Sexual
Abuse/Rape
Anderson,
Laurie Halse. Speak.
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect of Melinda's
freshman year in high school.
Cole,
Brock. The
Facts Speak for Themselves.
At the request of her social worker, thirteen-year-old Linda gradually
reveals how her life with her unstable mother and her younger brother led
to her rape
and the murder she witnessed.
Crutcher, Chris. Staying
Fat for Sarah Byrnes.
The daily class discussions about the nature of human-kind, the existence
of God, abortion, organized religion, suicide and other contemporary
issues serve as a backdrop for a high-school senior's attempt to answer
a friend's
dramatic cry for help.
Lundgren,
Mary Beth. Love,
Sara.
In a series of emails and journal entries Sara, a high school junior
with a history of sexual abuse and foster home care, reveals her feelings
about herself
and two friends who are headed for destruction.
Neufeld,
John. Boys
Lie.
Eighth-grader Gina Smith is targeted as easy by some boys in
her new school because of her physical development and because of
an incident
in
her past
in which she was assaulted in a public swimming pool.
Peck,
Richard. Are
You in the House Alone?
A sixteen-year-old girl with a steady boyfriend suddenly begins
receiving threatening phone calls while she is babysitting and
anonymous notes
in her high school
locker.
Alcohol/Drugs
Childress, Alice. A
Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich.
The life of a thirteen-year-old Harlem youth on his way to becoming a heroin
addict is seen from his viewpoint and from that of several people around him.
Draper, Sharon. Tears
of a Tiger.
The death of high school basketball star Rob Washington in an automobile
accident affects the lives of his close friend Andy, who was driving the car,
and many
others in the school.
Ferry, Charles. Binge.
When eighteen-year-old Weldon wakes up in a hospital, he must face the tragic
consequences of a drinking spree.
Fox, Paula. A
Place Apart.
Shortly after her father's death, Victoria and her mother move to a small
village outside of Boston where she meets a wealthy teenage boy who teaches
her a valuable
but painful lesson about life.
Go
Ask Alice.
Based on the diary of a fifteen-year-old drug user chronicling
her struggle to escape the pull of the drug world.
Grant, Cynthia. Shadow
Man.
Charming but reckless eighteen-year-old Gabe, drunk
as usual, smashes his truck into a tree and dies, sending
waves of shock
and grief through
his small
town.
Miklowitz, Gloria. Anything
to Win.
To increase his chances of winning a college scholarship, a talented
high school quarterback risks his health by taking anabolic steroids
to gain weight.
Mowry, Jess. Babylon
Boyz.
Inner city teenagers find a suitcase full of cocaine and
must decide whether to sell it and take the opportunity the
money
would provide
or to destroy it to keep the drug from poisoning their community.
Grade
9 and
up
Murray, Jaye. Bottled
Up: A Novel.
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. Grade
7
and up
Stoehr, Shelley. Crosses.
Unhappy at home, Nancy and her friend Katie adopt punk lifestyles
and find relief in cutting themselves, until Nancy is forced
to confront her
problems.
Death/Dying
Abelove, Joan. Saying
It Out Loud.
With the help of her best friend, sixteen-year-old Mindy sorts through her
relationships with her solicitous mother and her detached father as she tries
to come to terms with the fact that her mother is dying from a brain tumor.
Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays
with Morrie.
Maybe you once had a mentor who gave you advice and helped you see the world
as a more profound place. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his
college professor from nearly twenty years ago. Knowing he was dying, Morrie
visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college.
Bunting, Eve. Face
at the Edge of the World.
Haunted by the suicide of a gifted young black writer who was his best
friend, Jed pursues the reason for it.
Bunting, Eve. A
Sudden Silence.
Jesse Harmon searches for the hit and run driver who killed his brother
Bry.
Coleman, Hila. Suddenly.
Sixteen-year-old Emily is in the car with her boyfriend when he hits
and kills a young boy she knows, and that death has a dramatic effect on
them,
the boy's
family, and Emily's own parents.
Coman, Carolyn. Many
Stones.
After her sister Laura is murdered in South Africa, Berry and her estranged
father travel there to participate in the dedication of a memorial
in her name.
Coman, Carolyn. Tell
Me Everything.
