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Health
Information Project Fiction Collection
Just in time for summer! Check out our titles!
With
a Mid-Hudson Library System card, you may borrow titles from one of the
library Centers, from any System public
library or you may REQUEST
A TITLE from your library's online catalog.
Book
titles are listed under the following subject areas with overlapping topics
listed in parentheses after each book summary (or, to search for a specific
title or keyword, on your menu bar, go to "Edit" and then type
your selection in the "Find" area):
ABUSE
(see also DATING ISSUES & VIOLENCE PREVENTION)
Absolute
Brightness. By James Lecesne. HarperTeen 2008.
In the beach town of Neptune, New Jersey, Phoebe's life is changed irrevocably
when her gay cousin moves into her house and soon goes missing. This is
the story of a luminous force of nature: a boy who encounters evil and
whose magic isn’t truly felt until he disappears. (Sexual Identity,
Violence Prevention)
Born
Blue. By Han Nolan. Harcourt, 2003.
Janie was four years old when she nearly drowned due to her mother's neglect.
Through an unhappy foster home experience, and years of feeling that she
is unwanted, she keeps alive her dream of someday being a famous singer.
(Foster Homes, Family Issues)
Bruises.
By Anke De Vrie. Front Street, 2003.
While living in Holland, Michael meets Judith, who is frightened, bullied,
and beaten by her mother and blames herself for the abuse she is enduring.
(Family Issues)
Dirty
Liar. By Brian James. Push, 2006.
No longer able to tolerate living with his alcoholic mother and her abusive
boyfriend, high schooler Benji, nicknamed Dogboy, has moved in with his
emotionally distant father, stepmother, and stepsister, and strives to
be invisible at home and at school until a series of events forces him
to express himself. (Self-Esteem, Family Issues)
Freaky
Green Eyes. By Joyce Carol Oates. HarperCollins, 2003.
Fifteen-year-old Franky relates the events of the year leading up to her
mother's mysterious disappearance and her own struggle to discover and
accept the truth about her parents' relationship. (Violence, Family Issues)
Living
Dead Girl. By Elizabeth Scott. Simon Pulse, 2008.
When Alice was 10, Ray abducted her from a class trip and taught her how
to be a “good girl.” After five years of horrifying sexual
and emotional abuse, Alice believes no one will help her. Despite near
starvation, wax treatments to remove her pubic hair, and pills to suppress
her periods, Alice's body is becoming too mature—and she knows Ray
will kill her soon. (Coping)
The
Rules of Survival.
By Nancy Werlin. Dial, 2006.
Seventeen-year-old Matthew recounts his attempts, starting at a young
age, to free himself and his sisters from the grip of their emotionally
and physically abusive mother. (Family Issues)
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. By Chris Crutcher. HarperTempest, 1993.
Sarah Byrnes and Eric have been friends for years. When they were children,
his fat and her terrible scars made them both outcasts. Now Sarah, the
smartest, toughest person Eric has ever known -- sits silent in the hospital.
He must uncover the terrible secret she's hiding. (Body Image, Bullying)
Such
a Pretty Girl. By Laura Wiess. Pocket Books,
2007. Haunted by flashbacks, fifteen-year-old Meredith learns that three
years in prison has not changed the abusive father who molested her. (Self-Image,
Family Issues)
Suckerpunch.
By David Hernandez. HarperTeen, 2008.
Shy, seventeen-year-old Marcus and his sixteen-year-old brother, Enrique,
accompanied by two friends, drive from their home in southern California
to Monterey to confront the abusive father who walked out a year earlier,
and who now wants to return home. (Violence, Family Issues)
What
Mr. Mattero Did. By Priscilla Cummings. Dutton Books, 2005.
Three seventh-grade girls accuse their music teacher of having touched
them inappropriately and sexually. (Self-Image)
When
Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune. By Lori Aurelia Williams.
Simon & Schuster, 2000.
Shayla lives in Houston and doesn't know what to think about her strange
neighbor, Kambia who tells the most fantastic stories. (Sexual Abuse,
African Americans, Family Issues)
When
She Hollers. By Cynthia Voigt. Scholastic, 1994.
It's the day that Tish decides that her stepfather will never touch her
again. (Child Sexual Abuse, Incest, Family Issues)
Uncle
Vampire. By Cynthia Grant. Atheneum, 1993.
At the end of this compelling depiction of the trauma of sexual abuse,
Carolyn, 16, summons the courage to tell someone what her Uncle Toddy
has done for as long as she can remember. (Incest, Family Issues, Mental
Health)
You
Don't Know Me. By David Klass. Frances Foster Books, 2001.
John, abused by his mother's boyfriend, engages in interior monologues
that examine his life, with humor and quirky insights. (Self-Image, Coping)
BACK
TO TOPICS
ALCOHOL
USE & TEENAGERS
Before,
After and Somebody in Between.
By Jeannine Garsee. Bloomsbury, 2007.
One hour
into her first day of tenth grade, Martha Kowalski knows she’s really
in trouble. The school bully, Chardonnay, has already threatened her life
– and at home, things are even worse. Martha’s mom, fresh
out of rehab, is shacking up with a total jerk in a run-down two-family
house. (Bullying, Family Issues)
Best
Foot Forward. By Joan Bauer. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2005.
For sixteen-year-old Jenna, life is finally coming together as she deals
with her father's alcoholism, her best friend, and a possible romance.
Problems begin when her employer hires Tanner who has been caught shoplifting.
(Alcoholism, Interpersonal Relations)
The
Blue Mirror.
By Kathe Koja. Puffin, 2005.
Seventeen-year-old loner Maggy Klass, who frequently seeks refuge from
her alcoholic mother's apartment by sitting and drawing in a local cafe,
becomes involved in a destructive relationship with a charismatic homeless
youth named Cole. (Homelessness, Family Issues)
The
Boy Who Drank Too Much. By Shep Greene. Dell Publishing, 1979.
A teenage hockey star tries to cope with his problems through drinking,
but finally seeks help through his friends. (Family Issues)
Buried.
By Robin Merrow MacCready. Dutton, 2006.
When her alcoholic mother goes missing, seventeen-year-old Claudine begins
to spin out of control, despite her attempts to impose order on every
aspect of her life. (Family Issues, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
Comfort.
By Carolee Dean. Houghton Mifflin, 2002.
Fourteen-year-old Kenny Roy Willson fantasizes about escape from his hometown
of Comfort, Texas, following his alcoholic father's release from prison.
(Coping Skills, High School, Family Issues)
Crunch
Time. By Mariah Fredericks. Atheneum, 2006.
Four students form a study group to prepare for the SAT exam, and the
reader learns that standardized tests don't reflect the real person. (Interpersonal
Relations)
Leftovers.
By Laura Wiess. Pocket Books, 2008.
Blair and Ardith are best friends who have committed an unforgivable act
in the name of love and justice. Listen as they describe parents who are
alternately absent and smothering, classmates who mock and shun anyone
different, and young men who are allowed to hurt and dominate without
consequence. (Abuse, Family Issues, Violence Prevention)
Not
Like You. By Deborah Davis. Clarion Books, 2007.
Kayla's mother has made the 15 years of her daughter's life unpredictable,
from moving for "fresh starts" to drunken binges, no money,
loser boyfriends, and a year in foster care. Kayla is tired of being the
adult and of letting a guy use her for sex just to feel loved. When Marilyn
moves them to New Mexico, Kay is skeptical, but she begins to make a life
for herself by walking dogs and making friends, especially with a 24-year-old
musician. (Coping, Sexual Behavior, Family Issues)
A
Room on Lorelei Street.
By Mary E. Pearson. Henry Holt and Company, 2005.
To escape a miserable existence taking care of her alcoholic mother, seventeen-year-old
Zoe rents a room from an eccentric woman, but her earnings as a waitress
after school are minimal and she must go to extremes to cover expenses.
(Family Problems)
Sarah
T: Portrait of a Teen-Age Alcoholic. By Robin S. Wagner. Ballantine
Books, 1975.
A shocking and compassionate look at the growing problem of adolescent
liquor abuse... and the desperate need for rehabilitation.
Serious
Kiss. By Mary Hogan. HarperCollins Publishers, 2004.
Relates the angst-ridden life of fourteen-year-old Libby Madrigal as she
tries to deal with her unhappily married alcoholic father and overeating
mother, moving to a new town, and finding the perfect boy to "seriously"
kiss.
(Family Issues, Eating Disorders)
BACK
TO TOPICS
BODY
IMAGE & EATING DISORDERS
Alt
Ed. By Catherine Atkins. Penguin Group, 2003.
Participating in a special after-school counseling class with other troubled
students, including a sensitive gay classmate, helps Susan, an overweight
tenth grader, develop a better sense of herself.
(Interpersonal Relations, Sexual Identity)
Artichoke’s Heart. By Suzanne Supplee. Penguin, 2008.
Rosemary Goode tips the scale at almost 200 pounds and lists Sara Lee and Oprah as her only real friends. When the scale reaches an all-time high and she notices a cute boy in school, Rosemary realizes that she wants to change. And so begins a journey toward self-discovery.(Self-Esteem)
The
Best Little Girl in the World. By Steve Levenkron. Contemporary
Books, 1978.
A revealing story about a teenager, Francesca Deitrich, who suffers from
destructive anorexia nervosa.
Big
Fat Manifesto.
By Susan Vaught. Bloomsbury, 2008.
Writing a column every week in the school newspaper about what it really
means to be fat, Jamie Carcaterra – high school senior, star of
her school's production of The Wiz, and features editor of The Wire offers
readers a hilarious account of her full-size fight to change the thinking
of a thin world. (Self-Esteem)
Crystal.
By Walter Dean Myers. HarperCollins Publishers, 1987.
Fifteen-year-old Crystal has difficulty trying to reconcile her personal
and school life with the sexy, sophisticated persona her career as a quickly
advancing high-fashion model has forced upon her. (African American Women)
Does
This Book Make Me Look Fat? By Marissa Walsh. Clarion, 2008.
Fourteen authors and artists weigh in on body image with a number of the
entries autobiographical. Lists of relevant books, movies, songs and Web
sites are welcome extras.
The
Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. By Carolyn Mackler.
Candlewick, 2003.
Feeling like she does not fit in with the other members of her family
who are all thin, brilliant, and good-looking, fifteen-year-old Virginia
tries to deal with her self-image, her first physical relationship, and
her disillusionment with some of the people closest to her. (Family Issues)
Fat Hoochie Prom
Queen. By Nico Medina. Simon Pulse, 2008.
Margarita "Madge" Diaz is fat, foxy, and fabulous. She loves
herself, and is adored by almost everyone else...except queen bee/student-body
president Bridget Benson. During a heated argument, they decide there's
only one way to end their rivalry: be named prom queen and the other backs
off. (Dating Issues, Interpersonal Relations)
The Fold. By An Na. Penguin, 2008.
Joyce never used to care that much about how she looked, but that was
before she met John Ford Kang, the most gorgeous guy in school. Then her
rich plastic-surgery-addict aunt offers Joyce a gift to fix her eyes.
Joyce has heard of the fold surgery, a common procedure meant to make
Asian women's eyes seem more "American" but she's not sure she
wants to go through with it. (Interpersonal Relations, Korean Americans,
Self-Esteem, Prejudice/Racism)
Girls
Under Pressure. By Jacqueline Wilson. Delacorte Press, 2002.
Ellie learns to deal with her self-image as she battles anorexia.
Huge.
By Sasha Paley. Simon Pulse, 2007.
April's been saving all year to afford Wellness Canyon (a.k.a. Fat Camp)
and she can't wait to start losing weight. Wil's wealthy health-nut parents
are forcing her to go to the camp, but Wil is determined to get revenge
by gaining weight. Instead of working together to meet their weight-loss
goals, but soon they're both crushing on the same guy and hiking to 7-Eleven.
Massive.
By Julia Bell. Simon Pulse, 2005.
Because of her mother's obsession with weight, coupled with the false
idea that being thin is the key to success, young Carmen becomes just
as obsessed as her mother in having a perfect body. (Eating Disorders,
Family Issues)
Maggie
Bean Stays Afloat. By Tricia Rayburn. Aladdin Mix, 2008.
At the end of a tumultuous year, Maggie Bean is healthy and happy. After
months of Pound Patrollers attendance, diet and tough swim workouts, the
scale reads 146. But she has a busy summer ahead, and has to learn to
juggle her new popularity with her old friends.
Melting
of Maggie Bean. By Tricia Rayburn. Aladdin Mix, 2007.
Maggie Bean's dad lost his job and her mom's stressed about money. So
Maggie focuses on what she does best: keeping up her straight-A average
and eating chocolate. Everything changes when she has a chance to try
out for the synchronized swim team. Will people be able to see beyond
her pudgy body to the funny, cool girl hiding underneath? (Coping,
Family Issues)
Mercy,
Unbound. By Kim Antieau. Simon Pulse, 2006.
Believing she has wings and is an angel on earth, fifteen-year-old Mercy
decides to stop eating due to her adamant view that angels don't need
food, but when she is forced to go to an eating disorder clinic, Mercy
begins to see things in a new light. (Family Issues, Religious Beliefs)
Model
Summer. By Paulina Porizkova. Hyperion, 2007.
Paris, 1980. Everyone is beautiful and glamorous. At the edge of the crowd
is 14-year-old Jirina who has always been too tall, too skinny and too
odd to be popular. She spent most of her time taking care of her sister,
hiding from her irritable mother and feeling like she could do nothing
right until she was discovered by a Parisian modeling agency. Will she
be able to return to her former life after having a taste of freedom?
(Coping)
Purge.
By Sarah Littman. Scholastic, 2009.
Janie Ryman hates throwing up. So why does she binge eat and then stick
her fingers down her throat several times a day? That's what the doctors
and psychiatrists at Golden Slopes hope to help her discover. But first
Janie must survive shifting friendships and alliances among the kids in
the ward.
Out
of Order. By Robin Stevenson. Orca, 2007.
Sophie spent a year starving herself. Now she’s walked through the
front doors of a new school, with her heart hammering. She keeps her eyes
straight ahead, hoping no one will notice her and that no one will suspect
what she doesn’t want them to know – that she used to be fat.
(Friendship, High School, Self-Esteem)
More
Than You Can Chew. By Marnelle Tokio. Tundra, 2003.
Marty Black may not be able to control her parents' behavior, but she
can decide what she will and will not eat. Eventually, she stops eating
altogether. Marty is close to death when she finally asks for help and
finds herself in a psychiatric institution. But recognizing her need for
help is only the first tenuous step on a long road to recovery. (Self-Acceptance)
My
Sister's Bones. By Cathi Hanaur. Delacorte Press, 1996.
From September to May is an eventful few months in the life of a plucky
New Jersey girl, a doctor's younger daughter who is coming of age just
as her beautiful older sister begins to succumb to anorexia. (Anorexia
Nervosa, Sisters)
Skin.
By Adrienne Maria Vrettos. Margaret K, McElderry Books, 2006.
When his parents decide to separate, eighth grader Donnie watches with
horror as the physical condition of his sixteen-year-old sister, Karen,
deteriorates due to an eating disorder. (Anorexia Nervosa, Family Issues)
Specials.
By Scott Westerfeld. Simon Pulse, 2006.
Tally was once an ugly, but is now programmed as a Special. She is programmed
to keep the Uglies down and the Pretties stupid. Will her past interfere
with orders and save the lives of those she cared for?
(Decision Making, Self-Esteem, Survival, Body Image)
This
Book Isn't Fat, It's Fabulous. By Nina Beck. Point, 2008.
Manhattan It Girl Riley Swain is no pudgy wallflower. She's brash, bold,
fashionable, and yes, fabulous. But this spring break, Riley's dad and
wicked stepmother are shipping her off to New Horizons, a two-week fat
camp in upstate New York. Then Riley gets to know adorable Eric, who sees
beyond Riley's tough exterior. (Dating)
Uglies.
By Scott Westerfeld. Simon Pulse, 2005.
Tally can't wait for her sixteenth birthday to become pretty like all
the other perfect girls. But her new friend Shay isn't sure she wants
to be pretty and runs away. Tally is forced to choose between helping
her friend and transforming into a perfect beauty. (Runaways, Decision
Making)
Wintergirls.
By Laurie Halse Anderson. Viking, 2009.
Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies,
competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what
comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the
demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend's restless
spirit. (Death & Grief, Family Issues)
BACK
TO TOPICS
BULLYING
(see also COPING SKILLS & VIOLENCE PREVENTION)
The
Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl.
By Barry Lyga. Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
A fifteen-year-old "geek" who keeps a list of the high school
jocks and others who torment him, and pours his energy into creating a
great graphic novel, encounters Kyra, Goth Girl, who helps change his
outlook on almost everything, including himself. (Coping Skills, Friendship)
The
Beckoners. By Carrie Mac. Orca Book Publishers, 2004.
Alienation and terror would be the only future for Zoe if she did not
give into the local gang. The adults in her life are preoccupied with
themselves or don't care. She has no choice but to witness and partake
in the bullying of her entire community just to survive. (Female Gangs,
Children of Alcoholics, Violence Prevention)
Bad
Girls, Bad Girls, Whatcha Gonna Do? By Cynthia Voigt. Atheneum
Books for Young Readers, 2006.
As new ninth-graders eager only to survive high school, Mikey and Margalo
must deal creatively with stolen money and cheating on the tennis courts.
(Best Friends, High School, Sports)
Burn. By Suzanne Phillips. Little, Brown and Company, 2008.
For high school freshman Cameron Grady, every day is a struggle – to get out of bed, make it through classes, and come home without being emotionally and physically tormented by Rich Patterson and his followers. They leave Cameron no choice but to fight back. At least that’s what he tells himself. (Violence Prevention)
Drowning
Anna. By Sue Mayfield. Hyperion, 2002.
Shy Anna is seemingly befriended by the popular Hayley in her new school,
until Hayley's cruel bullying assumes dangerous proportions. (Popularity)
Games:
A Tale of Two Bullies.
By Carol Gorman. HarperCollins, 2007.
When fourteen-year-old rivals Boot Quinn and Mick Sullivan fight once
too often, the new principal devises the punishment of having to play
games together at his office, where they learn which battles are worth
fighting. (Violence Prevention, Middle School)
Mousetraps.
By Pat Schmatz. Carolrhoda Books, 2008.
Back in grade school, Maxie and Rick were best friends. Then something
terrible happened to Rick, and he vanished from her school and her life.
Years later, he shows up at Maxie's high school. But he's very different
. . .
Red
Rage. By Brigitte Blobell. Annick Press, 2007.
Mara has a lot to be angry about. She lives in a bleak housing development
where prospects are dim. Things are no better at home. Rage is the only
thing that offers relief from her world. Then she meets Tim, and there's
a teacher who sees a better future for Mara. But when an unspeakable event
occurs, Mara is forced to look inward, and to the one person who has never
given up hope. (Violence)
The
Revealers. By Doug Wilhelm. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.
Tired of being bullied and picked on, three seventh-grade outcasts join
forces and, using scientific methods and the power of the Internet, begin
to create a new atmosphere at Parkland Middle School.
(Internet, Friendship)
Stitches.
By Glen Huser. Groundwood Books, 2003.
Travis's difficult life is examined over a period of three years, beginning
in seventh grade. The only real constant in his life is Chantelle, a disfigured
girl with a debilitating disease. Picked on unmercifully for no apparent
reason by three bullies, Travis finds some balance through artistic expression,
his encouraging teachers, some genuine friendships, and the support of
his aunt. (Interpersonal Relations)
This
Is What I Did. By Ann Dee Ellis. Little, Brown& Company,
2007.
Imagine if you had witnessed something horrific. Imagine if it had happened
to your friend. And imagine if you hadn't done anything to help. That's
what it's like to be Logan, an utterly frank, slightly awkward, and extremely
loveable outcast enmeshed in a mysterious psychological drama.
(Interpersonal Relations)
BACK
TO TOPICS
CAREERS,
EDUCATION & FINANCES
A
Field Guide to High School. By Marissa Walsh. Delacorte Press,
2007.
When Claire heads off to Yale, she leaves her eighth-grade sister a book
titled A Field Guide to High School. In it, she explains the key to running
the social and academic gambit at their private school, and discusses
the elements of each social group and the importance of knowing what not
to wear. (Coping Skills, Decision Making, Interpersonal Relations)
BACK TO TOPICS
COPING
SKILLS/DECISION MAKING/PEER PRESSURE
Alice
on Her Way. By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Atheneum, 2005.
Alice is adjusting to her new stepmother, her brother's new apartment,
her ex-boyfriend, and getting her driver's license. (High Schools, Family
Issues)
The
Beckoners. By Carrie Mac. Orca Book Publishers, 2004.
Alienation and terror would be the only future for Zoe if she did not
give into the local gang. The adults in her life are preoccupied with
themselves or don't care. She has no choice but to witness and partake
in the bullying of her entire community just to survive. (Female Gangs,
Bullying, Children of Alcoholics)
Before
We Were Free. By Julia Alvarez. Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.
In the early 1960's in the Dominican Republic, twelve-year-old Anita learns
that her family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody
rule of the dictator. (Family Issues)
Book
of Fred.
By Abby Bardi. Washington Square Press, 2001.
Mary Fred Anderson, raised in an isolated fundamentalist sect whose primary
obsessions seem to involve the likelihood of an apocalypse and the spreading
of the name "Fred," is hardly your average fifteen-year-old.
(Religion, Family Issues)
Both
Sides Now. By Ruth Pennebaker. Holt, 2000.
The one thing that Liza could never have planned on was her mother Rebecca
getting breast cancer. (Breast Cancer, Family Issues, High School)
Breaking
Point. By Alex Flinn. HarperCollins, 2002.
Fifteen-year-old Paul enters an exclusive private school and falls under
the spell of a charismatic boy who may be using him. (Friendship, High
School)
Can't
Get There from Here. By Todd Strasser. Simon & Schuster, 2004.
Tired of being hungry, cold, and dirty from living on the streets of New
York City with a tribe of other homeless teenagers who are dying, one
by one, a girl named Maybe ponders her future and longs for someone to
care about her. (Coping)
Catch.
By Will Leitch. Penguin, 2005.
Teenager Tim Temples must decide if he wants to leave his comfortable
life in a small town and go to college. (Colleges and Universities)
Chaser:
A Novel in E-Mails. By Michael J. Rosen.
Candlewick Press, 2002.
When his parents decide to move to an old house in the country, Chase
uses email to his friends back in Columbus, Ohio, and to his sister in
college to help him deal with cicadas, deer hunters, and other changes
in his life. (Interpersonal Relations)
Conditions
of Love. By Ruth Pennebaker. Dell, 2000.
During her freshman year at an elite high school in Dallas, Sarah tries
to come to terms with her own volatile emotions, her changing relationship
with her best friend, feelings about her mother, and new insights into
her dead father whom she idolized. (Family Issues, Death, Interpersonal
Relations)
Criss
Cross. By Rae Lynne Perkins. Greenwillow, 2005.
Teenagers in a small town in the 1960's experience new thoughts and feelings,
question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for
the meaning of life and love. (Interpersonal Relations)
Drift.
By Manuel Luis Martinez. Picador, 2003.
At sixteen, Robert Lomos has lost his family. Only his iron-willed grandmother,
worn down by years of hard work, is left. But, Roberts got a plan.
(Mexican-Americans, Family, Psychology)
Driver's
Ed. By Caroline Cooney. Delacorte, 1994.
A prank goes wrong and a group of friends must evaluate their responsibility
for a car accident. (High School, Death)
Drums,
Girls, & Dangerous Pie. By Jordan Sonnenblick. Scholastic
Press, 2005.
When his younger brother is diagnosed with leukemia, thirteen-year-old
Steven tries to deal with his complicated emotions, his school life, and
his desire to support his family.
(Leukemia, Family Issues, Middle School)
Family
History.
By Dani Shapiro. Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.
Rachel Jensen has it all: a husband she adores, challenging work in art
restoration, a terrific teenage daughter, and a new baby on the way. Then
her infant son is injured in an accident in her daughters arms,
and that accident causes a terrifying lie. (Family Issues, Grief)
Forbidden.
By Judy Waite. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2004.
Elinor has lived in a cult her entire life, but when she meets a boy who
looks strangely familiar, she begins to question what she has been taught.
(Cults, Self-Discovery, Religion)
Fresh
Girl. By Jaira Placide. Wendy Lamb Books, 2002.
After fleeing a coup d'etat in Haiti, Mardi tries to adapt to her new
life in New York until secret memories of her former life are revived
by the sudden appearance of her uncle. (Haitian-Americans)
Gossip
Girl. By Cecily von Ziegesar. Little Brown, 2002.
Gossip Girl herself is an anonymous narrator with the ultimate insider
scoop on the inner-workings of this privileged society because she's one
of them. (Interpersonal Relations)
Guitar
Highway Rose. By Brigid Lowry. Holiday House, 2003.
Two fifteen-year-olds, Rosie and Asher, upset over the various unhappy
circumstances of their lives in the Australian city of Perth, decide to
run away. (Family Issues)
Handbook
for Boys. By Walter Dean Myers. Harper Collins, 2002.
Two African-American youth discover the rules of life, with the help of
Duke and the other older guys. (African-American)
How
Not to Be Popular. By Jennifer Ziegler. Delacorte Press, 2008.
Maggie Dempsey is tired of moving all over the country. Her parents uproot
her every year or so to move to a new city. Maggie hates it. Now that
they've moved to Austin, she decides not to make friends. She's not going
to fit in. (Family
Issues, Interpersonal Relations)
Hush.
By Jacqueline Woodson. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2002.
Under the witness protection program, a young girl has to reinvent herself
and her future in a new city. (African-American)
Hope
Was Here. By Joan Bauer. Thorndike Press, 2001.
Ever since her mother left, Hope has, with her comfort-food-cooking aunt
Addie, been serving up the best in diner food from Pensacola to NYC. (Cancer,
Politics)
If
I Stay. By Gayle Forman. Dutton, 2009.
The last normal moment that Mia, a talented cellist, can remember is being
in the car with her family. Then she is standing outside her body beside
their mangled Buick and her parents' corpses, watching herself and her
little brother being tended by paramedics. (Death & Grief, Dating,
Interpersonal Relations, Family Issues)
King
Dork. By Frank
Portman. Delacorte, 2006.
High school loser Tom Henderson discovers that "The Catcher in the
Rye" may hold the clues to the many mysteries in his life. (Self-Identity,
Family Issues)
The
Last Chance Texaco. By Brent Hartinger. HarperCollins, 2004.
Troubled teen Lucy Pitt struggles to fit in as a new tenant at a last-chance
foster home. (Family Issues)
Leslie's
Journal. By Allan Stratton. Annick Press, 2000.
Leslie's world seems to be crashing around her, and she records it all
in a journal. (Family Issues, Friendship,
Love)
Lucky
Stars (stuttering). By Lucy Frank. Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
2005.
Music entwines Kira, a thirteen-year-old singer who hates that her father
makes her perform for money on New York City subway platforms; Eugene,
the class clown; and Jake, who longs to sing and to approach Kira, but
feels held back by his stuttering. (Family Issues, Self-Esteem)
Lucky
T. By Kate Brian. Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Carrie, a talented and beautiful but selfish teen, is in Calcutta trying
to track down her lucky T-shirt that was accidentally sent to a shelter
there. This shirt is one of the few connections she has with her often-absent,
divorced father. In this foreign land, she finds a lot more than she ever
expects. (Family Issues)
Never
Mind the Goldbergs. By Matthue Roth. Push, 2005.
Hava, a seventeen-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl leaves her home in New
York for the summer to film a television show in California.
(Traditions, Family Issues, Friendship)
Notebook
Girls. By Julia
Baskin. Warner, 2006.
Four teens recount the course of their friendship at one of New York City's
most prestigious public high schools, from their horrified witness to
the September 11 attacks to their efforts to juggle demanding schedules
and social pressures. (Friendship)
One
True Friend. By Joyce Hansen. Clarion Books, 2001.
Fourteen-year-old orphan Amir, living in Syracuse, exchanges letters with
his friend Doris, still living in their old Bronx neighborhood, in which
they share their lives and give each other advice on friendship, family,
foster care, and making decisions. (African Americans, Friendship)
Out
Of Order. By Amanda McRaney Jenkins. HarperCollins, 2003.
Sophomore Colt Trammel loves baseball and his girlfriend Grace, but he
hates the rest of high school and maintains a tough facade to hide his
feelings of inferiority. (High School, Self-Esteem, Interpersonal Relations)
The
Pain Tree and Other Teenage Angst-Ridden Poetry. By Esther Pearl
Watson & Mark Todd. Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
Bold mixed-media illustrations accompany original poetry written by and
for teens. (Poetry,
Anxiety)
Prom.
By Laurie Halse Anderson. Wing, 2005.
Eighteen-year-old Ash wants nothing to do with senior prom, but when disaster
strikes and her desperate friend, Natalia, needs her help to get it back
on track, Ash's involvement transforms her life.
(High School, Self-Realization, Friendship, Family Issues)
The
Real Question.
By Adrian Fogelin. Peachtree, 2006.
Fisher Brown, a sixteen-year-old over-achiever, is on the verge of academic
burnout when he impulsively decides to stop cramming for the SATs for
one weekend and accompany his ne'er-do-well neighbor to an out-of-town
job repairing a roof. (Family Issues)
The
Reappearance of Sam Webber. By Jonathan Fuqua. Candlewick Press,
2001.
Eleven-year-old Sam Webber was never very good at making friends his own
age. In fact, he felt closest to his mother and father. So, Sam is devastated
when, without warning, his father abandons the family. ( Family Issues,
High School)
Sloppy
Firsts: A Novel. By Megan McCafferty. Three Rivers Press, 2001.
Jessica's best friend moved away and now she has to deal with high school
and her family all on her own. (High School, Family Issues)
Surviving
the Applewhites. By Stephanie Tolan. HarperCollins, 2002.
Jake, a budding juvenile delinquent, is sent for home schooling to the
arty and eccentric Applewhite family's Creative Academy, where he discovers
talents and interests he never knew he had. (Theater, Family Issues)
Three
Clams and an Oyster. By Randy Powell. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2002.
Three high school juniors must find a replacement for their football team.
In one weekend they wrestle with the questions of life, death, and loyalty.
(Friendship, Humor)
Travel
Team. By Mike Lupica. Philomel Books, 2004.
After he is cut from his travel basketball team -- the very same team
that his father once led to national prominence -- twelve-year-old Danny
Walker forms his own team of cast-offs that might have a shot at victory.
(Family Issues, Individuality, Teamwork, School Sports)
True
Believer. By Virginia Euwer Wolff. Atheneum Books for Young Adults,
2001.
Living in the inner city amidst guns and poverty, fifteen-year-old LaVaughn
learns from old and new friends and inspiring mentors, that life is what
you make it - an occasion to rise to. (Single-Parent Families, Poverty,
Friendship, Violence)
Truth
About Twelve. By Theresa Golding. Boyds Mills Press, 2004.
