Dubliners (1914; rpt. 1949) by James Joyce is a collection of short stories that has become one of the classics of the coming-of-age genre. Joyce's protagonists struggle to find their identities and learn the meaning of life in vividly depicted Catholic neighborhoods of Dublin.

"Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates is the companion story to "How I Contemplated" in which a young girl's sexual awakening occurs against a backdrop of potential violence.

This Boy's Life (1989) by Tobias Wolfe is the successful college professor and writer's memoir of his childhood in an unstable family in a working-class town in the Northwest. The book, which was made into a film starring Robert De Niro and Leonardo De Caprio, is notable because the point of view never wavers from the child's perspective.