Texts about Growing Up
In this section, you can find an index of texts about growing up that are often used in the classroom. The texts are organised by genre and for each text we include a link to Studienet’s detailed study guide about that particular text. Below each text you can find a short description.
Note that most of these texts have other themes besides Growing Up, so it is possible you will meet them in a different context.
Short stories about Growing Up
The following short stories are often used in connection with the theme of Growing Up. Many of them appear in popular textbooks.
A young traveller gets into serious trouble when he becomes involved in a drug deal.
A teenage girl rebels by stripping naked in front of her entire school, but the gesture does not have the intended effect
A teenage girl is on a flight by herself and befriends another passenger. Her new friend is not what she appears to be.
A father takes his son hunting to make him a man, but a very disturbing twist at the end reveals that the situation is not as it seems.
An aboriginal boy befriends a white boy at school, but their friendship struggles against the racism in Australian society.
A young African-American girl goes for a walk to pick flowers, but finds horrifying evidence of past atrocities instead.
A young boy visits his future school in this ironically titled short story.
A doctor and his son help a Native American woman deliver her baby, but the procedure has unintended consequences.
A man takes a boy on a kangaroo hunt to teach him how to kill. The boy learns his lesson a little too well.
A white boy befriends an aboriginal boy at school, but their friendship does not survive when they grow up. Years later, they meet again.
A runaway teenage girl crosses paths with a dangerous criminal. This story is sometimes used in connection with the theme of Violence instead of Growing Up.
A father learns an important life lesson when he forces his unprepared daughter to climb a mountain with him.
A teenage girl is torn between two identities, but makes a decision in the end.
A young man tries to fix the problems of society in a very unusual way, but cannot fix his own family.
A boy is excited to meet his childhood hero, until he learns that the man is not what he expected.
Poems about Growing Up
The following poems all deal with the theme of Growing Up in different ways.
A history teacher tries to protect his students from the dark realities of life by presenting modified versions of tragic events.
A grown man looks back upon the decisions he has made during his life.
The tale of two children who are bullied at school and how their lives turn out afterwards.
Non-fiction texts about Growing Up
Here are a few of the non-fiction texts you may encounter when working with Growing Up, especially if you are focusing on parenting or bullying.
A television experiment about social climbing.
A father shares his frustration about raising a rebellious teenage son.