Tremendously burdened by a secret guilt, twelve-year-old Lindy uses her
skill at baseball to help her cope with a new school, scornful classmates,
and complicated family problems. (Mental Health, Secrets, Baseball)
Walk
Softly Rachel. By Kate Banks. Frances Foster Books, 2003.
When fourteen-year-old Rachel reads the journal of her brother, who died
when she was seven, she learns secrets that help her understand her parents
and herself. (Family Issues, Death, Secrets)
Whale
Talk. By Chris Crutcher. Greenwillow Books, 2001.
The swim team members, all misfits and in a school that has no pool, grow
together into self-acceptance, but not without heartache. (Sports, High
School)
Worlds
Apart. By Lindsay Lee Johnson. Front Street, 2005.
A thirteen-year-old daughter of a surgeon finds herself wrenched away
from a comfortable lifestyle to a home on the grounds of a mental hospital,
where her father has accepted a five-year contract. (Friendship, Mental
Health, Family Issues)
You're
the One That I Want. Cecily Von Ziegesar. Little, Brown, 2004.
After an agonizing wait for college acceptance letters, Blair, Serena,
Nate, and their classmates at elite Manhattan prep schools discover that
their college choice depends a lot on relationships--old and new. (High
School, College, Decision Making, Friends)
BACK
TO TOPICS
DATING
ISSUES
An
Abundance of Katherines.
By John Green. Dutton, 2006.
Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine,
recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on
a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new direction in
life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his
relationships. (Self-Identity)
After
Summer. By Nick Earls. Graphia, 2005.
Alex Delaney is worried about getting into college until he meets a mysterious
girl named Fortuna. He spends a lot of time with her on the beach, falls
in love, but worries when he realizes that things cannot last.
(Sexual Behavior)
Anything
But Ordinary. By Valerie Hobbs. Frances Foster Books, 2007.
From the moment their friendship begins in eighth grade, Winifred and
Bernie are individualists. They vow to attend college together but when
Bernie’s mother dies and he drops out of school to work in a tire
shop, Winnifred leaves for the University of California at Santa Barbara.
(Death, Coping Skills)
Barb
and Dingbat’s Crybaby Hotline. By Patrick Jennings. Holiday
House, 2007.
Jeff can hardly believe it when he gets the second-hand news that his
girlfriend is dropping him. And what's with Barb anyway? Why does she
keep calling him, and why does he get the feeling she's not telling him
the whole truth? (Interpersonal
Relations)
The
Boy Book. By
E. Lockhart. Delacorte, 2006.
A high school junior continues her quest for relevant data on the male
species, while enjoying her freedom as a newly licensed driver and examining
her friendship with a clean-living vegetarian classmate. (Driving, Friendship)
The
Breakable Vow. By Kathryn Ann Clarke. Avon, 2004.
After eighteen-year-old Annie becomes unexpectedly pregnant, she marries
her boyfriend, but slowly realizes that he is abusive and that she must
decide what she can and will do about the relationship and to keep her
daughter and herself safe. Includes information on the characteristics
of abusive relationships and how to end them. (Pregnancy, Self-Esteem)
Breaking
Up is Hard to Do. By Niki Burnham, Terri Clark, Ellen Hopkins,
Lynda Sandoval. Houghton Mifflin, 2008.
Stories about falling out of love by four popular authors. Each story
shows the resilience of the human heart with a little humor, a little
pain, and lots of truth. (Sexual Identity, Body Image, Sexual Behavior)
Breathing
Underwater. By Alex Flinn. HarperCollins Publisher, 2001.
Sent to counseling for hitting his girlfriend, Caitlin, and ordered to
keep a journal, sixteen-year-old Nick recounts his relationship with Caitlin,
examines his controlling behavior and anger, and describes living with
his abusive father.(Abuse, Violence, Anger Management)
Chicks
with Sticks: Knit Two Together.
By Elizabeth Lenhard. Dutton, 2006.
Chicago high-school juniors Scottie, Amanda, Tay, and Bella, rely on their
friendship and their shared passion for knitting to help them as they
navigate their relationships with boys. (Interpersonal Relationships)
David
& Della. By Paul Zindel. HarperCollins, 1993.
Two creative Manhattan teens who just might be in love -- if Della can
stay out of detox and David gets over his writer's block. (Alcohol Use)
Dead-End
Job. By Vicki Grant. Orca Book Publishing, 2005.
When it turns out that the boy Frances has met at her job working the
nightshift is a stalker, she realizes she may be in serious danger. (Violence)
Dishes.
By Rich Wallace. Viking, 2008.
Ogunquit, Maine. That's not where you'd expect to find a guy like Danny.
Only he and the bartender at Dishes, where he works as a dishwasher, are
straight. But that's not what bothers Danny. What bothers him is that
he's got straight-guy problems in a very gay town. (Sexual Identity)
Dreamland:
A Novel. By Sarah Dessen. Viking, 2000.
Lost in her search for herself, Caitlin wanders in a dream land of drugs
and a nightmare of Rogerson's sudden fists. (Violence, Interpersonal Relationships)
Exposed.
By Susan Vaught. Bloomsbury, 2008.
Chan Shealy's got most things going right in her life. But after the football
quarterback spreads a vicious lie about her, and the whole school decides
she's too trashy for words, Chan begins to wonder if the only place she'll
find love is online. (Family Issues, Violence Prevention, Media Literacy)
Girls.
By Tucker Shaw. Amulet, 2009.
Mary loves Stephen, who is cheating with Crystal, who is cheating with
Flip, Flora's boyfriend. Stylish, mysterious Sylvia delights in exposing
good-girl Mary to this deceit but is shocked to learn that her sweetheart,
Howie, is double-timing her with Miriam. Quietly observing it all is Peggy,
Mary's roommate and best friend. (Interpersonal Relations)
Handcuffs.
By Bethany Griffin. Delacorte, 2008.
Parker Prescott is an ice princess. Parker Prescott is a middle child.
She's the good one, the dependable one, the one her parents trust. Or
she used to be. Her boyfriend came over with handcuffs in his pocket.
Everything went downhill from there. (Sexual Behavior, Media Literacy,
Family Issues)
Head
Games. By Mariah Fredericks. Atheneum, 2004.
Two teenagers connect online in a role-playing game which leads them into
their own face-to-face, half-acknowledged courtship. (Dating, High School)
How
They Met and Other Stories. By David Levithan. Alfred A. Knopf,
2008.
These love stories run the gamut of that emotion that at some point has
turned every one of us inside out and upside down.
Inexcusable.
By Chris Lynch. Ginee Seo Books, 2005.
High school senior and football player Keir sets out to enjoy himself
on graduation night, but when he attempts to comfort a friend and the
love of his life whose date has left her stranded, things go terribly
wrong. (Date Rape, Alcohol, Family Issues)
Major
Crush. By Jennifer
Echols. Simon Pulse, 2006.
When Virginia Sauter is forced to share the title of drum major with arrogant
Drew Morrow, their constant bickering and heated competition turns to
sizzling romance, but explosive rumors threaten the marching band's success.
(Interpersonal Relations)
Past
Forgiving. By Gloria Miklowitz. Simon & Schuster, 1995.
Alex, 15, thinks she's unbelievably lucky to have a boyfriend like Cliff--gorgeous,
polite, popular, talented. So anxious is she to please, she excuses Cliff's
controlling behavior, his angry outbursts, and his jealousy. (Acquaintance
Rape, Violence)
A
Perfect Day for Love Letters, Volume 2. By George Asakura. Ballantine
Books, 2005.
Five stories about love letters and how they affect the lives of those
who receive them. (Interpersonal Relations)
What
Gloria Wants. By Sarah Withrow. Groundwood Books, 2005.
Gloria and Shawna have high school all planned out until Gloria detours
and dates the hottest guy in school. Now she has to learn what it means
to be a girlfriend with a controlling best friend, a phone hogging little
sister, and protective parents.(Best Friends, Dating)
Who
Am I Without Him? Short Stories About Girls and the Boys in Their Lives.
By Sharon G. Flake. Jump at the Sun, 2005.
Twelve short stories about young girls and their boyfriends expose the
ugly and happy truths of teenage relationships. (Abuse, Friendship, Sexual
Behavior)
Year
My Sister Got Lucky. By Aimee Friedman. Scholastic, 2008.
When Katie and Michaela Wilder are uprooted from NYC and planted in rural
Fir Lake, Katie is horrified by their new surroundings. But while Katie
suffers through shopping withdrawal, Michaela transforms into a small-town
social firefly, flirting with the hot quarterback and soaking up nature
with her new friends. (Family Issues)
BACK
TO TOPICS
DEATH
& GRIEF
All
We Know of Heaven. By Jacquelyn Mitchard. HarperTeen 2008.
Bridget Flannery and Maureen O'Malley have been BFFs since forever. Then
a brief moment of inattention on an icy road leaves one girl dead and
the other in a coma. Then the doctors discover they have made a terrible
mistake. The girl who lived is the one who everyone thought had died.
(Substance Abuse, Alcoholism, Family Issues, Sexual Behavior)
Alicia
Afterimage. By Lulu Delacre. Lee & Low Books, 2008.
When 16-year-old Alicia Betancourt is killed in a car accident, those
left behind struggle to cope with the loss.
All
Rivers Flow to the Sea. By Alison McGhee. Candlewick Press, 2005.
After a car accident in the Adirondacks leaves her older sister Ivy brain-dead,
seventeen-year-old Rose struggles with her grief and guilt as she slowly
learns to let her sister go. (Family Issues, Coping Skills)
All
That Remains. By Bruce Brooks. Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
2001.
Three novellas explore the effects of death on young adults. (AIDS, Sports)
The
Battle of Jericho. By Sharon Draper. Atheneum, 2003.
A high school junior and his cousin suffer the ramifications of joining
what seems to be a "reputable" school club.
Before
I Die. By Jenny Downham. David Fickling Books, 2007.
Everyone has to die. With only a few months left to live, 16-year-old
Tessa has made a list of ten things she wants to do before she dies. Starting
with sex. But getting what you want isn’t easy, and it doesn’t
always give you what you need. And sometimes the most unexpected things
become important. (Coping)
Birdland.
By Tracy Mack. Scholastic, 2003.
Thirteen-year-old Jed spends Christmas break working on a school project
filming a documentary about his East Village, New York City neighborhood,
where he is constantly reminded of his older brother, Zeke, a promising
poet who died the summer before. (Family Issues, Disabilities)
Bittersweet.
By Drew Lamm. Clarion, 2003.
When her beloved grandmother suffers a stroke, high school junior and
talented artist Taylor finds her inspiration and creative energy disappearing
until she learns to reconnect with others and herself in unexpected ways.
(Grandmothers, Interpersonal Relations)
Blind
Faith. By Ellen Wittlinger. Simon & Schuster Books for Young
Readers, 2006.
While coping with her grandmother's sudden death and her mother's resulting
depression and fascination with a spiritualist church, whose ministers
claim to communicate with the dead, fifteen-year-old Liz finds herself
falling for a new neighbor whose mother is dying of cancer. (Depression,
Spiritualists, Family Issues)
Bringing
Up the Bones. By Lara M. Zeises. Delacorte Press, 2002.
Bridget searches for happiness on her own after the death of Benji, her
longtime best friend and boyfriend. (Dating Issues)
By
the River. By Steven Herrick. Front Street, 2006.
A fourteen-year-old describes, through prose poems, his life in a small
Australian town in 1962, where, since their mother's death, he and his
brother have been mainly on their own to learn about life, death, and
love. (Coping, Family Issues)
Catalyst.
By Laurie Halse Anderson. Viking, 2002.
Kate finds herself losing control in her senior year as she faces difficult
neighbors, the possibility that she may not be accepted by the college
of her choice, and an unexpected death. (High School, Family Issues)
Chicken
Boy. By Dowell, Frances O'Roark. Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
2005.
Since the death of his mother, Tobin's family life and school life have
been in disarray, but after he starts raising chickens with his seventh-grade
classmate, Henry, everything starts to fall into place.
(Family Issues, Self-Esteem)
The
Color of Absence: 12 Stories About Loss and Hope.
Edited by James Howe. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2001.
A collection of stories dealing with different kinds of loss experienced
by young people. (Short Stories)
Comeback
Season. By Jennifer Smith. Simon & Schuster, 2008.
Ryan Walsh should be in class. But she's returning to the place that her
father loved, where the two of them spent so many afternoons cheering
on their team. It's on this day that she meets Nick. But Nick carries
with him a secret. (Dating Issues)
Day
I Killed James. By Catherine Ryan Hyde. Knopf, 2008.
When Theresa brings James to a party as her date, it's just for the night
. . But when everything goes horribly wrong, James drives his motorcycle
off a cliff-and Theresa knows she's responsible for his death. (Dating,
Suicide)
Deadline.
By Chris Crutcher. Greenwillow Books, 2007.
Ben Wolf had big things planned for his senior year, but now he has only
one year left to make his mark on the world. He decides not to let anyone
else know what’s going on and to become the best 123-pound football
player his high school has ever seen. Ben's resolve begins to crumble
when he realizes he isn't the only one keeping secrets. (Family Issues)
Deadville.
By Ron Koertge. Candlewick, 2008.
Ryan's been sleepwalking through life since his younger sister died of
cancer two years ago. But when Charlotte Silano - a gorgeous, popular
senior way out of his league - has a riding accident and falls into a
coma, Ryan finds himself drawn to her hospital room almost every day.
(Substance Abuse, Dating, Family Issues, Interpersonal Relations)
Dear
Zoe. By Phillip Beard. Viking, 2005.
Fifteen-year-old Tess writes a letter to her dead sister trying to figure
out her own life and how to cope with her grief in a time when the United
States is grieving over their losses from terrorism. (Family Issues, Coping,
Terrorism)
Desert
Crossing. By
Elise Broach. Henry Holt, 2006.
A summer trip across the New Mexico desert turns nightmarish for fourteen-year-old
Lucy, her older brother Jamie, and his best friend Kit, as they become
involved in the suspicious death of a young girl. (Coping, Violence)
Elsewhere.
By Gabrielle Zevin. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
After being hit and killed by a taxi, fifteen-year-old Liz Hall finds
herself in a place both like and unlike earth. Liz must live her life
elsewhere, aging backwards until she is a baby again, to return to earth
and live a life she feels she missed out on.
Falling
Through Darkness. By Carolyn MacCullough. Roaring Brook, 2003.
Seventeen-year old Ginny unexpectedly gets help from her father's new
tenant while struggling to cope with her guilt and confusion over the
death of her daredevil boyfriend.
Forever
Changes. By Brendan Halpin. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.
Eighteen-year-old Brianna Pelletier's dad is hassling her about her MIT
application-a perfectly normal situation except that Brianna has cystic
fibrosis. A gifted mathematician, Brianna knows the grim statistics on
her life expectancy and wonders why she should plan for a future she probably
won't have. (Family Issues)
Freewill.
By Chris Lynch. HarperCollins Publishers, 2001.
A teenager trying to recover from the tragic death of his father and stepmother
believes himself to be responsible for the rash of teen suicides occurring
in his town. (Mental Health, Suicide)
Hard
Hit. By Ann Turner. Scholastic Press, 2006.
A rising high school baseball star faces his most difficult challenge
when his father is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. (Family Issues, Coping)
Just
Like That. By Marsha Qualey. Dial, 2005.
A tragic accident, ending with the death of two people her own age, changes
the life of an eighteen-year-old woman forever.
(Dating Issues, Family Issues, Coping)
Kamichama
Karin (Graphic Novel). By Koge-Donbo (Nan Rymer). Tokyopop, 2005.
Karin is an average girl. She's not good at sports and gets terrible grades.
On top of all that, her parents are dead and her beloved cat Shi-chan
just died, too. She is miserable, but everything is about to change. Little
does Karin know that her mother's ring has the power to make her a goddess!
(Self-Esteem, Death)
Life
at These Speeds.
By Jeremy Jackson. Picador, 2002.
In eighth grade Kevin Schuler is a popular kid with a decent, if not stellar,
record on the track. Yet after fate takes him off a bus that crashes and
kills his fellow students, including his girlfriend, Kevin inexplicably
becomes a track phenomenon. (Dating, Interpersonal Relations)
The
Lightkeeper's Daughter. By Iain Lawrence. Delacorte Press, 2002.
Returning to a remote lighthouse island off British Columbia, her childhood
home, Squid remembers painfully the death of her brother and her parents'
involvement in the episode. (Family Issues)
Looking
for Alaska.
By John Green. Dutton books, 2005.
Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School
in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the
search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.
Maybe.
By Brent Runyon. Knopf, 2006.
Sixteen-year-old Brian struggles with life at a new school, his sexual
desires, and his unresolved feelings about the loss of his older brother.
(Sexual Behavior, Family Issues)
Pray
Hard. By Pamela Walker. Scholastic Press, 2001.
Twelve-year-old Amelia feels secretly responsible for her father's death
in a plane crash a year earlier. Her life is turned upside down when a
newly religious ex-convict claims to have seen Amelia's father in a vision
and moves in with Amelia and her mother.
(Family Issues, Spirituality)
Shadow
Boxer. By Chris Lynch. HarperCollins, 1993.
The shadow of their deceased father, a boxer, provides a background for
14-year-old George and his younger, hyperactive brother, Monty. (Family
Issues)
Skin
Deep. By E.M. Crane. Delacorte Press, 2008.
If all the world’s a stage, Andrea Anderson is sitting in the audience.
In the social hierarchy she is a Nothing, and at home her mother runs
the show. Then one day Andrea accepts a job. Honora Menapace–a reclusive
neighbor–is sick. Life is no longer predictable, and nothing is
what it seems. Andrea must face the fact that life at first glance doesn’t
even crack the surface. (Family Issues, Interpersonal Relations)
Snap:
A Novel. By Alison McGhee. Candlewick Press, 2004.
Eleven-year-old Edwina confronts old and new challenges when her longtime
best friend Sally faces the inevitable death of the grandmother who raised
her. (Family Issues)
A
Sudden Silence. By Eve Bunting. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988.
Jesse Harmon knows he will never forget the night his deaf brother, Bry,
was killed by a hit-and-run driver because he couldn't hear Jesse warn
him. (Drunk Driving, Family Issues)
Sun,
Moon, Stars, Rain. By Jan Cheripko. Front Street, 2006.
Still grieving over his father's death, nineteen-year-old college dropout
Danny Murtaugh turns to a drunk, an eccentric landowner, and a young waitress
for answers about his past and direction for his future. (Alcohol Use,
Dating)
Tending
to Grace. By Kimberly Fusco. Random House, 2004.
A teenaged girl copes with the death of a star track and field athlete
by running. (Family Issues, Stuttering)
Truth
About Forever. By Sarah Dessen. Viking, 2004.
The summer following her father's death, Macy plans to work at the library
and wait for her brainy boyfriend to return from camp, but instead she
goes to work at a catering business where she makes new friends and finally
faces her grief. (Grief, Death, Friendships, Interpersonal Relations)
The
Turning. By Gillian Chan. KCP Fiction, 2005.
Sixteen-year-old Ben Larsson is angry and his mother is dead. His estranged
father has dragged him to England, hoping that a fresh start in a new
country will repair their damaged relationship. Ben is determined that
this will never happen. Then, Ben's life is consumed by unexplained events.
This could change his life forever. (Family Issues))
The
Usual Rules. By Joyce Maynard. St. Martin's, 2003.
Life for Wendy is fraught with the usual teen angst until September 11,
when her mom heads off to work at the World Trade Center and never comes
home. (Terrorism)
Way
He Lived. By Emily Wing Smith. Flux, 2008.
Besides living in the same Mormon community in Utah, Tabbatha, Adlen,
Miles, Claire, Norah and Lissa have something else in common: each had
a special connection to Joel Espen, who died of dehydration after giving
away his water during a badly planned Boy Scout expedition. (Mental Health,
Family Issues, Interpersonal Relations)
When
I Was Older. By Garrett Freymann-Weyr. Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
Fifteen-year-old Sophie Merdinger's life fell apart when her younger brother
died from leukemia and her parents' marriage dissolved. (Family Issues)
The
Winter Road. By Terry Hokenson. Front Street, 2006.
Seventeen-year-old Willa, still grieving over the death of her older brother
and the neglect of her father, decides to fly a small plane to fetch her
mother in Northern Ontario, but when the plane crashes she is all alone
in the snowy wilderness. (Coping)
Wrecked.
By E.R. Frank. Atheneum Books For Young Readers, 2005.
After a car accident seriously injures her best friend and kills her brother's
girlfriend, sixteen-year-old Anna tries to cope with her guilt and grief,
while learning some truths about her family and herself. (Coping, Family
Issues)
BACK
TO TOPICS
DEPRESSION
America.
By E.R. Frank. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2002.
Teenage America, a part-black, part-white, part-anything boy who has spent
many years in institutions for disturbed, antisocial behavior, tries to
piece his life together. (Prejudice/Racism, Suicide, Foster Care)
Damage.
By A.M. Jenkins. HarperCollins Publisher, 2001.
Seventeen-year-old football hero Austin, trying to understand the inexplicable
depression that has drained his interest in life, thinks he has found
relief in a girl who seems very special. (Football, Dating, Mental Health)
Lisa,
Bright and Dark. By John Neufeld. Puffin Books, 1969.
Lisa Shilling is sixteen and has everything, but is losing her mind. (Family
Issues)
Saving
Francesca. By Melina Marchetta. Random House, 2004.
Sixteen-year-old Francesca could use her outspoken mother's help with
the problems of being one of a handful of girls at a parochial school
that has just turned co-ed, but her mother has suddenly become severely
depressed. (Family Issues)
BACK
TO TOPICS
DISABILITIES
Falling
Boy. By Alison McGhee. Picador, 2007.
Left paralyzed by a mysterious accident, sixteen-year-old Joseph is living
with his father in Minneapolis and working in a bakery, while two new
people in his life set out to unravel the mystery of Joseph's life and
past. (Friendship, Coping)
The
Girls. By Lori
Lansens. Little, Brown, 2006.
Since their birth, Rose and Ruby Darlen have been known simply as "the
girls." They make friends, fall in love, have jobs, and follow their
dreams. But the Darlens are special. Now nearing their 30th birthday,
they are history's oldest conjoined twins. (Self Esteem)
Joey
Pigza Loses Control. By Jack Gantos. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux,
2000.
Now that Joey has a handle on his actions, he feels prepared to face the
most mysterious member of his family--his estranged father, Carter Pigza.
(ADHD, Alcohol Use)
Kissing
Doorknobs. By Terry Spencer Hesser. Dell, 1999.
Fourteen-year-old Tara describes how her increasingly strange compulsions
begin to take over her life and affect her relationships with her family
and friends. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Interpersonal Relationships)
Owning
It: Stories About Teens with Disabilities. By Donald Gallo. Candlewick,
2008.
A collection of stories about teens with disabilities. Chris Crutcher
takes us on a wild ride through the mind of a teen with ADD, while David
Lubar’s protagonist gets a sobering lesson from his friends. Robert
Lipsyte introduces us to an elite task force whose number-one enemy is
cancer. (Interpersonal Relations)
Read
My Lips. By Teri Brown. Simon Pulse, 2008.
Serena wants to fly under the radar at her new school, but she's deaf
and can read lips. Once the popular girl discovers her talent, there's
no turning back. With each new secret she uncovers, Serena rises through
the ranks of the school's most exclusive clique.
Rules.
By Cynthia Lord. Scholastic Press, 2006.
Frustrated at life with an autistic brother, twelve-year-old Catherine
longs for a normal existence but her world is further complicated by a
friendship with a young paraplegic.(Friendship, Coping)
Shooting
Monarchs. By John Halliday. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2003.
Two teenage boys, one delinquent, the other physically handicapped, lead
separate lives until they engage in a memorable final encounter. (Criminals)
Side
Effects. By
Amy Goldman Koss. Roaring Brook, 2006. Everything changes for Isabelle,
not quite fifteen, when she is diagnosed with lymphoma. Eventually she
survives and even thrives. (Illness, Recovery)
Socrates
in Love, Volume 1.
By Kyoichi Katayama. VIZ, 2005. A high school romance endures the tragedy
and challenges of the girl’s leukemia diagnosis. (Leukemia, Dating,
Coping)
Stuck
in Neutral. By Terry Trueman. HarperCollins, 2000.
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel loves the taste of smoked oysters and
his mother's gentle hugs. Unfortunately, it's impossible for Shawn to
feed himself or to hug his mom back. (Cerebral Palsy, Family Issues)
Tangerine.
By Edward Bloor. Scholastic, 1997.
Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother
Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and
slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged his eyesight. (Family
Issues)
With
the Light: Raising an Autistic Child 1. By Keiko Tobe. Hachette
Book Group, 2007.
The Azuma's newborn Hikaru is different from the other children. His diagnosis
of autism confuses and devastates his parents. As they learn and experience
more, they become a family. (Family Issues, Coping)
With
the Light: Raising an Autistic Child 2. By Keiko Tobe. Hachette
Book Group, 2008.
Sachiko and Masato Azuma have overcome numerous obstacles in dealing with
Hikaru's autism. The young couple welcomed a healthy baby girl, Kanon,
into their family. But with the differences between Hikaru's and Kanon's
abilities, social prejudices against Hikaru's disability become apparent.
(Family Issues, Coping)
BACK
TO TOPIC
FAMILY
ISSUES
After
Tupac and D Foster. By Jacqueline Woodson. Putnam, 2008.
When D Foster walks into Neeka and her best friend's lives, their world
opens up. D doesn't have a real mom, and they envy her independence. But
D wants to feel connected, and the three girls bond over their love of
Tupac Shakur's music. (African Americans, Interpersonal Relations)
Anna
Begins. By Jennifer Davenport. Black Heron Press, 2008.
Anna Begins is a pair of novellas, each about a girl and a boy, both seventeen
years old. As both of them fall through the cracks at their school, they
approach an ending neither of them can return from. (Alcohol Use, Sexual
Behavior, Mental Health, Substance Abuse)
Big
Game of Everything. By Chris Lynch. HarperTeen 2008.
Jock and his younger brother Egon spend a summer working at their grandfather's
golf course. When two of Grampus' old marine buddies show up, Jock begins
to see Grampus in a new light.
Bounce.
By Natasha Friend. Scholastic Press, 2007.
Evyn wants to be left alone. Her mother died when she was young, and her
father’s marrying a woman she hardly knows and forcing Evyn and
her brother to move in with the woman and her five children. But she doesn’t
want to make the necessary changes, but must find a way to manage her
life. (Coping Skills)
A
Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life. By Dana Reinhardt. Wendy
Lamb Books, 2006.
Sixteen-year-old atheist Simone Turner-Bloom's life changes in unexpected
ways when her parents convince her to make contact with her biological
mother, an agnostic from a Jewish family who is losing her battle with
cancer. (Adoption, Death/Grief)
Converting
Kate. By Beckie Weinheimer. Viking, 2007.
Kate was raised in the Church of the Holy Divine. But ever since the death
of her nonreligious father, Kate has suspected there’s more to life
than memorizing Bible passages. Taking advantage of a move to a new town,
Kate quits the Holy Divine. Kate discovers there's a big difference between
religion and faith. (Death, Interpersonal Relations, Religion)
Everything
Is Fine. By Ann Dee Ellis. Little Brown & Company, 2009.
Stuck at home caring for her severely depressed mother and abandoned by
her father, Mazzy has only the day-to-day dramas of her neighborhood to
keep her busy. But Mazzy has to face the fact that her mom is emotionally
paralyzed by a family tragedy. (Death & Grief, Depression, Family Issues)
Gifts.
By Ursula K. Le Guin. Harcourt, 2004.
Orrec makes a decision to not use his “gift” – an ability
to unintentionally kill the ones he loves – despite it being part
of his family’s heritage. Instead, he decides to move through his
world with a blindfold with the help of his friend, Gry, who also chooses
to reject her gift. Can these two outcasts, useless in a place where gifts
are everything, find purpose in the world? (Fantasy)
Girl,
Hero. By Carrie Jones. Flux, 2008.
After landing a lead role in the high school musical, freshman Liliana
Faltin is hoping for some stability and happiness in her life. But her
mom's live-in boyfriend has a thing for booze, touching, and telling dark
family secrets. And the other people in her world aren't exactly role-model
material, either. To deal, Lily writes letters to John Wayne. Now, Lily
just needs to figure out how to be a hero herself. (Alcohol Abuse, Dating)
Important
Things that Don't Matter.
By David Amsden. HarperCollins, 2003.
At age five, the anonymous narrator witnesses the end of his parents'
troubled marriage. As the boy negotiates his parents' two worlds, he's
also absorbed in the usual dramas; he has his first girlfriend, dumps
her and plays the field with other girls who are themselves the scarred
victims of no-fault divorce. (Family Issues)
In
the Space Left Behind. By Joan Ackermann. HarperTeen, 2007.
When Colm Drucker’s mother heads out to Las Vegas for her third
honeymoon, Colm has plans of his own – organizing his baseball cards,
playing guitar and remodeling the family house as a surprise wedding present.
But from the start of his week alone, Colm is faced with a series of unforeseen
and bewildering events: his dog dies, his absent father calls out of the
blue with a bizarre proposition and he gets kissed by a beautiful girl.
When he learns that his mother plans on putting the house up for sale,
he embarks on a cross country trip with the one person he never wanted
to depend on. (Dating Issues, Death)
Jellicoe
Road. By Melina Marchetta. HarperTeen, 2008.
Taylor Markham isn't just one of the new student leaders of her boarding
school, she's also the heir to the Underground Community, one of three
battling school factions in her small Australian community. For a generation,
these three camps have fought "the territory wars," a deadly
serious negotiation of land and property rife with surprise attacks, diplomatic
immunities, and physical violence. (Dating, Self Identity)
Just
Another Day in My Insanely Real Life. By Barbara Dee. Margaret
K, McElderry Books, 2006.
With her father "out of the picture" and her mother working
long hours, twelve-year-old Cassie unconsciously describes her anger and
confusion in a fantasy novel she is writing for school. (Single-Parent
Family, Coping)
Last
Exit to Normal. By Michael Harmon. Knopf, 2008.
It's true: After 17-year-old Ben's father announces he's gay and the family
splits apart, Ben does everything he can to tick him off: skip school,
smoke pot, skateboard nonstop, get arrested. But he gets plunked down
into a small Montana town with his dad and Edward, The Boyfriend. (Sexual
Identity, Coping, Substance Abuse)
Life
Is Funny. E.R. Frank. DK Publishing, 2000.
A high-intensity, multicultural, multidimensional teen reading experience
that will challenge and change those who open it. (Interpersonal Relations)
Little
Audrey. By Ruth White. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.
Audrey lives in a Virginia coal-mining camp with her father, who drinks;
her mother, who drifts away; and her sisters. Illness has left her eyesight
compromised, and she is so thin kids call her Skeleton Girl. Yet it's
her family's troubles that weigh on her most. (Alcohol Use, Death &
Grief)
Lock
and Key. By Sarah Dessen. Viking, 2008.
