Realistic Fiction (High School)

Across a Hundred Mountains is a 2006 novel by Reyna Grande. It won the American Book Award. The novel tells the story of two women, Adelina and Juana. Every few pages, the novel alternates between each woman’s story. Adelina is an adult working at a woman’s shelter in Los Angeles and has devoted her life to searching for her father, who went missing many years ago. At the beginning of the novel, Adelina finally finds... Read Across A Hundred Mountains Summary

After by Anna Todd is a fan fiction novel with characters loosely based on the band members from One Direction. The novel principally features the band’s lead singer, Harry Styles, as the inspiration for main character Hardin, and Anna Todd herself as the inspiration behind the protagonist, Tessa. Todd originally wrote After on Wattpad, a social storytelling platform, but it was adapted as a published novel by Simon and Schuster in 2014. After is now... Read After Summary

A Heart in a Body in the World is a young adult novel by Deb Caletti, published in 2018. The novel is a work of contemporary realism and is a Michael L. Printz Honor Book.Plot SummaryThe novel follows the story of Annabelle Agnelli, a high school senior living with her mother Gina and her brother Malcolm in Seattle, Washington. Annabelle is a talented cross-country runner, a strong student, and popular at her school. One evening... Read A Heart in a Body in the World Summary

A List of Cages is a 2017 young adult novel by Robin Roe. The story centers on the friendship between two teenagers, Adam Blake and Julian Harlow. Adam and Julian first become friends when Adam is Julian's reading buddy in grammar school. The friendship deepens when Julian's parents die, and he lives in Adam’s house as a foster child. Although they knew each other in grammar school, the main action of this story takes place... Read A List of Cages Summary

All American Boys is a young-adult novel published in 2015. This modern-day narrative tells the story of an incident of police brutality through the alternating voices of two high school students: Rashad, whose chapters are written by author Jason Reynolds, and Quinn, whose chapters are written by author Brendan Kiely. While Rashad and Quinn never actually meet in the novel, their lives intersect in a powerful way after a violent act of racism rocks their... Read All American Boys Summary

In 2012, Ayad Akhtar wrote the novel American Dervish, a coming-of-age story about a Pakistani-American boy in 1980s Milwaukee. Akhtar, a Pakistani-American writer and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, explores love of God and love of others through the prisms of religion, family, and romantic love in this novel. This guide refers to the hardcover first edition. Plot SummaryThe Prologue introduces narrator Hayat Shah, a college student whose mother’s best friend Mina has just died of cancer. The... Read American Dervish Summary

American Street is a contemporary coming-of-age novel by Haitian American young adult author Ibi Zoboi. It was published in 2017 and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature the same year. Plot SummaryAmerican Street tells the story of a teenage Haitian immigrant named Fabiola who moves back home to the United States, her country of birth. As she and her mother are reentering the US, immigrant authorities seize Fabiola’s mother... Read American Street Summary

Mark Oshiro’s 2018 debut novel Anger Is a Gift is a work of contemporary fiction for young adults exploring the realities of police brutality and racist oppression people of color experience in America. This study guide uses the 2018 edition published by Tor (ISBN: 978-1-250-16702-6). Oshiro is a queer author of color, and this novel seeks to highlight the racial divide in America. He shows through this book that there is no universal American experience... Read Anger Is a Gift Summary

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz is a young adult fiction novel published in 2012. The novel won a Lambda Literary Award, a Pura Belpre Award, and a Stonewall Book Award. It was also named a Printz Honor Book. Told from a first-person point of view, the book is a work of realistic fiction set in El Paso, Texas, in the late 1980s.Plot SummaryAristotle “Ari” Mendoza is the... Read Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Summary

... Read A Swim in a Pond in the Rain Summary

Lauren Wolk’s historical novel Beyond the Bright Sea (2017) takes place in 1925. Its narrator, 12-year-old Crow, was put to sea alone in a boat just hours after her birth. Now, she lives on the Elizabeth Islands off the coast of Massachusetts with the solitary painter who found her, Osh. As Crow searches for clues about her birth family and origins, she also strengthens bonds with Osh and the world she has grown up in... Read Beyond the Bright Sea Summary

Boy21 tells the story of Finley McManus, the only white student on his high school’s varsity basketball team. Finley narrates this piece of young adult fiction that deals with the violence and, tangentially, the racism prevalent within American society.The novel begins in Finley’s memory: he is learning how to play basketball as an escape from the trauma within his Bellmont community. He meets a girl, Erin Quinn, who becomes his best friend, and they practice... Read Boy21 Summary

Breathing Underwater is a 2001 young adult novel by author Alex Flinn that tells the story of Nick Andreas, a wealthy teenage boy who struggles with his abusive father and abuses his girlfriend, Caitlin. When she files a restraining order and he must take a court-ordered family violence class, Nick begins to reevaluate his behavior and troubled past. As Nick is forced to face his emotional damage, he learns that change and growth are possible. Flinn’s... Read Breathing Underwater Summary

... Read Bridge of Clay Summary

Buried Onions (1996), by Gary Soto, is a heart-wrenching slice-of-life, stream-of-consciousness novel that allows us to peer into the lifestyles available to young men growing up on the poverty-stricken and predominately Mexican-American south side of Fresno, California.The novel guides us through several weeks in the life of Eddie, a nineteen-year-old Mexican American and the narrator of this first-person story. Eddie strives to be responsible, is mostly honest, and attempts gamely to understand the world around... Read Buried Onions Summary

Bystander (2011) is a teen/young adult novel by James Preller that explores middle school bullying and the factors that enable it. Griffin Connelly, a two-faced bully, uses his charisma and good looks to keep members of his school clique in line as he perpetrates acts of cruelty against weaker classmates. No one stands up to Griffin until Eric Hayes, a newcomer, disrupts the status quo—questioning Griffin’s bullying and the silent complicity of the other students.The... Read Bystander Summary

