This post offers 40 best books for teens for gifts and stocking stuffers / 2024
It’s that time of year again… time to rack your brain to figure out what to get your teen for the holidays.
Sure, you can always buy them the latest tech game, the hottest name-brand sweatshirt, or tickets to their favorite concert (which are all great gifts, by the way!), but don’t forget to toss in a few amazing new book titles to inspire, comfort, or educate them.
Whether your teen is a bookworm who loves to snuggle up with a great read on a cold day, a teen who needs a few tips about the challenges of “teenagering” or a teen whose idea of fun is conducting mad science experiments on a Saturday afternoon, we’ve got you covered!
From the classics and the newest, trendiest titles to self-help books and seemingly everything in between, we’ve rounded up the best books for teenagers! Here are our TOP picks of the 40 BEST books for teens for gifts and stocking stuffers!
40 Best Books for Teens for Gifts and Stocking Stuffers 2024
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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens
Imagine your teen had a roadmap – a step-by-step guide to help them get from where they are now to where they want to be. Their goals, dreams, and plans – all within reach. All they need are the tools to get there. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens is just that – a roadmap for success. Amazon Bestseller!
Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul – Stories of Life, Love, and Learning
Being a teenager is hard. As hard as life can sometimes be for teenagers, they need to know they’re not alone. Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul is filled with funny and heartwarming stories that will make your favorite teen laugh and cry. Like a best friend, this book aims to remind teenagers that no matter what they’re going through, other teenagers have gone through the same thing.
Manual to Manhood
The Manual to Manhood offers a collection of one hundred step-by-step instructions on almost everything a guy needs to know including how to wear cologne correctly, grill a steak, tie a tie, manage money, talk to a girl, plan a date and SO much more! Filled with great illustrations, this handy tool is perfect for any guy on the cusp of becoming a man.
The Driving Book – Everything New Drivers Need to Know But Don’t Know to Ask
Even after taking Driver’s Education and passing the dreaded road test, there’s still so much more new drivers need to learn that only comes from experience. The Driving Book is the new driver’s how-to guide covering every scenario they might face when driving including everything from how to change a tire to handling a car in bad weather.
The Teen Girl’s Survival Guide
When you’re a teenage girl, the stress and pressure seem to come from every direction. The Teen Girl’s Survival Guide takes the pressure off by guiding teen girls through the tumultuous teen years with 10 tips for making friends, avoiding dreaded drama, and coping with social stress. Amazon Bestseller!
The Science Book – Big Ideas Simply Explained
For the teen who’s totally infatuated with science, The Science Book is an inventive visual take on astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, and physics. With cool artwork and step-by-step diagrams and illustrations that break down complicated ideas into manageable concepts, this book will have readers conversant in genetic engineering, black holes, and global warming in no time.
One of Us is Lying
A New York Times Best Seller! “Pretty Little Liars” meets “The Breakfast Club” in this flat-out addictive story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Amazon Bestseller!
Difficult Riddles For Smart Kids
Filled with 300 brain-teasing riddles and puzzles, Difficult Riddles for Smart Kids will challenge kids to stretch their minds, test their logic, and put their memory to the test. Fun for the whole family!
Don’t Let Your Emotions Run Your Life For Teens
Let’s face it: when you’re a teenager sometimes it can feel like your emotions are taking over and spinning out of control with a mind of their own. To make matters worse, these overwhelming emotions might be interfering with school, causing trouble in relationships, and preventing a happier life. In this book, teens will find new ways of managing their emotions and feelings so they’ll be ready to handle anything life sends their way.
Teens Cook – How to Cook What You Want to Eat
Teenagers can be picky eaters! Instead of causing mealtime strife, now they can cook exactly what they want with Teens Cook – the cookbook that offers 75 wonderfully delicious recipes for every meal. With this handy book, your favorite teen will never say “There’s nothing to eat” ever again.
“F” for Effort!
Any middle or high schooler who has bluffed or blundered their way through an exam will appreciate this book filled to the brim with funny and inventive wrong answers. With 250 hilarious wrong answers, this is one book any teenager would love!