After her mother dies in a rescue mission on a snowy mountain, twelve-year-old
Roz wonders if talking to God, and to the boy for whom her mother
died, can help her understand what happened.
Cook, Karin. What
Girls Learn.
Two sisters cope with their mother's death by cancer while getting to know
her new husband.
Cooney, Caroline. The
Terrorist.
Sixteen-year-old Laura, an American living in London,
tries to find the person responsible for the death of her
younger brother
Billy,
who
has been
killed
by a terrorist bomb.
Cooney, Caroline. Driver's
Ed.
Three teenagers' lives are changed forever when they thoughtlessly
steal a stop sign from a dangerous intersection and a young mother
is killed in
an automobile accident there.
Cormier, Robert. The
Bumblebee Flies Anyway.
Sixteen-year-old Barney has only fleeting memories about his past but,
as a voluntary patient at the institute for experimental medicine,
he knows he is
different from the terminally ill patients surrounding him.
His involvement with the bitter, slowly dying, Mazzo brings Barney hope,
pain,
and
a moment of heroic glory.
Deaver, Julie
Reece. Say
Goodnight, Gracie.
When a car accident kills her best friend Jimmy, with
whom she has shared everything from childhood escapades
to breaking
into the
professional
theater scene in
Chicago, seventeen-year-old Morgan must find her own way
of coping with his death.
Ewing, Lynne. Party
Girl.
The death of her best friend Ana in a drive-by shooting causes fifteen-year-old
Kata to question her position in the Los Angeles
gang life.
Lynch, Chris. Shadow
Boxer.
After their father dies of boxing injuries, George is determined
to prevent his younger brother, who sees boxing as his legacy, from
pursuing
a career
in the sport.
Mahy, Margaret. Memory.
On the fifth anniversary of his older sister's death, nineteen-year-old
Jonny Dart, troubled by feelings of guilt and an imperfect memory of the
event, goes in search of the only other witness to the fatal accident and,
through a chance meeting with a senile old woman, finds way to free himself
of the past.
Mazer, Norma Fox. After
the Rain.
After discovering her grandfather is dying, fifteen-year-old Rachel
gets to know him better than ever before and finds the experience bittersweet.
McDaniel,
Lurlene.
McDaniel's books deal with the sickness and death of loved ones from a teen's
point of view.
McDonald, Joyce. Swallowing
Stones.
Dual perspectives reveal the aftermath of seventeen-year-old Michael
MacKenzie's birthday celebration during which he discharges an antique
Winchester rifle and unknowingly kills the father of high school classmate
Jenna Ward.
McNeill, J.D. The
Last Codfish
Fifteen-year-old
Tut lives in squalor with his fisherman father on the coast of
Maine. His English teacher and a new neighbor girl are determined
to turn
his life
around and force him to speak, which he has not done since his
mother's death, a
death for which he feels responsible. (Middle School)
Mori, Kyoko. Shizuko's
Daughter.
After her mother's suicide when she is twelve years old, Yuki
spends years living with her distant father and his resentful new
wife, cut
off from
her mother's family, and relying on her own inner strength to cope
with the tragedy.
Myers, Anna. When
the Bough Breaks.
Fifteen-year-old Ophelia, orphaned and emotionally isolated, develops
an unlikely friendship with an elderly recluse, Portia McKay, which
may lead to
redemption
for both.
Nolan, Han. Dancing
on the Edge.
A young girl from a dysfunctional family creates for herself an alternative
world which nearly results in her death but which ultimately leads her to reality.
Paulsen, Gary. The
Monument.
Thirteen-year-old Rocky, self-conscious about the braces on her leg,
has her life changed by the remarkable artist who comes to her small Kansas
town to design a war memorial.
Rodowsky, Colby
F. Remembering
Mog.
After graduating from a private high school in Baltimore,
Annie comes to terms with the loss of her sister who had
been murdered
two years earlier.
Disabilities/Diseases/Mental Health
Barrie, Barbara. Adam
Zigzag.
Adam, who is dyslexic and has great difficulty with his homework, struggles
to find the right school, resist the lure of drugs, and endure the jealousy
of his older sister Caroline.
Bloor, Edward. Tangerine.
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.
Bowler, Tim. Midget.
Subject to strange fits, physically abnormal, and psychologically disturbed
from the constant torment and abuse of his older brother, fifteen-year-old
Midget finds himself in control of his life for the first time when he
gets his own sailboat and discovers untapped mental powers.
