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Teen Blog

Reading, Wellington, and whatever else – teenblog@wcl.govt.nz

Books From Around the World

It’s sometimes interesting to get a different perspective on the world. Here are some books set in some far-flung places – and some places close to home – grouped by continent/large body of water with islands in it. The books on this list are (mostly) written by authors from the countries they are about, and in many cases have been translated into English from their mother tongues (the book we’ve chosen for Madagascar, Return to the enchanted island by Johary Ravaloson, is only the second book to have ever been translated from Malagasy into English!).

Not all of the books are in the Young Adult collection, but we’ve tried to make sure that they all at least feature kids or teens in prominent places in the story. Our eventual goal is to have at least one book for every country in the world! Help us out by sending in recommendations if you’ve found one we’ve missed!

This booklist is split into separate lists for each continent. Visit the links below to find recommendations:


Africa

Asia

Europe

North and Central America

Oceania

South America


Last updated: August 2023

We’re currently missing stories by authors from the following countries: Andorra, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belize, Brunei, Chad, Costa Rica, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Laos, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Maldives, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Nepal, Niger, North Macedonia, Palau, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, San Marino, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Suriname, Tajikistan, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Tuvalu.

2 Comments

  1. Brilliant list. So helpful. Please do add new titles such as ‘The Girl and the Ghost’ – finally a book from Malaysia!

  2. Stephen

    Thank you for this suggestion! This list is definitely in need of updating, as we have acquired much more material since we first wrote this list! Watch this space — and the main blog as well — for more awesome diverse titles from our collection 🙂

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