... Read Call Me Maria Summary

Challenger Deep, a 2015 novel by Neal Shusterman, offers an account of mental illness as experienced by a teenage boy. Shusterman’s son Brendan was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder at age 16. His experience with the illness influenced Neal to write Challenger Deep. Brendan’s drawings appear throughout the book as Caden’s artwork. The book garnered the 2015 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.Plot SummaryWhen the novel begins, Caden is 15 years old. He is a... Read Challenger Deep Summary

... Read Charming as a Verb Summary

Isabel Allende’s novel City of the Beasts tells the story of Alex Cold, a fifteen-year-old boy from California who accompanies his journalist grandmother on a life-altering journey through the Amazon.  The narrative opens with Alex at home in California, angry and frightened over the illness of his mother, who is undergoing cancer treatment. When his mother gets a chance at receiving a promising new treatment in Texas, Alex’s parents send him to stay with his paternal grandmother, the adventurer... Read City of the Beasts Summary

... Read Clap When You Land Summary

Code Orange is a young adult novel published in 2005 by the best-selling author Caroline B. Cooney. The main character is Mitty Blake, a lackluster high school student living in Manhattan. When he is assigned to write a research project on an infectious disease for biology class, he does as little as possible for his assignment, as always. But in the process of learning about smallpox, the disease he finally chooses, he discovers two smallpox... Read Code Orange Summary

... Read Concrete Rose Summary

Crabbe is the story of Franklin Crabbe, an eighteen-year old native of Toronto who struggles with the conventional expectations of his affluent parents and teachers. Highly intelligent but riddled with resentment and anxiety, Crabbe (as he prefers to be called) decides to run away to the Canadian wilderness. Once in the wilderness, the inexperienced Crabbe encounters a series of life-threatening challenges that he overcomes only with the help of another fugitive, Mary Pallas, and the lessons... Read Crabbe Summary

... Read Crank Summary

Crossing the Wire tells the story of Victor Flores, a Mexican teenager who leaves his village of Los Árboles to illegally cross the border into the United States. Victor’s father died while working in the U.S. four years earlier, leaving Victor “the man of the family” (14). His family has been living off of the money Victor makes farming corn, but free trade agreements with the U.S. have made Mexican corn worthless. The only option... Read Crossing the Wire Summary

Darius the Great Is Not Okay is a coming-of-age novel by Iranian American writer Adib Khorram. Originally published in 2018 by Dial Books, the novel echoes Khorram’s experiences growing up in a multiethnic family with a history of mental illnesses. The book, which is Khorram’s first, won the William C. Morris YA Debut Award in 2019. A sequel entitled Darius the Great Deserves Better was published in August 2020. Plot SummaryDarius Kellner is a high school... Read Darius the Great Is Not Okay Summary

Dear Evan Hansen is a novel published in 2018. It was written by Val Emmich, Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul. The authors adapted the novel from the original Broadway musical of the same name, which they also wrote. The musical premiered in July 2015 in Washington, DC, debuted on Broadway in 2016, and later won six Tony Awards in 2017, including Best Musical. This guide refers to the Poppy/Little, Brown, and Company edition... Read Dear Evan Hansen Summary

Dear Martin by Nic Stone was originally published in 2017. It is a work of realistic fiction that provides a frank depiction of identity, racism, and adolescence in contemporary America. The New York Times bestseller also gained attention when it was named as a finalist for the William C. Morris award. The version used for this guide is the trade paperback of the Ember imprint by Random House Children's Books. Plot SummaryThe novel follows Justyce... Read Dear Martin Summary

Does My Head Look Big in This? is a young adult debut novel by Randa Abdel-Fattah, an Australian writer of Palestinian and Egyptian origin, published in Australia in 2005. It is a story set in 2002, telling of 16-year-old Melbourne-born Amal, who decides to start wearing a hijab (religious veil) as a representation of her Muslim faith, and the reactions and repercussions that stem from her decision. The novel, which covers topics of Islamophobia (fear... Read Does My Head Look Big In This? Summary

In Dreamland, a young adult novel by Sarah Dessen, a teenage girl named Caitlin O’Koren reacts to the disappearance of her sister by breaking away from the path that was set out for her. The novel is broken into three parts that focus on the core of the conflicts in each section. Part I, “Cass,” traces the O’Koren family after Cass, the eldest of two daughters, runs away instead of attending Yale. Part II, entitled... Read Dreamland Summary

Dumplin’, a YA novel by author Julie Murphy, is about a small-town Texas teen named Willowdean “Will” Dixon. Will is the book’s main character and first-person narrator. Through Will’s narration, the book tells the story of Will’s weight and how it affects her relationships with her former beauty pageant winning mother, Rosie Dixon; with her pretty best friend, Ellen Dryver; and with her romantic interest and coworker, the heartthrob Bo Larson. However, Will thinks that... Read Dumplin Summary

John Steinbeck’s East of Eden is an American classic. A work of contemporary fiction, the novel was a popular success upon its 1952 publication, quickly rising to the top of the fiction bestseller list. It has remained in print ever since and is still a widely read and well-respected book. Steinbeck published 33 books, including nonfiction, and received the Nobel Prize in 1962 for his contribution to American letters. His most famous works are the... Read East of Eden Summary

In Eleanor and Park, we introduced to the young teenager, Park, who is half-Korean and somewhat of an outcast at school. He would prefer to read comics or listen to music than make new friends, and he is bullied from time to time by his peers. One day, Park sees Eleanor Douglas get on his bus, and from that point forward, his life is changed forever.In many ways, Eleanor is a target for bullies. She... Read Eleanor and Park Summary

Every Day is the 2012 young adult novel by David Levithan. The protagonist of this teen fantasy, who is referred to as “A,” is a 16-year old with a very strange life. Every day “he” wakes up in the body of a new person. One of the only things that remains consistent is that A is always A, no matter the body. A has their own thoughts and feelings, although they often sense what their... Read Every Day Summary

Every Last Word, by Tamara Ireland Stone, is a young-adult novel published in 2015. Samantha McAllister, the book’s protagonist, is a junior in high school who suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). While Samantha appears like any average teenage girl, underneath the surface she is different from the majority of her peers: dark thoughts, incessant worries, and an obsession with the number three plagues nearly all of her waking moments. Through Samantha’s struggle to navigate... Read Every Last Word Summary