Durant, Penny
Raife. When
Heroes Die.
Devastated that his hero uncle, Rob, is dying of AIDS, twelve-year-old
Gary, in need of advice and guidance in his life, draws strength from
Rob himself.
Ferris, Jean. Invincible
Summer.
Seventeen-year-old Robin, in treatment for leukemia,
falls in love with a boy who also has the disease, and
together they
attempt to survive
their
ordeal.
Fox, Paula. The
Eagle Kite.
Liam's father has AIDS, and his family cannot talk about it until Liam
reveals a secret that he has tried to deny ever since he saw his father
embracing another
man at the beach.
Froese, Deborah. Out
of the Fire.
Sixteen-year-old Dayle survives a tragic fire and learns that
her own resources go much deeper than appearances.
Gantos, Jack. Joey
Pigza Swallowed the Key.
To the constant disappointment of his mother and his teachers,
Joey has trouble paying attention or controlling his attention-deficit
disorder
when
his prescription
meds wear off and he starts getting worked up and acting wired.
Gantos, Jack. Joey
Pigza Loses Control.
Joey,
who is still taking
medication to keep him from
getting too
wired, goes to spend
the summer with
the hard-drinking father
he has
never known
and tries
to help the baseball team he coaches win the championship.
Sequel to Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key.
Griffin,
Adele. Amandine.
Her
first
week
at
a new
school, shy, plain Delia
befriends
Amandine,
not
anticipating
the dangerous turns
their friendship
would take.
Hesser,
Terry
Spencer. Kissing
Doorknobs.
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.
Hurwin, Davida. A
Time for Dancing.
Seventeen-year-old best friends Samantha and Juliana
tell their stories in alternating chapters after Juliana
is diagnosed
with
cancer.
Lebert, Benjamin. Crazy.
Sixteen-year-old Benjamin Lebert wrote this semi-autobiographical
novel about his partial paralysis and fitting in at a new
boarding school.
Lewis, Catherine. Postcards
to Father Abraham.
When
sixteen-year-old
Meghan
loses
her
leg
to
cancer
and
her
brother to Vietnam,
she expresses intense anger
in postcards which
she writes
to her
idol, Abraham
Lincoln.
McCormick, Patricia. Cut.
While confined to a mental hospital, thirteen-year-old
Callie slowly comes to understand some of the reasons
behind her self-mutilation,
and gradually starts to get better.
Moore, Peter. Blind
Sighted.
Kirk, a creative misfit who is in trouble at
high school because he is bored with his classes,
learns
to deal with
his alcoholic
mother, new
friends,
and
life with the help of a blind young woman who
hires him to read to her.
Nolan, Han. Dancing
on the Edge.
A young girl from a dysfunctional family creates for herself an alternative
world which nearly results in her death but
which ultimately leads her to reality.
Orr, Wendy. Peeling
the Onion.
Following an automobile accident in which her
neck is broken, a teenage karate champion begins
a long
and painful
recovery
with the
help of
her family.
Thirteen-year-old Rocky, self-conscious about the
braces on her leg, has her life changed by the
remarkable
artist who comes
to her
small Kansas
town
Paulsen, Gary. The
Monument.
to
design a war memorial.
Pennebaker, Ruth. Both
Sides Now.
Fifteen-year-old Liza tries to deal with
the normal everyday crises of life in an
Austin, Texas,
high school,
a process
complicated by
her mother's
fight
with breast cancer.
Rosenberg, Liz. Seventeen:
A Novel in Prose Poems.
Seventeen-year-old Stephanie journeys
from fall to spring and from childhood
to womanhood
as she
experiences first
love and deals
with
her fear of
inheriting her mother's mental illness.
Ruby, Lois. Miriam's
Well.
When Miriam is diagnosed with a tumor, her belief in faith healing
clashes with her friends' beliefs in
traditional medicine.
Sones, Sonya. Stop
Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy.
A younger sister has a difficult time adjusting
to life after her older sister has
a mental breakdown.
Sparks, Beatrice. It
Happened to Nancy.
Teenage
Nancy's
worst
nightmares come
true
when
she contracts
the
AIDS virus.
Stoehr, Shelley. Crosses.
Unhappy at home, Nancy and her friend Katie adopt punk lifestyles and
find relief in cutting themselves,
until Nancy is forced to confront her problems.
Trueman, Terry. Stuck
in Neutral.
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel,
who suffers from severe cerebral
palsy and
cannot function,
relates his perceptions
of his life,
his family, and
his condition,
especially as he believes his
father is planning to kill him.
Disfunctional/Violent Families
Corrigan, Eireann. Splintering
Relates, in a series of poems from different perspectives, the events
and after-effects of an intruder's violent attack on a family.
Flynn, Alexandra. Breathing Underwater
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.
Klass, David. You Don't Know Me
Fourteen-year-old John creates alternative realities in his mind as he
tries to deal with his mother's abusive boyfriend, his crush on a beautiful,
but shallow classmate and other problems at school.
Divorce/Relationships
Fine, Anne. Flour
Babies.
When
his class of underachievers is assigned to spend three torturous weeks
taking care of their own "babies" in the form of bags of flour,
Simon makes amazing discoveries about himself while coming to terms with
his long-absent father.
Frank, Lucy. Oy,
Joy!
Although her ailing uncle creates problems for her whole family when
he moves in with them, Joy survives his bungling attempts at matchmaking
even as she
plays the game herself.
Mack, Tracy.
Naylor, Phyllis
Reynolds. Ice.
When thirteen-year-old Chrissa is sent to her paternal grandmother's
farm, she learns more about her absent father and some of the reasons
for her distant
relationship with her mother.
Nolan, Han. Born
Blue.
Janie was four years old when she nearly drowned due to her mothers 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.
Shoup, Barbara. Wish
You Were Here.
A high school senior tries to cope with the shifting patterns of his
life while struggling to come to terms with his parents' divorce, his best
friend's sudden
departure, his mother's remarriage, and his father's nearly-fatal accident.
Wittlinger, Ellen. Hard
Love.
After starting to publish a 'zine in which he writes his secret feelings
about his lonely life and his parents' divorce, sixteen-year-old John meets
an unusual
girl and begins to develop a healthier personality.
Fitting In
Bauer, Cat. Harley,
Like a Person.
Fourteen-year-old Harley, an artistic teenager living with her alcoholic father
and angry mother, suspects that she is adopted and begins a search for her
biological parents.
Castellucci,
Cecil. Boy
Proof
Feeling alienated from everyone around her, Victoria Denton Los Angeles
high school senior and movie lover shaves her head and takes on the
name Egg, after a favorite character in a science fiction film she
has seen
42 times. Her shaved head and white cloak make her actress mother call
her Boy Proof. Changes begin when an interesting new boy arrives at
school and helps her realize that there is more to life than just the
movies.
Cormier, Robert. The
Chocolate War.
A high school freshman discovers the devastating consequences of refusing
to join in the school's annual fund raising drive and arousing the wrath
of the
school bullies.
Griffin, Adele. Amandine.
Her first week at a new school, shy, plain Delia befriends Amandine,
not anticipating the dangerous turns their friendship would take.
Heynen, Jim. Cosmos
Coyote and William the Nice.
When sent to live on a farm in Iowa as an alternative to juvenile detention,
seventeen-year-old Cosmos falls in love with a religious girl and reconsiders
his values and beliefs.
Howe, James. The
Misfits.
Four students who do not fit in at their small-town middle school decide
to create a third party for the student council elections to represent all
students
who have ever been called names.
Koss, Amy Goldman. The
Girls.
Each of the girls in a middle-school clique reveals the strong, manipulative
hold one of the group exerts on the others, causing hurt and self-doubt
among the girls.
Lebert, Benjamin. Crazy.
Sixteen-year-old Benjamin Lebert wrote this semi-autobiographical novel
about his partial paralysis and fitting in at a new boarding school.
Plum-Ucci, Carol. The
Body of Christopher Creed.
Torey Adams, a high school junior with a seemingly perfect life, struggles
with doubts and questions surrounding the mysterious disappearance of
the class outcast.
Rennison, Louise. Angus,
Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson.
Presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old
British girl who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat
from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the love of handsome
hunk Robbie.
Rennison, Louise. On
the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God: Further Confessions
of Georgia Nicolson.
Fourteen-year-old Georgia continues her diary in which she records her
misadventures trying to reclaim the attention of seventeen-year-old Robbie,
while coping
with her friends, family, and dog-like cat Angus at the same time. Sequel
to Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging.
