List of books written by teenagers
Encyclopedia
This is a list of published books that were written, or substantially completed, before the author's twentieth birthday. The list is arranged alphabetically by author.
- Daisy AshfordDaisy AshfordDaisy Ashford, full name Margaret Mary Julia Ashford was an English writer who is most famous for writing The Young Visiters, a novella concerning the upper class society of late 19th century England, when she was just nine years old. The novella was published in 1919, preserving her juvenile...
(1881–1972) wrote The Young VisitersThe Young VisitersThe Young Visiters or Mister Salteena's Plan is a 1919 novel by Daisy Ashford. Ashford wrote the novel at the age of nine, in 1890, in an exercise book. Full of spelling mistakes, each chapter was also written as a single paragraph...
while aged 9. This novella was first published in 1919, preserving her juvenile punctuation and spelling. An earlier work, The Life of Father McSwiney, was dictated to her father when she was 4. It was published almost a century later in 1983. - Amelia Atwater-RhodesAmelia Atwater-RhodesAmelia Atwater-Rhodes is an American author of fantasy and young adult literature. She was born in Silver Spring, Maryland and lived most of her life in Concord, Massachusetts. Her debut novel, In the Forests of the Night, was published in 1999, when she was just fourteen years old...
(born 1984) had her first novel, In the Forests of the NightIn the Forests of the NightIn the Forests of the Night is a vampire novel written by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, and published in 1999. Originally entitled White Wine, she wrote it at the age of 13, and an English teacher helped her to publish it...
, published in 1999. Subsequent novels include Demon in My ViewDemon in My ViewDemon in My View is a vampire novel written by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, and published in 2000. Originally entitled Bitter Life, it was published when the author was 16. It is the follow-up to In the Forests of the Night, which she wrote at the age of 13...
(2000), Shattered MirrorShattered MirrorShattered Mirror is a vampire novel written by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, published in 2001 when the author was 17. W. B. Yeats’ poem "The Two Trees", which references broken glass, appears in the beginning of the book, and is the inspiration for the title...
(2001) Midnight PredatorMidnight PredatorMidnight Predator is a vampire novel written by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, published in 2002 when the author was 18. The novel was an ALA Quick Pick and “a must-read” according to School Library Journal, who also wrote that “the plot and characters are so skillfully intertwined that each one moves the...
(2002), HawksongHawksongHawksong is the first in a five book series of young adult fantasy shapeshifter novels called The Kiesha'ra Series. It was written by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes and published in 2003 when the author was 19. Hawksong is Atwater-Rhodes' most critically successful novel to date.Narrated by Danica Shardae,...
(2003) and SnakecharmSnakecharmSnakecharm is the second book in The Kiesha'ra Series by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. It is narrated by Zane Cobriana, Diente of the serpiente people and alistair to Danica Shardae, Tuuli Thea of the avians...
(2004). - Rituparna Bhattacharjee published Bhutia, an award-winning collection of short stories, in India in 1998, when she was 11.
- Pamela Brown (1924–1989) finished her children's novel about an amateur theatre company, The Swish of the CurtainThe Swish of the CurtainThe Swish of the Curtain is a children's novel by Pamela Brown . It was begun in 1938 when the author was 14 but was not published until 1941. The novel has been reprinted many times and has been adapted for television and radio...
(1941) when she was 16, and later wrote other books about the stage. - Félix Francisco Casanova (1956–1976), Le Don de Vorace, published in 1974.
- Abraham CowleyAbraham CowleyAbraham Cowley was an English poet born in the City of London late in 1618. He was one of the leading English poets of the 17th century, with 14 printings of his Works published between 1668 and 1721.-Early life and career:...
(1618–1667), Poetical Blossoms, published in 1633. - Maureen DalyMaureen DalyMaureen Daly , was an American author best known for her novelSeventeenth Summer , one of the first to target a teenage audience....