When the social worker asks Ruby where her mother is, she knows she's
in trouble. She's sent to live with her older sister, Cora, who has a
wealthy husband. Now Ruby has a luxurious house, private school, new clothes
and a chance for the future. But she has a hard time letting go of her
old life. (Alcohol Use, Coping)
Mom's
Cancer.(Graphic
Format) By Brian Fies. Abrams Image, 2006.
This graphic novel is the inspirational story about one family's struggle
with lung cancer. It explores how they all cope with the effects and ongoing
treatment. (Recovery)
The
Monster in Me. By Mette Ivie Harrison. Holiday House, 2003.
In a small town near Salt Lake City, Utah, a caring foster family and
her love of running help thirteen-year-old Natalie Wills feel that she
can be a part of normal life, despite having been raised by a drug-addicted
mother. (Foster Homes, Family Problems)
My
Dad's a Punk: 12 Stories About Boys and Their Fathers. Edited
by Tony Bradman. Kingfisher, 2006.
This collection of twelve original stories explores the relationships
between fathers and sons, from a boy who longs for a different father,
to a boy who has a digital father from the future. (Coming-of-Age)
Ostrich
Eye. By Beth Cooley. Delacorte Press, 2004.
Fifteen-year-old Ginger, who lives with her mother, stepfather, and younger
stepsister and never knew her father, is convinced that the strange man
who keeps showing up unexpectedly is really her dad.
(Family Issues, Kidnapping)
Peace,
Locomotion. By Jacqueline Woodson. Putnam, 2009.
Lonniespeaks in letters to his beloved little sister, Lili. The siblings
are heartbroken about their separation, which followed the death of their
parents in a fire. After Lonnie's foster brother returns home injured
from war, the contrast between the peaceful home and the tragedy of war
feels savage. (Violence Prevention)
Returnable
Girl. By Pamela
Lowell. Marshall Cavendish, 2006. Friendship with an outcast classmate
and memories of her mother's desertion interfere with the relationship
thirteen-year-old Ronnie tries to establish with her new foster mother.
(Friendship, Self-Identity)
Runaway.
By Van Draanen. Knopf, 2006.
After running away from her fifth foster home, Holly, a twelve-year-old
orphan, travels across the country, keeping a journal of her experiences
and struggle to survive. (Homelessness, Survival)
Secret
Story of Sonia Rodriguez. By Alan Lawrence Sitomer. Hyperion, 2008.
Sonía's parents are illegal, driven north by poverty across the
Mexican border, but she was born in the U.S. and is determined to graduate
from high school. She is forced to cook and clean for her family and must
stay up past midnight to get her homework done. Papi works three jobs,
and is her strong support, and after Sonía visits Mexico, she gains
new respect for her roots. (Prejudices/Racism, Legal Issues)
Somebody's
Daughter. By Marie Myung-Ok Lee. Beacon Press, 2005.
Adopted and raised by Scandinavian-American parents in Minnesota, a Korean
teenager returns to her native country to find her birth mother.
(Adoption, Self-Identity)
Thief.
By Brian James. Scholastic, 2008.
Elizabeth is a pickpocket and thief living on the edge in New York City.
She and her foster sister, Alexi, are living with Sandra – a cruel
woman who takes in foster children and then forces them to steal things
for her. Elizabeth doesn’t question her life – until Sandra
takes in a third foster child, Dune. Elizabeth doesn’t want him
to share her fate and must find a way out. (Legal Rights)
Tribute
to Another Dead Rock Star. By Randy Powell. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1999.
For a tribute to his mother, a dead rock star, fifteen-year-old Grady
returns to Seattle, where he faces his mixed feelings for his retarded
younger half-brother Louie while pondering his own future. (Death, Disabilities)
Waiting
for Normal. By Leslie Connor. HarperCollins, 2008.
Addie is waiting for normal. But her mom has an all-or-nothing approach
to life: a food fiesta or an empty pantry, jubilation or gloom, her way
or no way. In spite of life’s twists and turns, Addie remains optimistic,
hoping to find normal. (Divorce, Coping, Friendship)
What
Erika Wants. By Bruce Clements. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
The bright spot in the life of fourteen-year-old Erika Nevski is her lawyer,
who supports Erika as she faces a custody battle, deals with her shoplifting
friend, and tries out for the school play. (Family Issues)
What
I Call Life. By Jill Wolfson. Henry Holt and Company, 2005.
Placed in a group foster home, eleven-year-old Cal Lavender learns how
to cope with life from the four other girls who live there and from their
storytelling guardian, the Knitting Lady. (Foster Homes, Family Issues)
GAMBLING
Big
Slick: High Stakes and Dirty Laundry.
By Eric Luper. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.
16-year-old
Andrew Lang has to spend his afternoons slaving away at his dad's dry-cleaning
business, but even that's not so bad with Jasmine working beside him.
Plus, he's good at poker. All it takes is one bad bet to turn his bankroll
from huge to nonexistent. Sooner or later his dad will notice the $600
missing from the register ... (Family Issues)
Hand
You're Dealt. By Paul Volponi. Atheneum, 2008.
When Huck Porter's dad suddenly dies, it feels like nothing will ever
make sense again. The only thing that still makes sense for Huck is the
game his dad taught him: Texas hold'em. Huck's math teacher, Mr. Abbott
wears the local poker tournament's first prize, a silver watch that Huck's
dad wore proudly for three years. Huck hatches a plan to knock Abbott
off his throne and win back the watch. (Death & Grief, Interpersonal
Relations)
BACK
TO TOPICS
GANGS
If
I Grow Up. By Todd Strasser. Simon and Schuster, 2009.
DeShawn's life in a housing project is ruled by the Douglass Disciples,
a gang in constant battle with the nearby Gentry Gangstas. Despite the
lure of money and power, the sensitive DeShawn has no intention of joining
the Disciples, instead focusing on his schoolwork while watching his best
friend work his way up the hierarchy. (Substance Abuse, Violence Prevention,
Teen Pregnancy)
BACK
TO TOPICS
GENDER
ISSUES
Cycler.
By Lauren McLaughlin. Random House, 2008.
For most of the month, Jill is a normal teenager who has best friends,
a crush, and elaborate plans for wrangling an invitation to the prom.
On four days during each month, though, Jill physically morphs into Jack,
complete with the anatomy and fantasies of a 17-year-old boy. (Dating)
Don't
Cramp My Style. By Lisa Rowe Fraustino. Simon & Schuster,
2004. A collection of stories by young women about that time of the month.
(Menstruation, Short Stories)
HIV/AIDS
The
Beat Goes On. By Adele Minchin. Simon & Schuster, 2004.
Beautiful, confident, and popular with boys, Emma seems to have it all.
But then she finds out she's HIV positive from having sex just once. (Sexual
Behavior, Coping Skills)
Chanda's
Secrets. By Allan Stratton. Annick Press, 2004.
Chanda, is an astonishingly perceptive girl living in the small city of
Bonang, a fictional city in Southern Africa. When her youngest sister
dies, the first hint of HIV/AIDS emerges, Chanda must confront undercurrents
of shame and stigma. Not afraid to explore the horrific realities of AIDS,
Chanda's Secrets also captures the enduring strength of loyalty, friendship
and family ties. (Family Issues, Death/Grief)
Chanda’s
Wars. By Allan
Stratton. HarperTeen, 2008.
It’s
been six months since Mama died, and Chanda is struggling to raise her
little brother and sister. Determined to end a family feud, she takes
them to her relatives’ remote rural village. But across the nearby
border, a brutal civil war is spreading. Rebels attack at night, stealing
children. All that separated Chanda from the horror is the rugged bush
and a national park filled with predators. Soon she must face the unthinkable
with an unlikely ally. (Family Issues, Violence Prevention, Coping)
Girl
Who Saw Lions. By Berlie Doherty. Roaring Brook Press, 2007.
When her mother dies of AIDS in their African village, Abela is left to
face the lions of the world. Lions like her Uncle Thomas, who has plans
to sell her in Europe. Lions like his bitter white wife, whom he abandons
with Abela, who is forced to stay in a London apartment, cooking and cleaning
while dreaming of her homeland. (Death, Family Issues)
The
Heaven Shop. By Deborah Ellis. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2004.
Binti and her siblings are orphaned when their father dies of AIDS. They
are separated and sent to relatives all over Malawi.
(Death, Family Issues)
It
Happened to Nancy. By Beatrice Sparks. Avon Books, 1994.
Fourteen-year-old Nancy, an asthmatic, meets 18-year-old Collin, a gentle,
caring young man who appears to be the answer to her dreams--until he
rapes her, leaving her HIV-infected. (Violence Prevention)
BACK
TO TOPICS
INTERPERSONAL
RELATIONS
48
Shades of Brown. By Nick Earls. Graphia, 1999.
After
moving in with his aunt, seventeen-year-old Dan starts to fall in love
with her twenty-two-year-old friend. (Family Issues)
Alice
in the Know. By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Atheneum Books for Young
Readers, 2006.
Alice fills the summer before her junior year of high school with a job
at the mall, hanging out with her friends, and wishing she had a bigger
family. (Family Issues, Self-Discovery)
Are
We There Yet? By David Levithan. Knopf, 2005.
Tricked by their parents into taking a trip to Italy together, two brothers--one
in high school and the other recently graduated from college--reflect
on the directions of their own lives and on the distance that has grown
between them. (Family Issues)
The
Au Pairs Skinny-Dipping. By Melissa de la Cruz. Simon & Schuster,
2005.
While Mara recovers from her break-up with Ryan and Eliza's family repairs
their financial damage, the girls still manage to find a way to enjoy
their busy summer as nannies in the Hampton homes of the rich and famous.
(Dating Issues)
Big
Mouth and Ugly Girl. By Joyce Carol
Oates. HarperCollins, 2002.
When sixteen-year-old Matt is falsely accused of threatening to blow
up his high school and his friends turn against him, an unlikely classmate
comes to his aid. (High School, Friendship)
Blankets.
Craig Thompson. Top Shelf Productions, 2005.
Loosely based on the author's life, chronicles Craig's journey from childhood
to adulthood, exploring the people, experiences, and beliefs that he encountered
along the way. (Family Issues, Dating Issues, Religion)
Blue
Highway. By Diane Tullson. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2003.
The friendship of two best friends, Truth and Skye, is torn between boys
and alcohol. (Friendship, Betrayal)
Caddy
Ever After. By Hilary McKay. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2006.
The four eccentric Casson siblings each contribute written accounts of
the events--which include a Valentine's Day dance, the appearance of a
sinister balloon, and the breakdown of a car--that lead to Caddy's wedding
day. (Family Issues)
The Cheat.
By Amy Goldman Koss. Dial Books, 2003.
An eighth grader, Sarah, is given answers to the geography midterm by
a schoolmate, leading to some fast-paced middle school gossip, serious
self-examination, and strained friendships. (Cheating)
Chicks
with Sticks (KnitWise Series). By Elizabeth Lenhard. Dutton Books,
2007.
For Scottie, Amanda, Bella and Tay, life in Chicago is all about seeking
shelter. They’ve found it in their firelit stitch ‘n bitch
at Joe; in the halls of their quirky private school; in the arms of boyfriends
– and always in the comfort of the friendship that bonds them together.
But now the Chicks are staring down the end of high school and it’s
time to contemplate life beyond the protective web of their knitty ensemble.
(Friendship)
Click
Here: To Find Out How I Survived Seventh Grade. By Denise Vega.
Little Brown, 2005.
Seventh-grader Erin Swift writes about her friends and classmates in her
private blog, but when it accidentally gets posted on the school Intranet
site, she learns some important lessons about friendship.
(Weblogs, Middle School)
Crunch
Time. By Mariah Fredericks. Atheneum, 2006.
Four students form a study group to prepare for the SAT exam, and the
reader learns that standardized tests don't reflect the real person.
Dead
Girls Don't Write Letters. By Gail Giles. Roaring Book, 2003.
Fourteen-year-old Sunny is stunned when a total stranger shows up at her
house posing as her older sister Jazz, who supposedly died out of town
in a fire months earlier. (Death, Family Issues )
Define
Normal. By Julie A. Peters. Little Brown, 2000.
When the repressed, rule-following Antonia Dillon finds out that she's
to be the peer counselor for the rebellious pierced Jazz Luther whose
outrageous behavior is the antithesis of everything Antonia holds dear,
she is horrified. (Family Issues, Friendship, Peer Counseling)
Deliver
Us from Normal. By Kate Klise. Scholastic, 2005.
For Charles, life in Normal, Illinois isn't normal at all. His family
is poor and he is cursed with a secret unwanted skill. After an ugly incident
at school, the family is forced to move, starting a physical and also,
a personal journey for Charles. (Family
Issues, Self Identity, Religion)
Disreputable
History of Frankie Landau-Banks. By E. Lockhart. Hyperion, 2008.
Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14: A mildly geeky girl attending a highly
competitive boarding school. Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15: A knockout
figure, a sharp tongue, a chip on her shoulder and a gorgeous new senior
boyfriend. Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16: Possibly a criminal mastermind.
(Friendship, Self-Identity, Dating Issues)
Feeling
Sorry for Celia. By Jaclyn Moriarty. St. Martin's Press, 2001.
Written as a series of notes and letters, Elizabeth deals with parents
who aren't perfect and with romantic disappointments, as well as calamities
both large and small. (Family Issues, Dating Issues)
Friends:
Stories About New Friends, Old Friends, and Unexpectedly True Friends.
By Ann M. Martin and David Levithan. Scholastic, 2005.
A collection of stories dealing with friendship and the effects that it
can have on the lives of the people involved. (Friendship, Short Stories)
Gothic
Lolita. By Dakota Lane. Ginee Seo Books, 2008.
Chelsea lives in Los Angeles; Miya lives in Tokyo. They got to know each
other through their blogs. Three years ago something happened to Chelsea,
an event so terrible that she stopped writing. Miya's been checking Chelsea's
blog ever since. Today is the day Chelsea finally goes back online and
tells Miya everything. And today is the day that Miya's life could change
forever because of it. (Death & Grief)
Honey,
Baby, Sweetheart. By Deb Caletti, Simon & Schuster Books for
Young Readers, 2004.
In the summer of her junior year, sixteen-year-old Ruby McQueen and her
mother, both nursing broken hearts, set out on a journey to reunite an
elderly woman with her long-lost love and in the process learn many things
about "the real ties that bind" people to one another.(Love,
Old Age, Self-Identity)
Honey
Blonde Chica. By Michele Serros. Simon & Schuster, 2006.
Evie Gomez and her best friend Raquel hang with Flojos, a crew name for
their designer flip-flops and habit of doing absolutely nothing. But when
their shy friend, Dee Dee, comes home from Mexico City transformed into
a Sangro diva with a new name, attitude, and clothes, Evie and Raquel
must reexamine their friendship and social desires. (Friendship, Self-Identity)
How
Not to Be Popular. By Jennifer Ziegler. Delacorte, 2008.
Maggie Dempsey is tired of moving all over the country. Her parents are
second-generation hippies who uproot her every year or so to move to a
new city. When Maggie was younger, she thought it was fun and adventurous.
Now she hates it. When she moved after her freshman year, she left behind
good friends. Now that they’ve moved to Austin, she’s not
going to make friends. She’s not going to fit in. Only . . . things
don’t go exactly as planned. (Coping Skills, Decision Making, Family
Issues)
I
Am the Wallpaper. By Mark Peter Hughes. Delacorte Press, 2005.
Thirteen-year-old Floey Packer, jealous of her attractive and popular
older sister, shares her home with two younger cousins and experiences
a summer vacation filled with embarrassing events, with herself as the
star.
(Family Issues)
Jake,
Reinvented. By Gordon Korman. Hyperion Press, 2003.
Rick becomes friends with the popular new boy, Jake Garrett, football
player and host of superlative parties, and, in the process, discovers
the true nature of his schoolmates and uncovers the mystery of Jake's
past. (Self-Perception, Peer Pressure)
Leaving
Fletchville. By Rene Schmidt. Orca, 2008.
Brandon is the biggest and toughest kid in his small-town school. He is
feared as a bully. When Leon, his sister Winnie, and their lively little
brother Sam, arrive in Kingsville, they are the only black people in town.
When Brandon discovers the truth about their situation, he decides to
do what he can to protect them from harm. (Violence Prevention, Prejudices/Racism,
Disabilities)
Letters
from the Inside. By John Marsden. Houghton Mifflin, 1994.
In this Australian twist to an answer to the personal ads, two teenage
girls begin a correspondence that gradually reveals more than either young
woman wants known. (Family Issues, Letters, Friendship)
Lord
of the Deep. By Graham Salisbury. Delacorte Press, 2001.
Working for his stepfather on a charter fishing boat in Hawaii teaches
thirteen-year-old Mikey about fishing, and about taking risks, making
sacrifices, and facing some of life's difficult choices. (Family Issues,
Decision Making)
Love
(and Other Uses for Duct Tape). By Carrie Jones. Flux, 2008.
Belle is closing in on her last few months of high school and things are
much better than before. Belle's not too sure about all the sureness that
other people seem to have about things like labels, change, and love.
Not to mention, there are unexpected surprises. (Sexual Identity, Family
Issues)
Love,
Cajun Style. Diane Les Becquets. Bloomsbury, 2005.
Teenage Lucy learns about life and love with the help of her friends and
saucy Tante Pearl over the course of one hot summer before her senior
year of high school. (Friendship, Family Issues, Dating Issues)
Meanest
Girl. By Debora Allie. Roaring Books, 2005.
Sixth-grader Alyssa Fontana, who thinks that her life is perfect, becomes
the object of a practical joke which she blames on Hayden Martin, the
new girl, who is tagged "the meanest girl in town." (Cliques,
Friendship, Middle School)
Men
of Stone. By Gayle Friesen. Kids Can Press, 2000.
Great-Aunt Frieda helps Ben understand who he is and what kind of person
he wants to be. (Anger Management, Decision Making)
Notes
From the Midnight Driver.
By Jordan Sonnenblick. Scholastic, 2006.
After being assigned to perform community service at a nursing home, sixteen-year-old
Alex befriends a cantankerous old man who has some lessons to impart about
jazz guitar playing, love, and forgiveness. (Friendship, Self-Identity)
On
the Fringe. Edited by Donald R. Gallo. Dial Books, 2001.
Compilation of short stories on teen issues. (High School, Teen Issues,
Short Stories)
Ordinary
Miracles. By Diana Aspin. Red Deer Press, 2003.
A collection of 13
coming of age stories set in a small northern town.
(Family Issues, Sexual
Behavior)
Queen
Bee (Graphic Novel). Chyanna Clugston. Graphix, 2005.
Haley is the new girl in middle school, but her popularity is challenged
when an even newer girls moves in with the same powers. The battle has
begun! (Psychokinesis, Popularity)
The
Queen of Cool. By Cecil Castellucci. Candlewick Press, 2006.
Bored with her life, popular high school junior Libby signs up for an
internship at the zoo and discovers that the "science nerds"
she meets there may have a few things to teach her about friendship and
life. (Friendship, Self-Identity)
Rits.
By Mariken Jongman. Front Street, 2008.
Rits has serious problems: his mother has been institutionalized, and
his father has abandoned the family for a girlfriend. Rits now lives with
his uncle, who rouses from laziness only to verbally abuse poor Rits.
(Mental Health, Family Issues)
Sand
Dollar Summer. By Kimberly K. Jones. McElderry Books, 2006.
When twelve-year-old Lise spends the summer on an island in Maine with
her self-reliant mother and bright--but oddly mute--younger brother, her
formerly safe world is complicated by an aged Indian neighbor, her mother's
childhood friend, and a hurricane. (Coping, Siblings)
The
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. By Ann Brashares. Delacorte
Press, 2001.
Story of four best friends, the biggest summer ever, and a pair of magical
pants that brought it all together. (Friendship)
Stone
Cold. By Pete Hautman. Aladdin Paperbacks, 2000.
Sixteen-year-old Denn finds himself alienating both friends and family
when he becomes obsessed with playing high-stakes poker with adult gamblers.
(Gambling, Addiction)
Stotan!.
By Chris Crutcher. Greenwillow Books, 1986.
In the final swimming season at Frost High School, Coach Max II Song offers
his team the gift of self-discipline in the form of Stotan Week--a grueling
four-hour-a-day, nonstop test of physical and emotional stamina. (High
School, Sports)
Stranger,
You, & I. By Patricia Calvert. Scribner, 1988.
Zee must come to terms with a friendship that is growing and a friend
who is pregnant. (Friendship, Pregnancy, Family Issues)
Sweethearts.
By Sara Zarr. Little, Brown and Company, 2008.
As children, Jennifer Harris and Cameron Quick were both social outcasts.
When Cameron disappears without warning, Jennifer thinks she's lost the
only person who will ever understand her. Now in high school, she's popular,
happy, and dating, but she still can't shake the memory of her long-lost
friend. When Cameron suddenly reappears, they are both confronted with
memories of their shared past and the drastically different paths their
lives have taken. (Body Image, Self-Esteem)
That
Was Then, This Is Now. By S.E. Hinton. Viking Press, 1971.
A deeply-felt portrait of best friends Bryon and Mark, as they grow up
and grow apart. (Friendship)
Then
Again, Maybe I Won't. By Judy Blume. Bradbury Press,1971.
Ever since his dad got rich from an invention and his family moved to
a wealthy neighborhood on Long Island, Tony Miglione's life has been turned
upside down. (Mental Health, Family Issues)
Things
Change. By Patrick Jones. Walker & Co., 2004.
Sixteen-year-old Johanna, one of the best students in her class, develops
a passionate attachment for troubled seventeen-year-old Paul and finds
her plans for the future changing in unexpected ways.(Dating Violence,
Mental Health, Family Issues)
To
Catch a Prince. By Gillian McKnight. Simon Pulse, 2006.
Stepsisters Alexis Worth and Helen Masterson, both sixteen and in London
for the summer, must choose between maintaining their friendship and winning
the heart of Prince William. (Family Issues, Best Friends)
Too
Big a Storm. By Marsha Qualey. Dial Books, 2004.
When serious worrier Brady Callahan meets vivacious Sally Cooper, daughter
of a wealthy Minnesota family, they develop a close friendship that helps
them both grow and survive during the turbulent Vietnam War era. (Friendship,
Protest Movements, Family Issues)
Trick
of the Mind. By Judy Waite. Atheneum
Books for Young Readers, 2005.
The struggles of several young people who confront family problems, emotional
problems, unrequited love, mystery, and violence, is told from the viewpoint
of Matt, who is known for his unusual behavior but who has unusual gifts,
and Erin, who tries to use her proficiency with magic to attract Matt.
(Magic, Family Issues)
True
Confessions of a Heartless Girl. By Martha Brooks. Farrar Straus
& Giroux, 2003.
A confused seventeen-year-old girl, a single mother and her young son,
two elderly women, and a sad and lonely man, with their own individual
tragedies to bear, come together in a small Manitoba town and find a way
to a better future. (Interpersonal Relations)
True
Meaning of Cleavage. By Mariah Fredericks. Atheneum, 2003.
When Jess and Sari, best friends since seventh grade, begin their freshman
year of high school and Sari becomes obsessed with a senior boy, Jess
wonders if their friendship will survive. (Interpersonal Relations, High
School, Individuality)
Twists
and Turns. By Janet McDonald. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2003.
With the help of a couple successful friends, Teesha and Keeba try to
capitalize on their talents by opening a hair salon in the run-down Brooklyn
housing project where they live. (African Americans, Careers, Family Issues)
You
Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah! BY Fiona Rosenbloom.
Hyperion, 2005.
As her bat mitzvah approaches, Stacy Adelaide Friedman of White Plains,
New York, has a lot on her mind--her parents have separated, her mother
dresses her like an American Girl doll, her younger brother is embarrassing,
and she is totally in love with Andy Goldfarb.
(Family Issues, Coming-of-Age)
BACK
TO TOPICS
LEGAL
ISSUES
Dooley
Takes the Fall. By Norah McClintock. Red Deer Press, 2008.
When Dooley is discovered next to a dead kid sprawled on the pavement,
he knows he's in trouble. For one thing he's got a record. For another,
the dead kid isn't exactly a stranger - and he's no friend. Slowly the
net begins to close around 17-year-old Dooley. And all around him are
other teenagers at school and in the world he's drawn into who would like
to pin him with responsibility for a growing number of murders that swirl
through the city. (Violence Prevention, Family Issues)
Juvie
Three. By Gordon Korman. Hyperion, 2008.
Gecko Fosse, Terence Florian and Arjay Moran are serving time in juvenile
detention centers when they meet Douglas Healy. Healy is knocked unconscious
while trying to break up a scuffle among the boys. When Healy awakes,
he has no memory. Afraid of being sent back to Juvie, the guys hatch a
crazy scheme to continue on as if the group leader never left until Healy's
memory returns. (Dating, Interpersonal Relations)
Ten Mile River. By
Paul Griffin. Dial Books, 2008.
Ray and José, 14 and 15, have survived foster care and juvenile
detention together, and now hide out from their parole officers in a burned-out
stationhouse in New York City's Ten Mile River park. They make their way
by stealing, working occasionally, and trying to stay under police radar.
They are friends to the end-until Ray meets and falls for Trini, who encourages
both boys to go straight. (Family Issues, Dating, Interpersonal Relations)
BACK
TO TOPICS
MEDIA
LITERACY
Chat
Room. By Kristin
Butcher. Orca, 2006.
Using an online nickname, shy Linda visits her high school's numerous
chat rooms and becomes celebrated for her quick wit and clever comebacks,
thus when a secret admirer starts sending her gifts, Linda becomes hopeful
that they are coming from her classmate Cyrano. (Internet Safety, Interpersonal
Relations)
The
Gospel According to Larry. By Janet Tashjian. Henry Holt and Company,
2001.
Seventeen-year-old Josh, a loner-philosopher who wants to make a difference
in the world, tries to maintain his secret identity as the author of a
web site that is receiving national attention. (Websites, Self-Identity)
Sun
Signs. By Shelly Hrdlitschka. Orca Book Publishers, 2005.
While taking online courses, fifteen-year-old Kaleigh learns that on the
Internet, people are often not who they seem. (Sexual Behavior, Self-Discovery)
BACK
TO TOPICS
MENTAL
HEALTH (see also DEPRESSION IN YOUTH)
America.
By E.R. Frank. Simon & Schuster, 2002.
Teenage America, a part-black, part-white, part-anything boy who has spent
many years in institutions for disturbed, antisocial behavior, tries to
piece his life together. (Racism/Prejudice)
Ball
Don’t Lie.
By Matt De La Pena. Delacorte, 2005. Seventeen-year-old Sticky lives to
play basketball at school and at Lincoln Rec Center in Los Angeles and
is headed for the pros, but he is unaware of the many dangers--including
his own past--that threaten his dream. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder,
Careers)
Echo.
By Kate Morgenroth. Simon & Schuster Books, 2007. After Justin witnesses
his brother's accidental shooting death, he must live with the repercussions,
as the same horrific day seems to happen over and over. (Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder, Coping)
Egg
on Three Sticks.
By Jackie Fischer. Thomas Dunne Books, 2004.
In the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1970s, twelve-year-old Abby
watches her mother fall apart and must take on the burden of holding her
family together. (Family Issues, Coping, Coming of Age)
Get
Well Soon. By Julie Halpern. Feiwel and Friends, 2007.
Anna Bloom is depressed—so depressed that her parents have committed
her to a mental hospital with a bunch of other messed-up teens. Here she
meets a roommate with a secret (and a plastic baby), a doctor who focuses
way too much on her weight, and a cute, shy boy who just might like her.
But wait! Being trapped in a loony bin isn’t supposed to be about
making friends, losing weight, and having a crush, is it? (Interpersonal
Relations, Body Image, Dating Issues)
Helicopter
Man. By Elizabeth Fensham. Bloomsbury, 2005.
Peter Sinclair cares for his father, who is mentally ill, and tries to
make the most of their homeless life together. (Homelessness, Family Issues)
Inside
Out. By Terry Trueman. HarperCollins, 2003.
A sixteen-year-old with schizophrenia is caught up in the events surrounding
an attempted robbery by two other teens who eventually hold him hostage.
(Schizophrenia, Juvenile Delinquency, Suicide)
Invisible.
By Pete Hautman. Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Two unlikely best friends, Doug and Andy, talk about everything, except
what happened at the Tuttle place a few years back. As Doug retreats into
his own world, long-buried secrets are revealed and his grip on reality
loosens. (Friendship,
Schools)
Kerosene.
By Chris Wooding. Scholastic Publishing, 1999.
Cal likes fire because it helps him cope with life until life gets too
complicated. (Alcohol Use)
Like
a Thorn. By Clara Vidal. Delacorte, 2008.
Melie's mother is sometimes nice, sometimes mean-prone to erratic behavior
that Mélie does her best to cope with. As a young girl, she invents
rituals to protect herself from her mother's moods; but as Mélie
becomes a teenager, the years of tiptoeing around her own home take their
toll, and Mélie sinks into increasing unhappiness. (Family Issues)
Lizard
People. By Charlie Price. Roaring Book Press, 2007.
Ben Mander's junior year is derailed when his mentally ill mother erupts
in the school office. His mysterious new friend, Marco, also has a mentally
ill mother. Marco tells a story that turns Ben's idea of reality upside
down. Soon Marco's tale begins to uncomfortably mirror Ben's own life.
Is Ben losing his grip? (Family Issues)
Memories
of Summer. By Ruth White. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2000.
When 13-year-old Lyric, her older sister, Summer, and their father move
to Flint, Michigan, from rural Virginia, Summer (who has always been a
little odd) makes a swift and frightening slide into full-fledged schizophrenia.
(Family Issues)
Nature
of Jade. By Deb Caletti. Simon & Schuster, 2007.
Since being diagnosed with Panic Disorder, Jade DeLuna is trying her best
to stay calm, and visiting the elephants at the nearby zoo seems to help.
That’s why she keeps the live zoo webcam on in her room, which is
where she first sees Sebastian. She is drawn to his life with his son
and grandmother on their Seattle houseboat. But Sebastian is hiding a
terrible secret, which will force Jade to decide between what is right
and what feels right. (Family Issues, Dating Issues)
Swallow
Me Whole. By Nate Powell. Top Shelf Productions, 2008.
Ruth suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder and thinks she can hear
insects speak, making it difficult for her to walk across grassy lawns
but landing her a sweet internship in the natural history museum. Perry
sometimes sees a tiny wizard who speaks to him about his destiny. Dark
inks and elongated whispering word balloons carry us into Ruth's world
of voices and missing time, while experimental paneling masterfully conveys
the characters' inner worlds and altered states.
Total
Constant Order. By Crissa-Jean Chappell. HarperCollins, 2007.
Fin can’t stop counting. Ever since she's moved to the Sunshine
State and her parents split up, numbers thump like a metronome, rhythmically
keeping things in control. When a new doctor introduces terms such as
"clinical depression" and “OCD” and offers a prescription
for medication, the chemical effects make Fin feel even more messed up.
