Want to get your teens reading books this summer? 7 teens share their favourite books in 2025
- Written by Kate Douglas, Professor of English, Flinders University
Around the world, young people are reading for pleasure less often, suggests a recent report. In Australia, 29% of high school students don’t read in their free time. So, how do we encourage our teenagers to read? There are some proven things you can do.
Do the teenagers in your life see you reading? Modelling good reading practices may inspire your children to adopt them. You can also encourage your teens to choose their own books and genres, without judging their choices: whether that’s fantasy, romance, graphic novels or the classics. You can also motivate their reading by helping or encouraging them to use the library.
Reading as a social activity with others their age is important to teens. This might include reading challenges, or being part of book clubs. And of course, online spaces like BookTok (TikTok’s reading community) have been hugely important in allowing teens to socialise around reading. (The Australian government’s new social media ban could interrupt this.)
Ultimately, young people – like most of us – are influenced by each other. So when it comes to reading, word of mouth is vital. Discovering books through readers their own age can be an excellent way for dormant readers to get back into reading.
Here’s what seven teens, aged 13 and 14, told us they enjoyed reading most in 2025. They mostly discovered their favourite books through word of mouth, from BookTok to their mum.
1. Better Than the Movies
I discovered Powerless by Lauren Roberts through a BookTok search. I wanted a book that I would find compelling. Though some reviewers did not like it, most seemed to really enjoy it.
Powerless is a fantasy novel focusing on a girl named Paedyn who is an “ordinary”, meaning she has no powers. She is surrounded by a world full of powerful people. The book follows her journey of survival through adventure and romance as she has to hide who she really is.
This book is my favourite of the year because I am a person that does not read very often. However, this book was filled with action, and it captivated my attention. It took me through a bunch of different emotions, thoughts and feelings.
- Arly, 13
4. One Piece
My favourite genre is manga (Japanese graphic novels). My overall favourite is One Piece by Eiichiro Oda. When I read manga, I can easily slip into the book and forget all outside distractions.
One Piece is an action fantasy series and its main theme is courage. The writing and drawings are easy to understand. One Piece has six to eight main characters, called the Straw Hat crew, led by Monkey D. Luffy. In these books, he searches for the mythical treasure known as “One Piece” to become the next King of the Pirates.
The books have an amazing storyline that allows the new arc to continue, while keeping previous arcs in mind. Eventually, everything adds up.
One Piece is one of the top mangas for a reason. It makes viewers wait for fighting scenes, while cueing the suspense and much more. Finally, One Piece isn’t just one book. There are over 50, with more than 1,000 chapters!
– Reuben, 14
5. Mr Einstein’s Secretary
Mr Einstein’s Secretary by Matthew Reilly is about a girl from Germany growing up alongside Einstein and becoming a spy for America in World War II. The thing that got me most into this book was right at the start, how it tells you that the main character, Hanna Fischer, is watching her own funeral.
I like the book because it is written in a non-linear way. This gives you information about the future in the present, helping you understand the complexity of the book. I also enjoyed how well the book combined action and the character’s life.
I would recommend this book to mature teenage readers because it does represent some traumatic themes (war, violence).
– Eli, 14
6. The Same Backward as Forward
I really enjoyed The Same Backward as Forward by Jennifer Lynn Barnes because it was written extremely well and provided information that wasn’t provided in the other books in this series.
It is a romantic mystery story that brings together Hannah, daughter in a criminal family, and entitled heir Tobias Hawthorne II, at the scene of a fire, and forces them to rethink events that have happened to them.
This book was really cool because it had a gimmick where it finishes halfway through and then you flip it upside down and start again to get another character’s perspective. I found this book because it is the seventh and last (at the moment) book in the series, The Inheritance Games, which I started reading earlier this year.
– Miles, 13
7. Tomorrow When the War Began
My favourite book that I have read is Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden. The book is about seven Australian teens who were camping in the bush when a war broke out. They are left all alone. They become guerrillas and fight back against the enemy.
I discovered this book because my mum read the series when she was about my age and still had the books. The book is sad, exciting and you never knew what will happen next. The characters were also Australian, which made the book more relatable.
After reading this book, I went on to read the entire series because I loved it so much and I just wanted to know what was going to happen next. This has now inspired me to find similar books in the same sort of genre, with themes of friendship, surviving against all odds and loyalty.
– Chloe, 14
Authors: Kate Douglas, Professor of English, Flinders University 
