The 21 Best Debut Coming-of-Age Novels

Every title here was its author's first novel, and each one captures the awkward, thrilling business of growing up. Some became required reading, others stayed cult favorites.

1. 1
   To Kill a Mockingbird

   Harper Lee's 1960 debut, in which a young girl in Depression-era Alabama learns about prejudice through her lawyer father.
   1000pts
2. 2
   A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

   James Joyce's 1916 novel tracing Stephen Dedalus from Irish childhood to artistic self-exile.
   786pts
3. 3
   Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

   Jeanette Winterson's 1985 novel of a girl raised in a fervent Pentecostal household who falls in love with another girl.
   642pts
4. 4
   Looking for Alaska

   John Green's 2005 boarding-school novel about a boy chasing a 'Great Perhaps' and a magnetic girl.
   577pts
5. 5
   A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

   Betty Smith's 1943 portrait of Francie Nolan growing up poor in early-1900s Williamsburg.
   576pts
6. 6
   Less Than Zero

   Bret Easton Ellis's 1985 debut about bored, wealthy Los Angeles teens drifting through drugs and indifference.
   576pts
7. 7
   The Hate U Give

   Angie Thomas's 2017 novel about a Black teenager finding her voice after witnessing a police shooting.
   500pts
8. 8
   White Teeth

   Zadie Smith's 2000 multicultural London saga following two families and their children across generations.
   500pts
9. 9
   The Secret History

   Donna Tartt's 1992 campus novel about a clique of classics students and the murder that unravels them.
   500pts
10. 10
    The Bell Jar

    Sylvia Plath's 1963 semi-autobiographical novel about a gifted young woman's breakdown over one New York summer.
    500pts
11. 11
    The Catcher in the Rye

    J.D. Salinger's 1951 novel of Holden Caulfield's restless days in New York became the template for teenage alienation.
    500pts
12. 12
    Purple Hibiscus

    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 2003 debut about a Nigerian girl living under her devout, domineering father.
    409pts
13. 13
    Bonjour Tristesse

    Françoise Sagan's 1954 novel, written at eighteen, about a careless French Riviera summer and its consequences.
    409pts
14. 14
    Go Tell It on the Mountain

    James Baldwin's 1953 semi-autobiographical novel of a Harlem teenager's religious awakening.
    409pts
15. 15
    Prep

    Curtis Sittenfeld's 2005 debut about a scholarship student navigating a Massachusetts boarding school.
    409pts
16. 16
    The House on Mango Street

    Sandra Cisneros's 1984 vignette-novel about a Chicana girl coming of age in Chicago.
    409pts
17. 17
    The Outsiders

    S.E. Hinton's 1967 story of rival teen gangs in Oklahoma, written while she was still in high school.
    300pts
18. 18
    A Separate Peace

    John Knowles's 1959 novel of friendship and rivalry between two boys at a New England boarding school during WWII.
    300pts
19. 19
    Everything I Never Told You

    Celeste Ng's 2014 debut about a Chinese-American family unraveling after their middle daughter is found dead.
    300pts
20. 20
    The Kite Runner

    Khaled Hosseini's 2003 debut following an Afghan boy's friendship, betrayal and long road to atonement.
    0pts
21. 21
    The Perks of Being a Wallflower

    Stephen Chbosky's 1999 epistolary novel about a shy freshman finding friends and facing his past.
    0pts

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