Then she meets Thayer, a doodling, rule-bending skater who buzzes to his
own beat – and who might understand Fin’s struggle for total
constant order. (Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder)
When
She Was Good. By Norma Fox Mazer. Arthur A. Levine Books, 1997.
Most of fourteen-year-old Em's life has been spent placating Pamela, her
frighteningly mentally ill older sister. (Family Issues, Violence)
Where
I Want to Be. By Adele Griffin. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2005.
Two teenaged sisters, separated by death but still connected, work through
their feelings of loss over the closeness they shared as children that
was later destroyed by one's mental illness, and finally make peace with
each other. (Family Issues, Death)
Wild
Roses. By Deb Caletti. Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Seventeen-year-old Cassie learns about the good and bad sides of both
love and genius while living with her mother and brilliant, yet disturbed,
stepfather and falling in love with a gifted young musician. (Family Issues,
Dating Issues)
BACK
TO TOPICS
PARENTING
(TEEN PARENTS)
Broken
China. By Lori Aurelia Williams. Simon & Schuster Children's
Publishing, 2005.
China Cup Cameron, a fourteen-year-old single mother with only her paralyzed
Uncle Simon for support, takes on tremendous personal debt in hopes of
a beautiful funeral after her daughter dies.
(Coping Skills, Death, Harassment)
Chill Wind.
By Janet McDonald. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.
An unmarried mother of two, 19-year old Aisha must figure out how to cope
after she receives termination-of-welfare-benefits notice. (Teenage Mothers,
African-American)
Detour for
Emmy. By Marilyn Reynolds. Morning Glory Press, 1993.
The story of one single mother's experiences from her first date in 9th
grade with Art to giving birth at 16 and later completing community college.
(Pregnancy, Unmarried Mothers)
The
First Part Last. By Angela Johnson. Simon & Schuster, 2003.
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father
and must care for his adored baby daughter. (Teenage Fathers, African
Americans)
Hanging
on to Max. By Margaret Bechard. Roaring Book Press, 2002.
High school senior Sam, juggling the demands of fatherhood with school
and friends, must deal with his girlfriend's decision to give up their
baby. (Teenage Fathers)
Imani
All Mine. By Connie Porter. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
Told in Tasha's voice, is the story of great promise shining through monstrous
obstacles. (Teenage Pregnancy, African American Teens)
No
More Saturday Nights. By Norma Klein. Fawcett, 1989.
Tim Weber and Cheryl Banks had what they thought was a "casual"
relationship -- until she got pregnant and wanted to put the baby up for
adoption. (Teenage Fathers, Family Issues)
Sky
Bridge. By Laura Pritchett. Milkweed Editions, 2005.
Libby is raising her younger sister's baby girl because of a promise.
She promised to raise baby Amber if Tess did not have an abortion. Now,
Libby bags groceries at the local supermarket to support Amber, while
Tess is off exploring the world somewhere. (Family Issues, Adoption)
Spellbound.
By Janet McDonald. Farrar. Straus and Giroux, 2001.
Raven, a teenage mother and high school dropout living in a housing project,
decides, with the help and sometime interference of her best friend Aisha,
to study for a spelling bee which could lead to a college preparatory
program and a four-year-school scholarship. (Teenage Mothers, Dropouts,
Interpersonal Relations)
Too
Soon for Jeff. By Marilyn Reynolds. Morning Glory Press, 1994.
Whether Jeff is ready or not, he is going to be a father. His plan for
his life has changed forever. (Teenage Fathers, Teen Pregnancy)
BACK
TO TOPICS
PREGNANCY
Baby
Girl. By Lenora Adams. Simon Pulse, 2007.
With her tough facade and hard attitude, Sheree doesn't make friends easily
and lives a lonely life, but when she gets pregnant and decides to keep
the baby with the intention of finding unconditional love, Sheree learns
important lessons about herself that change her entire outlook on life.
(Family Issues, Drugs, Abortion, Friendship, Teen Parenting)
Butterflies
in May. By Karen
Hart. Bancroft, 2006.
Ali Parker is a bright seventeen-year-old girl headed for college. She
and her boyfriend are usually careful about birth control, but she ends
up pregnant after one lapse. She schedules an abortion but can't go through
with it. Her parents are disappointed but supportive. She meets a perfect
couple who want to adopt her child but wonders if she can bring herself
to part with the baby. (Adoption, Dating, Decision Making)
Conception.
By Kalisha Buckhanon. St. Martin’s Press, 2008.
Shivana Montgomery, a 15-year-old girl living in Chicago, believes all
Black women wind up the same: single and raising children along, like
her mother. Until the sudden visit of her beautiful and free-spirited
Aunt Jewel, Shivana spends her days struggling to understand life and
confront the challenges she faces growing up in a tough environment. When
she accidentally becomes pregnant by an older man and must decide what
to do, she begins a journey toward adulthood. Then she falls in love with
Rasul, a teenager with problems of his own. (Dating Issues)
Contents
Under Pressure. By Lara Zeises. Delacorte Press, 2004.
Lucy, a fourteen-year-old high school freshman, experiences the happiness
and confusion of dating a popular older boy, changing relationships with
life-long friends, and sharing a bedroom with her older brother's pregnant
girlfriend. (Pregnancy, High School, Family Issues, Dating Issues)
Dancing
Naked: A Novel. By Shelley Hrdlitschka. Orca Book Publishers,
2001.
Just sixteen, Kia finds herself pregnant and the father wants her to get
an abortion; Kia, faced with difficult choices, decides to give her baby
up for adoption. (Abortion, Adoption)
Dear
Nobody. By Berlie Doherty. Orchard Books, 1992.
When Helen discovers that she is pregnant during the last few months of
high school, she and her boyfriend, Chris, cope with the consequences
of their actions and lurch toward solutions. (Unmarried Mothers))
Don't
Think Twice. By Ruth Pennebaker. Holt, 1996.
Set in the late 1960s in a rural Texas home for pregnant teens, this is
much more than a "girls in trouble" story. (Unmarried Mothers,
Adoption)
The
Girl with a Baby. By Sylvia Olsen. Sono Nis Press, 2003.
Jane never drinks, smokes dope, or misses a single day of school. She's
in the drama club, gets top marks, and is one of the popular kids. Or
she used to be. Now she's a teenage mother packing diaper bags with her
knapsack, wheeling strollers into the high-school daycare, tired and grumpy.
Jane's only fourteen, and she can feel the stares in the school halls.
(Teen Parenting, Indian Teenagers, Self-Identity)
Her
Daughter's Eyes. By Jessica Inclan. New American Library, 2001.
Kate Phillips -- 17 years old, unmarried, and pregnant -- and her younger
sister Tyler have been abandoned by their parents. (Single Parent Family)
Like
Sisters on the Homefront. By Rita Williams-Garcia. Lodestar Books,
1995.
At 14, Gayle is pregnant. Again. The first time she kept the baby; Mama
takes the issue to drastic measures and sends them down South. (Family
Issues, Teen Pregnancy, African American Teens)
Lucy
Peale. By Colby Rodowsky. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1992.
Pregnant 17-year-old who, cruelly rejected by her preacher father, is
taken in by thoroughly wholesome Jake, who has dropped out of college
in order to write. (Rape, Self-Reliance)
My
Life as a Rhombus. By Varian Johnson. Flux, 2007.
When the classmate she is tutoring in trigonometry admits she is pregnant,
high school junior Rhonda must finally come to terms with the abortion
her father insisted she undergo three years earlier and examine how it
has changed her life. (Family Issues)
November
Blues. By Sharon M. Draper. Atheneum, 2007.
When November Nelson loses her boyfriend to a pledge stunt gone horribly
wrong, she thinks her life can’t possibly get any worse. But he
left something behind that will change her life forever, and now she’s
faced with the biggest decision she could ever imagine. How will she tell
her mom? (Death, Grief)
Perfect
Family. By Jerrie Oughton. Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
It's 1955 in the town of Lily, North Carolina. Unwed teen mothers are
shuttled off to far away cities; girls are going crazy over James Dean;
and "porch setting" is a viable pastime. (Unmarried Mothers)
Slam.
By Nick Hornby. Putnam, 2007.
Things had been going well for Sam. His teachers were encouraging him
to go to college, his mother had ditched her loser boyfriend and he had
a gorgeous new girlfriend. When the couple’s ardor has unintended
consequences, Sam turns to skateboarder Tony Hawk for advice. (Family
Issues, Dating Issues)
Someone
Else's Baby. By Geraldine Kaye. Hyperion Book, 1992.
Terry, 17, is pregnant as the result of an encounter at a party where
she'd had so much to drink that she's not sure who the father is; though
she wasn't willing, she blames herself too much to call it rape. (Unmarried
Mothers, Rape, Family Issues)
Stealing
Henry. By Carolyn MacCullough. A Deborah Brodi Book, 2005.
Savannah and her eight-year-old half brother flee from his abusive father
and their oblivious mother. Their journey to safety is interspersed with
the earlier story of her mother, Alice, as she meets Savannah's father
and unexpectedly becomes pregnant.(Runaways, Abuse, Interpersonal Relations,
Family Issues)
BACK
TO TOPICS
PREJUDICES/RACISM
145th
Street. By Walter D. Myers. Delacorte Press, 2000.
Set in a Harlem block; ten stories with laughter and tragedy; good choices
and risky ones; love and death. (African American Teens, City Life)
American
Born Chinese
(Graphic Format). By Gene Yang. First Second Books, 2006.
Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese
Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. (Self-Identity,
Assimilation)
BANG!
By Sharon G. Flake. Jump At The Sun, 2005.
A teenage boy must face the harsh realities of inner city life, a disintegrating
family, and destructive temptations as he struggles to find his identity
as a young man. (Street Life, Friendship, Coming-of-Age)
Candle
in the Wind. By Maureen Wartski. Fawcett Juniper, 1995.
While celebrating his acceptance into Harvard, Harris Mizuno, a Japanese-American
teenager, is shot dead by an elderly white man who mistakes him for an
intruder. (Death)
Dairy
Queen. By Catherine Gilbert Murdock. Houghton Mifflin Company,
2006.
After spending the summer running the family farm and training the quarterback
for her school's rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to
go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those
around her. (Gender Roles, Self-Discovery, Football)
Fade
to Black. By Alex Flinn. Harper Tempest, 2005.
An HIV-positive high school student hospitalized after being attacked,
the bigot accused of the crime, and the only witness, a classmate with
Down Syndrome, reveal how the assault has changed their lives as they
tell of its aftermath. (HIV/AIDS, Down Syndrome, High School, Interpersonal
Relations)
A
Heart Divided. By Jeff Gottesfeld. Delacorte, 2004.
When sixteen-year-old Kate, an aspiring playwright, moves from New Jersey
to attend high school in the South, she becomes embroiled in a controversy
to remove the school's Confederate flag symbol. (High School, Moving)
Help
Wanted. By Gary Soto. Harcourt, Inc., 2005.
Ten stories portray some of the struggles and hopes of young Mexican Americans.
(Coping Skills, Sports)
If
You Come Softly. By Jacqueline Woodson. Penguin, 1998.
Miah and Ellie are in love. From their first glance to their first words
to each other to their first kiss, they could tell you exactly how it
happened – in their hearts and souls. But the people around them
don’t see their love. They can only see that Miah is black, Ellie
is white and Jewish. Their love, no matter how real, is too strange and
scary for the world they live in. (Interracial Dating, African Americans)
Jimi
& Me. By Jaime Adoff. Jump At The Sun, 2005.
After his father's tragic death, twelve-year-old Keith James moves from
Brooklyn to a small Midwestern town where his mixed race heritage is not
accepted, but he finds comfort in the music of Jimi Hendrix and the friendship
of a white classmate. (Family Issues)
Letters
to My Mother. By Teresa Cardenas/ Translated by David Unger. Groundwood
Books/ House of Anansi Press, 1998/2006 translation.
A young African-Cuban girl is sent to live with her aunt and cousins after
the death of her mother and begins to write letters to her deceased mother
telling of the misery, racial prejudice, and mistreatment at the hands
of those around her. (Grieving, Death)
My
Mother the Cheerleader. By Robert Sharenow. HarperTeen, 2007.
Louise Collins didn’t think anything exciting would happen in the
Ninth Ward of New Orleans, where she lived with her mother in their boardinghouse.
But when desegregation begins, her mother joins the Cheerleaders, a group
of women who gather every morning to heckle the African-American student.
When a man from New York arrives, Louise thinks there might be hope, until
secrets come to light. (School Integration)
New
Boy. By Julian Houston. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.
As a new sophomore at an exclusive boarding school, a young black man
is witness to the persecution of another student with bad acne. (Friendship,
Survival, Boarding Schools)
Playing
the Field. By Phil Bildner. Simon & Schuster Books for Young
Readers, 2006.
When seventeen-year-old Darcy Miller pretends to be a lesbian in order
to play on the baseball team, she must learn to battle discrimination
on every playing field.(Sexual Identity, Gender Roles)
Slam!.
By Walter D. Myers. Scholastic Inc., 1996.
A Harlem teenager learns how to apply the will he has to win at hoops
to other parts of his life. (High School, African American Teens)
A
Step from Heaven. By An Na. Front Street, 2000.
A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English
and adjust to life in America. (Family Issues, Immigration, Korean Americans)
Weedflower.
By Cynthia Kadohata. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2006.
After twelve-year-old Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are relocated
from their flower farm in southern California to an internment camp on
an Indian Reservation in Arizona, she helps her family and neighbors,
becomes friends with a local Indian boy, and tries to hold on to her dream
of owning a flower shop. (Coping Skills, Interracial Friendship, Family
Issues)
White
Girl. By Sylvia Olsen. Sononis Press, 2004.
Josie is no longer invisible after she moves to her new stepfather's Indian
reserve and is known as "Blondie." Josie and her mother are
the only people with blonde hair and blue eyes. Her mother hides her in
the house to avoid the teasing, but Josie is only fourteen and is determined
to get a life. (Self-Identity, Family Issues, Bullying)
When
the Black Girl Sings. By Bil Wright. Simon & Schuster, 2008.
Lahni Schuler is the only black student at her private prep school. She’s
also the adopted child of two loving, but white, parents who are on the
road to divorce. Struggling to comfort her mother and angry with her dad,
Lahni feels more and more alone. A visit to a gospel choir and her love
of singing leads her to discover her own identity. (Family Issues, Interracial
Adoption)
Zazoo.
By Richard Mosher. Clarion Books, 2001.
Amid old secrets revealed and rifts healed, a thirteen-year-old Vietnamese
orphan raised in rural France by her aging "Grand-Pierre" learns
about life, death, and love. (Family Issues, Orphans)
BACK
TO TOPICS
PRESCRIPTION
DRUGS
How
Ya Like Me Now. By Brendan Halpin. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2007.
Eddie can take care of himself. Since his dad died, Eddie’s mom
has spent all her time getting high on OxyContin, leaving Eddie to keep
their suburban home clean and supplied with food. When Eddie’s mom
goes into rehab and his aunt and uncle take him away to Boston, everything
changes. He becomes so comfortable in his new home that when he gets word
that his mother is being released from rehab, he has a tough decision
to make. (Family Issues, OxyContin, Racism, Substance Abuse)
BACK
TO TOPICS
SELF-ESTEEM
The
Amazing Life of Birds (The Twenty-Day Puberty Journal of Duane Homer Leech).
By Gary Paulsen. Wendy Lamb, 2006.
As twelve-year-old Duane endures the confusing and humiliating aspects
of puberty, he watches a newborn bird in a nest on his windowsill begin
to grow and become more independent, all of which he records in his journal.
(Puberty, Body Image, Self-Identity)
A
Maze Me: Poems for Girls. By Naomi Shihab Nye. Greenwillow, 2005.
A collection of poems about nature, home, school, and the community connecting
to a girl's inner world. (Interpersonal Relations, Self-Identity)
Alt
Ed. By Catherine Atkins. Penguin Group, 2003.
Participating in a special after-school counseling class with other troubled
students, including a sensitive gay classmate, helps Susan, an overweight
tenth grader, develop a better sense of herself.
(Interpersonal Relations, High School, Body Image, Sexual Identity)
Being.
By Kevin Brooks. Scholastic, 2007.
It was just supposed to be a routine exam. But what the doctors discover
doesn't make medical sense. Not fully anesthetized, he hears them claim
that his insides aren't human. On the run for murder of a doctor, Robert
Smith, an orphan tries to learn his identity and live a “normal”
life with his new found girl, Eddy. (Self-Identity, Decision Making)
Born
Confused. By Tanuja Desai Hidier. Scholastic Press, 2002.
Seventeen-year-old Dimple, from India, struggles with her cultural identity,
her life complicated by the manipulations of her best friend and her love
for Karsh. (East Indian Americans)
Boy
Proof. By Cecil Castellucci. Candlewick Press, 2005.
Feeling alienated from everyone around her, Los Angeles high school senior
and cinephile Victoria Denton hide behind the identity of a favorite movie
character until an interesting new boy arrives at school and helps her
realize that there is more to life than just the movies. (Self-Identity,
Dating Issues)
Bronx
Masquerade. By Nikki Grimes. Dial Books, 2002.
Eighteen teenagers turn a school poetry-writing assignment into a risky
and challenging experience of mutual self-revelation. (African-American,
High School)
Burned.
By Ellen Hopkins. Margaret K, McElderry Books, 2006.
Seventeen-year-old Pattyn, the eldest daughter in a large Mormon family,
is sent to her aunt's Nevada ranch for the summer, where she temporarily
escapes her alcoholic, abusive father and finds love and acceptance, only
to lose everything when she returns home. (Alcoholism, Abuse, Self-Identity)
Dolores:
Seven Stories About Her. By Bruce Brooks. Harper Collins, 2002.
A free-spirited girl grows from seven to self-assured sixteen through
a series of personally challenging events. (Identity, Siblings)
Don’t
Call Me Ishmael. By Michael Bauer. Greenwillow Books, 2007.
By the time ninth grade begins, Ishmael's perfected the art of making
himself virtually invisible. But all that changes when James Scobie joins
the class. Unlike Ishmael, James has no sense of fear—he claims
it was removed during an operation. Now nothing will stop James and Ishmael
from taking on bullies, bugs, and Moby Dick, in the toughest, weirdest,
most embarrassingly awful and best year of their lives. (Interpersonal
Relations)
Dude!
Stories and Stuff for Boys.
By Sandy Asher and David Harrison. Dutton, 2006.
An anthology of original stories, plays, and poems by a variety of authors
that celebrates what being a boy is all about. (Coming-of-Age, Decision
Making, Coping)
Girl
Stories (Graphic
Novel). By Lauren R. Weinstein. Henry Holt, 2006.
A collection of comics about the ins and outs of being a girl on the verge
of adolescence, many of which appeared originally on the web site gurl.com.
(Dating Issues, Friendship, Coming-of-Age)
Jinx.
By Margaret Wild. Walker & Company, 2002.
A novel written as a series of poems, Jen becomes known as "Jinx"
when two of her boyfriends die, a nickname outgrown only when she falls
in love with Hal. (Self-Identity, Interpersonal Relations)
Kayla
Chronicles.
By Sherrie Winston. Little, Brown and Co., 2007.
Kayla Dean, budding feminist and future journalist, is about to break
the story of a lifetime. Egged on by her best friend, Kayla has tried
our for her high school’s dance team, the Lady Lions, in order to
expose their unfair selection process. But when she makes the team, the
true investigation begins. Kayla begins to wonder: Can you be a strong
woman and still wear cute shoes? (Self-Identity,
Interpersonal Relations)
Lucky
Stars. By Lucy Frank. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2005.
Music entwines Kira, a thirteen-year-old singer who hates that her father
makes her perform for money on New York City subway platforms; Eugene,
the class clown; and Jake, who longs to sing and to approach Kira, but
feels held back by his stuttering. (Family Issues, Stuttering)
Margaux
with an X. By Ronald Koertge. Candlewick Press, 2004.
Margaux, known as a "tough chick" at her Los Angeles high school,
makes a connection with Danny, who, like her, struggles with the emotional
impact of family violence and abuse. (Sexual Abuse Victims, Family Violence,
Interpersonal Relations)
The
Outside Groove. By Erik E. Esckilsen. Houghton Mifflin Company,
2006.
Tired of having her own accomplishments ignored, high school senior Casey,
sister of the town's stock car racing champion, becomes the local track's
first female driver and discovers that there is more to winning than crossing
the finish line first. (Family Issues)
Paisley Hanover Acts Out. By Cameron Tuttle. Dial, 2008.
Always one of the popular kids, sophomore Paisley Hanover gets a rude awakening when she's booted out of yearbook and into the badlands of drama class. Paisley takes action-and an unexpected liking to her drama buddies. The result? An undercover crusade that could bring down the popularity pecking order, and Paisley along with it.
Sahara
Special. By Esme Raji Codell. Hyperion Press, 2003.
Struggling with school and her feelings since her father left, Sahara
gets a fresh start with a new and unique teacher who supports her writing
talents and the individuality of each of her classmates. (Self-Esteem,
African Americans)
The
Secret of Me. By Meg Kearney. A Karen and Michael Braziller Book,
2005.
Fourteen-year-old Lizzie struggles to inform her friends and talk to her
parents about being adopted. She feels they might view her as "less"
of a person because her mother gave her up at birth. It takes a tragic
accident for Lizzie to realize what she must do. (Adoption, Self-Identity)
Semiprecious.
By D. Anne Love. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2006.
Uprooted and living with an aunt in 1960s Oklahoma, thirteen-year-old
Garnet and her older sister Opal brave their mother's desertion and their
father's recovery from an accident, learning that "the best home
of all is the one you make inside yourself." (Family Issues, Coming-of
Age, Coping Skills)
Shug.
By Jenny Han. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2006.
A twelve-year-old girl learns about friendship, first loves, and self-worth
in a small town in the south. (Self-Identity, Coping Skills)
Simon
Says. By Elaine Marie Alphin. Harcourt Inc, 2002.
A troubled young painter attending a boarding school for the arts discovers
the pain and pleasure involved being true to himself and his talent. (Self-Identity)
Sleeping
Freshmen Never Lie. By David Lubar. Dutton Books, 2005.
Scott Hudson is overwhelmed the changes of starting high school and his
mother's unexpected pregnancy. His friends are drifting away; his old
friend Julia is the freshman beauty who every boy desires including himself,
and he can't get enough sleep to keep up with all of it.
(Self-Identity, Family Issues, Bullying, Dating Issues)
Story
of a Girl. By
Sara Zarr. Little, Brown, 2006.
In the three years since her father caught her in the back seat of a car
with an older boy, sixteen-year-old Deanna's life at home and school has
been a nightmare, but while dreaming of escaping with her brother and
his family, she discovers the power of forgiveness. (Dating Issues, Sexual
Behavior, Family Issues)
Such
a Pretty Face.
By Ann Angel. Amulet Books, 2007.
A beauty
queen with a chin-hair problem, an aspiring model who would rather take
pictures than be in them, a boy in love with the gorgeous nurse he’s
never seen, a girl named Beauty who feels like anything but – the
characters in these dozen original stories know the power of beauty, whether
it’s to torment or comfort, and must decide whether or not to live
by the rules. (Self-Identity)
Things
You Either Hate or Love.
By Brigid Lowery. Holiday House, 2006.
A cynical, overweight, and lonely Australian teenager spends her summer
vacation making lists, eating comfort foods, and trying to earn enough
money to attend a big rock concert. (Body Image, Careers)
Who
Will Tell My Brother? By Marlene Carvell. Hyperion Books, 2002.
A young Native American engages in a crusade to rid his high school of
offensive Indian mascots, learning through the painful experience about
his heritage and his place in the world. (Mohawk Indians, Tolerance)
Worth.
By A. LaFaye. Simon & Schuster, 2004.
After breaking his leg, eleven-year-old Nate feels useless because he
cannot work on the family farm in nineteenth-century Nebraska, so when
his father brings home an orphan boy to help with the chores, Nate feels
even worse.(Frontier and Pioneer Life, Orphans, Family Issues)
BACK
TO TOPICS
SELF-INJURY
Cut.
By Patrick McCormick. Front Street, 2000. (Audiobook)
Self-mutilation has become Callie's cry for help from a terrifyingly delicate,
asthmatic brother; a nonfunctioning mother; and an escaping father. (Self-Mutilation,
Family Issues, Psychiatric Hospitals).
The
Dream Where the Losers Go.
BY Beth Goobie. Orca, 2006. After treatment for self-destructive behavior,
Skey Mitchell returns to high school where she encounters a boy her own
age, with dreams - and secrets - much like her own. (Interpersonal Relations,
Mental Health, High School)
The
Luckiest Girl in the World. By Steven Levenkron. Scribner, 1997.Pretty, smart, and a talented ice-skater, 15-year-old Katie Roskova seems
to have a lot going for her. But, in fact, her public face and her private
one are vastly different. (Self-Mutilation, Mothers and Daughters, High
School)
Patron
Saint of Butterflies. By Cecilia Galante. Bloomsbury, 2008.
Agnes and Honey have always been best friends, but they haven't always
been so different. Agnes loves being a Believer. She knows the rules at
the Mount Blessing religious commune are there to make her a better person.
Honey hates Mount Blessing and the control Emmanuel, their leader, has
over her life. When Agnes's grandmother makes an unexpected visit to the
commune, she discovers a violent secret that the Believers are desperateto keep quiet. (Abuse, Family Issues, Religion)
Shut
the Door. By Amanda Marquit. St. Martin's Press, 2005.
Two teenage sisters, Lilliana and Vivian, take risks and undergo disturbing
transformations that go unchallenged by their emotionally absent parents.
(Family Issues, Interpersonal Relations)
Willow. By Julia Hoban. Dial Books, 2009.
Seven months ago, on a rainy March night, Willow's parents died in a horrible car accident. Willow was driving. Willow is blocking the pain by secretly cutting herself. But when one boy discovers Willow's secret, it sparks a relationship that turns the world Willow has created for herself upside down. (Dating, Death & Grief))
BACK
TO TOPICS
SEXUAL
BEHAVIOR
After
Summer. By Nick Earls. Graphia, 2005.
Alex Delaney is worried about getting into college until he meets a mysterious
girl named Fortuna. He spends a lot of time with her on the beach, falls
in love, but worries when he realizes that things cannot last.
(Interpersonal Relations)
Easy.
By Kerry Cohen Hoffmann. Simon & Schuster, 2006.
Fourteen-year-old Jessica finds it almost impossible to get any attention
from her family and friends. So, she turns to boys and men who are very
easy to attract with the right clothes and attitude. They fill her void
until it is more than she can handle. (Self-esteem, Family Issues)
Everything
Beautiful in the World. By Lisa Levchuk. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.
Seventeen-year-old Edna is in the midst of having a fight with her mother
when she is told she has cancer. Edna begins an affair with her art teacher
while her mother is in the hospital. Making it clear she will not visit
her mother, and ignoring a father who ignores her, Edna is given a "free
pass" to do what she wants. (Family Issues, Coping Skills)
Love
& Sex: Ten Stories of Truth. Edited by Michael Cart. Simon
& Schuster, 2001.
Compilation of stories by various authors dealing with teenage relationships.
(Dating Issues)
Virginity
Club. By Kate Brian. Simon Pulse, 2004.
Mandy, Kai, Debbie and Eva have one thing they must do before graduation
– win the prestigious Treemont scholarship. It’s a free pass
to the college of their choice. But the award has one requirement: Purity
of soul and body. In an effort to proclaim their “purity”
to the whole school, Mandy starts the Virginity Club. But each friend
is hiding something … something important, and their secrets may
cost them more than just a scholarship.
BACK
TO TOPICS
SEXUAL
IDENTITY
Absolute
Brightness. By James Lecesne. HarperTeen 2008.
In the beach town of Neptune, New Jersey, Phoebe's life is changed irrevocably
when her gay cousin moves into her house and soon goes missing. This is
the story of a luminous force of nature: a boy who encounters evil and
whose magic isn’t truly felt until he disappears. (Abuse, Violence
Prevention)
Absolutely,
Positively Not. By David LaRochelle. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2005.
Follows a teenage boy's humorous attempts to fit in at his Minnesota high
school by becoming a macho, girl-loving, "Playboy" pinup-displaying
heterosexual. (Coming Out, High School)
Am
I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence. Edited by Marion Dane Bauer.
HarperCollins, 1994.
Sixteen short stories about gay awareness by a variety of writers--some
gay, some not. (Short Stories)
Between
Mom and Jo. By Julie Anne Peters. Little Brown and Company, 2006.
Fourteen-year-old Nick has a three-legged dog named Lucky 2, some pet
fish, and two mothers, whose relationship complicates his entire life
as they face prejudice, work problems, alcoholism, cancer, and finally
separation. (Family Issues, Cancer)
Boy
Meets Boy. By David Levithan. Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.
Paul lives in a present-day gaytopia, where boys come out of the closet
to become class president, and the Gay-Straight Alliance has more members
than the football team. The cheerleaders ride Harleys, and the cross-dressing
homecoming queen is also the star quarterback.
(Interpersonal Relations)
Deliver
Us from Evie. By M.E. Kerr. HarperCollins, 1994.
Parr Burrman is used to hearing jokes about his masculine, strong older
sister, Evie; what he's not used to is his growing awareness that she
may be a lesbian. (Sexual Identity, Family Issues)
Empress
of the World. By Sara Ryan. Viking, 2001:
While attending a summer institute, fifteen-year-old Nic meets another
girl named Battle, falls in love with her, and finds the relationship
to be difficult and confusing. (Sexual Identity, Dating Issues)
Far
from Xanadu. By Julie Anne Peters. Little Brown, 2005.
In a small Kansas town, sixteen-year-old Mary-Elizabeth "Mike"
Szabo tries to come to terms with her father's suicide and her own homosexuality.
(Suicide, Grief)
Getting
It. By Alex
Sanchez. Simon & Schuster, 2006.
Hoping to impress a sexy female classmate, fifteen-year-old Carlos secretly
hires gay student Sal to give him an image makeover, in exchange for Carlos's
help in forming a Gay-Straight Alliance at their Texas high school. (Mexican
Americans, Coming-of-Age, Interpersonal Relations)
God
Box. By
Alex Sanchez. Simon & Schuster, 2007.
High school senior Paul has dated Angie since middle school, and they’re
good together. They have similar interests, including singing in their
church choir and being active in Bible Club. But when Manuel transfers
to their school, Paul has to rethink his life. Manuel is the first openly
gay teen anyone in the small town has met, and he’s a Christian.
Manuel’s outspokenness triggers dramatic consequences at school,
culminating in a terrifying situation that leads Paul to take a stand.
(Religion, Interpersonal Relations)
Gravel
Queen. Tea Simon Bendun. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing,
2003.
All Aurin wants to do the summer before her senior year in high school
is hang out with her friends Kenney and Fred. But, when she falls in love
with Neila, everything changes. (Friendship)
Grl2grl.
By Julie Anne Peters. Little, Brown and Company, 2007.
