“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 twenty-nine great reads that both adults and young adults might enjoy, organised by date of first publication.

Updated May 2020

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. Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood, 2003
13. Blankets, Craig Thompson, 2003
14. Dreamhunter, Elizabeth Knox, 2005
15. Black Swan Green, David Mitchell, 2006
16. The 10pm Question, Kate De Goldi, 2008
17. A Winter’s Promise, Christelle Dabos, 2013 (2018 in English)
18. Wayfarers (series), Becky Chambers, 2014
19. This One Summer, Mariko Tamaki, 2014
20. The Chimes, Anna Smaill, 2015
21. Honor Girl, Maggie Thrash, 2015
22. One Hundred Nights of Hero, Isabel Greenberg, 2016
23. The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas, 2017
24. The Daevabad Trilogy (series), S. A. Chakraborty, 2017
25. The Book of Dust (series), Philip Pullman, 2017
26. Washington Black, Esi Edugyan, 2018
27. Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation, Ari Folman, 2018
28. Bloom, Kevin Panetta, 2019
29. The Priory of the Orange Tree, Samantha Shannon, 2019