In written or oral literature, telling the tales of young adults is perhaps as old as human history. From prehistoric Greek myths like Chloe and Daphnis to later works of drama, women and men have become the main characters of adventures in their teen days. When Shakespeare told the story of Romeo and Juliet, he was narrating the story of young adult lovers. After that time, stories and novels like Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Little Women, Heidi, Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden and Rebecca of the Sunnybrook Farm had tremendous readers for decades.

Books for young adults came into existence after the World War 2 with the start of the Rock'n Roll era. The stories in books for young adults are written for teens and are normally told from the point of view of teens. The main characters are teenagers and a great number of the plots normally involve teenager problems and the way the teenagers face and overcome them. Since with each time the teenager problems have changed, the stories which portray those problems changed too.

From the inception of the books for young adults, sociologists have praised the stories, because the teenagers find out how troubles or tribulations similar to theirs can be handled. The problems can be weight or health issues, loneliness, teen pregnancy, family and peer troubles or depression.

In contrast to those people who applaud books for young adults, a small group claims that reading too much books for young adults has been alienating the teenager readers from the real literature. However, the study of literature challenges such critics, because good fiction can't be classified. Dream Caster by Najeev Raj Nadarajah, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, some Stephen King books like Carrie, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, and Lord of the Flies by William Golding can fit inside the definition of books for young adults.

Additionally, some young adult fiction awards have caused books for young adults to qualify as literature. First books for young adults came into being during the 40s and 50s. Then, between the 60s and the 90s, young adult novels flourished. Writers like Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary led the way in addressing teen problems to become the icons of this genre of literature.

Nowadays, with the introduction of e-books, graphic novels, religious fiction directed to teens and techno-thrillers, the young adult fiction is slowly branching out into subcategories and is gradually becoming more deeply entrenched in popular literature. Some of the stories, like that of Gabriel Zevin's and J. K. Rowling's, challenge the imaginations of teenager readers by removing their characters and plots far away from realism into fantasy.

The history of books for young adults may not be too old, but the future appears to be very bright. Because the best novels are those that a reader can relate to, a majority of teenagers have resorted to reading voraciously, leaving worthless pursuits aside. Generally, this is no measly feat.