This short story collection portrays teens as they navigate the hurdles
of relationships and sexual identity. From the young lesbian taking her
first steps toward coming out, to the two strangers who lock eyes across
a crowded train, to the transgender teen longing for a sense of self,
or the girl whose abusive father has turned her to stone, the characters
resonate with the reader long after the book has been put down. (Dating
Issues, Interpersonal Relations)
Jack.
By A.M. Homes. Macmillan, 1989.
Fifteen year old Jack just discovered that his father is gay. (Family
Issues)
Keeping
You a Secret. By Julie Ann Peters. Little Brown, 2003.
As she begins a very tough last semester of high school, Holland finds
herself puzzled about her future and intrigued by a transfer student who
wants to start a Lesbigay club at school. (Sexual Identity, Family Issues)
Lady
God. By Lesa Luders. New Victoria Publishers, 1995.
Landy is a young woman haunted by images of early childhood incest at
the hands of her sexually abusive, deranged mother. (Sexual Identity,
Violence Prevention, Incest, Alcoholism, Suicide)
Luna:
A Novel. By Julie Anne Peters. Little, Brown, 2004.
Fifteen-year-old Regan's life, which has always revolved around keeping
her older brother Liam's transsexuality a secret, changes when Liam decides
to start the process of "transitioning" by first telling his
family and friends that he is a girl who was born in a boy's body.
(Self-Identity, Family Issues)
My
Heartbeat. By Garret Freymann-Weyr. Houghton, 2002.
As she tries to understand the closeness between her older brother and
his best friend. (Family Issues, Interpersonal Relations)
The
Perks of Being a Wallflower. By Stephen Chbosky. Pocket Books, 1999.
Charlie is a freshman,and while he's not the biggest geek in the school,
he is by no means popular. He's a wallflower--shy and introspective, but
intelligent beyond his years. (Diary Fiction)
Rainbow
Boys. By Alex Sanchez. Simon & Schuster, 2001.
Three high school seniors, a jock with a girlfriend and an alcoholic father,
a closeted gay, and a flamboyant gay rights advocate, struggle with family
issues, gay bashers, first sex, and conflicting feelings about each other.
(Homosexuality, Family Issues, Alcoholism, Interpersonal Relations)
Rainbow
High. By Alex Sanchez. Simon & Schuster, 2003.
The rest of your life depends on high school decisions about college.
Jason Carrillo, the best-looking athlete in school, Kyle Meeks, swim team
star and all-around good guy, and Nelson Glassman, outgoing and defiant,
thought they had it all figured out. But then Jason's eyes turn to love-and
Kyle. Kyle is finally in the relationship he's wanted. Nelson fears testing
positive. Graduation is ahead and decisions must be made.
(Interpersonal Relations, Family Issues, HIV/AIDS)
Rainbow
Road. By Alex Sanchez. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers,
2005.
While driving across the United States during the summer after high school
graduation, three young gay men encounter various bisexual and homosexual
people and make some decisions about their own relationships and lives.
(Interpersonal Relations)
So
Hard to Say. By Alex Sanchez. Simon Pulse, 2004.
Frederick is perfect boyfriend material for the pretty and popular Xio,
but he thinks more about Victor, the captain of the soccer team.
(School, Mexican-Americans, Interpersonal Relations)
Steady
Beat, Volume 1
(manga). By Rivkah. TOKYOPOP, 2005.
Sixteen-year-old Leah Winters is forever living in her older sister's
shadow, and when she finds a love letter to her sister from a girl, she
must come to grips with their differences and similarities. (Family Issues)
Tale
of Two Summers. By Brian Sloan. Simon & Schuster, 2006.
Even though Hal is gay and Chuck is straight, the two fifteen-year-olds
are best friends and set up a blog where Hal records his budding romance
with a young Frenchman, and Chuck falls for a summer theater camp diva.
(Interpersonal Relations, Dating Issues)
Tips
on Having a Gay (ex)Boyfriend.
By Carrie Jones. Flux, 2007.
Is it fair to be mad, mad, mad at your boyfriend for being gay? Anything
but straight in small town Maine won’t exactly be a walk in the
park, even for invincible Dylan. But can’t heartbroken Belle whine
just a little? What’s a girl to do when her perfect soulmate says
Goodbye Belle, Hello Bob? For starters, she makes a list on how to deal.
(Dating Issues)
What
Happened to Lani Garver. By Carol Plum-Ucci. Harcourt Inc, 2002.
Who or what is newcomer Lani, an angel? An unusual story of compassion
and tragedy.
BACK
TO TOPICS
SUBSTANCE
ABUSE
The
Beast. By Walter Dean Myers. Scholastic, 2003.
A visit to his Harlem neighborhood and discovery that the girl he loves
is using drugs give seventeen-year-old Anthony Witherspoon a new perspective
both on his home and on his life at a Connecticut prep school. (Coping)
Beauty
Queen. By Linda Glovach. HarperCollins, 1998.
Writing in her diary about an ex-boyfriend, 19-year-old Samantha seems
normal, but after moving into her own apartment, working as a topless
dancer, and becoming a heroin addict, she sounds like a hardened drug
abuser. (Heroin Addiction)
Bottled
Up. By Jaye Murray. Dial Books, 2003.
A high school boy comes to terms with his drug addiction, life with an
alcoholic father, and a younger brother who looks up to him.
(Alcohol Use, Family Issues, High School)
Crackback.
By John Coy. Scholastic Press, 2005.
Miles barely recalls when football was fun after being singled out by
a new coach, constantly criticized by his father, and pressured by his
best friend to take performance-enhancing drugs. (Steroids, Sports, Family
Issues)
Crank.
By Ellen Hopkins. Simon Pulse, 2004.
Kristina Georgia Snow is the perfect daughter, gifted high school junior,
quiet, never any trouble. But on a trip to visit her absentee father,
Kristina disappears and Bree takes her place. Bree is the exact opposite.
Through a boy, Bree meets the monster: crank. And what begins as a wild
ecstatic ride turns into a struggle through hell for her mind, her soul
- her life.
(Family Issues, High School)
Dope Sick. By Walter Dean Myers. Amistad, 2009.
Pursued by police after a drug deal goes disastrously wrong, 17-year-old Lil J hides out in an abandoned building where he encounters a strange, solitary man named Kelly, who is watching television. Stranger still is what Kelly is watching: scenes from Lil J’s past and his prospective future. (Legal Issues, Self-Image, Violence Prevention)
Exit
Here. By Jason Myers. Simon & Schuster, 2007.
Travis is back from school for the summer, and he’s just starting
to settle in to the usual pattern at home: drinking, drugging, watching
porn, and hooking up. But he isn’t settling in – maybe it’s
that deadly debauch in Hawaii, the memories of which he can’t quite
shake. Or maybe it’s his suddenly sensing how empty and messed up
his life is, and wanting out. (Coping)
The
Game. By Teresa Toten. Red Deer Press, 2001.
With the support of new friends at the clinic, Dani develops the courage
to face her family's deep dysfunction and terrible secret- and to eliminate
the Game from her life forever. (Family Issues)
Glass.
By Ellen Hopkins. Simon & Schuster, 2007.
In this sequel to Crank, Kristina Snow, a former 17-year-old with high
grades and a loving family, has returned to Reno pregnant. While living
with her mother and working at a convenience store, she becomes addicted
to meth in order to recapture her pre-baby figure. When her addiction
takes over her life, she becomes a slave to it and has to give up her
baby. (Family Issues, Parenting, Teen Pregnancy)
Go
Ask Alice. By Anonymous. Prentice-Hall, 1971.
The classic diary by an anonymous, addicted teen. (Runaways, Diaries)
Gossip of the Starlings. By Nina De Gramont. Algonquin Books, 2009.
When Catherine Morrow is admitted to the Esther Perry School for Girls, it’s on the condition that she reform her ways. But that’s before the beautiful and charismatic Skye Butterfield chooses Catherine for her best friend. Skye is in love with the thrill of taking risks, breaking rules, and crossing boundaries, no matter the stakes. But the stakes keep getting higher in this chilling portrait of adolescent temptations
Imani
in Never Say Goodbye. By Jackie Hardrick. Enlighten
Publications, 2003.
Seventeen-year-old Imani's hopes for getting into Howard University-on
a basketball scholarship or otherwise-are nearly dashed during her tumultuous
senior year, primarily due to her friend and teammate Dominique's rapid
descent into drug abuse. (African-Americans)
Lunch with Lenin and Other Stories. By Deborah Ellis. Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2008.
A collection of short stories about the impact of drugs, alcohol, and addiction on the lives of young people. (Alcohol Abuse, Legal Issues)
Making
the Run. By Heather Henson. Joanna Cotler Books, 2002.
Eighteen-year-old Lu
is set on leaving her Kentucky home town after high school graduation.
She bides the time by doing drugs, making the run with her friends for
alcohol and focusing on her photography. (Alcohol Use, Family Issues,
Teen Pregnancy)
My
Brother's Keeper. By Patricia McCormick. Hyperion, 2005.
Thirteen-year-old Toby, a prematurely gray-haired Pittsburgh Pirates fan
and baseball card collector, tries to cope with his brother's drug use,
his father's absence, and his mother dating Stanley the Food King. (Coping,
Family Issues, Baseball)
One
Night. By Marsha Qualey. Dial Books, 2002.
Kelly Ray, a recovering heroin addict, meets a real prince whom she would
like to appear on her aunt's radio talk show. Love and other complications
intervene. (Interpersonal Relations)
Rats
Saw God. By Rob Thomas. Simon Pulse, 1996.
For Steve York, life was good. He had a 4.0 GPA, friends he could trust,
and a girl he loved. Now he spends his days smoked out. But his herbal
endeavors – and personal demons – have led to a severe lack
of motivation. Steve’s flunking out, but if he writes a 100-page
paper, he can graduate. Through telling the story of how he got to where
he is, he discovers exactly where he wants to be. (Self-Identity)
Rehab. By Randi Reisfeld. Simon Pulse, 2008.
When Kenzie Cross becomes a TV star, it's like it's Christmas and her
birthday every day, and she begins to party hard. But when her partying
goes a little too far, she is given an ultimatum by her director: Go to
rehab, or get cut from the film. Kenzie agrees to the stint and even enjoys
it until it finally hits her why she's really there, and she begins to
wonder if she's even ready to leave ... (Decision Making, Self-Identity)
Rx.
By Tracy Lynn. Simon Pulse, 2006.
Thyme Gilchrest is an honors student, popular, and on student council.
She is also a drug dealer. Like piecing together a logic puzzle, Thyme
has organized a complex trading system that enables her to obtain the
meds her friends need. They all come to her to diagnose their problems
and provide the "cure." This power trip helps her believe she
is in control of something within her high school world. (Drug Dealing,
Prescription Drug Abuse)
Smack.
By Melvin Burgess. Holt, 1997.
After running away from their troubled homes, two English teenagers move
in with a group of squatters in the port city of Bristol ad try to find
ways to support their growing addiction to heroin. (Runaways, Friendship)
Spectacular
Now. By Tim Tharp. Knopf, 2008.
Unlike most high school seniors, Sutter Keely is not concerned with the
future. He's the life of the party, and he's interested in the Spectacular
Now. He carries whiskey in a flask, and once it's mixed into his 7Up,
anything is possible. He will jump into the pool fully clothed, climb
up a tree and onto his ex-girlfriends roof or cruise around all hours
of the night. (Dating)
Street
Pharm. By Alison
Va Diepen. Simon Pulse, 2006.
Seventeen-year-old African-American drug dealer, Ty Johnson, takes over
his father's business and struggles to make sense of his life when competition
from out of town threatens him and those who are close to him. (Violence
Prevention)
When
Dreams Are Crushed. By Olga Altstatt. 1st Books Library, 2001.
Story about peer pressure in reverse-- a high school girl helps her best
friend quit using drugs. (Friendship, Peer Pressure)
BACK
TO TOPICS
SUICIDE
Aimee.
By Mary Beth Miller. Dutton Books, 2002.
It seems that everyone, even her own parents, believes that Zoe helped
her best friend, Aimee, commit suicide. (Friendship)
After.
By Francis Chalifour. Tundra, 2005.
Fifteen-year-old Francis struggles to come to terms with his father's
suicide. (Grief, Death, Family Issues)
The
Cloud Chamber. By Joyce Maynard. Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
2005.
In their small Montana community, fourteen-year-old
Nate copes with his own sadness and anger over his father's attempted
suicide. (Depression, Family Issues)
Impulse.
By Ellen Hopkins. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2007.
Three teens who meet at Reno, Nevada's Aspen Springs mental hospital after
each has attempted suicide connect with each other in a way they never
have with their parents or anyone else in their lives. (Friendship, Survival,
Mental Health)
St.
Michael's Scales. By Neil Connelly. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2001.
Keegan Flannery, feeling responsible for his twin brother's death and
his mother's mental illness, believes he must atone by committing suicide
before his sixteenth birthday, but he gains new insights when he joins
his school's wrestling team. (Death, Mental Health)
Stay
With Me. By Garret Freymann-Weyr. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006.
When her sister kills herself, sixteen-year-old Leila goes looking for
a reason and, instead, discovers great love, her family's true history,
and how she fits into everything. (Self-discovery, Family Issues)
Thirteen
Reasons Why.
By Jay Asher. Penguin, 2007.
When Clay Jenson plays the cassette tapes he received in a mysterious
package, he's surprised to hear the voice of dead classmate Hannah Baker.
He's one of 13 people who receive Hannah's story, which details the circumstances
that led to her suicide. (Violence Prevention, Death/Guilt)
Trigger.
By Susan Vaught. Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2006. Teenager Jersey Hatch
must work through his extensive brain damage to figure out why he decided
to shoot himself. (Violence, Disabilities)
You
Know Where to Find Me. By Rachel Cohn. Simon & Schuster, 2008.
Miles has spent her life in the shadow of her cousin Laura - smart, gorgeous,
and a student at a prep school. Miles is overweight, anti-social, and
lives with her mom in the carriage house on her uncle's property. Miles
thinks Laura has the perfect life--until Laura commits suicide. (Death
& Grief, Substance Abuse, Interpersonal Relationships, Family Issues)
BACK TO TOPICS
TEEN
PREGNANCY
Little
Wing. By Joanne Horniman. Allen & Unwin, 2008.
Suffering from postpartum depression, Emily visits her grandmother . As
she tries to sort through her despair and self-hatred-seeing herself as
a worthless teenage girl who abandoned her child-she is befriended by
a stay-at-home dad and his son, Pete. (Depression, Mental Health)
VIOLENCE
PREVENTION
(see also ABUSE & BULLYING)
After.
By Francine Prose. HarperCollins, 2003.
In the aftermath of a nearby school shooting, a grief and crisis counselor
takes over Central High School and enacts increasingly harsh measures
to control students, while those who do not comply disappear. (School
Shootings)
Behind
the Eyes. By
Francisco Stork. Dutton, 2006.
Sixteen-year-old Hector is the hope of his family, but when he seeks revenge
after his brother's gang-related death and is sent to a San Antonio reform
school, it takes an odd assortment of characters to help him see that
hope is still alive. (Gangs, Coming-of -Age, Death/Grief, Coping)
The
Brimstone Journals. By Ron Koertge. Candlewick Press, 2001.
In a series of short interconnected poems, students at a high school nicknamed
Brimstone reveal the violence existing and growing in their lives.
Bruises.
By Anke De Vrie. Front Street, 2003.
While living in Holland, Michael meets Judith, who is frightened, bullied,
and beaten by her mother and blames herself for the abuse she is enduring.
(Abuse, Survival, Family Issues)
Burn.
By Suzanne Phillips. Little, Brown and Company, 2008.
For high school freshman Cameron Grady, every day is a struggle - to get
out of bed, make it through classes, and come home without being emotionally
and physically tormented by Rich Patterson and his followers. They leave
Cameron no choice but to fight back. At least that's what he tells himself.
Claiming
Georgia Tate. By Gigi Amateau. Candlewick Press, 2005.
Twelve-year-old Georgia Tate feels loved and safe living with Nana and
Granddaddy, until her sexually abusive father tries to win her custody.
(Incest, Sexual Abuse, Self-Identity)
Darkness
Before Dawn. By Sharon Draper. Atheneum Books, 2001.
Keisha struggles to put her world back in perspective, she learns the
power and the danger of silence, and discovers the secret gifts that had
been waiting for her all along. (Violence, African American Teens)
Dirty
Work. By Julia Bell. Walker & Company, 2007.
Hope Tasker, an upper-class girl from Britain, wants to be free. When
she meets Natasha, she thinks it's her way out of her mundane life. Except
Natasha is really Oksana, an impoverished girl from Russia, who was tricked
into being sold into sexual slavery as a way to support her family. Oksana
is a trap. The two girls soon realize that if they are ever going to escape,
they must learn to find enough common ground to work together—and
to trust each other. (Interpersonal Relationships)
Dope
Sick. By Walter Dean Myers. Amistad, 2009.
Pursued by police after a drug deal goes disastrously wrong, 17-year-old
Lil J hides out in an abandoned building where he encounters a strange,
solitary man named Kelly, who is watching television. Stranger still is
what Kelly is watching: scenes from Lil J's past and his prospective future.
(Legal Issues, Substance Abuse, Self-Image)
Every
Time a Rainbow Dies. By Rita Williams-Garcia. HarperCollins, 2001.
Thulani spends long hours on the roof of their brownstone alone with his
beloved doves. One day he hears a scream and looks over the parapet to
see a young woman being raped in the alley below. (Caribbean Americans,
Interpersonal Relationships)
Give
a Boy a Gun. By Todd Strasser. Simon & Schuster, 2000.
Gary and Brendan hold their classmates hostage at a dance with rifles
stolen from a neighbor.
Hershey
Herself. By Cecilia Galante. Aladdin Mix, 2008.
When 12-year-old Hershey must run away with her mother to a women’s
shelter, she wonders how, among other things, she’ll compete in
the town talent show with her best friend and who will take care of her
cat, and if she’ll survive being on a new bus route with her sworn
enemy. Most of all, she wonders how she, her mom and her baby sister will
start a new life, hidden away on the other side of town from her mom’s
abusive boyfriend. She turns to her journal and Cheese Doodles for comfort,
until another resident at the shelter helps her discover a talent she
never realized she had.
House
of the Scorpion. By Nancy Farmer. Atheneum Books, 2002.
Told in a future time, the young clone of a corrupt drug leader in a small
country between the U.S. and former Mexico experiences adventure at every
turn. (Substance Abuse, Science Fiction)
I
Hadn't Meant to Tell You This. By Jacqueline Woodson. Delacorte,
1994.
Marie, the only black girl in the eighth grade willing to befriend her
white classmate Lena, discovers the Lena's father is doing horrible things
to her in private. (Racism/Prejudice)
Making
Up Megaboy. By Virginia Walter and Katrina Roeckelein. Delacorte
Press, 1998.
On Robbie Jones 13th birthday, he decides to shoot and kill an old man.
No one knows what caused Robbie Jones to do it, least of all himself.
(Graphic Format)
Missing
Girl. By Norma Fox Mazer. HarperTeen, 2008.
In Mallory, New York, as five sisters, aged eleven to seventeen, deal
with assorted problems, conflicts, fears, and yearnings, a mysterious
middle-aged man watches them, fascinated, deciding which one he likes
the best. The sisters are unaware that they are being scrutinized by a
predator.
Monster.
By Walter D. Myers. HarperCollins, 1999.
Written as a screenplay, "Monster" is what the prosecutor called
16-year-old Steve Harmon for his supposed role in the fatal shooting of
a convenience-store owner. (Self-Image, African American Teens)
Nothing
to Lose. By Alex Flinn. HarperCollins, 2004.
A year after running away with a traveling carnival to escape his unbearable
home life, sixteen-year-old Michael returns to Miami, Florida, to find
that his mother is going on trial for the murder of his abusive stepfather.
(Runaways, Abuse)
Nugrl90
(Sadie) (Bloggrls
Series). By Cheryl Dellasega. Marshall Cavendish, 2007.
Sadie, a.k.a. nugrl90, wakes up one day to discover that her semi-happy
teen life has taken a turn toward disaster. Her parents are getting divorced
and her family is moving. She starts a blog to try to figure out the changes
in her life, and then she meets Buff Boy, who turns out to have a troubled
dark side. Forced to make a life-altering decision, Sadie relies on her
blog as a source of strength. (Divorce, Family Issues, Coping/Decision
Making)
Prey.
By Lurlene McDaniel. Delacorte, 2008.
Told from their separate points of view, fifteen-year-old Ryan has a secret
affair with his 33-year-old history teacher at an Atlanta high school,
and his best friend Honey becomes determined to uncover the reason he
is increasingly distant. (Sexual Abuse, Interpersonal Relations)
Raymond.
By Mark Geller. Noguer y Caralt, 1994.
Spanish book dealing with child abuse. (Child
Abuse, Spanish Language)
Real
Time. By Pnina Moed Kass. Clarion Books, 2004.
Sixteen-year-old Tomas Wanninger persuades his mother to let him leave
Germany to volunteer at a kibbutz in Israel, where he experiences a violent
political attack and finds answers about his own past. (Self-Identity,
Israel, Politics)
Road
of the Dead. By Kevin Brooks. The Chicken House, 2006.
Two brothers, sons of an incarcerated gypsy, leave London traveling to
an isolated and desolate village, in search of the brutal killer of their
sister. (Coping)
Rooftop.
By Paul Volponi. Viking, 2006.
Still reeling from seeing police shoot his unarmed cousin to death on
the roof of a New York City housing project, seventeen-year-old Clay is
dragged into the whirlwind of political manipulation that follows. (Death,
Prejudice, Criminal Justice)
Safe.
By Susan Shaw. Dutton Books, 2007.
In the aftermath of an unspeakable crime, Tracy must fight her way back
to safety and find comfort in her mother’s memory once again. A
raw and moving story of a young rape victim’s journey toward healing.
Search
and Destroy. By Dean Hughes. Ginee Seo Books, 2005.
Recent high-school graduate Rick Ward, undecided about his future and
eager to escape his unhappy home life, joins the army and experiences
the horrors of the war in Vietnam. (Dating)
Shattered:
Stories of Children and War. By Jennifer Armstrong. Knopf Press,
2001.
Twelve stories that explore the ways young people are affected by war.
(War Stories)
Shattering
Glass.
By Gail Giles. Roaring Book Press, 2002.
When Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, turns the school
nerd into Prince Charming, his actions lead to unexpected violence.
Shooter.
By Walter Dean Myers. HarperTempest, 2004.
Written in the form of interviews, reports, and journal entries, the story
of three troubled teenagers ends in a tragic school shooting.
(Bullies, Family Issues, Mental Health)
Speak.
By Laurie Halse Anderson. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1999.
(Audiobook)
A stunning and sympathetic tribute to a teenage outcast and a rape survivor.
(Emotional Problems, High School)
A
Stone In My Hand. By Cathryn Clinton. Candlewick Press, 2002.
Set in the mounting tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, an 11-year
old girl must move beyond the violence surrounding her and act with courage
and hope. (Muslims, Family Life, Jewish)
Street
Love. By Walter
Dean Myers. Amistad, 2006.
This story told in free verse is set against a background of street gangs
and poverty in Harlem in which seventeen-year-old African American Damien
takes a bold step to ensure that he and his new love will not be separated.
(Prejudice, Sports)
Target.
By Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson. Roaring Brook, 2003.
After being raped, Grady goes to a new high school where he meets an outgoing
African American and several other students who try to help him deal with
the horrible secret. (Rape, Anorexia, Racism/Prejudice, Sexual Identity)
We
All Fall Down. By Robert Cormier. Delacorte, 1991.
Jane Jerome and her family come home to find that vandals have destroyed
their possessions, urinated on their walls, and left 14-year-old Karen
in a coma at the bottom of the basement stairs. (Alcohol Use)
What
Happened to Cass McBride.
By Gail Giles. Little, Brown, 2006.
After his younger brother commits suicide, Kyle Kirby decides to exact
revenge on the person he holds responsible. (Suicide)
When
Dad Killed Mom. By Julius Lester. Silver Whistle/Harcourt, 2001.
Jenna and Jeremy must deal with the fact that their father murdered their
mother. (Family Issues)
Where
People Like Us Live. By Patricia Cumbie. HarperTeen, 2008.
It's a routine Libby's used to by now: pack up, move, start over, repeat.
This time it's to Rubberville and Angie, a girl who nearly-but-not-quite
gets Libby killed the first day they meet. Angie is everything Libby wishes
she were: outspoken, fearless, and happy to risk it all to have a little
fun. But one day Libby learns that behind Angie's attitude is a frightening
secret. Libby faces an impossible choice: Does she protect her friendship
or her friend? (Interpersonal Relations)
Wonder
When You'll Miss Me. By Amanda Davis. HarperCollins, 2003.
A year after being raped at school, Faith is bent on revenge. This quest
for retribution eventually compels her to violence, forcing her to flee
home in search of the only friend she has and to tumble into the colorful,
transient world of the circus. Faith ultimately begins to discover who
she is and all that she is capable of. (Runaway Teens, Body Image, Coping)
BACK
TO TOPICS
Alicia
Afterimage. By Lulu Delacre. Lee & Low Books, 2008.
When 16-year-old Alicia Betancourt is killed in a car accident, those
left behind struggle to cope with the loss. Her loved ones struggle to
create a lasting place in their hearts for someone who is no longer a
physical presence.
All
Rivers Flow to the Sea. By Alison McGhee. Candlewick Press, 2005.
After a car accident in the Adirondacks leaves her older sister Ivy brain-dead,
seventeen-year-old Rose struggles with her grief and guilt as she slowly
learns to let her sister go. (Family Issues, Coping Skills)
All
That Remains. By Bruce Brooks. Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
2001.
Three novellas explore the effects of death on young adults. (AIDS, Sports)
The
Battle of Jericho. By Sharon Draper. Atheneum, 2003.
A high school junior and his cousin suffer the ramifications of joining
what seems to be a "reputable" school club.
Before
I Die. By Jenny Downham. David Fickling Books, 2007.
Everyone has to die. With only a few months left to live, 16-year-old
Tessa has made a list of ten things she wants to do before she dies. Starting
with sex. But getting what you want isn’t easy, and it doesn’t
always give you what you need. And sometimes the most unexpected things
become important. (Coping)
Birdland.
By Tracy Mack. Scholastic, 2003.
Thirteen-year-old Jed spends Christmas break working on a school project
filming a documentary about his East Village, New York City neighborhood,
where he is constantly reminded of his older brother, Zeke, a promising
poet who died the summer before. (Family Issues, Disabilities)
Bittersweet.
By Drew Lamm. Clarion, 2003.
When her beloved grandmother suffers a stroke, high school junior and
talented artist Taylor finds her inspiration and creative energy disappearing
until she learns to reconnect with others and herself in unexpected ways.
(Grandmothers, Interpersonal Relations)
Blind
Faith. By Ellen Wittlinger. Simon & Schuster Books for Young
Readers, 2006.
While coping with her grandmother's sudden death and her mother's resulting
depression and fascination with a spiritualist church, whose ministers
claim to communicate with the dead, fifteen-year-old Liz finds herself
falling for a new neighbor whose mother is dying of cancer. (Depression,
Spiritualists, Family Issues)
Bringing
Up the Bones. By Lara M. Zeises. Delacorte Press, 2002.
Bridget searches for happiness on her own after the death of Benji, her
longtime best friend and boyfriend. (Dating Issues)
By
the River. By Steven Herrick. Front Street, 2006.
A fourteen-year-old describes, through prose poems, his life in a small
Australian town in 1962, where, since their mother's death, he and his
brother have been mainly on their own to learn about life, death, and
love. (Coping, Family Issues)
Catalyst.
By Laurie Halse Anderson. Viking, 2002.
Kate finds herself losing control in her senior year as she faces difficult
neighbors, the possibility that she may not be accepted by the college
of her choice, and an unexpected death. (High School, Family Issues)
Chicken
Boy. By Dowell, Frances O'Roark. Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
2005.
Since the death of his mother, Tobin's family life and school life have
been in disarray, but after he starts raising chickens with his seventh-grade
classmate, Henry, everything starts to fall into place.
(Family Issues, Self-Esteem)
The
Color of Absence: 12 Stories About Loss and Hope.
Edited by James Howe. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2001.
A collection of stories dealing with different kinds of loss experienced
by young people. (Short Stories)
Comeback
Season. By Jennifer Smith. Simon & Schuster, 2008.
The last place Ryan Walsh should be this afternoon is on a train heading
to Wrigley Field. She should be in class, enduring yet another miserable
day of her first year of high school. But for once, Ryan isn't thinking
about what she should be doing. Because she's finally returning to the
place that her father loved, where the two of them spent so many afternoons
cheering on their team. And on this -- the fifth anniversary of his death
-- it feels like there's nowhere else in the world she should be. It's
on this day that she meets Nick, the new kid from her school, who seems
to love the Cubs nearly as much as she does. But Nick carries with him
a secret that makes Ryan wonder if anyone can ever really escape their
past. (Dating Issues)
Deadline.
By Chris Crutcher. Greenwillow Books, 2007.
Ben Wolf had big things planned for his senior year – but now he
received some very bad news and only one year left to make his mark on
the world. How can he make an impact in the small town of Trout, Idaho?
He decides not to let anyone else know what’s going on and to become
the best 123-pound football player his high school has ever seen. And
then there’s Dallas Suzuki, his dream girl. Ben’s resolve
begins to crumble when he realizes he isn’t the only one in Trout
keeping secrets…. (Family Issues)
Dear
Zoe. By Phillip Beard. Viking, 2005.
Fifteen-year-old Tess writes a letter to her dead sister trying to figure
out her own life and how to cope with her grief in a time when the United
States is grieving over their losses from terrorism. (Family Issues, Coping,
Terrorism)
Desert
Crossing. By
Elise Broach. Henry Holt, 2006.
A summer trip across the New Mexico desert turns nightmarish for fourteen-year-old
Lucy, her older brother Jamie, and his best friend Kit, as they become
involved in the suspicious death of a young girl. (Coping, Violence)
Elsewhere.
By Gabrielle Zevin. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
After being hit and killed by a taxi, fifteen-year-old Liz Hall finds
herself in a place both like and unlike earth. Liz must live her life
elsewhere, aging backwards until she is a baby again, to return to earth
and live a life she feels she missed out on.
Falling
Through Darkness. By Carolyn MacCullough. Roaring Brook, 2003.
Seventeen-year old Ginny unexpectedly gets help from her father's new
tenant while struggling to cope with her guilt and confusion over the
death of her daredevil boyfriend.
Freewill.
By Chris Lynch. HarperCollins Publishers, 2001.
A teenager trying to recover from the tragic death of his father and stepmother
believes himself to be responsible for the rash of teen suicides occurring
in his town. (Mental Health, Suicide)
Hard
Hit. By Ann Turner. Scholastic Press, 2006.
A rising high school baseball star faces his most difficult challenge
when his father is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. (Family Issues, Coping)
Just
Like That. By Marsha Qualey. Dial, 2005.
