Best Seller Books List
Teens' Best Books of All Time
And Popular Teen Books

For readers and writers: a best seller books list to help you choose good books for teens and to discover, through studying the many best selling books listed, how to write stories that appeal to early teens:

Best Seller Books #1: Best Personal Growth Books & Books on Adolescent Self Esteem, Relationship Questions, Choices & Transitions

Best Seller Books List & Approximate Sales Figures
Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird (Pulitzer Prize; 30 million)
SE Hinton: The Outsiders (9.7 million); That Was Then, This Is Now (over 4 million); Rumble Fish (over 2 million); and Tex (over 1.6 million)
Wilson Rawls: Where the Red Fern Grows (over 6.75 million)
Anonymous: Go Ask Alice (over 4.6 million)
Katherine Paterson: Bridge to Terabithia (Newbery Medal; over 4.2 million); The Great Gilly Hopkins (over 1.5 million)
Paul Zindel: The Pigman (over 3.5 million)
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: The Yearling (Pulitzer Prize; 3.5 million)
Theodore Taylor: The Cay (over 3 million)
Jerry Spinelli: Maniac Magee (over 1.6 million)
Betsy Byars: The Summer of the Swans (over 1.4 million)

Popular Teen Books
Joan Bauer: Hope Was Here
Yvonne Coppard: Not Dressed Like That, You Don't
Sharon Creech: Walk Two Moons (Newbery Medal); Bloomability; The Wanderer
Christopher Paul Curtis: Bud, Not Buddy (Newbery Medal)
Paula Danziger: The Cat Ate My Gymsuit; and Can You Sue Your Parents for Malpractice?
Sarah Dessen: Someone Like You; Just Listen; and That Summer
Sharon Draper: Copper Sun
Paula Fox: One-Eyed Cat (Newbery Honor)
Irene Hunt: Across Five Aprils (Newbery Medal); and Up a Road Slowly (Newbery Medal)
Walter Dean Myers: Hoops; Slam!; The Mouse Rap; Fast Sam, Cool Clyde and Stuff
Robert Newton Peck: A Day No Pigs Would Die
Rosie Rushton: Just Don't Make a Scene, Mum!; and I Think I'll Just Curl Up and Die
Louis Sachar: Holes (Newbery Medal)
Ivan Southall: Let the Balloon Go
Jerry Spinelli: Stargirl; and Crash
Cynthia Voigt: Dicey's Song (Newbery Medal)

Best Seller Books #2: Parent & Sibling Relationships, Friendship Issues & School Life

Best Seller Books List & Approximate Sales Figures
Mildred Taylor: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Newbery Medal; over 2.6 million)
Francine Pascal: Sweet Valley High series, especially: SVH#1: Double Love (over 1.6 million); SVH#2: Secrets (over 1.4 million); SVH#3: Playing with Fire (over 1.3 million); SVH#4: Power Play (1.13 million)
LM Montgomery: Rainbow Valley (over 1.4 million); and Rilla of Ingleside (1.35 million): both titles are part of the Anne of Green Gables series

Popular Teen Books
Louisa May Alcott: Little Women and sequels
Madeleine L'Engle: Meet the Austins; Moon by Night; The Young Unicorns; A Ring of Endless Light (Newbery Honor); Troubling a Star
LM Montgomery: Anne of Green Gables series
Laura Peyton Roberts: Clearwater Crossing series
Mildred Taylor: Let the Circle Be Unbroken; Song of the Trees
Cynthia Voigt: Come a Stranger; Dicey's Song (Newbery Medal); and Homecoming

Best Seller Books #3: Best Mystery Books & Thriller Adventure Stories

Best Seller Books List & Approximate Sales Figures
Carolyn Keene: Nancy Drew series (total of 175 titles: approximately 200 million); individual bestselling titles: ND#5: The Secret of Shadow Ranch (over 2.3 million); ND#1: The Secret of the Old Clock (2.3 million); ND#2: The Hidden Staircase (over 1.8 million); ND#3: The Bungalow Mystery (over 1.5 million); ND#4: The Mystery of Lilac Inn (over 1.3 million)
Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins: Left Behind series (63 million)
Lew Wallace: Ben Hur (50 million)
Johnston McCulley: The Mark of Zorro (50 million)
Robert Louis Stevenson: Treasure Island (19 million)
Scott O'Dell: Island of the Blue Dolphins (over 6.6 million); The Black Pearl (Newbery Medal; 1.3 million)
Sheila Burnford: The Incredible Journey (5.2 million)
EL Konigsburg: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler (over 3.45 million)
Gary Paulsen: Hatchet (Newbery Honor; over 3 million)
Theodore Taylor: The Cay (over 3 million)
Jean Craighead George: Julie of the Wolves (over 2.8 million); and My Side of the Mountain (1.5 million)
Elizabeth George Speare: The Sign of the Beaver (over 2.25 million)
Avi: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (Newbery Honor; over 1.8 million)
Walter Farley: Black Stallion (over 1.2 million)