Sheldon, Dyan. Confessions
of a Teenage Drama Queen.
In
her first year at a suburban New Jersey high school, Mary Elizabeth Cep,
who now calls herself "Lola," sets her sights on the lead in
the annual drama production, and finds herself in conflict with the most
popular girl in school.
Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl.
In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity,
and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes
Mica High School forever.
Weiss, M. Jerry
and Helen S. Weiss, eds. Lost
and Found.
Authors such as Shelley Stoehr, Tamora Pierce, Mel Glenn, and Paul
Zindel write stories based on their real-life experiences as teenagers.
Yep, Laurence. Dream
Soul.
In 1927, as Christmas approaches, fifteen-year-old Joan Lee hopes to
get her parents' permission to celebrate the holiday, one of the problems
of belonging
to the only Chinese American family in her small West Virginia community.
Food
Issues/Weight Concerns
Bauer, Joan. Squashed.
As a sixteen-year-old pursues her two goals--growing the biggest pumpkin in
Iowa and losing twenty pounds herself--she strengthens her relationship with
her father and meets a young man with interests similar to her own.
Bennett, Cherie. Life
in the Fat Lane.
Sixteen-year-old Lara, winner of beauty pageants and Homecoming Queen,
is distressed and bewildered when she starts gaining weight and becomes
a fat girl.
Block, Francesca
Lia. The
Hanged Man.
Having stopped eating after the death of her father, seventeen-year-old
Laurel feels herself losing control of her life in the hot, magical world
of Los Angeles.
Brooks, Bruce. Vanishing.
Eleven-year-old Alice is unwilling to return to live with her alcoholic
mother and her stern stepfather, so she refuses to eat to the point of slowly
starving
herself, in order to remain in the hospital.
Creech, Sharon. Bloomability.
When her aunt and uncle take her from New Mexico to Lugano, Switzerland,
to attend an international school, thirteen-year-old Dinnie discovers an
expanding
world and her place within it.
Crutcher, Chris. Staying
Fat for Sarah Byrnes.
The daily class discussions about the nature of man, the existence of
God, abortion, organized religion, suicide and other contemporary issues
serve as
a backdrop for a high-school senior's attempt to answer a friend's dramatic
cry for help.
Dessen, Sarah. Keeping
the Moon.
Fifteen-year-old Colie, a former fat girl, spends the summer working
as a waitress in a beachside restaurant, staying with her overweight and
eccentric Aunt Mira,
and trying to explore her sense of self.
Frank, Lucy. I
Am an Artichoke.
Working as a mother's helper in New York City, fifteen-year-old Sarah
finds herself caught in the middle of a troubled relationship between an
eccentric
writer and her anorexic daughter.
Holt, Kimberly
Willis. When
Zachary Beaver Came to Town.
During the summer of 1971 in a small Texas town, thirteen-year-old
Toby and his best friend Cal meet the star of a sideshow act, 600-pound
Zachary, the
fattest boy in the world.
Lipsyte, Robert. One
Fat Summer.
An overweight fourteen-year-old boy experiences a turning point summer
in which he learns to stand up for himself.
Lynch, Chris. Extreme
Elvin.
As he enters high school, fourteen-year-old Elvin continues to deal
with his weight problem as he tries to find his place among his peers.
Newman, Leslea. Fat
Chance.
In a series of diary entries, thirteen-year-old Judi recounts her struggles
to lose weight, hide her bulimia from her mother, find a boy friend,
and decide on a profession.
Ruckman, Ivy. The
Hunger Scream.
A girl who suffers from anorexia struggles to deal with the problem.
Sachs, Marilyn. The
Fat Girl.
Jeff, a high school senior, becomes obsessed with creating a new, beautiful,
person out of an unhappy fat girl, but when she begins to think independently,
he loses control of the situation.
Strasser, Todd. How
I Changed My Life.
Overweight high school senior Bo decides to change her image while working
on the school play with a former star football player who is also struggling
to find a new identity for himself.
Todd, Pamela. Pig
and the Shrink.
Seventh-grader Tucker needs to come up with a winning science fair project
in a hurry, so he uses his fat friend Angelo as an experimental subject
and in the process learns about more than just science.