Every Soul a Star is a young adult novel by Wendy Mass that takes three clichés of adolescence—the Brainiac, the Pretty Girl, and the Antisocial Misfit—and develops them into psychologically nuanced characters who are at once sympathetic and believable. The novel was published in 2008, well after Mass had established her reputation as a foremost young adult fiction writer of the new millennium. Her prolific output—nearly 30 titles in just under 15 years—has secured a... Read Every Soul a Star Summary

... Read Everything Sad Is Untrue Summary

Originally published in 2014, Fake ID is a mystery/thriller novel written by Lamar Giles and intended for young adults. The narrator and main character is Nick Pearson, a 15-year-old who has just moved to Stepton, Virginia, becoming a Black student in a predominantly white setting. Nick and his family are in the Federal Witness Protection Program (WITSEC). Unintentionally, he finds himself involved in a love triangle and a mysterious murder.As a Black author, Giles is... Read Fake ID Summary

... Read Far From the Tree Summary

Set in Canada, American author Will Hobbs’s young-adult novel Far North (1996) follows Gabe Rogers, who lives with his grandparents in Austin, Texas. When Gabe tells his father that he wants to live with him in Canada, his father tells him he may on two conditions. First, Gabe must travel up north to experience the severe cold of the Northwest Territories for one year. Second, he must attend boarding school. While flying through Canada with... Read Far North Summary

... Read Felix Ever After Summary

Rachael Lippincott’s 2018 novel Five Feet Apart portrays the intense relationship between meticulous Stella Grant and charming but rebellious Will Newman as they navigate life with cystic fibrosis. A genetic disease that affects both the respiratory and digestive system, cystic fibrosis significantly reduces the life span of those affected and limits their interactions with one another for fear of bacterial cross-infection. Alternating between the first-person point of view of both Stella and Will, the novel... Read Five Feet Apart Summary

William Bell’s 1990 young adult fiction novel, Forbidden City: A Novel of Modern China, dramatizes the story of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. The coming-of-age story is told in diary form, narrated from the point of view of a 17-year-old Canadian high school student, Alex Jackson. During the massacre, Alex comes very close to losing everything he holds dear, as he becomes separated from his reporter father, Ted Jackson, and has to trust to the... Read Forbidden City Summary

... Read Game Changer Summary

Girl in Pieces is the New York Times bestselling young adult contemporary novel by Kathleen Glasgow originally published in 2016. It was a New York Public Library Best Book for Teens selection and Amelia Bloomer Project Award Selection. The novel explores a teen’s recovery journey from self-harm, exploring the roles of community, healthy patterns, and acceptance of dualities. This study guide refers to the 2016 paperback edition. Plot SummaryThe novel opens with Charlotte “Charlie” Davis... Read Girl in Pieces Summary

Monica Hesse’s 2016 novel Girl in the Blue Coat was the winner of the Edgar Award for best YA Mystery. Its events take place during two weeks in January 1943, during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. The narrator, Hanneke Bakker, is an 18-year-old who lost her boyfriend, Sebastian “Bas” Van de Kamp, two years before the events of the novel. As far as her parents know, Hanneke works as a receptionist for an undertaker, Mr... Read Girl in the Blue Coat Summary

Goodbye Days is a young adult novel by Jeff Zentner. Published in 2017, it follows a teenage boy, Carver Briggs, who is grappling with the deaths of his three best friends. All three boys died in a car crash on their way to pick up Carver from work. Carver’s survivor’s guilt is exacerbated by the fact that he’s facing a possible criminal investigation for “negligent homicide” for his supposed role in the accident. Carver texted... Read Goodbye Days Summary

Yessenia Lopez—a 16-year-old, wheelchair-bound Puerto Rican girl from inner city Chicago—arrives at ILLC from juvie after violently assaulting her classmate in school. With absent parents and a recently deceased guardian (Tía Nene), she is explosive and struggles to get along with her peers. However, she develops friendships with a few of her roommates and caring adult employees, like Joanne and Jimmie. Though she hates ILLC and finds it to be demeaning, she has nowhere else... Read Good Kings Bad Kings Summary

“Gooseberries,” by Russian author Anton Chekhov, is a short story that uses symbolism, subtlety, irony, and keen observation of human behavior to explore themes of the quest for happiness, the meaning of life, social expectations, privilege, and social equality. Written in mid-1898, the story is the second in what was later referred to as The Little Trilogy, together with “The Man in the Case” and “About Love.” All three stories explore the definitions of happiness... Read Gooseberries Summary

When Gym Candy begins, Mick Johnson recalls the first time his father, Mike, took him out to play football. Mick was four years old and took to it instantly but was also driven to succeed because of his father’s legacy. Mike Johnson was drafted into the NFL by the San Diego Chargers, and as Mick progresses through Pop Warner football and up through the junior high leagues, his desire to be as good as his... Read Gym Candy Summary

Jennifer Brown’s debut novel Hate List tackles the subject of a mass shooting at the fictional Garvin High School. The shooting leaves multiple students and a beloved teacher dead and culminates in the suicide of the shooter, troubled outsider Nick Levil. Nick’s final victim is his girlfriend, Valerie Leftman, an unintended target who survives the shooting. In one final attempt to stop the shooting, Valerie calls out to Nick, taking a shot meant for her... Read Hate List Summary

Hearts Unbroken is a young adult contemporary novel by New York Times best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith. Main character Louise Wolfe, a Native Muscogee (Creek) teen girl, breaks up with her boyfriend over his insensitive comments. Louise turns her focus to senior year, the school newspaper, and spending time with family, but she notices more and more instances of cultural insensitivity around her. When the newly-formed Parents Against Revisionist Theater group speaks out against cast... Read Hearts Unbroken Summary

