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Growing up is hard, whether you're 16 or 60. In the transition to adulthood, coming-of-age books are an important staple — everything from Huckleberry Finn to Harry Potter has helped along the way.Although the journey to maturity is a tumultuous one, it never ceases to be wondrous, heartbreaking, revolutionary, and often a little bit of fun. These 50 books have been earmarked, cried over, highlighted, overanalyzed and read time and again.Remember, for every antsy, rebellious teenager, there's a nostalgic novelist who remembers how you feel.1. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett Mary, an orphaned girl, is sent to live with her uncle at a Yorkshire mansion of at the edge of a vast lonely moor. At first, she is frightened by the gloomy place until she discovers an unkempt garden behind a locked gate. She takes to the garden, and begins to see the magic that takes place among the shrubs. Image: Frederick A. Stokes2. The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-Time by Mark Haddon This improbable story of a 15-year-old autistic boy, Christopher, follows him on a quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood poodle. Image: Doubleday3. Hatchet by Gary Paulson 13-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the plane he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a tatteredwWindbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present — and a secret that has been tearing him apart. Image: Bradbury Press4. The Giver by Lois Lowry A haunting story that centers on 12-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal world of conformity and contentment. It’s not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. Image: Houghton Mifflin5. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare This classic love story follows two star-crossed lovers through their quest to be together, despite their rival lineage. Image: Penguin6. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami Haruki Murakami takes us through a young Japanese boy, Toru, connection to his late best friend's girlfriend, Naoko. As the two of them try to navigate a life of solitude, Toru slowly seeps into reality as Naoko slips further into her own world. “Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that.” - Haruki Murakami Image: Kodansha7. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson Jeanette cuts her teeth on the knowledge that she is one of God’s elect. But as this budding evangelical comes of age, and comes to terms with her preference for her own sex, the peculiar balance of her God-fearing household crumbles. Image: Pandora Press8. Please Don't Come Back From the Moon by Dean Bakopoulos The summer Michael Smolij turns 16, his father disappears. One by one, other men also vanish from the blue-collar neighborhood outside Detroit. One note reads, "I'm going to the moon. I took the cash."The women struggle to assume both roles, and gradually settle into their new lives. As Michael and his friends stumble through their 20s, the restlessness of the fathers blooms in them, threatening to carry them away. Image: Mariner Books9. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr All the Light We Cannot See follows blind Marie Laure, a young french girl who is living with her uncle, and technology genius Werner, a German solider, as their stories collide during World War II. Image: Scribner10. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis Four adventurous siblings -- Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie -- step through a wardrobe door and into the land of Narnia, a land frozen in eternal winter and enslaved by the power of the White Witch. But when almost all hope is lost, the return of the Great Lion, Aslan, signals a great change ... and a great sacrifice. “If ever they remembered their life in this world it was as one remembers a dream.”― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Image: HarperCollins11. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man tells the story of Stephen Dedalus, a boy growing up in Ireland at the end of the 19th century, as he gradually decides to cast off all his social, familial, and religious constraints to live a life devoted to the art of writing. Image: Dover Publications12. Blue is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh A young woman named Clementine discovers herself and the elusive magic of love when she meets a confident blue-haired girl named Emma: A love story for the ages that bristles with the energy of youth, rebellion and the eternal light of desire. Image: Arsenal Pulp Press13. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant tale of childhood and family ties. It will transport readers to the early 1900s, when a little girl named Francie dreamily looks out her window at a tree struggling to reach the sky. Image: Harper Perennial14. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain After giving up his life of prayers and proper manners, Huck sets off on an adventure to help a slave named Jim escape up the Mississippi river to the free states. By allowing Huck to tell his own story, Mark Twain addresses America's painful contradiction of racism and segregation in a "free" and "equal" society. Image: Dover Publications15. Anne of the Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery Orphaned, freckled and red-headed Anne is taken in on a farm where she adventures in making a home, excels at her studies at a country school, navigates friendships, and reads as many books as she can get her hands on. Image: L.C. Page & Co.16. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy All the Pretty Horses is the tale of 16-year-old John Grady Cole, who finds himself at the end of a long line of Texas ranchers, cut off from the only life he has ever imagined for himself. With two companions, he sets off for Mexico on a sometimes idyllic, sometimes comic journey to a place where dreams are paid for in blood. “Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.” - Cormac McCarthy Image: Vintage17. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight nerd who lives in New Jersey with his old world-mother and rebellious sister. He dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Image: Riverhead Trade18. City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau The city of Ember was built as a last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, the great lamps that light the city are beginning to flicker. When Lina finds part of an ancient message, she’s sure it holds a secret that will save the city. Image: Yearling19. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury The summer of '28 was a vintage season for a growing boy named Douglas Spaulding. A summer of green apple trees, mowed lawns, and new sneakers. Of half-burnt firecrackers, of gathering dandelions, of Grandma's belly-busting dinner. It was a summer of sorrows and marvels and gold-fuzzed bees. A magical, timeless summer. Image: Bantam Books20. Fuckness by Andersen Prunty After suffering a horrendous beating, Wallace Black goes home to his equally abusive family. As a punishment for fighting at school, his mother straps a set of grotesque horns to the top of his head- little did anyone know that they contain a power no one could have expected. Image: Atlatl Press21. American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar Hayat Shah is a young American in love for the first time. His normal life of school, baseball, and video games had previously been distinguished only by his Pakistani heritage and by the frequent chill between his parents, who fight over things he is too young to understand. Then Mina arrives, and everything changes. Image: Back Bay Books22. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger Holden Caulfiend is an ancient child of 16 and a native New Yorker. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. Image: Little, Brown and Company23. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If the world survives, that is. Image: Tor Science Fiction24. It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini Like many ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner sees entry into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School as the ticket to his future. Determined to succeed at life-which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job-Craig studies night and day to ace the entrance exam, and does. That's when things start to get crazy. Image: Disney-Hyperion25. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin A 14-year-old boy discovers the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves. Image: Vintage26. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Image: Picador27. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling Harry Potter has no idea how famous he is. That's because he's being raised by his miserable aunt and uncle who are terrified Harry will learn that he's really a wizard, just as his parents were. But everything changes when Harry is summoned to attend an infamous school for wizards, and he finds himself drawn deep inside a mystical world he never knew existed and closer to his own noble destiny. Image: Scholastic28. Holes by Louis Sachar Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes. Image: Yearling29. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and prejudice. Years later, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Image: Ballantine Books30. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott The four March sisters couldn't be more different. But with their father away at war, and their mother working to support the family, they have to rely on one another. Image: Puffin31. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro As children Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school. Years later, Kathy is a young woman and Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special–and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together. Image: Vintage32. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. Through an art project, she faces her bullies and fights back. Image: Square Fish33. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton Ponyboy is pretty sure that he's got things figured out. He knows that he can count on his brothers and his friends. But one night someone takes things too far, and Ponyboy's world is turned upside down... Image: Speak34. The Last Days of California by Mary Miller Jess is 15 years old and waiting for the world to end. Her evangelical father has packed up the family to drive west to California. As Jess’s belief frays, her teenage myopia evolves into awareness about her fracturing family. Image: Liveright35. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler When unattended environmental and economic crises lead to social chaos, not even gated communities are safe. In a night of fire and death Lauren Olamina, a minister's young daughter, loses her family and home and ventures out into the unprotected American landscape. But what begins as a flight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of human destiny... and the birth of a new faith. Image: Grand Central Publishing36. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 15-year-old Charlie, an endearing and naive outsider, is coping with first love, the suicide of his best friend, and his own mental illness while struggling to find a group of people with whom he belongs. The introvert freshman is taken under the wings of two seniors, Sam and Patrick, who welcome him to the real world. “I don't know the significance of this, but I find it very interesting.”― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower Image: MTV Books37. Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie Peter and Wendy tells the classic story of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and his adventures on the island of Neverland. He's joined by all your favorite characters, Wendy Darling and her brothers, Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, Tiger Lily, and Captain Hook.38. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under -- maybe for the last time. Esther breaks down with such intensity that her insanity becomes completely real and even rational. Image: Harper Perennial Modern Classics39. A Separate Peace by John Knowles Set at a boys’ boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world. Image: Scribner40. Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs Running with Scissors is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist who bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus Image: Picador41. Stardust by Neil Gaiman Tristran thorn promised to bring back a fallen star. So he sets out on a journey to fulfill the request of his beloved, the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester—and stumbles into the enchanted realm that lies beyond the wall of his English country town. Image: HarperCollins42. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli From the day Stargirl arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of her name.” She captures Leo Borlock’s heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first. Image: Ember43. This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother are constantly on the move, yet they develop an extraordinarily close, almost telepathic relationship. As Toby fights for identity and self-respect against the unrelenting hostility of a new stepfather, his experiences are at once poignant and comical. Image: Grove Press44. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus -- three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Image: Grand Central Publishing45. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende Shy, awkward Bastian is amazed to discover that he has become a character in the mysterious book he is reading and that he has an important mission to fulfill. Image: Puffin46. Lord of the Flies by William Golding William Golding's compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic. At first it seems as though it is all going to be great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious and life on the island turns into a nightmare of panic and death. Image: Perigee Books47. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen Macy’s got her whole summer carefully planned. But her plans didn’t include a job at Wish Catering. And they certainly didn’t include Wes. Macy soon discovers that the things you expect least are sometimes the things you need most. Image: Speak48. Looking for Alaska by John Green Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. Image: Penguin49. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to “aging out” out of the foster care system. A community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse... Image: William Morrow50. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love—and just how hard it pulled you under.Source:50 coming-of-age books for when growing up is too hard