On the Edge
Flinn,
Alex. Fade
to Black
HIV-positive Alejandro Crusan, a Florida high-school junior,
has been attacked with a baseball bat while driving to school. Clinton Cole,
the bigot accused of the crime denies having been involved. Dana Bickell,
a classmate with Down Syndrome, is only witness. The three alternate telling
their stories through free verse. They reveal how the assault has changed
their lives as they tell of its aftermath. (Grade 7-10)
Pregnancy/Sex
Bunting, Eve. Doll
Baby.
A fifteen-year-old girl who is pregnant decides she wants to keep her baby,
not realizing how much harder it will be than caring for her beloved Daisy
Doll.
Doherty, Berlie. Dear
Nobody.
Eighteen-year-old Chris struggles to deal with two shocks that have changed
his life, his meeting the mother who left him and his father when he
was ten and his discovery that he has gotten his girlfriend pregnant.
Fienberg, Anna. Borrowed
Light.
A sixteen-year-old feels alienated from her family while struggling with
the difficult decisions surrounding her unplanned pregnancy.
Grant, Cynthia. The
White Horse.
In her writing for a concerned teacher, sixteen-year-old Raina reveals
her troubles with a dysfunctional family, life on the streets, drug abuse,
and
finally an unplanned pregnancy.
McDonald, Janet. Spellbound.
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 four-year scholarship.
Oughton, Jerrie. Perfect
Family.
When Welcome, a fifteen-year-old girl living in a small town in North Carolina
during the 1950s, finds out that she is pregnant, she faces some important
decisions.
Pennebaker, Ruth. Don't
Think Twice.
Seventeen years old and pregnant, Anne lives with other unwed mothers in a
group home in rural Texas where she learns to be herself before giving her
child up for adoption.
Plummer, Louise. A
Dance for Three.
When fifteen-year-old Hannah becomes pregnant and her rich, popular boyfriend
claims he is not responsible, she is forced to face some hard facts about her
life.
Working & Living
Together
Abelove, Joan. Go
and Come Back.
Alicia, a young tribeswoman living in a Amazonian village in the Andes, tells
about the two American women anthropologists who arrive to study the way of
life of her people.
Cormier, Robert. Tenderness.
A psychological thriller told from the points of view of a teenage serial
killer and the runaway girl who falls in love with him.
Curtis, Christopher
Paul. The
Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963.
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an
African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed
after they
go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.
Farmer, Nancy. A
Girl Named Disaster.
While fleeing from Mozambique to Zimbabwe to escape an unwanted marriage,
Nhamo, an eleven-year-old Shona girl, struggles to escape drowning and starvation
and in so doing comes close to the luminous world of the African spirits.
Finch, Susan. The
Intimacy of Indiana.
In a small Indiana town, Olivia, Adam, and Neil, friends since childhood,
face difficult choices as they enter their senior year in high school.
Frank,
E.R. Life
Is Funny.
The lives of a number of young people of different races, economic
backgrounds, and family situations living in Brooklyn, New York, become
intertwined over
a seven year period.
Herschler, Mildred
Barger. The
Darkest Corner.
Her loving relationship with the black woman who works for her family
and her friendship with two black neighbors in the small Mississippi
town where she
grows up in the 1950s and 1960s brings Teddy into conflict with her racist
father, a member of the local Ku Klux Klan.
Koss, Amy Goldman. Strike
Two.
Haley's hope of spending the summer playing softball and hanging out
with her cousin Gwen is ruined when her father and her uncle land on opposite
sides
of the local newspaper strike.
Levitin, Sonia. Dream
Freedom.
Marcus and his classmates learn about the terrible problem of slavery
in present-day Sudan and raise money to help buy the freedom of some of
the slaves. Alternate
chapters tell the stories of the slaves.
Spinelli, Jerry. Crash.
Seventh-grader
John "Crash" Coogan has always been comfortable
with his tough, aggressive behavior, until his relationship with an unusual
Quaker boy and his grandfather's stroke make him consider the meaning of
friendship and the importance of family.
Wittlinger, Ellen. What's
In a Name?
Each of ten teenagers living in Scrub Harbor, Massachusetts, explores
his or her identity at the same time that the local residents consider changing
the
name of their town.
Comments or Suggestions?
Contact Cathy Lichtman, Teen Librarian
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