Mindfulness for Teens – Stop Stressing & Start Being Yourself
Homework, relationships, planning for college, family commitments – teenagers have a lot going on. Rather than being completely stressed out and overwhelmed, now they can take control of their lives by practicing mindfulness in just 10 minutes a day!
The Running Dream
Jessica thinks her life is over when she loses her leg in a car accident. When she’s told that she can never run again, she finds it within herself to dream bigger than she ever has before. The Running Dream delivers a powerful and healing story about perseverance, strength, and the power of dreams.
Boy’s Guide to Girls – 30 Pointers You Won’t Get From Your Parents or Friends
What’s the best way to tell a girl you like her? What does it mean when a girl teases you? These and other perplexing “girl” questions are answered in Boy’s Guide to Girls along with 30 great pointers you definitely won’t get from your parents or friends.
The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College
For 10 years running, The Naked Roommate has been the best go-to guide for teenagers heading off to college. From sharing a bathroom with 40 strangers to sharing lecture notes, this book will clue your teen in on everything they need to know about college (but never knew they needed to know).
100 Deadly Skills
A hands-on, practical survival guide from retired Navy SEAL Clint Emerson – adapted for civilians from actual special forces operations – to eluding pursuers, evading capture, and surviving any dangerous situation. This complete guide to survival teaches how to evade a kidnapping, elude an active shooter, and even rappel down the side of a building – all using low-tech or no-tech methods.
The 57 Bus
If it weren’t for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard might never have met. Two high school students from completely different worlds share the same bus for a mere eight minutes a day, until one day a single reckless act leaves Sasha severely burned and Richard charged with two hate crimes and facing life in prison.
Girl Out of Water
Ocean breeze in her hair and sand between her toes, Anise can’t wait to spend the summer before her senior year surfing and hanging out on the beach with friends. Santa Cruz is more than her home, it’s her heart. But when her aunt, a single mother, is in a serious car accident, Anise must say goodbye to California to help care for her three young cousins.
Consent: The New Rules of Sex Education
There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to teens and sex – communication, anatomy, safety, and more. In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Jennifer Lang offers a frank, compassionate, and evidence-based guide to healthy sexual relationships. The book answers the most pressing questions teens ask about dating, relationships, consent, and sexual safety.
Shoot Your Shot – A Sport-Inspired Guide to Living Your Best Life
Michael Jordan. LeBron James. Kobe Bryant. Stephen Curry. James Hardin. Shoot Your Shot identifies the key principles that the world’s most elite basketball players have applied to their lives and explains in detail how teens can use those same exact principles to help them navigate through life, help them accomplish goals, and realize their dreams.
Do Your Laundry or You’ll Die Alone
This fun book is overflowing with advice a mom would give if she thought her child was actually listening. With warm wit and a hint of motherly sass, the book talks about everything from phone etiquette and forgiveness to how to avoid boring conversations and scary dates.
The Book Thief
#1 New York Times Bestseller! A truly remarkable story about the ability of books to feed the soul, The Book Thief begins its journey in 1939 in Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist – books. With the help of her foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.
Guy’s Guide to God, Girls, and the Phone in Your Pocket
The Guy’s Guide will encourage teen guys in their faith, challenge their spirituality, and offer real-life advice on how to live a faithful life in today’s highly secularized culture, with distractions lurking around every corner and just a click away.
She Believed She Could, So She Did
This mini-book is filled with quotes celebrating inner strength, belief, and the power of dreaming big! The book comes with a 25K gold-plated charm, which can be kept on the ribbon bookmark or worn on a bracelet or necklace.
Choose Your Own Adulthood – A Small Book About Small Choices that Make the Biggest Difference
For teens voyaging through high school, college, and beyond, Choose Your Adulthood, will help teens look at the little decisions in their life and how those decisions can sometimes make the biggest difference. They’ll get insightful and spot-on advice including why responding is better than reacting, why loyalty might be overrated, which risks are worth taking and which aren’t, along with advice about other important decisions every teen will have to make.
Tell Me Three Things
Everything about Jessie’s life is wrong. At least, that’s what it feels like when she walks in as a junior at a fancy prep school in LA. It’s been two years since her mother’s death, and since her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her step monster. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back home, she gets an email from someone calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short) offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School and that’s where Jessie’s life begins to change.