Highly Illogical Behavior is the third Young Adult novel by John Corey Whaley, a former teacher turned full time YA novelist. Published in 2016, Highly Illogical Behavior was named an NPR Best Book of 2016, a Chicago Public Library Best Teen Fiction of 2016, among other accolades. Published by SPEAK, an imprint of Penguin Random House, this novel represents the Young Adult fiction genre often referred to as “Teen Fiction.” Like many YA novels, Highly... Read Highly Illogical Behavior Summary

Jennifer Niven’s 2016 book, Holding up the Universe, is a young adult novel that explores the love story between two teenagers living in Amos, Indiana. The story follows Jack Masselin, a 17-year-old popular boy who secretly has a neurological disorder called prosopagnosia that inhibits his ability to recognize faces, and Libby Strout, a 16-year-old overweight girl who had to be lifted from her home by crane after a panic attack. The experience led to Libby... Read Holding Up The Universe Summary

House Arrest is K. A. Holt’s 2015 novel in free verse. Narrated in the first-person voice of 12-year-old Timothy, the novel is comprised of fifty-two weeks of journal entries that he is required to write as part of his probation for stealing a wallet to pay for his infant brother Levi’s medication. The novel is divided by seasons.During winter, Timothy begins his journal and weekly meetings with his probation officer, James, and his court-appointed psychologist... Read House Arrest Summary

How it Went Down is a work of young adult fiction written in 2014 by award-winning author Kekla Magoon. Though a work of fiction, the pressing narrative deals with the “postmortem account of a tragic shooting” (Los Angeles Times), and as such, is a well-needed critique of social reform and racial bias.The narrative begins with the tragic death of a 16-year-old black male, Tariq Johnson. He’s shot and killed by Jack Franklin, a white male... Read How It Went Down Summary

Published in 2017, Erika L. Sánchez’s first novel I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter is a young adult coming-of-age story set in contemporary Chicago. The story is told from the perspective of 15-year-old Julia Reyes as she navigates her grief and struggles with mental health, her familial relationships, and cultural expectations when her older sister Olga unexpectedly dies. The book has won several awards, including the Thomas Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award in... Read I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter Summary

... Read If He Had Been with Me Summary

If I Ever Get Out of Here (2013), by Eric Gansworth—a member of Onondaga Nation and Haudenosaunee—is a young adult, contemporary fiction novel about a teenage boy, Lewis “Shoe” Blake. Lewis narrates his struggles fitting into life in junior high and navigating the cultural differences between his life on the reservation, which he refers to as “the rez,” and that of his white classmates.Plot SummaryThe year is 1975 in northern New York State, and Lewis... Read If I Ever Get Out of Here Summary

If I Stay is set in a small, contemporary Oregon town outside Portland and chronicles 17-year-old Mia’s struggle with life and death after a horrible automobile accident kills her parents and younger brother, and leaves her, the only survivor, in a coma.The narrative structure moves back and forth in time between her comatose present and her formative years growing up in a quirky musical family, developing into a gifted and dedicated cellist, meeting her best... Read If I Stay Summary

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga is a YA thriller published in 2012. The novel’s central character is Jasper “Jazz” Dent, son of the nation’s most notorious serial killer, Billy Dent. The novel is told from a limited third-person point of view, mostly from the perspective of Jazz; however, at certain points in the novel, the perspective shifts to that of the Impressionist, a new serial killer who has descended upon the small town of... Read I Hunt Killers Summary

I’ll Give You the Sun (2015) is an award-winning novel penned by Jandy Nelson about relationships, art, and destiny. It follows the story of twins Noah and Jude Sweetwine who once shared a close relationship but find themselves barely speaking to each other two years after their mother’s death.Jandy Nelson is an American author who writes young adult fiction. I’ll Give You the Sun is her second novel, which won numerous awards and honors, including... Read I'll Give You the Sun Summary

... Read In the Wild Light Summary

... Read Juliet Takes a Breath Summary

... Read Killing Mr. Griffin Summary

... Read Let Me Hear a Rhyme Summary

Long Way Down (2017) by Jason Reynolds is a young adult novel in free verse about Will Holloman, a young black boy struggling to make a decision after his brother Shawn is shot dead in the street. Will plans to seek revenge, but before he can leave the elevator of his building, he is greeted by a series of ghosts who confuse and complicate his perspective on Shawn’s death and the idea of revenge killing... Read Long Way Down Summary

Looking for Alaska is narrated by a sixteen-year-old boy, Miles Halter, who leaves behind his mundane life in Florida to attend a boarding school called Culver Creek. He is inspired by biographies detailing the adventures of notable figures during their days at boarding school. Most of all, he is motivated by the notion of a “Great Perhaps”. Miles has a fascination with famous last words, and particularly with the last words of the poet Francois... Read Looking for Alaska Summary

Loser is a young adult novel published in 2002 by American author and Newbury Medal winner Jerry Spinelli. It tells the story of Donald Zinkoff, an eccentric goofball of a kid who stumbles enthusiastically through his elementary school years, largely without friends, before becoming an accidental hero in middle school. Written entirely in the present tense, Loser garnering several awards and nominations.Plot SummaryAt first, the other kids don’t notice little Donald Zinkoff, except to see... Read Loser Summary

... Read Love & Gelato Summary

Love, Hate and Other Filters is a young adult novel written by Samira Ahmed. Published in 2018, the novel tells the story of Maya Aziz, a 17-year-old Indian American teenager in Batavia, Illinois. The book, Ahmed’s first, was nominated for the 2018 Goodreads Choice Award. It received critical acclaim for its diversity and was popular among teenage readers.Maya is the daughter of Asif and Sofia, Muslim Indians who came to the United States from Hyderabad... Read Love, Hate and Other Filters Summary

Jerry Spinelli’s beloved free-spirited character from his eponymously titled 2000 young adult novel, Stargirl, returns in this companion work Love, Stargirl (2007). Writing the “World’s Longest Letter” to her ex-boyfriend, Leo, 16-year-old Stargirl chronicles her new life in Pennsylvania. Lonely and emotionally wounded by Leo’s rejection, Stargirl struggles to regain her confidence. Over the course of a year, Stargirl forms lasting friendships, falls for charismatic bad boy, Perry, and learns important lessons about self-worth and... Read Love, Stargirl Summary

