# The 33 Best Young Adult Novel Film Adaptations

> Teen love stories, dystopian rebellions and wizard schools that started on a bookshelf and ended up on the big screen. Some beat the novels, a few barely survived the translation.

*By YPB Team · Published October 21, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-33-best-young-adult-novel-film-adaptations*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **The Hunger Games** — score 1000/1000
   2012 dystopian adventure of Katniss Everdeen fighting in a televised death match, from Suzanne Collins's novel.
2. **Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone** — score 960/1000
   2001 film that launched the wizarding franchise, adapted from J.K. Rowling's first novel.
3. **Divergent** — score 914/1000
   2014 dystopian thriller about a girl who fits no faction, based on Veronica Roth's novel.
4. **Paper Towns** — score 822/1000
   2015 mystery-romance about a boy searching for his vanished neighbour, from John Green's novel.
5. **The Outsiders** — score 705/1000
   1983 Francis Ford Coppola drama about rival teen gangs, from S.E. Hinton's novel.
6. **The Spectacular Now** — score 705/1000
   2013 indie drama about a charming party boy and a shy classmate, from Tim Tharp's novel.
7. **The DUFF** — score 633/1000
   2015 high school comedy about the so-called designated ugly fat friend, from Kody Keplinger's novel.
8. **Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief** — score 632/1000
   2010 fantasy adventure about a demigod son of Poseidon, from Rick Riordan's novel.
9. **The Princess Diaries** — score 632/1000
   2001 comedy about a San Francisco teen who learns she is heir to a throne, from Meg Cabot's novel.
10. **Eragon** — score 632/1000
   2006 fantasy about a farm boy who finds a dragon egg, from Christopher Paolini's novel.
11. **The Maze Runner** — score 632/1000
   2014 sci-fi thriller about boys trapped in a deadly maze, from James Dashner's novel.
12. **The Book Thief** — score 548/1000
   2013 wartime drama about a girl who steals books in Nazi Germany, from Markus Zusak's novel.
13. **If I Stay** — score 548/1000
   2014 drama about a cellist in a coma deciding whether to live, from Gayle Forman's novel.
14. **The Perks of Being a Wallflower** — score 548/1000
   2012 coming-of-age drama written and directed by Stephen Chbosky from his own novel.
15. **The Giver** — score 548/1000
   2014 dystopian drama about a boy chosen to hold his community's memories, from Lois Lowry's novel.
16. **The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants** — score 548/1000
   2005 drama about four friends sharing a pair of magic jeans over one summer, from Ann Brashares's novel.
17. **The Spiderwick Chronicles** — score 548/1000
   2008 fantasy about siblings who discover a hidden world of faeries, from Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black's books.
18. **Mortal Engines** — score 548/1000
   2018 steampunk adventure of mobile cities and a vengeful girl, from Philip Reeve's novel.
19. **The Fault in Our Stars** — score 448/1000
   2014 romance between two teenage cancer patients, adapted from John Green's novel.
20. **Everything, Everything** — score 448/1000
   2017 romance about a girl with a rare illness who falls for the boy next door, from Nicola Yoon's novel.
21. **The Hate U Give** — score 448/1000
   2018 drama about a teen who witnesses a police shooting of her friend, from Angie Thomas's novel.
22. **Twilight** — score 329/1000
   2008 vampire romance starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, from Stephenie Meyer's novel.
23. **To All the Boys I've Loved Before** — score 329/1000
   2018 Netflix rom-com about a girl whose secret love letters get mailed out, from Jenny Han's novel.
24. **Ender's Game** — score 329/1000
   2013 sci-fi film about a gifted child trained to command Earth's fleet, from Orson Scott Card's novel.
25. **The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe** — score 329/1000
   2005 fantasy of four siblings entering a frozen magical land, from C.S. Lewis's novel.
26. **Speak** — score 329/1000
   2004 drama starring Kristen Stewart as a teen silenced after a traumatic event, from Laurie Halse Anderson's novel.
27. **Chaos Walking** — score 329/1000
   2021 sci-fi adventure set on a planet where thoughts are audible, from Patrick Ness's novel.
28. **Stormbreaker** — score 329/1000
   2006 spy adventure about a teen recruited by MI6, from Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider novel.
29. **Me and Earl and the Dying Girl** — score 329/1000
   2015 comedy-drama about a teen filmmaker befriending a classmate with leukemia, from Jesse Andrews's novel.
30. **Love, Simon** — score 0/1000
   2018 romantic comedy about a closeted teen, based on Becky Albertalli's Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda.
31. **Holes** — score 0/1000
   2003 comedy-adventure about a boy sent to a desert detention camp, from Louis Sachar's novel.
32. **All the Bright Places** — score 0/1000
   2020 drama about two troubled teens who meet on a school bell tower, from Jennifer Niven's novel.
33. **Mortal Instruments: City of Bones** — score 0/1000
   2013 fantasy about a teen who discovers a hidden world of demon hunters, from Cassandra Clare's novel.

Tags: fantasy, movies, books, adaptations, young adult