Young adult novels

Beginning in 1990, Random House published a series of original Indy stories aimed at younger readers. The books centered around Indy's adventures as an adolescent, from age 12 to age 15. Initially inspired by River Phoenix's appearance as the young adventurer in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the books began to incorporate themes and characters from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles starting with 1993's Young Indiana Jones and the Titanic Adventure. At the same time, Random House began printing the series under its' Bullseye Books banner. The last entry in the series, Young Indiana Jones and the Eye of the Tiger, was published in 1995. Two additional books (Young Indiana Jones and the Mask of the Madman and Young Indiana Jones and the Ring of Power) were planned, but never published.

Meanwhile, Hachette Livre's translations of the Random House books were meeting with great success in France, and in 1997 the company secured the rights to publish their own original French-language stories. Over the following two years, Hachette released seven Indy books as part of its Bibliothèque Verte series.