Award Winning Coming of Age Novels

The coming of age novel is the form prize juries return to most, and the range here runs from books written for the age they describe to books about that age written for adults looking back. Both belong on one page, since a reader searching for one usually wants the other too.

148 books drawn from 16 prize lists, newest first.

• 2026 Newbery Medal
  All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson
• 2025 The Booker Prize
  Flesh by David Szalay
• 2025 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Playworld by Adam Ross
• 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novel
  Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
• 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• 2023 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
• 2022 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
  Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott
• 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
  frank: sonnets by Diane Seuss
• 2021 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara
• 2021 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
  My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones
• 2021 Newbery Medal
  When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
• 2020 Newbery Medal
  New Kid by Jerry Craft
• 2020 The Booker Prize
  Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
• 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
• 2020 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
• 2019 Newbery Medal
  Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina
• 2019 National Book Award for Fiction
  Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
• 2018 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Educated by Tara Westover
• 2018 Newbery Medal
  Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly
• 2018 The Booker Prize
  Milkman by Anna Burns
• 2018 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Normal People by Sally Rooney
• 2018 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• 2017 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
• 2017 National Book Award for Fiction
  Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
• 2016 Nebula Award for Best Novel
  All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
• 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Biography
  Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
• 2016 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Girls by Emma Cline
• 2016 Women's Prize for Fiction
  The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney
• 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• 2015 Newbery Medal
  The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
• 2014 Women's Prize for Fiction
  A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride
• 2014 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
• 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• 2013 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
• 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novel
  Among Others by Jo Walton
• 2012 National Book Award for Fiction
  The Round House by Louise Erdrich
• 2012 Women's Prize for Fiction
  The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
• 2011 Newbery Medal
  Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
• 2011 National Book Award for Fiction
  Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
• 2011 Edgar Award for Best Novel
  The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton
• 2011 The Booker Prize
  The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
• 2010 National Book Award for Non-Fiction
  Just Kids by Patti Smith
• 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novel
  The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Biography
  Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson
• 2008 Nebula Award for Best Novel
  Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin
• 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
• 2007 Newbery Medal
  The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
• 2006 Newbery Medal
  Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
• 2005 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• 2005 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• 2005 The Booker Prize
  The Sea by John Banville
• 2004 The Booker Prize
  The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
• 2003 Newbery Medal
  Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi
• 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
• 2003 National Book Award for Fiction
  The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
• 2003 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• 2003 The Booker Prize
  Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
• 2002 Newbery Medal
  A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
• 2002 The Booker Prize
  Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• 2002 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
• 2001 Nobel Prize in Literature
  A House for Mr Biswas by V. S. Naipaul
• 2000 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
  The Traveling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon
• 1999 Women's Prize for Fiction
  A Crime in the Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne
• 1999 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
• 1999 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• 1998 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  About a Boy by Nick Hornby
• 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography
  Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
• 1997 The Booker Prize
  The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• 1996 Hugo Award for Best Novel
  The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
• 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature
  Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney
• 1993 The Booker Prize
  Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
• 1993 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
• 1992 National Book Award for Fiction
  All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
• 1992 National Book Award for Non-Fiction
  Becoming a Man by Paul Monette
• 1991 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel
  Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon
• 1991 The Booker Prize
  The Famished Road by Ben Okri
• 1989 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
• 1989 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
• 1988 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood
• 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Biography
  Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe by David Herbert Donald
• 1987 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
• 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel
  Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
• 1986 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  It by Stephen King
• 1986 National Book Award for Fiction
  World's Fair by E. L. Doctorow
• 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Biography
  Growing Up by Russell Baker
• 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature
  Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• 1982 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Different Seasons by Stephen King
• 1981 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving
• 1980 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
• 1980 National Book Award for Fiction
  Sophie's Choice by William Styron
• 1980 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
• 1978 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
• 1976 The Booker Prize
  Saville by David Storey
• 1975 National Book Award for Fiction
  The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams
• 1974 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Carrie by Stephen King
• 1973 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
  Children of Crisis, Volumes II and III by Robert Coles
• 1973 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Sula by Toni Morrison
• 1970 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• 1968 Nebula Award for Best Novel
  Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin
• 1967 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
• 1964 National Book Award for Fiction
  The Centaur by John Updike
• 1963 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  The Reivers by William Faulkner
• 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• 1960 National Book Award for Fiction
  Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth
• 1960 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
  Heart's Needle by W. D. Snodgrass
• 1960 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien
• 1959 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  A Separate Peace by John Knowles
• 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor
• 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  A Death in the Family by James Agee
• 1954 National Book Award for Fiction
  The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
• 1952 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  East of Eden by John Steinbeck
• 1951 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
• 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
  Annie Allen by Gwendolyn Brooks
• 1948 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
• 1947 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• 1941 Newbery Medal
  Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry
• 1940 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
• 1939 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
• 1937 Newbery Medal
  Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
• 1936 Newbery Medal
  Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
• 1936 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
  Honey in the Horn by H. L. Davis
• 1935 Newbery Medal
  Dobry by Monica Shannon
• 1933 Nobel Prize in Literature
  The Life of Arseniev by Ivan Bunin
• 1933 Newbery Medal
  Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis
• 1932 Newbery Medal
  Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer
• 1929 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe
• 1929 Pulitzer Prize for Biography
  The Training of an American by Burton J. Hendrick
• 1928 Nobel Prize in Literature
  Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
• 1924 Newbery Medal
  The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes
• 1922 Pulitzer Prize for Biography
  A Daughter of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland
• 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Biography
  The Americanization of Edward Bok by Edward Bok
• 1920 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• 1917 Nobel Prize in Literature
  Lucky Per by Henrik Pontoppidan
• 1915 Nobel Prize in Literature
  Jean-Christophe by Romain Rolland
• 1908 Best Books That Never Won a Prize
  Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
• 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature
  Kim by Rudyard Kipling
• 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature
  Synnøve Solbakken by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
• 1886 Classic Books
  Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
• 1884 Classic Books
  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• 1883 Classic Books
  Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• 1876 Classic Books
  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• 1868 Classic Books
  Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• 1861 Classic Books
  Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• 1860 Classic Books
  The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
• 1850 Classic Books
  David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• 1847 Classic Books
  Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë