25 Young Reader’s Editions of Bestselling Books (YA)
In each instance, I have placed the young reader’s edition first, followed by the adult title of each of the best sellers below. Enjoy!
Unbroken
Young Adult Adaptation: Age 11+
An Olympian's Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive. Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of a former Olympian's courage, cunning, and fortitude following his plane crash in enemy territory. This adaptation of Unbroken introduces a new generation to one of history's most thrilling survival epics.
The Boys in the Boat
Young Reader's Adaptation: Age 10+
For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Great Depression comes the astonishing tale of nine working-class boys from the American West who at the 1936 Olympics showed the world what true grit really meant. They shocked the world by defeating the German rowing team under Adolf Hitler.
🩷 See hundreds more sports recommendations here in my Olympics Ultimate Book & Movie List.
The Hiding Place
Young Reader's Edition: Age 9+
It's World War II. Darkness has fallen over Europe as the Nazis spread hatred, fear and war across the globe. But on a quiet city corner in the Netherlands, one woman fights against the darkness.
In darkness God's truth shines most clear.
Corrie ten Boom was the first licensed female watchmaker in the Netherlands who became a heroine of the Resistance, a survivor of Hitler's concentration camps, and one of the most remarkable ministers of hope in the twentieth century.
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
Abridged: Age 12+
A definitive, deeply moving narrative, Bonhoeffer is a story of moral courage in the face of monstrous evil. As Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seduced a nation, bullied a continent, and attempted to exterminate the Jews of Europe, a young pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer became one of the first to speak out against Hitler.
As Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seduced a nation, bullied a continent, and attempted to exterminate the Jews of Europe, a small number of dissidents and saboteurs worked to dismantle the Third Reich from the inside.
God’s Smuggler
Abridged for Young Readers: Age 9+
The courage of this young man will thrill a new generation of readers. They will meet one of the heroes of the faith--and discover the miraculous ways in which God provides for those who trust him.
A true-life thriller that will leave you breathless. This is one of my favourites. So many stories of God's hand at work throughout impossible situations. This one will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Mao’s Last Dancer
Young Reader's Edition: Age 12+
This inspiring story of passion, resilience, and a family's love captures the harsh reality of life in Mao's communist China and the exciting world of professional dance. This compelling memoir includes photos documenting Li's extraordinary life.
The extraordinary memoir of a peasant boy raised in rural Maoist China who was plucked from his village to study ballet and went on to become one of the greatest dancers of his generation.
Irena’s Children
Young Reader's Edition: Age 10+
The extraordinary and long forgotten story of Irena Sendler—the “female Oskar Schindler”—who took staggering risks to save 2,500 children from death and deportation in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.
Irena Sendler—the “female Oskar Schindler”—who saved 2,500 children from death and deportation in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. But Irena did something even more astonishing: she kept a secret list buried in bottles under an old apple tree. On it were the names and true identities of these Jewish children, recorded so their families could find them after the war. She could not know that more than ninety percent of their families would perish.
I Am Malala
Young Reader's Edition: Age 10+
Malala Yousafzai was only ten years old when the Taliban took control of her region. They said music was a crime. They said women weren't allowed to go to the market. They said girls couldn't go to school. How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World.
Hidden Figures
Young Reader's Edition: Age 9+
The powerful story of four African-American female mathematicians at NASA who helped achieve some of the greatest moments in our space program.
The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race.
Code Girls
Young Reader's Edition: Age 8+
In the tradition of Hidden Figures and The Girls of Atomic City, Code Girls is the amazing true story of the young American women who cracked German and Japanese military codes during World War II.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Young Reader's Edition: Age 9+
When a terrible drought struck William Kamkwamba's tiny village in Malawi, his family lost all of the season's crops, leaving them with nothing to eat and nothing to sell. William taught himself by exploring science books in his village library and came up with the idea that would change his family's life forever.
The Radium Girls
Young Reader's Edition: Age 8+
The Scary but True Story of the Poison that Made People Glow in the Dark.
Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina
Young Reader's Edition: Age 9+
Determination meets dance as Misty Copeland, vividly recounts the story of her journey to become the first African American female principal ballerina at the prestigious American Ballet Theatre.
Finding Gobi
Young Reader's Edition: Age 8+
Finding Gobi: The True Story of One Little Dog's Big Journey tells the gripping real-life adventure story of how Gobi followed Dion through the treacherous conditions of the Gobi desert and how, afterward, Dion searched the world for his four-legged friend in order to bring him home.
The New York Times bestselling true story of an Australian ultramarathon runner and a little dog who formed an unbreakable bond in the middle of the Gobi desert.
No Better Friend
Young Reader's Edition: Age 10+
A Man, a Dog, and Their Incredible True Story of Friendship and Survival in World War II.
The extraordinary tale of survival and friendship between a man and a dog in World War II.
A Train Near Magdeburg
Young Adult Adaptation: Age 13+
As a young American soldier in World War II, fighting brutal battles across Europe, having been shot at and shelled, having seen your friends killed, and no longer even able to remember what your own mother looks like... what is the plan when you stumble across a holocaust train full of suffering families that shocks you to your core, even after you think you have seen it all?
A Teacher's Journey into the Holocaust, and the reuniting of the survivors and liberators, 70 years on.
The Case for Christ
Young Reader's Edition: Age 8+
In this theological apologetic, kids ages 8-12 can join in the incredible search for the truth about Jesus, including the answers that changed the life of investigative reporter and international bestselling author Lee Strobel.
Fly Girls
Young Reader's Edition: Age 10+
In the years between World War I and World War II, airplane racing was one of the most popular sports in America. Yet women who flew planes were often ridiculed by the press, and initially they weren’t invited to race. Still, a group of women was determined to take to the sky—no matter what. With guts and grit, they overcame incredible odds both on the ground and in the air to pursue their dreams of flying and racing planes.
Lion: A Long Way Home
Young Reader's Edition: Age 10+
When Saroo Brierley used Google Earth to find his long-lost home town half a world away, he made global headlines. Saroo had become lost on a train in India at the age of five. Not knowing the name of his family or where he was from, he survived for weeks on the streets of Kolkata before being taken into an orphanage and adopted by a couple in Australia.
No Barriers
Young Adult Adaptation: Age 12+
A Blind Man's Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon. Erik Weihenmayer has a long history of turning obstacles into adventures. Born with a rare condition that blinded him as a teenager, he never let his diagnosis hold him back from a full life. As an athlete, explorer, speaker and activist, he has opened the eyes of people around the world to what's possible.
The Finest Hours
Young Reader's Editon: Age 9+
The True Story of a Heroic Sea Rescue. On the night of February 18, 1952, during one of the worst winter storms that New England has ever seen, two oil tankers just off the shore of Cape Cod were torn in half. With the storm in full force and waves up to 70 feet high, four coast guardsmen headed out to sea in a tiny lifeboat to come to the rescue.
A Storm Too Soon
Young Reader's Edition: Age 9+
A Remarkable True Survival Story in 80-Foot Seas. Hanging on to the raft are three men. Their capsized forty-seven-foot sailboat has disappeared below the tempestuous sea. The giant waves repeatedly toss the men out of their tiny vessel, and JP, with nine broken ribs, is hypothermic and on the verge of death.
Into the Blizzard
Young Reader's Edition: Age 9+
In the midst of the Blizzard of 1978, the tanker Global Hope floundered on the shoals in Salem Sound off the Massachusetts coast. When the Coast Guard heard the Mayday calls, they immediately dispatched a patrol rescue boat. But within an hour, the Coast Guard rescue boat was in as much trouble as the tanker―both paralyzed in unrelenting seas. A young reader's adaptation of Ten Hours Until Dawn.
In Harm’s Way
Young Reader's Edition: Age 9+
On July 30, 1945, the U.S.S. Indianapolis was torpedoed in the South Pacific by a Japanese submarine. An estimated 300 men were killed upon impact; close to 900 sailors were cast into the Pacific Ocean, where they remained undetected by the navy for nearly four days and nights. Battered by a savage sea, they struggled to stay alive, fighting off sharks, hypothermia, and hallucinations.
D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy, 1944
of the military and those who came by sea and by sky, turning the tide of World War II. This adaptation makes mature military themes more accessible for a young age audience.
Young Reader's Adaptation: Age 8+
Adapted for young readers from the #1 New York Times–bestselling The Guns at Last Light, D-Day captures the events and the spirit of that day―June 6, 1944―the day that led to the liberation of western Europe from Nazi Germany's control.
The Liberation Trilogy - Book 3
In the first two volumes of his bestselling Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson recounted how the American-led coalition fought through North Africa and Italy to the threshold of victory. Now, in The Guns at Last Light, he tells the most dramatic story of all―the titanic battle for Western Europe.
