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Best Young adult series

The 77 best Young adult series, scored across every volume.

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By year of first publication, 1983–2020. The busiest stretch is 2010–2019, with 36. Select a bar to narrow the list.

Why Harry Potter is #1

Harry Potter (J. K. Rowling) scores 8.7/10 from 56.6K ratings — 0.1 points ahead of Six of Crows in second place.

The score is a weighted average across 3 independent rating sources. A title with few ratings is pulled toward the category average, so a handful of enthusiastic reviews cannot outrank a book that thousands of readers have judged. Method →

For teens, or about teens?

“Young adult” is a shelf, not an age: it holds adventures for ten-year-olds and novels with violence and sex. Check first.

A hero a bit olderTeens like reading about someone a bit older; a younger hero can feel childish.
Adults don’t solve it for themGood YA takes teenage problems seriously and lets characters own the consequences of their choices.
Read the first chapter yourselfFifteen minutes with chapter one says more about tone and content than the cover, and opens a conversation.