... Read Lu Summary

Lizet Ramirez comes home to Miami for Thanksgiving during her freshman year of college to find her family turned upside down: Her parents are divorced, her Papi has sold her childhood home in Hialeah, and her Mami, her sister Leidy, and her infant nephew Dante have moved into an apartment in Little Havana. Lizet feels isolated from her home community since leaving for college; no one understands her desire to leave southern Florida, and she... Read Make Your Home Among Strangers Summary

Published in 1990, Maniac Magee is a Newbery award–winning middle grade novel by renowned children’s author Jerry Spinelli. After his parents die, 11-year-old Jeffrey Lionel Magee runs away from his guardians and a year later ends up in the racially divided Pennsylvania town of Two Mills. Jeffrey, a white boy, finds a home with a Black family, but racial tension and threats send him back on the run. By accepting a host of challenges with... Read Maniac Magee Summary

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, by Jesse Andrews, introduces us to Greg S. Gaines, 17-year-old senior at Benson High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Greg is also the narrator of the novel. Over the course of his educational career, he has diligently developed a system that allows him to survive the daily pandemonium of life in high school. He maintains a surface-level, friendly-but-not-too-friendly connection to every clique in school so that he can remain... Read Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Summary

Danny Lopez arrives in National City, a suburb just south of San Diego. The area’s proximity to the border makes it heavily Hispanic. Danny has come to spend the summer with his father’s family while his mother and sister are in San Francisco with his mother’s new boyfriend.From the start, it’s clear Danny does not fit in. He is from a beach community in northern San Diego County,where he plays baseball and attends Leucadia Prep... Read Mexican WhiteBoy Summary

Milkman is author Anna Burns’ third novel, as well as the winner of the 2018 Man Booker Prize in Fiction (widely regarded as one of the most prestigious awards in literature). Burns was the first Northern Irish writer ever to receive the award, and Milkman’s subject matter is inseparable from its author’s nationality. Like Burns herself, the novel’s protagonist grows up in 1970s Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles: a 30-year political, ethnic... Read Milkman Summary

Chris Crowe’s Mississippi Trial, 1955 (2002) is a piece of historical fiction based on a true story about Emmett Till that took place in the Mississippi Delta right on the brink of Civil Rights Movement. Visiting family in Money, Mississippi, in the summer of 1955, Till was abducted and murdered for “allegedly whistling at a white woman in the Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market” (231). The all-white male jury acquitted the two men who were... Read Mississippi Trial, 1955 Summary

... Read Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus Summary

First published as a play in 2001, the novella Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran is part of Franco-Belgian author Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s Cycle of the Invisible series consisting of unrelated stories on the themes of human connection, the transition from childhood to adulthood, and spirituality. Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran has been performed on the stage and was adapted for the screen in 2003. This study guide refers to Marjolijn... Read Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran Summary

David Arnold’s 2015 debut novel, Mosquitoland, is a coming-of-age story that’s intended for a young adult audience. The novel was one of NPR’s and Amazon’s best books of 2015. This guide refers to the 2015 Penguin Random House edition. Plot SummaryThe story follows 16-year-old Mary Iris Malone, also referred to as Mim, as she travels alone from Jackson, Mississippi, to Cleveland, Ohio. Shortly before her journey, her parents divorced, and her father remarried and moved... Read Mosquitoland Summary

... Read Motorcycles and Sweetgrass Summary

SummaryNight of the Twisters is a young adult realistic fiction novel written by award-winning author Ivy Ruckman. The book was the recipient of several awards, including the Golden Sower Award, the Iowa Children’s Choice Award, and the Sequoyah Children’s Book Award. It was also recommended as an Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children by the National Science Teachers Association and Children’s Book Council. A movie of the same name based loosely on the book was... Read Night of the Twisters Summary

The novel opens on Alex choosing to get drunk and drive to his father’s in order to get revenge. Alex’s parents are recently divorced after his father starts to date Alex’s third-grade teacher. After crashing his mother’s car into a garden gnome, a very drunk Alex is taken into the police station and then transferred to the hospital with a concussion and alcohol poisoning. Alex’s mother grounds him for a month, until a judge punishes... Read Notes From The Midnight Driver Summary

November Blues is a 2007 young adult novel by American writer Sharon M. Draper. The second book in the Jericho Trilogy, it focuses on African-American students at Frederick Douglass High School. The novel’s events unfold in the aftermath of Josh Prescott’s death from a fall from a second-story window during a pledge stunt. As his friends and family begin to cope with their grief, they look for their own ways to overcome their emotional pain... Read November Blues Summary

Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s middle-grade (young adult) contemporary novel One for the Murphys was published in 2012. It earned a Kirkus starred review and was a Scholastic Book Clubs Editor’s Choice.This guide references the 2012 edition from Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group. The novel explores the foster care system and the way that even its most positive experiences have a nuanced and complex effect on children in foster care. The story... Read One for the Murphys Summary

Jackson Hurd, who goes by Jack, lives with his parents on a farm in Maine. Jack learns that his parents plan to foster a 14-year-old boy named Joseph Brook. Joseph recently attacked a teacher at his juvenile detention home, and he has an infant daughter that he has never met. When Joseph arrives on the Hurd family farm, he is quiet and easily startled.The boys walk to school together the day after Joseph arrives to... Read Orbiting Jupiter Summary

Out of Darkness is a young adult historical novel written by Ashley Hope Pérez and published in 2015 by Holiday House of New York. Pérez holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Indiana University, where her research focused on Latin American literature. A professor of World Literatures at Ohio State University, she is also the author of What Can’t Wait (2011), The Knife and The Butterfly (2012), and Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions about... Read Out of Darkness Summary