Popular Teen Books
Nancy Bond: A String in the Harp
Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Lost Prince
Sharon Creech: The Wanderer
Will Hobbs: Jason's Gold; and Down the Yukon
Ann Holm: North to Freedom
Gary Paulsen: Brian's Return; Brian's Winter; The Island; Tracker
Ian Serraillier: The Silver Sword.
Mark Twain: Tom Sawyer; and Huckleberry Finn

Best Seller Books List #4: Best Fantasy Books & Cliffhanger Stories

Best Seller Books List & Approximate Sales Figures
Madeleine L'Engle: A Wrinkle in Time (Newbery Award; 6.4 million); A Wind in the Door (over 2 million); A Swiftly Tilting Planet (over 2 million); Many Waters
Natalie Babbitt: Tuck Everlasting (over 1.75 million)
Robert C O'Brien: Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Newbery Medal; 1.7 million)

Popular Teen Books
Avi: Perloo the Bold
Nancy Bond: A String in the Harp (Newbery Honor)
Susan Cooper: Over Seas, Under Stone; The Dark is Rising (Newbery Honor); The Grey King (Newbery Medal); Silver on the Tree
Colin Dann: The Animals of Farthing Wood
Brian Jacques: Redwall and sequels: Mossflower; Mattimeo; Mariel of Redwall; Pearls of Lutra; The Legend of Luke
Kenneth Oppel: 3 titles: Silverwing; Sunwing; Firewing
Christopher Paolini: Eragon
Richard Peck: The Ghost Belonged to Me; Ghosts I Have Been; and The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp
Robert Siegel: Whalesong; White Whale; Ice At the End of the World
Megan Whalen Turner: The Thief (Newbery Honor)

Best Seller Books #5: Best Love Stories & School Romance Stories

Best Seller Books List & Approximate Sales Figures
Francine Pascal: Sweet Valley High series, especially SVH#1: Double Love (1.674 million); SVH#2: Secrets (1.4 million); SVH#3: Playing with Fire (1,363,779); SVH#4: Power Play (1.13 million)

Popular Teen Books
Gail Carson Levine: Ella Enchanted (Newbery Honor)
Robin McKinley: Rose Daughter; Beauty; Spindle's End
Janette Oke: Love Comes Softly; Love's Enduring Promise; Love's Long Journey
Laura Peyton Roberts: Clearwater Crossing series

Best Seller Books #6: Historical Adventure & Romance Stories

Best Seller Books List & Approximate Sales Figures
Lew Wallace: Ben Hur (50 million)
Esther Forbes: Johnny Tremain (over 4.8 million)
Elizabeth George Speare: The Witch of Blackbird Pond (over 4.25 million)
Karen Cushman: Catherine, Called Birdie (Newbery Honor; 1.3 million)

Popular Teen Books
Scott O'Dell: The Hawk That Dare Not Hunt by Day and The King's Fifth
Paula Fox: The Slave Dancer (Newbery Medal)
Mollie Hunter: Hold on to Love
Iain Lawrence: The Wreckers and The Buccaneers
Richard Peck: A Long Way from Chicago (Newbery Honor) and A Year Down Yonder (Newbery Medal)
Elizabeth George Speare: The Bronze Bow (Newbery Medal)
Rosemary Sutcliff: The Eagle of the Ninth; Song for a Dark Queen; and Sword Song
Gloria Whelan: Miranda's Last Stand; Once on This Island; Farewell to the Island; and Return to the Island


What types of stories appeal to Early Teens? To find out, go to Creative Writing Ideas: Exciting Story Ideas for Early Teens

For creative writing ideas to help you write stories in a way that gets teens reading, go to How to Write Stories Kids and Teens Want to Read

Return from Early Teens' Best Seller Books to Creative Writing Resources: Top Cool Teen Books

Return from Early Teens' Best Seller Books to Creative Writing: Write to Win Hearts

Acknowledgments: Publishers Weekly; Wikipedia; Barnes & Noble; Amazon.com; Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson, Crossway Books, 2002; Honey for a Teen's Heart by Gladys Hunt & Barbara Hampton, Zondervan 2002. Also, to all who have contributed reviews, information and advice, Thank You!

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