A tragic accident, ending with the death of two people her own age, changes
the life of an eighteen-year-old woman forever.
(Dating Issues, Family Issues, Coping)
Kamichama
Karin (Graphic Novel). By Koge-Donbo (Nan Rymer). Tokyopop, 2005.
Karin is an average girl. She's not good at sports and gets terrible grades.
On top of all that, her parents are dead and her beloved cat Shi-chan
just died, too. She is miserable, but everything is about to change. Little
does Karin know that her mother's ring has the power to make her a goddess!
(Self-Esteem, Death)
Life
at These Speeds.
By Jeremy Jackson. Picador, 2002.
In eighth grade Kevin Schuler is a popular kid with a decent, if not stellar, record on the track. Yet after fate takes him off a bus that crashes and
kills his fellow students, including his girlfriend, Kevin inexplicably
becomes a track phenomenon. (Dating, Interpersonal Relations)
The
Lightkeeper's Daughter. By Lain Lawrence. Delacorte Press, 2002.
Returning to a remote lighthouse island off British Columbia, her childhood
home, Squid remembers painfully the death of her brother and her parents'
involvement in the episode. (Family Issues)
Looking
for Alaska.
By John Green. Dutton books, 2005.
Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School
in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the
search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.
Maybe.
By Brent Runyon. Knopf, 2006.
Sixteen-year-old Brian struggles with life at a new school, his sexual
desires, and his unresolved feelings about the loss of his older brother.
(Sexual Behavior, Family Issues)
Pray
Hard. By Pamela Walker. Scholastic Press, 2001.
Twelve-year-old Amelia feels secretly responsible for her father's death
in a plane crash a year earlier. Her life is turned upside down when a
newly religious ex-convict claims to have seen Amelia's father in a vision
and moves in with Amelia and her mother.
(Family Issues, Spirituality)
Shadow
Boxer. By Chris Lynch. HarperCollins, 1993.
The shadow of their deceased father, a boxer, provides a background for
14-year-old George and his younger, hyperactive brother, Monty. (Family
Issues)
Skin
Deep. By E.M. Crane. Delacorte Press, 2008.
If all the world’s a stage, Andrea Anderson is sitting in the audience.
In the social hierarchy she is a Nothing, and at home her mother runs
the show. Then one day Andrea accepts a job. Honora Menapace–a reclusive
neighbor–is sick. Life is no longer predictable, and nothing is
what it seems. Andrea must face the fact that life at first glance doesn’t
even crack the surface. (Family Issues, Interpersonal Relations)
Snap:
A Novel. By Alison McGhee. Candlewick Press, 2004.
Eleven-year-old Edwina confronts old and new challenges when her longtime
best friend Sally faces the inevitable death of the grandmother who raised
her. (Family Issues)
A
Sudden Silence. By Eve Bunting. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988.
Jesse Harmon knows he will never forget the night his deaf brother, Bry,
was killed by a hit-and-run driver because he couldn't hear Jesse warn
him. (Drunk Driving, Family Issues)
Sun,
Moon, Stars, Rain. By Jan Cheripko. Front Street, 2006.
Still grieving over his father's death, nineteen-year-old college dropout
Danny Murtaugh turns to a drunk, an eccentric landowner, and a young waitress
for answers about his past and direction for his future. (Alcohol Use,
Dating)
Tending
to Grace. By Kimberly Fusco. Random House, 2004.
A teenaged girl copes with the death of a star track and field athlete
by running. (Family Issues, Stuttering)
Truth
About Forever. By Sarah Dessen. Viking, 2004.
The summer following her father's death, Macy plans to work at the library
and wait for her brainy boyfriend to return from camp, but instead she
goes to work at a catering business where she makes new friends and finally
faces her grief. (Grief, Death, Friendships, Interpersonal Relations)
The
Turning. By Gillian Chan. KCP Fiction, 2005.
Sixteen-year-old Ben Larsson is angry and his mother is dead. His estranged
father has dragged him to England, hoping that a fresh start in a new
country will repair their damaged relationship. Ben is determined that
this will never happen. Then, Ben's life is consumed by unexplained events.
This could change his life forever. (Family Issues))
The
Usual Rules. By Joyce Maynard. St. Martin's, 2003.
Life for Wendy is fraught with the usual teen angst until September 11,
when her mom heads off to work at the World Trade Center and never comes
home. (Terrorism)
When
I Was Older. By Garrett Freymann-Weyr. Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
Fifteen-year-old Sophie Merdinger's life fell apart when her younger brother
died from leukemia and her parents' marriage dissolved. (Family Issues)
The
Winter Road. By Terry Hokenson. Front Street, 2006.
Seventeen-year-old Willa, still grieving over the death of her older brother
and the neglect of her father, decides to fly a small plane to fetch her
mother in Northern Ontario, but when the plane crashes she is all alone
in the snowy wilderness. (Coping)
Wrecked.
By E.R. Frank. Atheneum Books For Young Readers, 2005.
After a car accident seriously injures her best friend and kills her brother's
girlfriend, sixteen-year-old Anna tries to cope with her guilt and grief,
while learning some truths about her family and herself. (Coping, Family
Issues)
BACK
TO TOPICS
DEPRESSION
America.
By E.R. Frank. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2002.
Teenage America, a part-black, part-white, part-anything boy who has spent
many years in institutions for disturbed, antisocial behavior, tries to
piece his life together. (Prejudice/Racism, Suicide, Foster Care)
Damage.
By A.M. Jenkins. HarperCollins Publisher, 2001.
Seventeen-year-old football hero Austin, trying to understand the inexplicable
depression that has drained his interest in life, thinks he has found
relief in a girl who seems very special. (Football, Dating, Mental Health)
Lisa,
Bright and Dark. By John Neufeld. Puffin Books, 1969.
Lisa Shilling is sixteen and has everything, but is losing her mind. (Family
Issues)
Saving
Francesca. By Melina Marchetta. Random House, 2004.
Sixteen-year-old Francesca could use her outspoken mother's help with
the problems of being one of a handful of girls at a parochial school
that has just turned co-ed, but her mother has suddenly become severely
depressed. (Family Issues)
BACK
TO TOPICS
DISABILITIES
Falling
Boy. By Alison McGhee. Picador, 2007.
Left paralyzed by a mysterious accident, sixteen-year-old Joseph is living
with his father in Minneapolis and working in a bakery, while two new
people in his life--seventeen-year-old Zap, a fellow bakery employee,
and Enzo, a nine-year-old girl--set out to unravel the mystery of Joseph's
life and past. (Friendship, Coping)
The
Girls. By Lori
Lansens. Little, Brown, 2006.
Since their birth, Rose and Ruby Darlen have been known simply as "the
girls." They make friends, fall in love, have jobs, and follow their
dreams. But the Darlens are special. Now nearing their 30th birthday,
they are history's oldest conjoined twins. Rose shares the joys and challenges
of her life with sister Ruby, the beautiful one. (Self Esteem)
Joey
Pigza Loses Control. By Jack Gantos. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux,
2000.
Now that Joey has a handle on his actions, he feels prepared to face the
most mysterious member of his family--his estranged father, Carter Pigza.
(ADHD, Alcohol Use)
Kissing
Doorknobs. By Terry Spencer Hesser. Dell, 1999.
Fourteen-year-old Tara describes how her increasingly strange compulsions
begin to take over her life and affect her relationships with her family
and friends. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Interpersonal Relationships)
Owning
It: Stories About Teens with Disabilities. By Donald Gallo. Candlewick,
2008.
A collection of stories about teens with disabilities — and the
tenacity, spirit, and humor that drive them. Chris Crutcher takes us on
a wild ride through the mind of a teen with ADD, while David Lubar’s
protagonist gets a sobering lesson from his friends. In Gail Giles’s
tale, Brad can’t help barking at his classmates but finds understanding
when he gives a comical (and informative) presentation to his entire school.
And Robert Lipsyte introduces us to an elite task force whose number-one
enemy is cancer. (Interpersonal Relations)
Read
My Lips. By Teri Brown. Simon Pulse, 2008.
Serena wants to fly under the radar at her new school, but she's deaf
and can read lips. Once the popular girl discovers her talent, there's
no turning back. With each new secret she uncovers, Serena rises through
the ranks of the school's most exclusive clique.
Rules.
By Cynthia Lord. Scholastic Press, 2006.
Frustrated at life with an autistic brother, twelve-year-old Catherine
longs for a normal existence but her world is further complicated by a
friendship with a young paraplegic.(Friendship, Coping)
Shooting
Monarchs. By John Halliday. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2003.
Two teenage boys, one delinquent, the other physically handicapped, lead
separate lives until they engage in a memorable final encounter. (Criminals)
Side
Effects. By
Amy Goldman Koss. Roaring Brook, 2006. Everything changes for Isabelle,
not quite fifteen, when she is diagnosed with lymphoma. Eventually she
survives and even thrives. (Illness, Recovery)
Socrates
in Love, Volume 1.
By Kyoichi Katayama. VIZ, 2005. A high school romance endures the tragedy
and challenges of the girl’s leukemia diagnosis. (Leukemia, Dating,
Coping)
Stuck
in Neutral. By Terry Trueman. HarperCollins, 2000.
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel loves the taste of smoked oysters and
his mother's gentle hugs. Unfortunately, it's impossible for Shawn to
feed himself or to hug his mom back. (Cerebral Palsy, Family Issues)
Tangerine.
By Edward Bloor. Scholastic, 1997.
Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother
Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and
slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged his eyesight. (Family
Issues)
With
the Light: Raising an Autistic Child 1. By Keiko Tobe. Hachette
Book Group, 2007.
The Azuma’s newborn Hikaru, which means light, is slightly different
from the other children. The diagnosis of autism confuses and devastates
the parents. Masato dives headlong into his career to avoid home; Sachiko
is angry at Hikaru's behavior, but also tormented by guilt that she's
somehow to blame. As they learn and experience more, they become a family.
(Family Issues, Coping)
With
the Light: Raising an Autistic Child 2. By Keiko Tobe. Hachette
Book Group, 2008.
Sachiko and Masato Azuma have overcome numerous obstacles in dealing with
their firstborn son Hikaru’s autism. The young couple has welcomed
a healthy baby girl, Kanon, into their family. But with the differences
between Hikaru’s and Kanon’s abilities, social prejudices
against Hikaru’s disability become apparent. As Hikaru moves into
fourth grade, his beloved teacher, Aoki-sensei, transfers to a different
school and Hikaru’s special education class is thrown into upheaval.
Can Sachiko continue to hold on to her own hope for her son’s future?
(Family Issues, Coping)
BACK
TO TOPIC
FAMILY
ISSUES
After
Tupac and D Foster. By Jacqueline Woodson. Putnam, 2008.
When D Foster walks into Neeka and her best friend’s lives, their
world opens up. D doesn’t have a real mom, and they envy her independence.
But D wants to feel connected, and the three girls bond over their love
of Tupac Shakur’s music. Seeing how Tupac keeps going when he is
sent to jail helps when Neeka’s brother is wrongly imprisoned and
D’s absent mom keeps disappearing. (African Americans, Interpersonal
Relations)
Bounce.
By Natasha Friend. Scholastic Press, 2007.
Evyn wants to be left alone. Her mother died when she was young, and her
father’s marrying a woman she hardly knows and forcing Evyn and
her brother to move in with the woman and her five children. But she doesn’t
want to make the necessary changes, but must find a way to manage her
life. (Coping Skills)
A
Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life. By Dana Reinhardt. Wendy
Lamb Books, 2006.
Sixteen-year-old atheist Simone Turner-Bloom's life changes in unexpected
ways when her parents convince her to make contact with her biological
mother, an agnostic from a Jewish family who is losing her battle with
cancer. (Adoption, Death/Grief)
Converting
Kate. By Beckie Weinheimer. Viking, 2007.
Kate was raised in the Church of the Holy Divine – it’s influenced
everything in her life from her home schooling to her ugly handmade clothes.
But ever since the death of her nonreligious father, Kate has suspected
there’s more to life than memorizing Bible passages. Taking advantage
of a move to a new town, Kate quits the Holy Divine. She replaces it with
the cross-country team at her public school, her father’s beloved
book collection, and services at a traditional Christian church. As Kate
struggles to come to terms with her father’s death and her mother’s
blind allegiance to the Holy Divine, she discovers there’s a big
difference between religion and faith – and that the two don’t
always go hand in hand. (Death, Interpersonal Relations, Religion)
Gifts.
By Ursula K. Le Guin. Harcourt, 2004.
Orrec makes a decision to not use his “gift” – an ability
to unintentionally kill the ones he loves – despite it being part
of his family’s heritage. Instead, he decides to move through his
world with a blindfold with the help of his friend, Gry, who also chooses
to reject her gift. Can these two outcasts, useless in a place where gifts
are everything, find purpose in the world? (Fantasy)
Important
Things that Don't Matter.
By David Amsden. HarperCollins, 2003.
At age five, the anonymous narrator witnesses the end of his parents'
troubled marriage. As the boy negotiates his parents' two worlds, he's
also absorbed in the usual dramas; he has his first girlfriend, dumps
her and plays the field with other girls who are themselves the scarred
victims of no-fault divorce. (Family Issues)
In
the Space Left Behind. By Joan Ackermann. HarperTeen, 2007.
When Colm Drucker’s mother heads out to Las Vegas for her third
honeymoon, Colm has plans of his own – organizing his baseball cards,
playing guitar and remodeling the family house as a surprise wedding present.
But from the start of his week alone, Colm is faced with a series of unforeseen
and bewildering events: his dog dies, his absent father calls out of the
blue with a bizarre proposition and he gets kissed by a beautiful girl.
When he learns that his mother plans on putting the house up for sale,
he embarks on a cross country trip with the one person he never wanted
to depend on. (Dating Issues, Death)
Just
Another Day in My Insanely Real Life. By Barbara Dee. Margaret
K, McElderry Books, 2006.
With her father "out of the picture" and her mother working
long hours, twelve-year-old Cassie unconsciously describes her anger and
confusion in a fantasy novel she is writing for school. (Single-Parent
Family, Coping)
Life
Is Funny. E.R. Frank. DK Publishing, 2000.
A high-intensity, multicultural, multidimensional teen reading experience
that will challenge and change those who open it. (Interpersonal Relations)
Lock
and Key. By Sarah Dessen. Viking, 2008.
When the social worker asks Ruby where her mother is, she knows she’s
in trouble. She’s been living alone, waiting until she turns 18
and can be on her own legally. Instead she’s sent to live with her
older sister, Cora, who has a wealthy husband. Now Ruby has a luxurious
house, private school, new clothes and a chance for the future. But, she
has a hard time letting go of her old life. (Alcohol Use, Coping)
Mom’s
Cancer.(Graphic
Format) By Brian Fies. Abrams Image, 2006.
This graphic novel is the inspirational story about one family’s
struggle with lung cancer. It explores how they all cope with the effects
and ongoing treatment. (Recovery)
The
Monster in Me. By Mette Ivie Harrison. Holiday House, 2003.
In a small town near Salt Lake City, Utah, a caring foster family and
her love of running help thirteen-year-old Natalie Wills feel that she
can be a part of normal life, despite having been raised by a drug-addicted
mother. (Foster Homes, Family Problems)
My
Dad’s a Punk: 12 Stories About Boys and Their Fathers.
Edited by Tony Bradman. Kingfisher, 2006.
This collection of twelve original stories explores the relationships
between fathers and sons, from a boy who longs for a different father,
to a boy who has a digital father from the future. (Coming-of-Age)
Ostrich
Eye. By Beth Cooley. Delacorte Press, 2004.
Fifteen-year-old Ginger, who lives with her mother, stepfather, and younger
stepsister and never knew her father, is convinced that the strange man
who keeps showing up unexpectedly is really her dad.
(Family Issues, Kidnapping)
Returnable
Girl. By Pamela
Lowell. Marshall Cavendish, 2006. Friendship with an outcast classmate
and memories of her mother's desertion interfere with the relationship
thirteen-year-old Ronnie tries to establish with her new foster mother.
(Friendship, Self-Identity)
Runaway.
By Van Draanen. Knopf, 2006.
After running away from her fifth foster home, Holly, a twelve-year-old
orphan, travels across the country, keeping a journal of her experiences
and struggle to survive. (Homelessness, Survival)
Somebody's
Daughter. By Marie Myung-Ok Lee. Beacon Press, 2005.
Adopted and raised by Scandinavian-American parents in Minnesota, a Korean
teenager returns to her native country to find her birth mother.
(Adoption, Self-Identity)
COMING SOON! Thief. By Brian James.
Scholastic, 2008.
Elizabeth is a pickpocket and thief living on the edge in New York City.
She and her foster sister, Alexi, are living with Sandra – a cruel
woman who takes in foster children and then forces them to steal things
for her. Elizabeth doesn’t question her life – until Sandra
takes in a third foster child, Dune. Elizabeth doesn’t want him
to share her fate and must find a way out. (Legal Rights)
Tribute
to Another Dead Rock Star. By Randy Powell. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1999.
For a tribute to his mother, a dead rock star, fifteen-year-old Grady
returns to Seattle, where he faces his mixed feelings for his retarded
younger half-brother Louie while pondering his own future. (Death, Disabilities)
Waiting
for Normal. By Leslie Connor. HarperCollins, 2008.
Addie is waiting for normal. But her mom has an all-or-nothing approach
to life: a food fiesta or an empty pantry, jubilation or gloom, her way
or no way. In spite of life’s twists and turns, Addie remains optimistic,
hoping to find normal. (Divorce, Coping, Friendship)
What
Erika Wants. By Bruce Clements. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
The bright spot in the life of fourteen-year-old Erika Nevski is her lawyer,
who supports Erika as she faces a custody battle, deals with her shoplifting
friend, and tries out for the school play. (Family Issues)
What
I Call Life. By Jill Wolfson. Henry Holt and Company, 2005.
Placed in a group foster home, eleven-year-old Cal Lavender learns how
to cope with life from the four other girls who live there and from their
storytelling guardian, the Knitting Lady. (Foster Homes, Family Issues)
GAMBLING
Big
Slick: High Stakes and Dirty Laundry.
By Eric Luper.
16-year-old
Andrew Lang has to spend his afternoons slaving away at his dad’s
dry-cleaning business, but even that’s not so bad with Jasmine,
the hot Goth-chick senior, working beside him. So what if she’s
got a boyfriend? Plus, he’s good at poker. Unfortunately, all it
takes is one bad bet to turn his bankroll from huge to nonexistent. He’s
pretty sure that sooner or later his dad will notice the $600 missing
from the register ... (Family Issues)
BACK
TO TOPICS
GENDER
ISSUES
Don't
Cramp My Style. By Lisa Rowe Fraustino. Simon & Schuster,
2004. A collection of stories by young women about that time of the month.
(Menstruation, Short Stories)
HIV/AIDS
The
Beat Goes On. By Adele Minchin. Simon & Schuster, 2004.
Beautiful, confident, and popular with boys, Emma seems to have it all.
But then she finds out she's HIV positive from having sex just once. (Sexual
Behavior, Coping Skills)
Chanda's
Secrets. By Allan Stratton. Annick Press, 2004.
Chanda, is an astonishingly perceptive girl living in the small city of
Bonang, a fictional city in Southern Africa. When her youngest sister
dies, the first hint of HIV/AIDS emerges, Chanda must confront undercurrents
of shame and stigma. Not afraid to explore the horrific realities of AIDS,
Chanda's Secrets also captures the enduring strength of loyalty, friendship
and family ties. (Family Issues, Death/Grief)
Chanda’s
Wars. By Allan
Stratton. HarperTeen, 2008.
It’s
been six months since Mama died, and Chanda is struggling to raise her
little brother and sister. Determined to end a family feud, she takes
them to her relatives’ remote rural village. But across the nearby
border, a brutal civil war is spreading. Rebels attack at night, stealing
children. All that separated Chanda from the horror is the rugged bush
and a national park filled with predators. Soon she must face the unthinkable
with an unlikely ally. (Family Issues, Violence Prevention, Coping)
Girl
Who Saw Lions. By Berlie Doherty. Roaring Brook Press, 2007.
When her mother dies of AIDS in their African village, Abela is left to
face the lions of the world. Lions like her Uncle Thomas, who has plans
to sell her in Europe. Lions like his bitter white wife, whom he abandons
with Abela, who is forced to stay in a London apartment, cooking and cleaning
while dreaming of her homeland. (Death, Family Issues)
The
Heaven Shop. By Deborah Ellis. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2004.
Binti and her siblings are orphaned when their father dies of AIDS. They
are separated and sent to relatives all over Malawi.
(Death, Family Issues)
It
Happened to Nancy. By Beatrice Sparks. Avon Books, 1994.
Fourteen-year-old Nancy, an asthmatic, meets 18-year-old Collin, a gentle,
caring young man who appears to be the answer to her dreams--until he
rapes her, leaving her HIV-infected. (Violence Prevention)
BACK
TO TOPICS
INTERPERSONAL
RELATIONS
48
Shades of Brown. By Nick Earls. Graphia, 1999.
After
moving in with his aunt, seventeen-year-old Dan starts to fall in love
with her twenty-two-year-old friend. (Family Issues)
Alice
in the Know. By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Atheneum Books for Young
Readers, 2006.
Alice fills the summer before her junior year of high school with a job
at the mall, hanging out with her friends, and wishing she had a bigger
family. (Family Issues, Self-Discovery)
Are
We There Yet? By David Levithan. Knopf, 2005.
Tricked by their parents into taking a trip to Italy together, two brothers--one
in high school and the other recently graduated from college--reflect
on the directions of their own lives and on the distance that has grown
between them. (Family Issues)
The
Au Pairs Skinny-Dipping. By Melissa de la Cruz. Simon & Schuster,
2005.
While Mara recovers from her break-up with Ryan and Eliza's family repairs
their financial damage, the girls still manage to find a way to enjoy
their busy summer as nannies in the Hampton homes of the rich and famous.
(Dating Issues)
Big
Mouth and Ugly Girl. By Joyce Carol
Oates. HarperCollins, 2002.
When sixteen-year-old Matt is falsely accused of threatening to blow
up his high school and his friends turn against him, an unlikely classmate
comes to his aid. (High School, Friendship)
Blankets.
Craig Thompson. Top Shelf Productions, 2005.
Loosely based on the author's life, chronicles Craig's journey from childhood
to adulthood, exploring the people, experiences, and beliefs that he encountered
along the way. (Family Issues, Dating Issues, Religion)
Blue
Highway. By Diane Tullson. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2003.
The friendship of two best friends, Truth and Skye, is torn between boys
and alcohol. (Friendship, Betrayal)
Caddy
Ever After. By Hilary McKay. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2006.
The four eccentric Casson siblings each contribute written accounts of
the events--which include a Valentine's Day dance, the appearance of a
sinister balloon, and the breakdown of a car--that lead to Caddy's wedding
day. (Family Issues)
The Cheat.
By Amy Goldman Koss. Dial Books, 2003.
An eighth grader, Sarah, is given answers to the geography midterm by
a schoolmate, leading to some fast-paced middle school gossip, serious
self-examination, and strained friendships. (Cheating)
Chicks
with Sticks (KnitWise Series). By Elizabeth Lenhard. Dutton Books,
2007.
For Scottie, Amanda, Bella and Tay, life in Chicago is all about seeking
shelter. They’ve found it in their firelit stitch ‘n bitch
at Joe; in the halls of their quirky private school; in the arms of boyfriends
– and always in the comfort of the friendship that bonds them together.
But now the Chicks are staring down the end of high school and it’s
time to contemplate life beyond the protective web of their knitty ensemble.
(Friendship)
Click
Here: To Find Out How I Survived Seventh Grade. By Denise Vega.
Little Brown, 2005.
Seventh-grader Erin Swift writes about her friends and classmates in her
private blog, but when it accidentally gets posted on the school Intranet
site, she learns some important lessons about friendship.
(Weblogs, Middle School)
Crunch
Time. By Mariah Fredericks. Atheneum, 2006.
Four students form a study group to prepare for the SAT exam, and the
reader learns that standardized tests don't reflect the real person.
Dead
Girls Don't Write Letters. By Gail Giles. Roaring Book, 2003.
Fourteen-year-old Sunny is stunned when a total stranger shows up at her
house posing as her older sister Jazz, who supposedly died out of town
in a fire months earlier. (Death, Family Issues )
Define
Normal. By Julie A. Peters. Little Brown, 2000.
When the repressed, rule-following Antonia Dillon finds out that she's
to be the peer counselor for the rebellious pierced Jazz Luther whose
outrageous behavior is the antithesis of everything Antonia holds dear,
she is horrified. (Family Issues, Friendship, Peer Counseling)
Deliver
Us from Normal. By Kate Klise. Scholastic, 2005.
For Charles, life in Normal, Illinois isn't normal at all. His family
is poor and he is cursed with a secret unwanted skill. After an ugly incident
at school, the family is forced to move, starting a physical and also,
a personal journey for Charles. (Family
Issues, Self Identity, Religion)
Disreputable
History of Frankie Landau-Banks. By E. Lockhart. Hyperion, 2008.
Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14: A mildly geeky girl attending a highly
competitive boarding school. Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15: A knockout
figure, a sharp tongue, a chip on her shoulder and a gorgeous new senior
boyfriend. Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16: Possibly a criminal mastermind.
(Friendship, Self-Identity, Dating Issues)
Feeling
Sorry for Celia. By Jaclyn Moriarty. St. Martin's Press, 2001.
Written as a series of notes and letters, Elizabeth deals with parents
who aren't perfect and with romantic disappointments, as well as calamities
both large and small. (Family Issues, Dating Issues)
Friends:
Stories About New Friends, Old Friends, and Unexpectedly True Friends.
By Ann M. Martin and David Levithan. Scholastic, 2005.
A collection of stories dealing with friendship and the effects that it
can have on the lives of the people involved. (Friendship, Short Stories)
Honey,
Baby, Sweetheart. By Deb Caletti, Simon & Schuster Books for
Young Readers, 2004.
In the summer of her junior year, sixteen-year-old Ruby McQueen and her
mother, both nursing broken hearts, set out on a journey to reunite an
elderly woman with her long-lost love and in the process learn many things
about "the real ties that bind" people to one another.(Love,
Old Age, Self-Identity)
Honey
Blonde Chica. By Michele Serros. Simon & Schuster, 2006.
Evie Gomez and her best friend Raquel hang with Flojos, a crew name for
their designer flip-flops and habit of doing absolutely nothing. But when
their shy friend, Dee Dee, comes home from Mexico City transformed into
a Sangro diva with a new name, attitude, and clothes, Evie and Raquel
must reexamine their friendship and social desires. (Friendship, Self-Identity)
How
Not to Be Popular. By Jennifer Ziegler. Delacorte, 2008.
Maggie Dempsey is tired of moving all over the country. Her parents are
second-generation hippies who uproot her every year or so to move to a
new city. When Maggie was younger, she thought it was fun and adventurous.
Now she hates it. When she moved after her freshman year, she left behind
good friends. Now that they’ve moved to Austin, she’s not
going to make friends. She’s not going to fit in. Only . . . things
don’t go exactly as planned. (Coping Skills, Decision Making, Family
Issues)
I
Am the Wallpaper. By Mark Peter Hughes. Delacorte Press, 2005.
Thirteen-year-old Floey Packer, jealous of her attractive and popular
older sister, shares her home with two younger cousins and experiences
a summer vacation filled with embarrassing events, with herself as the
star.
(Family Issues)
Jake,
Reinvented. By Gordon Korman. Hyperion Press, 2003.
Rick becomes friends with the popular new boy, Jake Garrett, football
player and host of superlative parties, and, in the process, discovers
the true nature of his schoolmates and uncovers the mystery of Jake's
past. (Self-Perception, Peer Pressure)
Letters
from the Inside. By John Marsden. Houghton Mifflin, 1994.
In this Australian twist to an answer to the personal ads, two teenage
girls begin a correspondence that gradually reveals more than either young
woman wants known. (Family Issues, Letters, Friendship)
Lord
of the Deep. By Graham Salisbury. Delacorte Press, 2001.
Working for his stepfather on a charter fishing boat in Hawaii teaches
thirteen-year-old Mikey about fishing, and about taking risks, making
sacrifices, and facing some of life's difficult choices. (Family Issues,
Decision Making)
Love,
Cajun Style. Diane Les Becquets. Bloomsbury, 2005.
Teenage Lucy learns about life and love with the help of her friends and
saucy Tante Pearl over the course of one hot summer before her senior
year of high school. (Friendship, Family Issues, Dating Issues)
Meanest
Girl. By Debora Allie. Roaring Books, 2005.
Sixth-grader Alyssa Fontana, who thinks that her life is perfect, becomes
the object of a practical joke which she blames on Hayden Martin, the
new girl, who is tagged "the meanest girl in town." (Cliques,
Friendship, Middle School)
Men
of Stone. By Gayle Friesen. Kids Can Press, 2000.
Great-Aunt Frieda helps Ben understand who he is and what kind of person
he wants to be. (Anger Management, Decision Making)
Notes
From the Midnight Driver.
By Jordan Sonnenblick. Scholastic, 2006.
After being assigned to perform community service at a nursing home, sixteen-year-old
Alex befriends a cantankerous old man who has some lessons to impart about
jazz guitar playing, love, and forgiveness. (Friendship, Self-Identity)
On
the Fringe. Edited by Donald R. Gallo. Dial Books, 2001.
Compilation of short stories on teen issues. (High School, Teen Issues,
Short Stories)
Ordinary
Miracles. By Diana Aspin. Red Deer Press, 2003.
A collection of 13
coming of age stories set in a small northern town.
(Family Issues, Sexual
Behavior)
Queen
Bee (Graphic Novel). Chyanna Clugston. Graphix, 2005.
Haley is the new girl in middle school, but her popularity is challenged
when an even newer girls moves in with the same powers. The battle has
begun! (Psychokinesis, Popularity)
The
Queen of Cool. By Cecil Castellucci. Candlewick Press, 2006.
Bored with her life, popular high school junior Libby signs up for an
internship at the zoo and discovers that the "science nerds"
she meets there may have a few things to teach her about friendship and
life. (Friendship, Self-Identity)
Sand
Dollar Summer. By Kimberly K. Jones. McElderry Books, 2006.
When twelve-year-old Lise spends the summer on an island in Maine with
her self-reliant mother and bright--but oddly mute--younger brother, her
formerly safe world is complicated by an aged Indian neighbor, her mother's
childhood friend, and a hurricane. (Coping, Siblings)
The
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. By Ann Brashares. Delacorte
Press, 2001.
Story of four best friends, the biggest summer ever, and a pair of magical
pants that brought it all together. (Friendship)
Stone
Cold. By Pete Hautman. Aladdin Paperbacks, 2000.
Sixteen-year-old Denn finds himself alienating both friends and family
when he becomes obsessed with playing high-stakes poker with adult gamblers.
(Gambling, Addiction)
Stotan!.