... Read Out of My Heart Summary

Out of the Easy, written by Ruta Sepetys and published in 2013, is a young adult historical fiction novel. Sepetys is an award-winning Lithuanian American writer of young adult historical fiction. Her honors include the Carnegie Medal, awarded to one work of children’s or young adult literature per year. Her novels are international best sellers and are widely translated. Out of the Easy is about Josie, a teenage girl living in the French Quarter of... Read Out of the Easy Summary

John Green’s Paper Towns is a coming-of-age story that follows the lives of two childhood friends, the reserved Quentin Jacobsen and the legendary Margo Roth Spiegelman. Quentin says that every human being is graced with one miracle in their lifetime. His miracle is living next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman. He has spent a lifetime obsessing over her, though their friendship has cooled over the years. At the start of the novel, they are in... Read Paper Towns Summary

With the 2019 publication of his third novel Patron Saints of Nothing, Randy Ribay cemented his reputation as one of the new millennium’s most important and popular writers of young adult fiction. Ribay, a high school English teacher in San Francisco, was born in the Philippines but grew up in Michigan. His novels, coming-of-age stories praised for their hard-edged, street-hip lyricism, examine the implications of cultural identity and the problematic process of assimilation. In addition... Read Patron Saints of Nothing Summary

Released in 2007, Roland Smith’s novel Peak is the story of a teenager—whose name is Peak—who has a lot of mountains to climb, both metaphorical and literal. When he is fourteen years old Peak climbs a skyscraper in New York to place his tag on it: a spraypainted small, blue mountain. He is caught and arrested. As he waits for a hearing in front of the judge, another boy tries to emulate him by scaling... Read Peak Summary

Picture Us in the Light is a young adult novel written by Kelly Loy Gilbert and published in 2018 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Gilbert is the author of three young adult novels, all of which focus on the young Asian American experience. Picture Us in the Light is written in the first-person perspective of protagonist Danny Cheng, but Gilbert includes flashbacks to China to connect Danny to a past his parents have... Read Picture Us in the Light Summary

Purple Heart is a young adult novel by National Book Award Finalist Patricia McCormick, first published in 2009. The novel begins as 18-year-old Army Private Matt Duffy wakes up in a medical ward in Iraq and discovers he has a traumatic brain injury, or TBI. Matt doesn’t remember how he ended up in the hospital and recalls only the image of an Iraqi boy in an alley, a boy who is lifted off the ground... Read Purple Heart Summary

Reality Boy (2013) is a young adult novel by American writer A.S. King. Told through the first-person perspective of Gerald Faust, a teenage boy who grapples with trauma, the narrative explores Gerald’s childhood abuse and the public spotlight which facilitated it when his family is selected for a reality television series. Gerald’s account takes place during his teenage years and features chapters that flash back to the filming of the series.Plot SummaryWhen Gerald Faust was... Read Reality Boy Summary

Harold Keith published Rifles for Watie in 1957; the book earned a Newbery Medal in 1958. The novel mixes historical fact and fiction, and tells the story of Jefferson Davis Bussey, a 16-year-old Kansas boy who enlists in the Union army in 1861 and serves until the war ends. Jeff begins his service as an infantryman. He falls in love with a Confederate girl and eventually becomes a scout, infiltrating the rebel camp. He joins... Read Rifles for Watie Summary

The Road to Chlifa is a 1992 novel by Michèle Marineau, originally published in French. The short novel unfolds in three sections, telling the story of protagonist Karim Nakad’s journey from Beirut to Chlifa, Lebanon,and, finally, to Montreal. The novel is set during the height of the Lebanese Civil War. Through this progression, it confronts issues of violence and warfare, immigration and racism, and the power of storytelling.Section One, narrated from the perspective of an... Read Road to Chlifa Summary

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Rules was the first novel published by Cynthia Lord. Rules is a book for middle-grade readers that has remained popular and in print from the time of its initial publication. The Scholastic paperback version summarized here first appeared in 2018. For a debut novel, Rules was immediately accepted by young readers and by the literary community. The book won a prestigious Newberry Honor Book award and received the Schneider Family Book Award. It was named... Read Rules Summary

Published in 2009, Sag Harbor is the fourth novel by Colson Whitehead. Whitehead refers to this novel as “my autobiographical fourth novel,” as he used some of his childhood summer experiences at Sag Harbor, New York, to write this story. Sag Harbor was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Whitehead is also the author of The Underground Railroad, which won the Pulitzer Prize, as well as The Nickel Boys, The... Read Sag Harbor Summary

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Scorpions is a young adult, coming-of-age novel written by best-selling children’s author Walter Dean Myers. Like many of Myers’s works, the book is based on his experience of growing up in New York City’s historically African American Harlem neighborhood. Exploring themes of brotherhood and masculinity, love and loyalty, race, class, and curtailed opportunity, the narrative follows 12-year-old Jamal Hicks as he is confronted with a life-changing dilemma: whether or not to step into the shoes... Read Scorpions Summary

Shattering Glass, by Gail Giles, is a 2002 young adult novel that tells the story of how high school senior Simon Glass went from school geek to popular kid to murdered over the course of a school year. The novel, which is told from fellow senior Young Steward’s point of view, follows a linear storyline, moving from the beginning of the school year to the end. However, from the beginning of the novel it’s clear... Read Shattering Glass Summary

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“Slave on the Block” is a short story by Langston Hughes that originally appeared in the September 1933 issue of Scribner's Magazine. The story was later published in The Ways of White Folks, a 1934 collection of Hughes’s short stories.This study guide, based on the 1990 Vintage Classics print edition, quotes and obscures the author’s use of the n-word.Anne and Michael Carraway are affluent white bohemians who live in Greenwich Village—and often visit Harlem—during the... Read Slave on the Block Summary

First published in 1995, Solar Storms, a novel by Linda Hogan, tells the story of 17-year-old Angel Iron’s coming-of-age as a Native American woman in the early 1970s. During this time, the Native American way of life is increasingly coming under threat. Angel’s narrative is continually interspersed with those of her grandmothers, as a means of giving a fuller rendition of the Native American female experience during the 20th century.The dominant narrative begins when 17-year-old... Read Solar Storms Summary