(1921–2006), Seventeenth SummerSeventeenth SummerSeventeenth Summer is a novel written by Maureen Daly and published in 1942. Daly was born in Ireland but grew up in Wisconsin. Before writing Seventeenth Summer she wrote a short story entitled "Sixteen". Daly began writing the novel when she was 17. After graduation from high school Daly attended...
, completed before she was 20, published 1942. - Ford Madox FordFord Madox FordFord Madox Ford was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals, The English Review and The Transatlantic Review, were instrumental in the development of early 20th-century English literature...
(né Hueffer) (1873–1939) included in his teenage works The Brown Owl, The Shifting of the Fire (with Joseph ConradJoseph ConradJoseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
) and The Feather, all first published in 1892. - Anne FrankAnne FrankAnnelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...
(1929–1945), wrote her diary for two and a half years starting on her 13th birthday. It was published posthumously as Het Achterhuis in 1947 and then in English translation in 1952 as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. - Isamu Fukui (born 1990) wrote TruancyTruancy (novel)Truancy is a dystopian novel written by Isamu Fukui, a New York City student in Stuyvesant High School, when he was 15 years old. Set in a totalitarian city ruled by its Mayor and Educators, it follows the story of a fifteen-year-old student named Tack, and a student rebellion calling itself the...
(2008), a dystopian novel about education, when he was 15, and subsequently wrote the prequel Truancy: Origins (2009). - Alec GrevenAlec GrevenAlec Greven is a New York Times bestselling child self-help author. His first book, How to Talk to Girls, was published when he was nine years old. He has subsequently published two additional books, How to Talk to Moms, and How to Talk to Dads...
's How to Talk to Girls was published in 2008 when he was 9 years old (and therefore not yet a teenager). Subsequently he has published How to Talk to Moms, How to Talk to Dads and How to Talk to Santa. - Alex and Brett Harris completed at 19 the book Do Hard Things.
- Susan HillSusan HillSusan Hill is an English author of fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels include The Woman in Black, The Mist in the Mirror and I'm the King of the Castle for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award in 1971....
(born 1942), The EnclosureThe EnclosureThe Enclosure is a novel by Susan Hill. Hill wrote the novel when she was 15-years old....
, published in 1961. - S. E. HintonS. E. HintonSusan Eloise Hinton is an American author best known for her young adult novel The Outsiders.While still in her teens, Hinton became a household name as the author of The Outsiders, her first and most popular novel, set in Oklahoma in the 1960s. She began writing it in 1965...
(born 1950), The OutsidersThe Outsiders (novel)The Outsiders is a coming-of-age novel based in 1965 by S. E. Hinton, first published in 1967 by Viking Press. Hinton was 15 when she started writing the novel, but did most of the work when she was sixteen and a junior in high school. Hinton was 18 when the book was published...
, first published in 1967. - George Vernon HudsonGeorge Vernon HudsonGeorge Vernon Hudson was an English-born New Zealand entomologist and astronomer.Born in London, Hudson was the sixth child of Charles Hudson, an artist and stained-glass window designer. By the age of 14 he had built up a collection of British insects, and had published a paper in The Entomologist...
(1867–1946), An Elementary Manual of New Zealand Entomology. Completed at the end of 1886, when the author was 19, but not published until 1892. - Katharine Hull (1921–1977) and Pamela Whitlock (1920–1982), The Far-Distant OxusThe Far-Distant OxusThe Far-Distant Oxus is a children’s novel of 1937, written by Katharine Hull and Pamela Whitlock . The title comes from Matthew Arnold's poem Sohrab and Rustum....
, a British children’s novel of 1937, followed in 1938 by Escape to Persia and in 1939 by Oxus in Summer. - Gordon KormanGordon KormanGordon Korman is a Canadian author, primarily of novels for children and young adults. He lives in Long Island's Great Neck, New York, with his wife and three children....
