018
  24. Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation, Ari Folman, 2018
  25. Auē, Becky Manawatu, 2019
  26. Bloom, Kevin Panetta, 2019
  27. The Roots of Chaos (series), Samantha Shannon, 2019
  28. Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro, 2021
  29. Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Malinda Lo, 2021
  30. Eddy, Eddy, Kate De Goldi, 2022