By Chris Crutcher. Greenwillow Books, 1986.
In the final swimming season at Frost High School, Coach Max II Song offers
his team the gift of self-discipline in the form of Stotan Week--a grueling
four-hour-a-day, nonstop test of physical and emotional stamina. (High
School, Sports)
Stranger,
You, & I. By Patricia Calvert. Scribner, 1988.
Zee must come to terms with a friendship that is growing and a friend
who is pregnant. (Friendship, Pregnancy, Family Issues)
Sweethearts.
By Sara Zarr. Little, Brown and Company, 2008.
As children, Jennifer Harris and Cameron Quick were both social outcasts.
When Cameron disappears without warning, Jennifer thinks she's lost the
only person who will ever understand her. Now in high school, she's popular,
happy, and dating, but she still can't shake the memory of her long-lost
friend. When Cameron suddenly reappears, they are both confronted with
memories of their shared past and the drastically different paths their
lives have taken. (Body Image, Self-Esteem)
That
Was Then, This Is Now. By S.E. Hinton. Viking Press, 1971.
A deeply-felt portrait of best friends Bryon and Mark, as they grow up
and grow apart. (Friendship)
Then
Again, Maybe I Won't. By Judy Blume. Bradbury Press,1971.
Ever since his dad got rich from an invention and his family moved to
a wealthy neighborhood on Long Island, Tony Miglione's life has been turned
upside down. (Mental Health, Family Issues)
Things
Change. By Patrick Jones. Walker & Co., 2004.
Sixteen-year-old Johanna, one of the best students in her class, develops
a passionate attachment for troubled seventeen-year-old Paul and finds
her plans for the future changing in unexpected ways.(Dating Violence,
Mental Health, Family Issues)
To
Catch a Prince. By Gillian McKnight. Simon Pulse, 2006.
Stepsisters Alexis Worth and Helen Masterson, both sixteen and in London
for the summer, must choose between maintaining their friendship and winning
the heart of Prince William. (Family Issues, Best Friends)
Too
Big a Storm. By Marsha Qualey. Dial Books, 2004.
When serious worrier Brady Callahan meets vivacious Sally Cooper, daughter
of a wealthy Minnesota family, they develop a close friendship that helps
them both grow and survive during the turbulent Vietnam War era. (Friendship,
Protest Movements, Family Issues)
Trick
of the Mind. By Judy Waite. Atheneum
Books for Young Readers, 2005.
The struggles of several young people who confront family problems, emotional
problems, unrequited love, mystery, and violence, is told from the viewpoint
of Matt, who is known for his unusual behavior but who has unusual gifts,
and Erin, who tries to use her proficiency with magic to attract Matt.
(Magic, Family Issues)
True
Confessions of a Heartless Girl. By Martha Brooks. Farrar Straus
& Giroux, 2003.
A confused seventeen-year-old girl, a single mother and her young son,
two elderly women, and a sad and lonely man, with their own individual
tragedies to bear, come together in a small Manitoba town and find a way
to a better future. (Interpersonal Relations)
True
Meaning of Cleavage. By Mariah Fredericks. Atheneum, 2003.
When Jess and Sari, best friends since seventh grade, begin their freshman
year of high school and Sari becomes obsessed with a senior boy, Jess
wonders if their friendship will survive. (Interpersonal Relations, High
School, Individuality)
Twists
and Turns. By Janet McDonald. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2003.
With the help of a couple successful friends, Teesha and Keeba try to
capitalize on their talents by opening a hair salon in the run-down Brooklyn
housing project where they live. (African Americans, Careers, Family Issues)
You
Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah! BY Fiona Rosenbloom.
Hyperion, 2005.
As her bat mitzvah approaches, Stacy Adelaide Friedman of White Plains,
New York, has a lot on her mind--her parents have separated, her mother
dresses her like an American Girl doll, her younger brother is embarrassing,
and she is totally in love with Andy Goldfarb.
(Family Issues, Coming-of-Age)
BACK
TO TOPICS
MEDIA
LITERACY
Chat
Room. By Kristin
Butcher. Orca, 2006.
Using an online nickname, shy Linda visits her high school's numerous
chat rooms and becomes celebrated for her quick wit and clever comebacks,
thus when a secret admirer starts sending her gifts, Linda becomes hopeful
that they are coming from her classmate Cyrano. (Internet Safety, Interpersonal
Relations)
The
Gospel According to Larry. By Janet Tashjian. Henry Holt and Company,
2001.
Seventeen-year-old Josh, a loner-philosopher who wants to make a difference
in the world, tries to maintain his secret identity as the author of a
web site that is receiving national attention. (Websites, Self-Identity)
Sun
Signs. By Shelly Hrdlitschka. Orca Book Publishers, 2005.
While taking online courses, fifteen-year-old Kaleigh learns that on the
Internet, people are often not who they seem. (Sexual Behavior, Self-Discovery)
BACK
TO TOPICS
MENTAL
HEALTH (see also DEPRESSION IN YOUTH)
America.
By E.R. Frank. Simon & Schuster, 2002.
Teenage America, a part-black, part-white, part-anything boy who has spent
many years in institutions for disturbed, antisocial behavior, tries to
piece his life together. (Racism/Prejudice)
Ball
Don’t Lie.
By Matt De La Pena. Delacorte, 2005. Seventeen-year-old Sticky lives to
play basketball at school and at Lincoln Rec Center in Los Angeles and
is headed for the pros, but he is unaware of the many dangers--including
his own past--that threaten his dream. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder,
Careers)
Echo.
By Kate Morgenroth. Simon & Schuster Books, 2007. After Justin witnesses
his brother's accidental shooting death, he must live with the repercussions,
as the same horrific day seems to happen over and over. (Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder, Coping)
Egg
on Three Sticks.
By Jackie Fischer. Thomas Dunne Books, 2004.
In the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1970s, twelve-year-old Abby
watches her mother fall apart and must take on the burden of holding her
family together. (Family Issues, Coping, Coming of Age)
Get
Well Soon. By Julie Halpern. Feiwel and Friends, 2007.
Anna Bloom is depressed—so depressed that her parents have committed
her to a mental hospital with a bunch of other messed-up teens. Here she
meets a roommate with a secret (and a plastic baby), a doctor who focuses
way too much on her weight, and a cute, shy boy who just might like her.
But wait! Being trapped in a loony bin isn’t supposed to be about
making friends, losing weight, and having a crush, is it? (Interpersonal
Relations, Body Image, Dating Issues)
Helicopter
Man. By Elizabeth Fensham. Bloomsbury, 2005.
Peter Sinclair cares for his father, who is mentally ill, and tries to
make the most of their homeless life together. (Homelessness, Family Issues)
Inside
Out. By Terry Trueman. HarperCollins, 2003.
A sixteen-year-old with schizophrenia is caught up in the events surrounding
an attempted robbery by two other teens who eventually hold him hostage.
(Schizophrenia, Juvenile Delinquency, Suicide)
Invisible.
By Pete Hautman. Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Two unlikely best friends, Doug and Andy, talk about everything, except
what happened at the Tuttle place a few years back. As Doug retreats into
his own world, long-buried secrets are revealed and his grip on reality
loosens. (Friendship,
Schools)
Kerosene.
By Chris Wooding. Scholastic Publishing, 1999.
Cal likes fire because it helps him cope with life until life gets too
complicated. (Alcohol Use)
Lizard
People. By Charlie Price. Roaring Book Press, 2007.
Ben Mander’s junior year is derailed when his mentally ill mother
erupts in the school office. His mysterious new friend, Marco, also has
a mentally ill mother. Marco tells a story that turns Ben’s idea
of reality upside down. Soon Marco’s tale begins to uncomfortably
mirror Ben’s own life. Is Ben losing his grip? (Family Issues)
Memories
of Summer. By Ruth White. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2000.
When 13-year-old Lyric, her older sister, Summer, and their father move
to Flint, Michigan, from rural Virginia, Summer (who has always been a
little odd) makes a swift and frightening slide into full-fledged schizophrenia.
(Family Issues)
Nature
of Jade. By Deb Caletti. Simon & Schuster, 2007.
Since being diagnosed with Panic Disorder, Jade DeLuna is trying her best
to stay calm, and visiting the elephants at the nearby zoo seems to help.
That’s why she keeps the live zoo webcam on in her room, which is
where she first sees Sebastian. She is drawn to his life with his son
and grandmother on their Seattle houseboat. But Sebastian is hiding a
terrible secret, which will force Jade to decide between what is right
and what feels right. (Family Issues, Dating Issues)
Total
Constant Order. By Crissa-Jean Chappell. HarperCollins, 2007.
Fin can’t stop counting. Ever since she’s moved to the Sunshine
State and her parents split up, numbers thump like a metronome, rhythmically
keeping things in control. When a new doctor introduces terms such as
“clinical depression” and “OCD” and offers a prescription
for medication, the chemical effects make Fin feel even more messed up.
Then she meets Thayer, a doodling, rule-bending skater who buzzes to his
own beat – and who might understand Fin’s struggle for total
constant order. (Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder)
When
She Was Good. By Norma Fox Mazer. Arthur A. Levine Books, 1997.
Most of fourteen-year-old Em's life has been spent placating Pamela, her
frighteningly mentally ill older sister. (Family Issues, Violence)
Where
I Want to Be. By Adele Griffin. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2005.
Two teenaged sisters, separated by death but still connected, work through
their feelings of loss over the closeness they shared as children that
was later destroyed by one's mental illness, and finally make peace with
each other. (Family Issues, Death)
Wild
Roses. By Deb Caletti. Simon & Schuster, 2005.
Seventeen-year-old Cassie learns about the good and bad sides of both
love and genius while living with her mother and brilliant, yet disturbed,
stepfather and falling in love with a gifted young musician. (Family Issues,
Dating Issues)
BACK
TO TOPICS
PARENTING
(TEEN PARENTS)
Broken
China. By Lori Aurelia Williams. Simon & Schuster Children's
Publishing, 2005.
China Cup Cameron, a fourteen-year-old single mother with only her paralyzed
Uncle Simon for support, takes on tremendous personal debt in hopes of
a beautiful funeral after her daughter dies.
(Coping Skills, Death, Harassment)
Chill Wind.
By Janet McDonald. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.
An unmarried mother of two, 19-year old Aisha must figure out how to cope
after she receives termination-of-welfare-benefits notice. (Teenage Mothers,
African-American)
Detour for
Emmy. By Marilyn Reynolds. Morning Glory Press, 1993.
The story of one single mother's experiences from her first date in 9th
grade with Art to giving birth at 16 and later completing community college.
(Pregnancy, Unmarried Mothers)
The
First Part Last. By Angela Johnson. Simon & Schuster, 2003.
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father
and must care for his adored baby daughter. (Teenage Fathers, African
Americans)
Hanging
on to Max. By Margaret Bechard. Roaring Book Press, 2002.
High school senior Sam, juggling the demands of fatherhood with school
and friends, must deal with his girlfriend's decision to give up their
baby. (Teenage Fathers)
Imani
All Mine. By Connie Porter. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
Told in Tasha's voice, is the story of great promise shining through monstrous
obstacles. (Teenage Pregnancy, African American Teens)
No
More Saturday Nights. By Norma Klein. Fawcett, 1989.
Tim Weber and Cheryl Banks had what they thought was a "casual"
relationship -- until she got pregnant and wanted to put the baby up for
adoption. (Teenage Fathers, Family Issues)
Sky
Bridge. By Laura Pritchett. Milkweed Editions, 2005.
Libby is raising her younger sister's baby girl because of a promise.
She promised to raise baby Amber if Tess did not have an abortion. Now,
Libby bags groceries at the local supermarket to support Amber, while
Tess is off exploring the world somewhere. (Family Issues, Adoption)
Spellbound.
By Janet McDonald. Farrar. Straus and Giroux, 2001.
Raven, a teenage mother and high school dropout living in a housing project,
decides, with the help and sometime interference of her best friend Aisha,
to study for a spelling bee which could lead to a college preparatory
program and a four-year-school scholarship. (Teenage Mothers, Dropouts,
Interpersonal Relations)
Too
Soon for Jeff. By Marilyn Reynolds. Morning Glory Press, 1994.
Whether Jeff is ready or not, he is going to be a father. His plan for
his life has changed forever. (Teenage Fathers, Teen Pregnancy)
BACK
TO TOPICS
PREGNANCY
Baby
Girl. By Lenora Adams. Simon Pulse, 2007.
With her tough facade and hard attitude, Sheree doesn't make friends easily
and lives a lonely life, but when she gets pregnant and decides to keep
the baby with the intention of finding unconditional love, Sheree learns
important lessons about herself that change her entire outlook on life.
(Family Issues, Drugs, Abortion, Friendship, Teen Parenting)
Butterflies
in May. By Karen
Hart. Bancroft, 2006.
Ali Parker is a bright seventeen-year-old girl headed for college. She
and her boyfriend are usually careful about birth control, but she ends
up pregnant after one lapse. She schedules an abortion but can't go through
with it. Her parents are disappointed but supportive. She meets a perfect
couple who want to adopt her child but wonders if she can bring herself
to part with the baby. (Adoption, Dating, Decision Making)
Conception.
By Kalisha Buckhanon. St. Martin’s Press, 2008.
Shivana Montgomery, a 15-year-old girl living in Chicago, believes all
Black women wind up the same: single and raising children along, like
her mother. Until the sudden visit of her beautiful and free-spirited
Aunt Jewel, Shivana spends her days struggling to understand life and
confront the challenges she faces growing up in a tough environment. When
she accidentally becomes pregnant by an older man and must decide what
to do, she begins a journey toward adulthood. Then she falls in love with
Rasul, a teenager with problems of his own. (Dating Issues)
Contents
Under Pressure. By Lara Zeises. Delacorte Press, 2004.
Lucy, a fourteen-year-old high school freshman, experiences the happiness
and confusion of dating a popular older boy, changing relationships with
life-long friends, and sharing a bedroom with her older brother's pregnant
girlfriend. (Pregnancy, High School, Family Issues, Dating Issues)
Dancing
Naked: A Novel. By Shelley Hrdlitschka. Orca Book Publishers,
2001.
Just sixteen, Kia finds herself pregnant and the father wants her to get
an abortion; Kia, faced with difficult choices, decides to give her baby
up for adoption. (Abortion, Adoption)
Dear
Nobody. By Berlie Doherty. Orchard Books, 1992.
When Helen discovers that she is pregnant during the last few months of
high school, she and her boyfriend, Chris, cope with the consequences
of their actions and lurch toward solutions. (Unmarried Mothers))
Don't
Think Twice. By Ruth Pennebaker. Holt, 1996.
Set in the late 1960s in a rural Texas home for pregnant teens, this is
much more than a "girls in trouble" story. (Unmarried Mothers,
Adoption)
The
Girl with a Baby. By Sylvia Olsen. Sono Nis Press, 2003.
Jane never drinks, smokes dope, or misses a single day of school. She's
in the drama club, gets top marks, and is one of the popular kids. Or
she used to be. Now she's a teenage mother packing diaper bags with her
knapsack, wheeling strollers into the high-school daycare, tired and grumpy.
Jane's only fourteen, and she can feel the stares in the school halls.
(Teen Parenting, Indian Teenagers, Self-Identity)
Her
Daughter's Eyes. By Jessica Inclan. New American Library, 2001.
Kate Phillips -- 17 years old, unmarried, and pregnant -- and her younger
sister Tyler have been abandoned by their parents. (Single Parent Family)
Like
Sisters on the Homefront. By Rita Williams-Garcia. Lodestar Books,
1995.
At 14, Gayle is pregnant. Again. The first time she kept the baby; Mama
takes the issue to drastic measures and sends them down South. (Family
Issues, Teen Pregnancy, African American Teens)
Lucy
Peale. By Colby Rodowsky. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1992.
Pregnant 17-year-old who, cruelly rejected by her preacher father, is
taken in by thoroughly wholesome Jake, who has dropped out of college
in order to write. (Rape, Self-Reliance)
My
Life as a Rhombus. By Varian Johnson. Flux, 2007.
When the classmate she is tutoring in trigonometry admits she is pregnant,
high school junior Rhonda must finally come to terms with the abortion
her father insisted she undergo three years earlier and examine how it
has changed her life. (Family Issues)
November
Blues. By Sharon M. Draper. Atheneum, 2007.
When November Nelson loses her boyfriend to a pledge stunt gone horribly
wrong, she thinks her life can’t possibly get any worse. But he
left something behind that will change her life forever, and now she’s
faced with the biggest decision she could ever imagine. How will she tell
her mom? (Death, Grief)
Perfect
Family. By Jerrie Oughton. Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
It's 1955 in the town of Lily, North Carolina. Unwed teen mothers are
shuttled off to far away cities; girls are going crazy over James Dean;
and "porch setting" is a viable pastime. (Unmarried Mothers)
Slam.
By Nick Hornby. Putnam, 2007.
Things had been going well for Sam. His teachers were encouraging him
to go to college, his mother had ditched her loser boyfriend and he had
a gorgeous new girlfriend. When the couple’s ardor has unintended
consequences, Sam turns to skateboarder Tony Hawk for advice. (Family
Issues, Dating Issues)
Someone
Else's Baby. By Geraldine Kaye. Hyperion Book, 1992.
Terry, 17, is pregnant as the result of an encounter at a party where
she'd had so much to drink that she's not sure who the father is; though
she wasn't willing, she blames herself too much to call it rape. (Unmarried
Mothers, Rape, Family Issues)
Stealing
Henry. By Carolyn MacCullough. A Deborah Brodi Book, 2005.
Savannah and her eight-year-old half brother flee from his abusive father
and their oblivious mother. Their journey to safety is interspersed with
the earlier story of her mother, Alice, as she meets Savannah's father
and unexpectedly becomes pregnant.(Runaways, Abuse, Interpersonal Relations,
Family Issues)
BACK
TO TOPICS
PREJUDICES/RACISM
145th
Street. By Walter D. Myers. Delacorte Press, 2000.
Set in a Harlem block; ten stories with laughter and tragedy; good choices
and risky ones; love and death. (African American Teens, City Life)
American
Born Chinese
(Graphic Format). By Gene Yang. First Second Books, 2006.
Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese
Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. (Self-Identity,
Assimilation)
BANG!
By Sharon G. Flake. Jump At The Sun, 2005.
A teenage boy must face the harsh realities of inner city life, a disintegrating
family, and destructive temptations as he struggles to find his identity
as a young man. (Street Life, Friendship, Coming-of-Age)
Candle
in the Wind. By Maureen Wartski. Fawcett Juniper, 1995.
While celebrating his acceptance into Harvard, Harris Mizuno, a Japanese-American
teenager, is shot dead by an elderly white man who mistakes him for an
intruder. (Death)
Dairy
Queen. By Catherine Gilbert Murdock. Houghton Mifflin Company,
2006.
After spending the summer running the family farm and training the quarterback
for her school's rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to
go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those
around her. (Gender Roles, Self-Discovery, Football)
Fade
to Black. By Alex Flinn. Harper Tempest, 2005.
An HIV-positive high school student hospitalized after being attacked,
the bigot accused of the crime, and the only witness, a classmate with
Down Syndrome, reveal how the assault has changed their lives as they
tell of its aftermath. (HIV/AIDS, Down Syndrome, High School, Interpersonal
Relations)
A
Heart Divided. By Jeff Gottesfeld. Delacorte, 2004.
When sixteen-year-old Kate, an aspiring playwright, moves from New Jersey
to attend high school in the South, she becomes embroiled in a controversy
to remove the school's Confederate flag symbol. (High School, Moving)
Help
Wanted. By Gary Soto. Harcourt, Inc., 2005.
Ten stories portray some of the struggles and hopes of young Mexican Americans.
(Coping Skills, Sports)
If
You Come Softly. By Jacqueline Woodson. Penguin, 1998.
Miah and Ellie are in love. From their first glance to their first words
to each other to their first kiss, they could tell you exactly how it
happened – in their hearts and souls. But the people around them
don’t see their love. They can only see that Miah is black, Ellie
is white and Jewish. Their love, no matter how real, is too strange and
scary for the world they live in. (Interracial Dating, African Americans)
Jimi
& Me. By Jaime Adoff. Jump At The Sun, 2005.
After his father's tragic death, twelve-year-old Keith James moves from
Brooklyn to a small Midwestern town where his mixed race heritage is not
accepted, but he finds comfort in the music of Jimi Hendrix and the friendship
of a white classmate. (Family Issues)
Letters
to My Mother. By Teresa Cardenas/ Translated by David Unger. Groundwood
Books/ House of Anansi Press, 1998/2006 translation.
A young African-Cuban girl is sent to live with her aunt and cousins after
the death of her mother and begins to write letters to her deceased mother
telling of the misery, racial prejudice, and mistreatment at the hands
of those around her. (Grieving, Death)
My
Mother the Cheerleader. By Robert Sharenow. HarperTeen, 2007.
Louise Collins didn’t think anything exciting would happen in the
Ninth Ward of New Orleans, where she lived with her mother in their boardinghouse.
But when desegregation begins, her mother joins the Cheerleaders, a group
of women who gather every morning to heckle the African-American student.
When a man from New York arrives, Louise thinks there might be hope, until
secrets come to light. (School Integration)
New
Boy. By Julian Houston. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.
As a new sophomore at an exclusive boarding school, a young black man
is witness to the persecution of another student with bad acne. (Friendship,
Survival, Boarding Schools)
Playing
the Field. By Phil Bildner. Simon & Schuster Books for Young
Readers, 2006.
When seventeen-year-old Darcy Miller pretends to be a lesbian in order
to play on the baseball team, she must learn to battle discrimination
on every playing field.(Sexual Identity, Gender Roles)
Slam!.
By Walter D. Myers. Scholastic Inc., 1996.
A Harlem teenager learns how to apply the will he has to win at hoops
to other parts of his life. (High School, African American Teens)
A
Step from Heaven. By An Na. Front Street, 2000.
A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English
and adjust to life in America. (Family Issues, Immigration, Korean Americans)
Weedflower.
By Cynthia Kadohata. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2006.
After twelve-year-old Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are relocated
from their flower farm in southern California to an internment camp on
an Indian Reservation in Arizona, she helps her family and neighbors,
becomes friends with a local Indian boy, and tries to hold on to her dream
of owning a flower shop. (Coping Skills, Interracial Friendship, Family
Issues)
White
Girl. By Sylvia Olsen. Sononis Press, 2004.
Josie is no longer invisible after she moves to her new stepfather's Indian
reserve and is known as "Blondie." Josie and her mother are
the only people with blonde hair and blue eyes. Her mother hides her in
the house to avoid the teasing, but Josie is only fourteen and is determined
to get a life. (Self-Identity, Family Issues, Bullying)
When
the Black Girl Sings. By Bil Wright. Simon & Schuster, 2008.
Lahni Schuler is the only black student at her private prep school. She’s
also the adopted child of two loving, but white, parents who are on the
road to divorce. Struggling to comfort her mother and angry with her dad,
Lahni feels more and more alone. A visit to a gospel choir and her love
of singing leads her to discover her own identity. (Family Issues, Interracial
Adoption)
Zazoo.
By Richard Mosher. Clarion Books, 2001.
Amid old secrets revealed and rifts healed, a thirteen-year-old Vietnamese
orphan raised in rural France by her aging "Grand-Pierre" learns
about life, death, and love. (Family Issues, Orphans)
BACK
TO TOPICS
PRESCRIPTION
DRUGS
How
Ya Like Me Now. By Brendan Halpin. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2007.
Eddie can take care of himself. Since his dad died, Eddie’s mom
has spent all her time getting high on OxyContin, leaving Eddie to keep
their suburban home clean and supplied with food. When Eddie’s mom
goes into rehab and his aunt and uncle take him away to Boston, everything
changes. He becomes so comfortable in his new home that when he gets word
that his mother is being released from rehab, he has a tough decision
to make. (Family Issues, OxyContin, Racism, Substance Abuse)
BACK
TO TOPICS
SELF-ESTEEM
The
Amazing Life of Birds (The Twenty-Day Puberty Journal of Duane Homer Leech).
By Gary Paulsen. Wendy Lamb, 2006.
As twelve-year-old Duane endures the confusing and humiliating aspects
of puberty, he watches a newborn bird in a nest on his windowsill begin
to grow and become more independent, all of which he records in his journal.
(Puberty, Body Image, Self-Identity)
A
Maze Me: Poems for Girls. By Naomi Shihab Nye. Greenwillow, 2005.
A collection of poems about nature, home, school, and the community connecting
to a girl's inner world. (Interpersonal Relations, Self-Identity)
Alt
Ed. By Catherine Atkins. Penguin Group, 2003.
Participating in a special after-school counseling class with other troubled
students, including a sensitive gay classmate, helps Susan, an overweight
tenth grader, develop a better sense of herself.
(Interpersonal Relations, High School, Body Image, Sexual Identity)
Being.
By Kevin Brooks. Scholastic, 2007.
It was just supposed to be a routine exam. But what the doctors discover
doesn't make medical sense. Not fully anesthetized, he hears them claim
that his insides aren't human. On the run for murder of a doctor, Robert
Smith, an orphan tries to learn his identity and live a “normal”
life with his new found girl, Eddy. (Self-Identity, Decision Making)
Born
Confused. By Tanuja Desai Hidier. Scholastic Press, 2002.
Seventeen-year-old Dimple, from India, struggles with her cultural identity,
her life complicated by the manipulations of her best friend and her love
for Karsh. (East Indian Americans)
Boy
Proof. By Cecil Castellucci. Candlewick Press, 2005.
Feeling alienated from everyone around her, Los Angeles high school senior
and cinephile Victoria Denton hide behind the identity of a favorite movie
character until an interesting new boy arrives at school and helps her
realize that there is more to life than just the movies. (Self-Identity,
Dating Issues)
Bronx
Masquerade. By Nikki Grimes. Dial Books, 2002.
Eighteen teenagers turn a school poetry-writing assignment into a risky
and challenging experience of mutual self-revelation. (African-American,
High School)
Burned.
By Ellen Hopkins. Margaret K, McElderry Books, 2006.
Seventeen-year-old Pattyn, the eldest daughter in a large Mormon family,
is sent to her aunt's Nevada ranch for the summer, where she temporarily
escapes her alcoholic, abusive father and finds love and acceptance, only
to lose everything when she returns home. (Alcoholism, Abuse, Self-Identity)
Dolores:
Seven Stories About Her. By Bruce Brooks. Harper Collins, 2002.
A free-spirited girl grows from seven to self-assured sixteen through
a series of personally challenging events. (Identity, Siblings)
Don’t
Call Me Ishmael. By Michael Bauer. Greenwillow Books, 2007.
By the time ninth grade begins, Ishmael's perfected the art of making
himself virtually invisible. But all that changes when James Scobie joins
the class. Unlike Ishmael, James has no sense of fear—he claims
it was removed during an operation. Now nothing will stop James and Ishmael
from taking on bullies, bugs, and Moby Dick, in the toughest, weirdest,
most embarrassingly awful and best year of their lives. (Interpersonal
Relations)
Dude!
Stories and Stuff for Boys.
By Sandy Asher and David Harrison. Dutton, 2006.
An anthology of original stories, plays, and poems by a variety of authors
that celebrates what being a boy is all about. (Coming-of-Age, Decision
Making, Coping)
Girl
Stories (Graphic
Novel). By Lauren R. Weinstein. Henry Holt, 2006.
A collection of comics about the ins and outs of being a girl on the verge
of adolescence, many of which appeared originally on the web site gurl.com.
(Dating Issues, Friendship, Coming-of-Age)
Jinx.
By Margaret Wild. Walker & Company, 2002.
A novel written as a series of poems, Jen becomes known as "Jinx"
when two of her boyfriends die, a nickname outgrown only when she falls
in love with Hal. (Self-Identity, Interpersonal Relations)
Kayla
Chronicles.
By Sherrie Winston. Little, Brown and Co., 2007.
Kayla Dean, budding feminist and future journalist, is about to break
the story of a lifetime. Egged on by her best friend, Kayla has tried
our for her high school’s dance team, the Lady Lions, in order to
expose their unfair selection process. But when she makes the team, the
true investigation begins. Kayla begins to wonder: Can you be a strong
woman and still wear cute shoes? (Self-Identity,
Interpersonal Relations)
Lucky
Stars. By Lucy Frank. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2005.
Music entwines Kira, a thirteen-year-old singer who hates that her father
makes her perform for money on New York City subway platforms; Eugene,
the class clown; and Jake, who longs to sing and to approach Kira, but
feels held back by his stuttering. (Family Issues, Stuttering)
Margaux
with an X. By Ronald Koertge. Candlewick Press, 2004.
Margaux, known as a "tough chick" at her Los Angeles high school,
makes a connection with Danny, who, like her, struggles with the emotional
impact of family violence and abuse. (Sexual Abuse Victims, Family Violence,
Interpersonal Relations)
The
Outside Groove. By Erik E. Esckilsen. Houghton Mifflin Company,
2006.
Tired of having her own accomplishments ignored, high school senior Casey,
sister of the town's stock car racing champion, becomes the local track's
first female driver and discovers that there is more to winning than crossing
the finish line first. (Family Issues)
Sahara
Special. By Esme Raji Codell. Hyperion Press, 2003.
Struggling with school and her feelings since her father left, Sahara
gets a fresh start with a new and unique teacher who supports her writing
talents and the individuality of each of her classmates. (Self-Esteem,
African Americans)
The
Secret of Me. By Meg Kearney. A Karen and Michael Braziller Book,
2005.
Fourteen-year-old Lizzie struggles to inform her friends and talk to her
parents about being adopted. She feels they might view her as "less"
of a person because her mother gave her up at birth. It takes a tragic
accident for Lizzie to realize what she must do. (Adoption, Self-Identity)
Semiprecious.
By D. Anne Love. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2006.
Uprooted and living with an aunt in 1960s Oklahoma, thirteen-year-old
Garnet and her older sister Opal brave their mother's desertion and their
father's recovery from an accident, learning that "the best home
of all is the one you make inside yourself." (Family Issues, Coming-of
Age, Coping Skills)
Shug.
By Jenny Han. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2006.
A twelve-year-old girl learns about friendship, first loves, and self-worth
in a small town in the south. (Self-Identity, Coping Skills)
Simon
Says. By Elaine Marie Alphin. Harcourt Inc, 2002.
A troubled young painter attending a boarding school for the arts discovers
the pain and pleasure involved being true to himself and his talent. (Self-Identity)
Sleeping
Freshmen Never Lie. By David Lubar. Dutton Books, 2005.
Scott Hudson is overwhelmed the changes of starting high school and his
mother's unexpected pregnancy. His friends are drifting away; his old
friend Julia is the freshman beauty who every boy desires including himself,
and he can't get enough sleep to keep up with all of it.
(Self-Identity, Family Issues, Bullying, Dating Issues)
Story
of a Girl. By
Sara Zarr. Little, Brown, 2006.