Introduction Sold is a young adult novel published in 2006 by American author Patricia McCormick. The protagonist and first-person narrator is Lakshmi, a Nepali girl from a remote mountain village who is 13 when she is trafficked for sex to an illicit organization in a large city in India. Through a series of short, titled poems (or vignettes), Lakshmi chronicles her experiences in the brothel called the “Happiness House,” recording her experiences with the people... Read Sold Summary

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Son of the Mob is a young adult novel by Gordon Korman, published in 2002. It is a comedic adventure story that concerns a teenaged boy named Vince Luca, and his attempts to come to terms with his Mafia family.Vince’s life is a mixture of mundane teenaged concerns (girls, grades) and adult criminal activity. This is established in the first chapter of the book, when he takes a girl named Angela out on a date... Read Son Of The Mob Summary

Stargirl is a young adult fiction novel published in 2000 by the American author Jerry Spinelli. In a coming of age narrative, shy eleventh-grader Leo falls in love with Stargirl, a free-spirited newcomer at Mica High. When his fellow students turn against Stargirl—and Leo—he pressures her to become ordinary like everyone else. Over the course of the novel, Leo learns the importance of staying true to yourself. Spinelli explores themes of individuality, kindness, and the... Read Stargirl Summary

Narrator Eric Calhoune, also known as Moby at his high school, is trying to figure out what’s wrong with his old partner in crime, Sarah Byrnes, who is suddenly catatonic and hospitalized. As to what has set her off, Eric isn’t sure, but he suspects that her silence may be prompted by what he feels qualifies as hisown callous betrayal of her. Throughout the space of the novel, Eric searches for the best way to... Read Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes Summary

Stuck in Neutral is a young adult (YA) fiction novel about Shawn McDaniel, a fourteen-year-old boy with cerebral palsy. To the outside world, Shawn is in a kind of vegetative state: his condition makes it so that he has no control over any of his motor function, from moving his lips to evacuating his bowels. Shawn cannot communicate with the outside world, and so people—including his family members—believe him to have the brain function and... Read Stuck In Neutral Summary

Summer, written by Edith Wharton, is a novel set in rural New England and was published in 1917. The work was unusual for Wharton, who usually set her novels in New York City and populated them with members of the privileged upper class. The author was born to wealthy New York socialites on January 24, 1862, and raised in luxurious style in Manhattan and Newport, Rhode Island. The family traveled through Europe during the years... Read Summer Summary

Published in 2016, the young adult novel Symptoms of Being Human by musician and author Jeff Garvin focuses on the coming of age of gender-fluid teenager Riley. In addition to other awards, the book was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, was included on the 2017 Rainbow Book List, and was named the Nutmeg Book Award Winner.Note: Out of respect for the main character’s gender fluidity, Riley Cavanaugh is referred to with the singular pronouns they/them/theirs.Plot... Read Symptoms of Being Human Summary

Tell Me Three Things is Julie Buxbaum's first young adult novel, published in 2017. Sixteen-year-old Jessie Holmes narrates this contemporary story in real-time over the course of two months, as she navigates the daunting halls of a new high school, a life without her mother, and anonymous messages from a classmate. Buxbaum intersperses Jessie's narration with digital conversations in the forms of text messages, emails, and instant messages (IMs), adding a modern epistolary element to... Read Tell Me Three Things Summary

In small town Oklahoma during the 1970s, a rough-and-tumble teenager learns to navigate the world with his older brother and a mostly absent father in S. E. Hinton’s young adult fiction novel Tex. Published in 1979, the book was subsequently made into a popular movie starring young Matt Dillon in the title role. Hinton herself has written that Texas McCormick is the favorite of all her iconic characters, so good natured and even tempered that... Read Tex Summary

The Bean Trees (first published in 1988) is the first novel by Barbara Kingsolver. Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist, and poet who holds degrees in ecology and evolutionary biology, and her work often addresses biodiversity, social justice, communities, and people’s interactions with their environment. The Bean Trees is a work of realistic adult fiction that follows Taylor Greer as she leaves her rural upbringing in Kentucky, drives across the country to Tucson, Arizona, and... Read The Bean Trees Summary

Tara Sullivan’s young adult novel, The Bitter Side of Sweet, provides an account of modern-day child slavery in Ivory Coast, Africa. Although fictional, the story highlights the dark reality of the cacao industry as Sullivan chronicles the journey of three children to freedom. Sullivan’s adventure-filled survival story was published in 2016, and this guide refers to the 2016 edition of the book. Plot SummaryFifteen-year-old Amadou and his little brother, eight-year-old Seydou, work without pay on... Read The Bitter Side of Sweet Summary

Jason Reynolds’s 2015 young adult realistic contemporary novel, The Boy in the Black Suit, follows main character, Matt Miller, through several months of his senior year after the death of his mother. His grieving process is complicated by his father’s lengthy hospitalization after an accident, which leaves Matt to cope with his sadness alone. Matt discovers unexpected comfort, however, in his new job helping neighbor and funeral home director Mr. Ray. Matt meets Love, who... Read The Boy in the Black Suit Summary

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In writing The Fault in Our Stars, novelist John Green tells a story of young love with no sense of futurity, no belief in a happily ever after. On top of that, Green rejects the sentimental clichés that tend to structure cancer narratives, about the nobility of suffering and struggle, and the redemption that validates pain and loss. The result is a novel where love is inextricably bound up with fear, death, and merciless physical... Read The Fault in Our Stars Summary

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The Hate U Give is a young adult novel published in 2017 by the American author Angie Thomas. The book’s protagonist is a 16-year-old Black girl who witnesses a White police officer kill her friend. A New York Times bestseller, The Hate U Give won several awards, including the American Library Association’s William C. Morris Award for best debut and the Coretta Scott King Award for the best children’s novel by an African American author... Read The Hate U Give Summary

“The Lesson” is a short story by Toni Cade Bambara. It appears in her story collection Gorilla, My Love, first published in 1960. It was also anthologized in the 1972 edition of Best American Short Stories.“The Lesson” is narrated by an unnamed black girl who lives in a poor New York City neighborhood. She lives with her Aunt Gretchen, her cousin Sugar—who is also her best friend—and their younger cousin Junior. All of their mothers... Read The Lesson Summary