The Baking Cookbook for Teens
Few things in life are more comforting (especially for teenagers) than the smell of brownies baking in the oven. With 75 easy-to-follow recipes, The Baking Cookbook for Teens makes it easy for teens to learn the basics of baking and start putting those skills to the test right away. From brownies and cookies to bread and pizza, they’ll be baking like a pro in no time!
The Fault in our Stars
#1 New York Times Bestseller! Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has brought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at a Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.
Everything a Band-Aid Can’t Fix – A Teen’s Guide to Healing and Dealing with Life
This book was written for teenagers looking for an instruction manual on how to deal with the craziness of the teen years. It will help teens master the art of dealing with adversity – with or without the help of others – and encourage them to find their voice so they can speak up about the wrongs in their world.
The Beginning of Everything – Everyone Gets a Tragedy
Varsity tennis captain Ezra Faulkner was supposed to be homecoming king, but that was before – before his girlfriend cheated on him, before a car accident shattered his leg, and before he fell in love with an unpredictable new girl, Cassidy Thorpe. The Beginning of Everything is a heart-wrenching story about how difficult it is to play the part that people expect, and how new beginnings can unfold from abrupt or tragic events.
101 Great Science Experiments
Filled with science experiments fit for any age – from kids to adults – 101 Great Science Experiments – is a comprehensive jam-packed (and pretty cool) resource for the science lover.
Unbroken (The Young Adult Adaptation): An Olympian’s Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive
In this captivating and lavishly illustrated young adult edition of her award-winning #1 New York Times bestseller, Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of a former Olympian’s courage and fortitude following his plane crash in enemy territory. This book is one of history’s most thrilling survival epics.
The 6 Most Important Decisions You’ll Ever Make
Author Sean Covey understands the pressure teens face today. He helps teens navigate their teen years by breaking them down into six major challenges they’ll face: gaining self-esteem, dealing with their parents, making friends, being wise about sex, coping with substances succeeding at school, and planning their careers.
A Young Man’s Guide to Making Right Choices
In this book, author, Jim George, focuses on all the high points of a young man’s life—the things that matter most. Teen guys will learn why prayer and Bible reading are so essential, what makes for the best kind of friendships, how school and social skills contribute to a strong future, how to stand strong against temptation and peer pressure, and what contributes to healthy and biblical perspectives on dating and purity.
Sex, Puberty, and All That Good Stuff
This friendly book talks to teens in their own language, with emphasis on the subject that is first and foremost in the minds of adolescent boys and girls: Sex. Teens will learn about crushes, pimples, kissing, dating, hormones, menstruation, sexual activity, condoms, contraception, pregnancy, STDs, sexual impulses, and more.
The Maze Runner Series
When Thomas wakes up, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s welcomed to his new home, the Glade, by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone. Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive. Thomas and the Gladers have no choice but to uncover the secrets of the maze.
The Teen’s Guide to Social Media
If your teen has ever posted something on social media they regret or they’d like to avoid posting something they’ll regret down the line, this book is a must-read to help them navigate the digital world. With 21 honest and humorous tips, The Teen’s Guide to Social Media will not only inform your teen, but might also change the way they think about social media interaction.
The Girls’ Guide to Sex Education
With over 100 honest answers to urgent questions about puberty, relationships, and growing up, The Girls’ Guide to Sex Education answers real-life questions for girls entering their teen years. A “For Parents” forward offers tips on how parents can approach the subject of sex with their daughters.
The Teen’s Guide to World Domination
With teen-tested, parent-approved humorous wisdom, The Teen’s Guide to World Domination gives teens the knowledge, guidance, and skills they need to navigate their world by tapping into the seven “villains” that are keeping them from “awesomeness,” including ghosts, ninja’s, pirates, robots, vampires, zombies, and puppies.
Mindfulness for Teen Anxiety
Being a teenager is hard enough without anxiety getting in the way. Mindfulness for Teen Anxiety is a teen workbook for overcoming anxiety at school, at home, and everywhere else. Teens will learn tips to help them manage anxiety in all types of situations including public speaking, test anxiety, and social situations.