Ever since the Young Adult novel boom that began in the 2010s, any YA book that becomes even a little bit popular is immediately workshopped into a screen adaptation. It makes sense; most YA books are meant to keep the reader engaged and have very cinematic stories, especially the ones that lean more towards sci-fi and fantasy, which makes them perfect for the screen. The Hunger Games and Divergent are some of the more well-known examples, and there have been countless others that were either well-received by fans (like the recent Shadow and Bone series on Netflix) or flopped and flew completely under the radar (or, like Divergent, didn't even get to finish the series of movies). Fans can turn on an adaptation very quickly if it doesn't live up to its source material, or if too much of it is changed.
One of the most infamous examples of this is the Percy Jackson movies. So much of what made the books great was changed, and it resulted in two films that are underwhelming at best and just plain bad at worst. However, Disney Plus just gave the green light to a Percy Jackson TV series, which gives the series a chance for redemption with their on-screen adaptations, especially now that the author Rick Riordan is directly involved in the writing process. Turning the series into a TV show gives the story more room to explore the characters and get into every little detail. In fact, turning popular book series into TV shows rather than movies is probably the best way to go about it. So this begs the question: what other YA books would work well as a TV show?
The Selection series
The Selection is a series of books about a dystopian North America where 35 girls are picked to compete for the hand of Prince Maxon and leave their lives behind, which is especially appealing for those who come from the lower castes in society. It's basically The Bachelor, but with princes and castles and gowns instead of a bunch of future social media influencers living in a poorly decorated mansion in California.
This is what makes it perfect for a TV adaptation, because it could be structured like a season of The Bachelor, with contestants slowly going home each episode, and the audience seeing the competition through the protagonist America Singer's eyes. There has been a movie adaptation of this series in the works for years now, but it's still in development and since there hasn't been a lot of news on it, things don't look promising. A movie seems the wrong track to go for this series anyway; since the story is based on the style of dating shows like The Bachelor, it makes sense to have it structured just like one of those reality TV shows.
The Falling Kingdoms series
YA screen adaptations are rather lacking in the fantasy department. This series would be the perfect one to adapt for the screen because it's often cinematic and would work really well in a long-form episodic format because the series itself is on the longer side. There's magic, there's violence (that can even be a bit graphic at times but would lead to great shock-value moments on screen), and there's plenty of romance and characters getting shoved against walls with blades to their throat - and who doesn't love that trope?
It would be easy to call this "baby Game of Thrones" or something along those lines, though it's quite a bit tamer than that, but it would be so fun to have a big fantasy series that's geared towards teenagers specifically. The world of Mytica has plenty of lore and interesting characters to explore, and though it's not a super popular series, it would still make a fantastic TV show.
The Throne of Glass series
Speaking of teen fantasy novels, it's kind of wild that the incredibly popular Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas hasn't been given a screen adaptation yet. The series has its flaws, especially in later books, but it's been such a big hit amongst YA fans for years that it would make so much sense to turn it into a TV show. Like Falling Kingdoms, it would be a fantasy show aimed at teenagers, and there are a lot of complex characters that would be interesting to explore over the course of many episodes.
One of the criticisms of the series is that it sort of changes directions as the books go on and becomes very divorced from what the series started as. Though that's a bit jarring in a book series, it would make more sense in a TV show because each season could have a bit of a different feel to it, and they could perhaps make the transition a bit smoother with some writing tweaks in an adaptation. Again, there have actually been talks about turning this series into a TV show at Hulu, but there hasn't been any concrete news for a while.
The Gallagher Girls series
Nothing seems like more perfect TV material than a story about an all-girls boarding school for spies, right? The Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter seems like it would translate perfectly to a Netflix teen series, mostly because shows about schools, especially boarding schools, seem to be popular. After all, the idea of a boarding school that's not just a normal school, but one that teaches teen girls how to become international spies is something that a TV series could get a lot of potential out of. So many current shows about high school students are really dark and edgy (think Euphoria), and it would be interesting to have one that's a bit lighter and more on the fun side. This series is one of the more underrated ones in the YA genre, but it could become an instant hit if it was given the chance.
We Hunt The Flame (The Sands of Arawiya series)
We Hunt The Flame (and its sequel We Free The Stars) by Hafsah Faizal is one of the more recent YA sensations after blowing up on BookTok (the side of TikTok populated by avid readers), and it has garnered a lot of well-deserved praise. The world-building and magic system in this series is vibrant and lush, and the characters are incredibly compelling. This is another series that would make a fantastic fantasy world, and would feel especially fresh because the world is inspired by ancient Arabia, rather than the typical medieval European aesthetic.
Rather than an ongoing series with multitudes of seasons, this one might work best as a limited series, considering there are only two books in the series (though of course, the world of Arawiya is complex enough that the show could probably extend on past the books if it wanted to). There is a lot of interesting tension between characters and a lot of intricate lore and magic that would be so cool to see translated to the screen. The rights to the series were optioned out for a screen adaptation last year, but again, there hasn't been much news on the progress or whether or not it's still happening, though it would be such a missed opportunity not to take advantage of this story.