These best books for ninth graders are one last step before gritty YA (honestly a lot of YA is really gritty these days). Ninth graders are typically between 14 and 15 years old and well in teen territory. Still, I have included some upper middle-grade and sweet YA on this list for more conservative readers. My next list in this series (beginning from second grade books!) will be a broad “books for teens” list, but if your kids are just dipping their toes into “real YA” this is a great jump-off point.