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This fall for the first time in 18 years, I’m a student again. I’ve decided I want to finish my degree, so I’m taking classes at my local community college while working full-time. I’m so excited about being back in school—if anyone tells you you’re too old to revel in new notebooks and pens, do not listen to them—and about all the positive changes this big life decision is leading me toward. I’ve also been thinking a lot about what it means to go back to school, especially as an adult.
Lots of adults return to school for lots of different reasons: to finish (or start!) college degrees, to learn new trades, to do graduate work. But when I think of the phrase “back to school,” it conjures up images of college and high school students with backpacks full of textbooks. Where are all the back-to-school books for adults?
It’s common for people in their late 20s, 30s, 40s, and even 50s to return to school. So many of my friends have taken this path, and now I am, too. Here’s a list of non-traditional back-to-school books for us. Some of these are books about thinking and studying and reading. Some are about new beginnings. Some are set at colleges or high schools and some are about teachers. Some embody the spirit of returning to something after a long break or looking at the world with fresh eyes. I hope they fill you with the feelings of possibility and excitement that back-to-school season brings, no matter how old you are.
Teacher of the Year by M.A. Wardell
Does anything say back-to-school for adults more than a romance set at a school? Marvin loves being a kindergarten teacher. He’s very good at his job, which makes it easy for him to ignore…well, everything else in his life. That’s until he meets Olan, the single dad of a new student. Falling in love with a parent wasn’t the plan, but sometimes the unexpected experiences are the best ones. This is a very sweet, low-stakes, and entertaining romance.
Inciting Joy by Ross Gay
Ross Gay’s essay on school is one of my favorite essays of all time, and it’s one I want to hand to every student, teacher, university faculty member, and parent I know. It’s an essay for anyone with complicated and contradictory feelings about school. But it’s not the only brilliant essay in this book, which is about joy and basketball and music and grief and being human. I can only imagine what a wonderful professor Gay is himself. Spending time with his words is the next best thing to being in his class.
The Trees Witness Everything by Victoria Chang
This collection of short poems, all written in various Japanese forms, such as the tanka, may seem like a bizarre pick for a back-to-school books list. But hear me out. These poems are short, often just 3-7 lines, which makes them perfect for reading in little bursts of time between classes and homework. They’re very beautiful and soothing. Chang writes about death and grief and aging, but she also writes about birds, rain, light, the moon, trees. Her imagery is stark and surprising, but the poems feel accessible, sometimes wonderfully simple. This is a book anyone can enjoy, even if you’re new to poetry, which makes it a perfect back-to-school book.
Dear Wendy by Ann Zhao
Yes, this is a YA novel, but if you’re looking for a novel that gives you that back-to-school feeling of newness, this is your book. I can’t remember the last time a book captured the specificities of life on a college campus with so much honesty and detail. The story follows Sophie and Jo, two first-year students at Wellesley who run rival Instagram advice accounts. On the internet, they fight, but in real life, they bond over their shared asexuality and soon become best friends. This is a fantastic queer friendship story with the stakes of a romance.
How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo
No matter what field you’re studying, school involves reading, and, of course, thinking. There is no better book out there on reading and thinking than Elaine Castillo’s brilliant essay collection, all about what it means to be a reader in the world. Castillo goes far beyond surface-level conversations about politics and representation in media to get at something much more fundamental: what do we mean we when talk about reading, anyway? What responsibilities do readers have? Does reading even matter in a world full of so much oppression and injustice? This is a book I’ll be rereading forever.
Olivia by Dorothy Strachey
This underground lesbian classic from 1949 completely wowed me when I read it a few years ago. I was expecting something maybe juicy and fun. I was not expecting a razor-sharp character study about teenage queer desire and the terrifying, exhilarating, confusing experience of realizing you have a body that wants things. The novel takes place over one tumultuous year at a small French finishing school near Paris. Olivia, who arrives at the school from England, tumbles into deep infatuation with her headmistress. I promise it’s not trite or cliche; Strachey handles the subject matter with incredible nuance.
There’s Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib
Like Ross Gay, Hanif Abdurraqib is an author who always takes me to school. His latest book is about basketball and Columbus, Ohio, about leaving and returning, about belonging and home. It feels more like a book-length poem than anything else. It’s structured like a basketball game (literally—the section headers are a clock ticking down). It’s the sort of book that makes me glad to be alive and glad to be a person who can learn things. It makes me want to study everything around me more deeply, to ask bigger questions. What could be more back-to-school than that?
Any Other City by Hazel Jane Plante
Does this book have anything to do with school? No, but I think it’s a perfect back-to-school book because it’s about a character starting over, on her own, in a new place—twice. It’s structured as a fictional memoir about a trans musician, told through two pivotal moments in her life set 20 years apart. It’s a beautiful novel about starting over in the midst of heartbreak and struggle and about seeing your past life in new ways.
Looking for more back-to-school books? You might like this list of books about adults going back to school at various ages and in different contexts. If you’re looking for back-to-school books for other ages, check out these back-to-school picture books, and these back-to-school YA books.