In the three years since her father caught her in the back seat of a car
with an older boy, sixteen-year-old Deanna's life at home and school has
been a nightmare, but while dreaming of escaping with her brother and
his family, she discovers the power of forgiveness. (Dating Issues, Sexual
Behavior, Family Issues)
Such
a Pretty Face.
By Ann Angel. Amulet Books, 2007.
A beauty
queen with a chin-hair problem, an aspiring model who would rather take
pictures than be in them, a boy in love with the gorgeous nurse he’s
never seen, a girl named Beauty who feels like anything but – the
characters in these dozen original stories know the power of beauty, whether
it’s to torment or comfort, and must decide whether or not to live
by the rules. (Self-Identity)
Things
You Either Hate or Love.
By Brigid Lowery. Holiday House, 2006.
A cynical, overweight, and lonely Australian teenager spends her summer
vacation making lists, eating comfort foods, and trying to earn enough
money to attend a big rock concert. (Body Image, Careers)
Who
Will Tell My Brother? By Marlene Carvell. Hyperion Books, 2002.
A young Native American engages in a crusade to rid his high school of
offensive Indian mascots, learning through the painful experience about
his heritage and his place in the world. (Mohawk Indians, Tolerance)
Worth.
By A. LaFaye. Simon & Schuster, 2004.
After breaking his leg, eleven-year-old Nate feels useless because he
cannot work on the family farm in nineteenth-century Nebraska, so when
his father brings home an orphan boy to help with the chores, Nate feels
even worse.(Frontier and Pioneer Life, Orphans, Family Issues)
BACK
TO TOPICS
SELF-INJURY
Cut.
By Patrick McCormick. Front Street, 2000. (Audiobook)
Self-mutilation has become Callie's cry for help from a terrifyingly delicate,
asthmatic brother; a nonfunctioning mother; and an escaping father. (Self-Mutilation,
Family Issues, Psychiatric Hospitals).
The
Dream Where the Losers Go.
BY Beth Goobie. Orca, 2006. After treatment for self-destructive behavior,
Skey Mitchell returns to high school where she encounters a boy her own
age, with dreams - and secrets - much like her own. (Interpersonal Relations,
Mental Health, High School)
The
Luckiest Girl in the World. By Steven Levenkron. Scribner, 1997.
Pretty, smart, and a talented ice-skater, 15-year-old Katie Roskova seems
to have a lot going for her. But, in fact, her public face and her private
one are vastly different. (Self-Mutilation, Mothers and Daughters, High
School)
Shut
the Door. By Amanda Marquit. St. Martin's Press, 2005.
Two teenage sisters, Lilliana and Vivian, take risks and undergo disturbing
transformations that go unchallenged by their emotionally absent parents.
(Family Issues, Interpersonal Relations)
BACK
TO TOPICS
SEXUAL
BEHAVIOR
After
Summer. By Nick Earls. Graphia, 2005.
Alex Delaney is worried about getting into college until he meets a mysterious
girl named Fortuna. He spends a lot of time with her on the beach, falls
in love, but worries when he realizes that things cannot last.
(Interpersonal Relations)
Easy.
By Kerry Cohen Hoffmann. Simon & Schuster, 2006.
Fourteen-year-old Jessica finds it almost impossible to get any attention
from her family and friends. So, she turns to boys and men who are very
easy to attract with the right clothes and attitude. They fill her void
until it is more than she can handle. (Self-esteem, Family Issues)
Love
& Sex: Ten Stories of Truth. Edited by Michael Cart. Simon
& Schuster, 2001.
Compilation of stories by various authors dealing with teenage relationships.
(Dating Issues)
Virginity
Club. By Kate Brian. Simon Pulse, 2004.
Mandy, Kai, Debbie and Eva have one thing they must do before graduation
– win the prestigious Treemont scholarship. It’s a free pass
to the college of their choice. But the award has one requirement: Purity
of soul and body. In an effort to proclaim their “purity”
to the whole school, Mandy starts the Virginity Club. But each friend
is hiding something … something important, and their secrets may
cost them more than just a scholarship.
BACK
TO TOPICS
SEXUAL
IDENTITY
Absolutely,
Positively Not. By David LaRochelle. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2005.
Follows a teenage boy's humorous attempts to fit in at his Minnesota high
school by becoming a macho, girl-loving, "Playboy" pinup-displaying
heterosexual. (Coming Out, High School)
Am
I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence. Edited by Marion Dane Bauer.
HarperCollins, 1994.
Sixteen short stories about gay awareness by a variety of writers--some
gay, some not. (Short Stories)
Between
Mom and Jo. By Julie Anne Peters. Little Brown and Company, 2006.
Fourteen-year-old Nick has a three-legged dog named Lucky 2, some pet
fish, and two mothers, whose relationship complicates his entire life
as they face prejudice, work problems, alcoholism, cancer, and finally
separation. (Family Issues, Cancer)
Boy
Meets Boy. By David Levithan. Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.
Paul lives in a present-day gaytopia, where boys come out of the closet
to become class president, and the Gay-Straight Alliance has more members
than the football team. The cheerleaders ride Harleys, and the cross-dressing
homecoming queen is also the star quarterback.
(Interpersonal Relations)
Deliver
Us from Evie. By M.E. Kerr. HarperCollins, 1994.
Parr Burrman is used to hearing jokes about his masculine, strong older
sister, Evie; what he's not used to is his growing awareness that she
may be a lesbian. (Sexual Identity, Family Issues)
Empress
of the World. By Sara Ryan. Viking, 2001:
While attending a summer institute, fifteen-year-old Nic meets another
girl named Battle, falls in love with her, and finds the relationship
to be difficult and confusing. (Sexual Identity, Dating Issues)
Far
from Xanadu. By Julie Anne Peters. Little Brown, 2005.
In a small Kansas town, sixteen-year-old Mary-Elizabeth "Mike"
Szabo tries to come to terms with her father's suicide and her own homosexuality.
(Suicide, Grief)
Getting
It. By Alex
Sanchez. Simon & Schuster, 2006.
Hoping to impress a sexy female classmate, fifteen-year-old Carlos secretly
hires gay student Sal to give him an image makeover, in exchange for Carlos's
help in forming a Gay-Straight Alliance at their Texas high school. (Mexican
Americans, Coming-of-Age, Interpersonal Relations)
God
Box. By
Alex Sanchez. Simon & Schuster, 2007.
High school senior Paul has dated Angie since middle school, and they’re
good together. They have similar interests, including singing in their
church choir and being active in Bible Club. But when Manuel transfers
to their school, Paul has to rethink his life. Manuel is the first openly
gay teen anyone in the small town has met, and he’s a Christian.
Manuel’s outspokenness triggers dramatic consequences at school,
culminating in a terrifying situation that leads Paul to take a stand.
(Religion, Interpersonal Relations)
Gravel
Queen. Tea Simon Bendun. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing,
2003.
All Aurin wants to do the summer before her senior year in high school
is hang out with her friends Kenney and Fred. But, when she falls in love
with Neila, everything changes. (Friendship)
Grl2grl.
By Julie Anne Peters. Little, Brown and Company, 2007.
This short story collection portrays teens as they navigate the hurdles
of relationships and sexual identity. From the young lesbian taking her
first steps toward coming out, to the two strangers who lock eyes across
a crowded train, to the transgender teen longing for a sense of self,
or the girl whose abusive father has turned her to stone, the characters
resonate with the reader long after the book has been put down. (Dating
Issues, Interpersonal Relations)
Jack.
By A.M. Homes. Macmillan, 1989.
Fifteen year old Jack just discovered that his father is gay. (Family
Issues)
Keeping
You a Secret. By Julie Ann Peters. Little Brown, 2003.
As she begins a very tough last semester of high school, Holland finds
herself puzzled about her future and intrigued by a transfer student who
wants to start a Lesbigay club at school. (Sexual Identity, Family Issues)
Lady
God. By Lesa Luders. New Victoria Publishers, 1995.
Landy is a young woman haunted by images of early childhood incest at
the hands of her sexually abusive, deranged mother. (Sexual Identity,
Violence Prevention, Incest, Alcoholism, Suicide)
Luna:
A Novel. By Julie Anne Peters. Little, Brown, 2004.
Fifteen-year-old Regan's life, which has always revolved around keeping
her older brother Liam's transsexuality a secret, changes when Liam decides
to start the process of "transitioning" by first telling his
family and friends that he is a girl who was born in a boy's body.
(Self-Identity, Family Issues)
My
Heartbeat. By Garret Freymann-Weyr. Houghton, 2002.
As she tries to understand the closeness between her older brother and
his best friend. (Family Issues, Interpersonal Relations)
The
Perks of Being a Wallflower. By Stephen Chbosky. Pocket Books, 1999.
Charlie is a freshman,and while he's not the biggest geek in the school,
he is by no means popular. He's a wallflower--shy and introspective, but
intelligent beyond his years. (Diary Fiction)
Rainbow
Boys. By Alex Sanchez. Simon & Schuster, 2001.
Three high school seniors, a jock with a girlfriend and an alcoholic father,
a closeted gay, and a flamboyant gay rights advocate, struggle with family
issues, gay bashers, first sex, and conflicting feelings about each other.
(Homosexuality, Family Issues, Alcoholism, Interpersonal Relations)
Rainbow
High. By Alex Sanchez. Simon & Schuster, 2003.
The rest of your life depends on high school decisions about college.
Jason Carrillo, the best-looking athlete in school, Kyle Meeks, swim team
star and all-around good guy, and Nelson Glassman, outgoing and defiant,
thought they had it all figured out. But then Jason's eyes turn to love-and
Kyle. Kyle is finally in the relationship he's wanted. Nelson fears testing
positive. Graduation is ahead and decisions must be made.
(Interpersonal Relations, Family Issues, HIV/AIDS)
Rainbow
Road. By Alex Sanchez. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers,
2005.
While driving across the United States during the summer after high school
graduation, three young gay men encounter various bisexual and homosexual
people and make some decisions about their own relationships and lives.
(Interpersonal Relations)
So
Hard to Say. By Alex Sanchez. Simon Pulse, 2004.
Frederick is perfect boyfriend material for the pretty and popular Xio,
but he thinks more about Victor, the captain of the soccer team.
(School, Mexican-Americans, Interpersonal Relations)
Steady
Beat, Volume 1
(manga). By Rivkah. TOKYOPOP, 2005.
Sixteen-year-old Leah Winters is forever living in her older sister's
shadow, and when she finds a love letter to her sister from a girl, she
must come to grips with their differences and similarities. (Family Issues)
Tale
of Two Summers. By Brian Sloan. Simon & Schuster, 2006.
Even though Hal is gay and Chuck is straight, the two fifteen-year-olds
are best friends and set up a blog where Hal records his budding romance
with a young Frenchman, and Chuck falls for a summer theater camp diva.
(Interpersonal Relations, Dating Issues)
Tips
on Having a Gay (ex)Boyfriend.
By Carrie Jones. Flux, 2007.
Is it fair to be mad, mad, mad at your boyfriend for being gay? Anything
but straight in small town Maine won’t exactly be a walk in the
park, even for invincible Dylan. But can’t heartbroken Belle whine
just a little? What’s a girl to do when her perfect soulmate says
Goodbye Belle, Hello Bob? For starters, she makes a list on how to deal.
(Dating Issues)
What
Happened to Lani Garver. By Carol Plum-Ucci. Harcourt Inc, 2002.
Who or what is newcomer Lani, an angel? An unusual story of compassion
and tragedy.
BACK
TO TOPICS
SUBSTANCE
ABUSE
The
Beast. By Walter Dean Myers. Scholastic, 2003.
A visit to his Harlem neighborhood and discovery that the girl he loves
is using drugs give seventeen-year-old Anthony Witherspoon a new perspective
both on his home and on his life at a Connecticut prep school. (Coping)
Beauty
Queen. By Linda Glovach. HarperCollins, 1998.
Writing in her diary about an ex-boyfriend, 19-year-old Samantha seems
normal, but after moving into her own apartment, working as a topless
dancer, and becoming a heroin addict, she sounds like a hardened drug
abuser. (Heroin Addiction)
Bottled
Up. By Jaye Murray. Dial Books, 2003.
A high school boy comes to terms with his drug addiction, life with an
alcoholic father, and a younger brother who looks up to him.
(Alcohol Use, Family Issues, High School)
Crackback.
By John Coy. Scholastic Press, 2005.
Miles barely recalls when football was fun after being singled out by
a new coach, constantly criticized by his father, and pressured by his
best friend to take performance-enhancing drugs. (Steroids, Sports, Family
Issues)
Crank.
By Ellen Hopkins. Simon Pulse, 2004.
Kristina Georgia Snow is the perfect daughter, gifted high school junior,
quiet, never any trouble. But on a trip to visit her absentee father,
Kristina disappears and Bree takes her place. Bree is the exact opposite.
Through a boy, Bree meets the monster: crank. And what begins as a wild
ecstatic ride turns into a struggle through hell for her mind, her soul
- her life.
(Family Issues, High School)
Exit
Here. By Jason Myers. Simon & Schuster, 2007.
Travis is back from school for the summer, and he’s just starting
to settle in to the usual pattern at home: drinking, drugging, watching
porn, and hooking up. But he isn’t settling in – maybe it’s
that deadly debauch in Hawaii, the memories of which he can’t quite
shake. Or maybe it’s his suddenly sensing how empty and messed up
his life is, and wanting out. (Coping)
The
Game. By Teresa Toten. Red Deer Press, 2001.
With the support of new friends at the clinic, Dani develops the courage
to face her family's deep dysfunction and terrible secret- and to eliminate
the Game from her life forever. (Family Issues)
Glass.
By Ellen Hopkins. Simon & Schuster, 2007.
In this sequel to Crank, Kristina Snow, a former 17-year-old with high
grades and a loving family, has returned to Reno pregnant. While living
with her mother and working at a convenience store, she becomes addicted
to meth in order to recapture her pre-baby figure. When her addiction
takes over her life, she becomes a slave to it and has to give up her
baby. (Family Issues, Parenting, Teen Pregnancy)
Go
Ask Alice. By Anonymous. Prentice-Hall, 1971.
The classic diary by an anonymous, addicted teen. (Runaways, Diaries)
Imani
in Never Say Goodbye. By Jackie Hardrick. Enlighten
Publications, 2003.
Seventeen-year-old Imani's hopes for getting into Howard University-on
a basketball scholarship or otherwise-are nearly dashed during her tumultuous
senior year, primarily due to her friend and teammate Dominique's rapid
descent into drug abuse. (African-Americans)
Making
the Run. By Heather Henson. Joanna Cotler Books, 2002.
Eighteen-year-old Lu
is set on leaving her Kentucky home town after high school graduation.
She bides the time by doing drugs, making the run with her friends for
alcohol and focusing on her photography. (Alcohol Use, Family Issues,
Teen Pregnancy)
My
Brother's Keeper. By Patricia McCormick. Hyperion, 2005.
Thirteen-year-old Toby, a prematurely gray-haired Pittsburgh Pirates fan
and baseball card collector, tries to cope with his brother's drug use,
his father's absence, and his mother dating Stanley the Food King. (Coping,
Family Issues, Baseball)
One
Night. By Marsha Qualey. Dial Books, 2002.
Kelly Ray, a recovering heroin addict, meets a real prince whom she would
like to appear on her aunt's radio talk show. Love and other complications
intervene. (Interpersonal Relations)
Rats
Saw God. By Rob Thomas. Simon Pulse, 1996.
For Steve York, life was good. He had a 4.0 GPA, friends he could trust,
and a girl he loved. Now he spends his days smoked out, not so much living
as simply existing. But his herbal endeavors – and personal demons
– have led to a severe lack of motivation. Steve’s flunking
out, but if he writes a 100-page paper, he can graduate. He realizes he
must write what he knows. And through telling the story of how he got
to where he is, he discovers exactly where he wants to be. (Self-Identity)
Rx.
By Tracy Lynn. Simon Pulse, 2006.
Thyme Gilchrest is an honors student, popular, and on student council.
She is also a drug dealer. Like piecing together a logic puzzle, Thyme
has organized a complex trading system that enables her to obtain the
meds her friends need. They all come to her to diagnose their problems
and provide the "cure." This power trip helps her believe she
is in control of something within her high school world. (Drug Dealing,
Prescription Drug Abuse)
Smack.
By Melvin Burgess. Holt, 1997.
After running away from their troubled homes, two English teenagers move
in with a group of squatters in the port city of Bristol ad try to find
ways to support their growing addiction to heroin. (Runaways, Friendship)
Street
Pharm. By Alison
Va Diepen. Simon Pulse, 2006.
Seventeen-year-old African-American drug dealer, Ty Johnson, takes over
his father's business and struggles to make sense of his life when competition
from out of town threatens him and those who are close to him. (Violence
Prevention)
When
Dreams Are Crushed. By Olga Altstatt. 1st Books Library, 2001.
Story about peer pressure in reverse-- a high school girl helps her best
friend quit using drugs. (Friendship, Peer Pressure)
BACK
TO TOPICS
SUICIDE
Aimee.
By Mary Beth Miller. Dutton Books, 2002.
It seems that everyone, even her own parents, believes that Zoe helped
her best friend, Aimee, commit suicide. (Friendship)
After.
By Francis Chalifour. Tundra, 2005.
Fifteen-year-old Francis struggles to come to terms with his father's
suicide. (Grief, Death, Family Issues)
The
Cloud Chamber. By Joyce Maynard. Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
2005.
In their small Montana community, fourteen-year-old
Nate copes with his own sadness and anger over his father's attempted
suicide. (Depression, Family Issues)
Impulse.
By Ellen Hopkins. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2007.
Three teens who meet at Reno, Nevada's Aspen Springs mental hospital after
each has attempted suicide connect with each other in a way they never
have with their parents or anyone else in their lives. (Friendship, Survival,
Mental Health)
St.
Michael's Scales. By Neil Connelly. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2001.
Keegan Flannery, feeling responsible for his twin brother's death and
his mother's mental illness, believes he must atone by committing suicide
before his sixteenth birthday, but he gains new insights when he joins
his school's wrestling team. (Death, Mental Health)
Stay
With Me. By Garret Freymann-Weyr. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006.
When her sister kills herself, sixteen-year-old Leila goes looking for
a reason and, instead, discovers great love, her family's true history,
and how she fits into everything. (Self-discovery, Family Issues)
Thirteen
Reasons Why.
By Jay Asher. Penguin, 2007.
When Clay Jenson plays the cassette tapes he received in a mysterious
package, he's surprised to hear the voice of dead classmate Hannah Baker.
He's one of 13 people who receive Hannah's story, which details the circumstances
that led to her suicide. Clay spends the rest of the day and long into
the night listening to Hannah's voice and going to the locations she wants
him to visit. Hannah is not free from guilt, her own inaction having played
a part in an accidental auto death and a rape. (Violence Prevention, Death/Guilt)
Trigger.
By Susan Vaught. Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2006. Teenager Jersey
Hatch must work through his extensive brain damage to figure out why he
decided to shoot himself. (Violence, Disabilities)
BACK TO TOPICS
VIOLENCE
PREVENTION
(see also ABUSE & BULLYING)
After.
By Francine Prose. HarperCollins, 2003.
In the aftermath of a nearby school shooting, a grief and crisis counselor takes over Central High School and enacts increasingly harsh measures
to control students, while those who do not comply disappear. (School
Shootings)
Behind
the Eyes. By
Francisco Stork. Dutton, 2006.
Sixteen-year-old Hector is the hope of his family, but when he seeks revenge
after his brother's gang-related death and is sent to a San Antonio reform
school, it takes an odd assortment of characters to help him see that
hope is still alive. (Gangs, Coming-of -Age, Death/Grief, Coping)
The
Brimstone Journals. By Ron Koertge. Candlewick Press, 2001.
In a series of short interconnected poems, students at a high school nicknamed
Brimstone reveal the violence existing and growing in their lives.
Bruises.
By Anke De Vrie. Front Street, 2003.
While living in Holland, Michael meets Judith, who is frightened, bullied,
and beaten by her mother and blames herself for the abuse she is enduring.
(Abuse, Survival, Family Issues)
Claiming
Georgia Tate. By Gigi Amateau. Candlewick Press, 2005.
Twelve-year-old Georgia Tate feels loved and safe living with Nana and
Granddaddy, until her sexually abusive father tries to win her custody.
(Incest, Sexual Abuse, Self-Identity)
Darkness
Before Dawn. By Sharon Draper. Atheneum Books, 2001.Keisha struggles to put her world back in perspective, she learns the
power and the danger of silence, and discovers the secret gifts that had
been waiting for her all along. (Violence, African American Teens)
Dirty
Work. By Julia Bell. Walker & Company, 2007.
Hope Tasker, an upper-class girl from Britain, wants to be free. When
she meets Natasha, she thinks it's her way out of her mundane life. Except
Natasha is really Oksana, an impoverished girl from Russia, who was tricked
into being sold into sexual slavery as a way to support her family. Oksana
is a trap. The two girls soon realize that if they are ever going to escape,
they must learn to find enough common ground to work together—and
to trust each other. (Interpersonal Relationships)
Every
Time a Rainbow Dies. By Rita Williams-Garcia. HarperCollins, 2001.
Thulani spends long hours on the roof of their brownstone alone with his
beloved doves. One day he hears a scream and looks over the parapet to
see a young woman being raped in the alley below. (Caribbean Americans,
Interpersonal Relationships)
Freeze
Frame. By Heidi Ayarbe. HarperTeen, 2008.
Kyle Carroll and his friend Jason escape outside on a cold morning after
Kyle insults his sister and angers his mother. The two teens decide to
explore the work shed out back. The next thing Kyle knows, Jason is down,
surrounded by blood, and Kyle is holding a gun. Kyle tries to remember
the events that preceded the fatal shot by writing the scene in the styles
of his favorite directors. (Death & Grief, Interpersonal Relations)
Give
a Boy a Gun. By Todd Strasser. Simon & Schuster, 2000.
Gary and Brendan hold their classmates hostage at a dance with rifles
stolen from a neighbor.
Hershey
Herself. By Cecilia Galante. Aladdin Mix, 2008.
When 12-year-old Hershey must run away with her mother to a women’s
shelter, she wonders how, among other things, she’ll compete in
the town talent show with her best friend and who will take care of her
cat, and if she’ll survive being on a new bus route with her sworn
enemy. Most of all, she wonders how she, her mom and her baby sister will
start a new life, hidden away on the other side of town from her mom’s
abusive boyfriend. She turns to her journal and Cheese Doodles for comfort,
until another resident at the shelter helps her discover a talent she
never realized she had.
House
of the Scorpion. By Nancy Farmer. Atheneum Books, 2002.
Told in a future time, the young clone of a corrupt drug leader in a small
country between the U.S. and former Mexico experiences adventure at every
turn. (Substance Abuse, Science Fiction)
I
Hadn't Meant to Tell You This. By Jacqueline Woodson. Delacorte,
1994.
Marie, the only black girl in the eighth grade willing to befriend her
white classmate Lena, discovers the Lena's father is doing horrible things
to her in private. (Racism/Prejudice)
Into the Ravine. By Richard Scrimger. Tundra Books, 2007.
Jules, Chris, and Corey have lived side by side for most of their lives. Behind their backyards is a ravine through which flows a modest river. When a tornado brings down a big maple tree, the boys make a raft of the branches and set off downstream. By accident, they crash a funeral, and, by design, they crash a pool party — with tragic results. (Death & Grief, Interpersonal Relations)
Making
Up Megaboy. By Virginia Walter and Katrina Roeckelein. Delacorte
Press, 1998.
On Robbie Jones 13th birthday, he decides to shoot and kill an old man.
No one knows what caused Robbie Jones to do it, least of all himself.
(Graphic Format)
Missing
Girl. By Norma Fox Mazer. HarperTeen, 2008.
In Mallory, New York, as five sisters, aged eleven to seventeen, deal
with assorted problems, conflicts, fears, and yearnings, a mysterious
middle-aged man watches them, fascinated, deciding which one he likes
the best. The sisters are unaware that they are being scrutinized by a
predator.
Monster.
By Walter D. Myers. HarperCollins, 1999.
Written as a screenplay, "Monster" is what the prosecutor called
16-year-old Steve Harmon for his supposed role in the fatal shooting of
a convenience-store owner. (Self-Image, African American Teens)
Nothing
to Lose. By Alex Flinn. HarperCollins, 2004.
A year after running away with a traveling carnival to escape his unbearable
home life, sixteen-year-old Michael returns to Miami, Florida, to find
that his mother is going on trial for the murder of his abusive stepfather.
(Runaways, Abuse)
Nugrl90
(Sadie) (Bloggrls
Series). By Cheryl Dellasega. Marshall Cavendish, 2007.
Sadie, a.k.a. nugrl90, wakes up one day to discover that her semi-happy
teen life has taken a turn toward disaster. Her parents are getting divorced
and her family is moving. She starts a blog to try to figure out the changes
in her life, and then she meets Buff Boy, who turns out to have a troubled
dark side. Forced to make a life-altering decision, Sadie relies on her
blog as a source of strength. (Divorce, Family Issues, Coping/Decision
Making)
Prey.
By Lurlene McDaniel. Delacorte, 2008.
Told from their separate points of view, fifteen-year-old Ryan has a secret
affair with his 33-year-old history teacher at an Atlanta high school,
and his best friend Honey becomes determined to uncover the reason he
is increasingly distant. (Sexual Abuse, Interpersonal Relations)
Raymond.
By Mark Geller. Noguer y Caralt, 1994.
Spanish book dealing with child abuse. (Child
Abuse, Spanish Language)
Real
Time. By Pnina Moed Kass. Clarion Books, 2004.
Sixteen-year-old Tomas Wanninger persuades his mother to let him leave
Germany to volunteer at a kibbutz in Israel, where he experiences a violent
political attack and finds answers about his own past. (Self-Identity,
Israel, Politics)
Response. By Paul Volponi. Viking, 2009.
Noah and his friends go to a predominantly white neighborhood with a plan: steal a car, sell it to a chop shop, and make some fast cash. But that never happens. Instead, Noah, a teen father, is the victim of a vicious beating that leaves him with a fractured skull. Was the attacker just protecting his turf, or did he assault Noah because he’s black? (Prejudices/Racism, Parenting)
Road
of the Dead. By Kevin Brooks. The Chicken House, 2006.
Two brothers, sons of an incarcerated gypsy, leave London traveling to
an isolated and desolate village, in search of the brutal killer of their
sister. (Coping)
Rooftop.
By Paul Volponi. Viking, 2006.
Still reeling from seeing police shoot his unarmed cousin to death on
the roof of a New York City housing project, seventeen-year-old Clay is
dragged into the whirlwind of political manipulation that follows. (Death,
Prejudice, Criminal Justice)
Safe.
By Susan Shaw. Dutton Books, 2007.
In the aftermath of an unspeakable crime, Tracy must fight her way back
to safety and find comfort in her mother’s memory once again. A
raw and moving story of a young rape victim’s journey toward healing.
Search
and Destroy. By Dean Hughes. Ginee Seo Books, 2005.
Recent high-school graduate Rick Ward, undecided about his future and
eager to escape his unhappy home life, joins the army and experiences
the horrors of the war in Vietnam. (Dating)
Shattered:
Stories of Children and War. By Jennifer Armstrong. Knopf Press,
2001.
Twelve stories that explore the ways young people are affected by war.
(War Stories)
Shattering
Glass.
By Gail Giles. Roaring Book Press, 2002.
When Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, turns the school
nerd into Prince Charming, his actions lead to unexpected violence.
Shooter.
By Walter Dean Myers. HarperTempest, 2004.
Written in the form of interviews, reports, and journal entries, the story
of three troubled teenagers ends in a tragic school shooting.
(Bullies, Family Issues, Mental Health)
Shut Up. By Marilyn Reynolds. Morning Glory Press, 2009.
Single mom Maria Barajas and her sons, 17-year-old Mario and 9-year-old Eddie, are an extremely close and functional family. To supplement her income, Maria joined the National Guard—and now she’s being sent to Iraq. The boys go to live with Maria’s sister Carmen, who is fussy and not especially loving and whose boyfriend, Denton, has an unhealthy interest in Eddie. When Mario walks in on Denton abusing Eddie, he tries to get help. (Family Issues)
Speak.
By Laurie Halse Anderson. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1999.
(Audiobook)
A stunning and sympathetic tribute to a teenage outcast and a rape survivor.
(Emotional Problems, High School)
A
Stone In My Hand. By Cathryn Clinton. Candlewick Press, 2002.
Set in the mounting tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, an 11-year
old girl must move beyond the violence surrounding her and act with courage
and hope. (Muslims, Family Life, Jewish)
Street
Love. By Walter
Dean Myers. Amistad, 2006.
This story told in free verse is set against a background of street gangs
and poverty in Harlem in which seventeen-year-old African American Damien
takes a bold step to ensure that he and his new love will not be separated.
(Prejudice, Sports)
Target.
By Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson. Roaring Brook, 2003.
After being raped, Grady goes to a new high school where he meets an outgoing
African American and several other students who try to help him deal with
the horrible secret. (Rape, Anorexia, Racism/Prejudice, Sexual Identity)
Venomous. By Christoper Krovatin. Atheneum, 2008.
Locke Vinetti is a high school junior, disenchanted and more than a little hostile. In fact, for years he's had a lousy social life because of a problem he has with his anger--a force he calls "the venom." Ever since he was eight years old and bit off a piece of a classmate's nose, he's been something of a loner. But all that is about to change when he meets the spikey blue fairy-haircut Goth girl of his dreams. (Interpersonal Relations)
We
All Fall Down. By Robert Cormier. Delacorte, 1991.
Jane Jerome and her family come home to find that vandals have destroyed
their possessions, urinated on their walls, and left 14-year-old Karen
in a coma at the bottom of the basement stairs. (Alcohol Use)
What
Happened to Cass McBride.
By Gail Giles. Little, Brown, 2006.
After his younger brother commits suicide, Kyle Kirby decides to exact
revenge on the person he holds responsible. (Suicide)
When
Dad Killed Mom. By Julius Lester. Silver Whistle/Harcourt, 2001.
Jenna and Jeremy must deal with the fact that their father murdered their
mother. (Family Issues)
Where
People Like Us Live. By Patricia Cumbie. HarperTeen, 2008.
It's a routine Libby's used to by now: pack up, move, start over, repeat.
This time it's to Rubberville and Angie, a girl who nearly-but-not-quite
gets Libby killed the first day they meet. Angie is everything Libby wishes
she were: outspoken, fearless, and happy to risk it all to have a little
fun. But one day Libby learns that behind Angie's attitude is a frightening
secret. Libby faces an impossible choice: Does she protect her friendship
or her friend? (Interpersonal Relations)
Wonder
When You'll Miss Me. By Amanda Davis. HarperCollins, 2003.
A year after being raped at school, Faith is bent on revenge. This quest
for retribution eventually compels her to violence, forcing her to flee
home in search of the only friend she has and to tumble into the colorful,
transient world of the circus. Faith ultimately begins to discover who
she is and all that she is capable of. (Runaway Teens, Body Image, Coping)
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