(born 1963), This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald HallThis Can't Be Happening at Macdonald HallThis Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall is a 1978 novel by Gordon Korman. It is the first installment of the Macdonald Hall series, and was the first written work of Korman. It is dedicated to his English teacher, Mr. Hamilton....
(1978), three sequels, and I Want to Go HomeI Want to Go HomeI Want to Go Home is a children's novel by Gordon Korman, first published in 1981. It was republished, as with most of Korman's older books, in 2004 with a new cover and updated text.- Plot :...
(1981) - Joyce MaynardJoyce MaynardDaphne Joyce Maynard is an American author known for writing with candor about her life, as well as for her works of fiction and hundreds of essays and newspaper columns, often about parenting and family...
(born 1953), Looking Back. Completed while the author was 19; first published 1973. - Helen OyeyemiHelen OyeyemiHelen Olajumoke Oyeyemi is a British novelist. She was born in Nigeria and raised in London.She wrote her first novel, The Icarus Girl, while still at school studying for her A levels at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School....
(born 1984) completed The Icarus Girl while still 18. First published in 2005. - Christopher PaoliniChristopher PaoliniChristopher Paolini is an American author. He is best known as the author of the Inheritance Cycle, which consists of the books Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, and Inheritance...
(born 1983), EragonEragonEragon is the first book in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, who began writing at the age of 15. After writing the first draft for a year, he spent a second year rewriting it and fleshing out the story and characters. Paolini's parents saw the final manuscript and decided to...
, the first novel of the Inheritance CycleInheritance CycleThe Inheritance Cycle is a series of fantasy novels by Christopher Paolini. It was previously titled the Inheritance Trilogy until Paolini's announcement on October 30, 2007 that there would be a fourth book...
, first published 2002. - Anya ReissAnya ReissAnya Reiss is an award-winning British playwright who has also voiced ambitions to become an actress. She is the youngest playwright ever to have had a play staged in London....
(born 1991) wrote her play Spur of the MomentSpur of the Moment (play)Spur of the Moment is the debut play from Anya Reiss who wrote it at age 17. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre London in 2010 and was directed by Jeremy Herrin.-Plot:...
when she was 17. It was both performed and published in 2010, when she was 18. - Arthur RimbaudArthur RimbaudJean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
(1854–1891) wrote almost all his prose and poetry while still a teenager, for example Le soleil était encore chaud (1866), Le bateau ivreLe Bateau ivre"Le Bateau ivre" is a 100-line verse-poem written by Arthur Rimbaud, then aged 16, in the summer of 1871 at his childhood home in Charleville in Northern France. Rimbaud included the poem in a letter he sent to Paul Verlaine in September 1871 to introduce himself to Verlaine...
(1871) and Une Saison en Enfer (1873). - Françoise SaganFrançoise SaganFrançoise Sagan – real name Françoise Quoirez – was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Hailed as "a charming little monster" by François Mauriac on the front page of Le Figaro, Sagan was known for works with strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois...
(1935–2004), Bonjour tristesseBonjour tristesseBonjour Tristesse is a 1958 film directed and produced by Otto Preminger from a screenplay by Arthur Laurents based on the novel of the same title by Françoise Sagan. The film stars Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Jean Seberg, Mylène Demongeot and Geoffrey Horne, and features Juliette Gréco, Walter...
. First published in 1954, when the author was 18. - Mary ShelleyMary ShelleyMary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
(1797–1851), Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Completed during May 1817, when the author was 19; first published the following year. - Jalaluddin Al-Suyuti (c. 1445–1505) wrote his first book, Sharh Al-Isti'aadha wal-Basmalah, at the age of 17.
- Catherine WebbCatherine WebbCatherine Webb is a British author, educated at the Godolphin and Latymer School, London, and the London School of Economics. She was 14 years old when she completed Mirror Dreams, which was written during her school summer vacation...
(born 1986) had four young adult books published before she was 20: Mirror Dreams (2002), Mirror Wakes (2003), Waywalkers (2004) and Timekeepers (2004). Possibly five - The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle was published in February 2006.