A Literary Prescription for

Growing Up

For the long, bittersweet passage out of childhood, made of a thousand small becomings.

Growing up is the great, universal adventure, and nobody gets a map. It is the slow passage out of childhood: the first hard lessons, the loss of certain illusions, the dawning of who we might become. It is rarely a single dramatic leap; more often it is a thousand small lettings-go and a thousand small becomings, most so quiet we only notice them years later. These books and poems are for that tender, formative journey, whether you are still in the thick of it or looking back with kinder eyes.

Books Poetry Quotes & Prose

Books

Prescribed reading

Some of these are beloved novels of young people finding their feet, and some are true stories of real childhoods shaped by hardship and courage. Fiction and memoir together, they share one consoling truth: that the confusion and the losses of growing up are things nearly everyone passes through, and that no one ever really faced them alone.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee · 1960

Through the eyes of young Scout Finch, Lee’s beloved classic watches a childhood collide with the injustice and complexity of the adult world. Wise, warm and morally serious, it is one of the great novels of losing innocence and gaining conscience. Essential reading about the moment a child begins, at last, to truly see.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Betty Smith · 1943

Smith’s tender novel follows a bright, book-loving girl growing up poor in early-twentieth-century Brooklyn, hungry for a bigger life. Rich, humane and unforgettable, it captures the ache and hope of coming of age against the odds. A deeply moving read about the resilience and dreams of the young.

Stargirl

Jerry Spinelli · 2000

Spinelli’s luminous novel follows a magnetic, free-spirited girl whose refusal to conform turns a whole high school upside down. It is a beautiful story about the courage it takes to stay yourself through the fierce pressures of growing up. A lovely, quietly radical read for any young person, or anyone who remembers being one.

The Outsiders

S. E. Hinton · 1967

Written when Hinton was just a teenager herself, this raw, enduring novel follows a group of working-class boys navigating loyalty, violence and loss. It has spoken to generations about belonging, class and the hard edges of growing up too fast. A powerful, unpretentious read that has never stopped feeling true.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou · 1969

Angelou’s landmark memoir of her childhood in the segregated American South is a testament to the resilience of a young spirit meeting hardship, racism and trauma, and finding, in words, a way to rise. Lyrical and unflinching, it is one of the great accounts of growing up. Unforgettable and deeply humane.

Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi · 2000

Satrapi’s brilliant graphic memoir tells of her childhood during the Iranian Revolution, growing up clever, rebellious and afraid in a world turned upside down. Funny, fierce and moving, it makes an extraordinary coming-of-age vivid and immediate. A wonderful, eye-opening read about becoming yourself in the hardest of circumstances.

Poems about growing up

For leaving childhood behind

from “When I Was One-and-Twenty”

A. E. Housman, 1896

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
‘Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away’…
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.

Housman catches the exact moment of growing up: the young man who could not possibly be told, and now, a single year older and wiser, knows the old advice was right all along. It is rueful, funny and true. A perfect little poem about learning the hard way, which is, of course, the only way we ever really learn.

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from “Incident”

Countee Cullen, 1925

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
…Of all the things that happened there
That’s all that I remember.

In a handful of plain lines, Cullen captures a child’s first, wounding brush with the cruelty of the world, a single moment that eclipses everything else about a whole trip. It is the loss of innocence rendered with devastating restraint. A quietly powerful poem about the moments that mark us as we grow.

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from “A Life-Lesson”

James Whitcomb Riley, 1887

There! little girl; don’t cry!
They have broken your doll, I know;
And your tea-set blue,
And your play-house, too,
Are things of the long ago;
But childish troubles will soon pass by.
There! little girl; don’t cry!

Riley’s gentle poem speaks to the child in all of us, promising that the heartbreaks of one age become the small, outgrown sorrows of the next. It is tender without being untrue. A comforting poem for anyone in the thick of growing pains, or watching someone they love go through them.

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Quotes & Prose

Quotes about growing up to keep

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

E. E. Cummings

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In youth we learn; in age we understand.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

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Childhood is the most beautiful of all life’s seasons.

Author unknown

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We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another.

Anaïs Nin

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Growing up is not one clean leap but a thousand small lettings-go, and a thousand small becomings, most so quiet you only notice them years later.

Georgia Clare

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From Georgia

Becoming yourself

A gentle practice for coming home to who you truly are, and an essay on stepping off the exhausting search for other people’s approval.

Coming Back to Your True Self

Guided meditation by Georgia Clare

A guided practice for setting aside who you think you should be, and returning gently to the person you actually are.

Listen Now For Free

Stop Seeking Validation from Other People

Personal essay by Georgia Clare · The Library

On the quiet, freeing work of growing into your own person, and trusting your own sense of who you are rather than the crowd’s.

Read the Essay →

The 21-Day Meditation Course

Guided Meditation Course · Georgia Clare

Three weeks of short, guided meditations to help you build a calm, steady daily practice, one day at a time.

Start the 21-Day Course →

Questions people ask

Reading for Growing Up

Where should I start?

Start with To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the great novel of a childhood in which the world slowly, painfully comes into focus. And if you want something more recent, Stargirl is a lovely story about staying true to yourself through the pressures of growing up. The poems below are about the bittersweet business of leaving childhood behind.

What can I read about growing up and coming of age?

The stories that capture that strange, formative passage. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and The Outsiders follow young people finding their feet in hard worlds, while the memoirs I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Persepolis show real childhoods shaped by struggle and courage. Or begin with the poems and the lines to keep further down the page.

Which quotes about growing up are worth keeping?

Quotes worth keeping include “Growing up is losing some illusions, in order to acquire others.” (Virginia Woolf), “In youth we learn; in age we understand.” (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach) and “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” (E. E. Cummings). You will find these and more in the quotes section above.

Can reading really help me with growing up?

It genuinely can, whether you are living through it or looking back on it. The great coming-of-age stories let you see your own becoming with more tenderness, and remind you that the awkwardness, the losses and the first hard lessons are things almost everyone passes through. Growing up can feel lonely. These books are proof that it never really was.

Growing Up

Prescribed reading

For leaving childhood behind

Quotes about growing up to keep

Becoming yourself

Reading for Growing Up

Where should I start?

What can I read about growing up and coming of age?

Which quotes about growing up are worth keeping?

Can reading really help me with growing up?

More prescriptions await.