Like his 2016 bestseller, The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys (2019) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (Whitehead is only the fourth writer in history to win two Pulitzers). The Nickel Boys describes life in a reform school from the point of view of young Black teenager. Whitehead based Nickel Academy on the real life Dozier School, a Florida facility that ran for over a century, until a university investigation publicized its racist... Read The Nickel Boys Summary

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Elizabeth Acevedo’s award-winning 2018 young adult novel, The Poet X, brings to life the inner world of protagonist Xiomara Batista. Xiomara is 15 years old, and from her bedroom in Harlem, she writes poetry in order to put on the page all the feelings and ideas she cannot seem to be able to say out loud. Xiomara resigns herself to writing in her notebook and sharing her thoughts with only a few trusted individuals until... Read The Poet X Summary

The Running Dream, by Wendelin Van Draanen, features sixteen-year-old Jessica Carlisle as its protagonist and first-person narrator. After setting a personal record in the 400-meter dash at a track meet, Jessica’s team bus is struck by another vehicle, resulting in the death of one student and the loss of Jessica’s leg. The story encompasses Jessica’s coming-of-age as she learns to adapt to changes in her life and overcome the significant challenges of having a physical... Read The Running Dream Summary

Wise-cracking eighth-grader Anthony “Antsy” Bonano befriends Calvin Schwa, a nondescript boy who is virtually invisible to his classmates in Neal Shusterman’s humorous young adult novel, The Schwa Was Here (2004). As Antsy and the Schwa experiment on his invisibility, they meet the crotchety neighborhood recluse Old Man Crawley and fall for his granddaughter, Lexie, who is blind. Antsy learns about the Schwa’s challenging family life and makes discoveries about his own sense of self, his... Read The Schwa Was Here Summary

Published in 2016, Nicola Yoon’s The Sun Is Also a Star is a young-adult novel and National Book Award Finalist. Told from multiple character perspectives, the novel tells the story of the romance that transpires over one day between two young people, Natasha Katherine Kingsley and Daniel Jae Ho Bae, and the impact they have on the people around them. Natasha and Daniel come from different racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. Natasha is an undocumented... Read The Sun Is Also a Star Summary

The Truth About Forever (2004) is a young adult contemporary romance by Sarah Dessen. The novel follows Macy Queen, a teen girl struggling to heal from the tragic death of her father, only to find that the answers lie not in chasing perfection and control but embracing the unpredictable and chaotic joys of life. The Truth About Forever is Sarah Dessen’s sixth published novel and won the 2004 Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Urban... Read The Truth About Forever Summary

The Way I Used to Be is a YA novel written by author Amber Smith. The book, published in 2016, is a New York Times bestseller. Smith, an advocate for spreading awareness about issues related to gendered violence, tackles themes of sexual and domestic abuse in her young adult novels. The Way I Used to Be follows Eden McCrorey, a teenager who is raped by her older brother’s best friend, Kevin. The novel is divided... Read The Way I Used to Be Summary

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This Is Where It Ends is the 2016 young adult novel by Marieke Nijkamp. As Principal Trenton concludes the annual first-day-of-spring-semester speech at Alabama’s Opportunity High School, Tyler Browne locks students inside the auditorium and commits a school shooting that leaves thirty-nine people dead. Narrated in four different first-person accounts, by seniors Autumn, Sylv, Tomas, and Claire, This Is Where It Ends traces the fifty-five minutes, from 10:00 to 10:55 a.m., that encompass moments before... Read This Is Where It Ends Summary

This One Summer is a Canadian young adult graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by her cousin, Jillian Tamaki. Mariko Tamaki has written several graphic novels, and has worked for both Marvel and DC Comics. This One Summer was originally published in 2014 by Groundwood Books, and follows the summer experiences of two young girls approaching adolescence and watching their parents cope with the various pressures of adulthood. The novel has been the... Read This One Summer Summary

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Trampoline is an illustrated novel written by Robert Gipe. Ohio University Press published the novel in 2015. The story takes place in the fictional Canard County, located in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. The narrator, Dawn Jewell, tells the story of the holiday season when she was 15 years old. Dawn is intelligent, creative, and thoughtful. She lives with her grandmother, whom she calls Mamaw, because her own mother, Momma, is too addicted to drugs... Read Trampoline Summary

Published in 2010, Andy Mulligan’s dystopian young adult novel Trash examines themes of poverty, homelessness, corruption, and friendship. Set in the near future in an unnamed country, it follows the adventures of three boys who take turns narrating the story: Raphael, Gardo, and Jun-Jun (known as Rat throughout most of the book). The boys are poor, as are the majority of the people in their region. They live, as do most, by picking through trash... Read Trash Summary

Travel Team is a young adult novel by Mike Lupica published in 2004. Lupica is a former newspaper columnist with experience writing sports commentary for the New York Daily News. In addition to his young adult novels, Lupica has written several books for adults, including autobiographies co-written with Reggie Jackson and Bill Parcells. Lupica has also appeared on ESPN and on several sports-oriented radio shows. This guide refers to the 2006 edition published by Puffin... Read Travel Team Summary

Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson, tells the story of Tyler Miller and his family as Tyler is about to begin his senior year of high school. Tyler has recently been punished with probation and community service after vandalizing school property. As part of his community service, he works with his high school’s maintenance crew to repair the very building he defaced. Due to the physical labor he’s been doing over the summer, Tyler’s put on... Read Twisted Summary

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus is a middle-grade thriller that embraces the trappings of true crime and high school romance to create an engaging, knotty mystery. Published in January 2019, it is the New York Times bestselling follow-up to One of Us Is Lying and is McManus’s second book. Plot SummaryTwo Can Keep a Secret is a story of two high schoolers told in alternating first-person point of view. The first... Read Two Can Keep a Secret Summary

We Are Okay is the story of an 18-year-old girl, Marin’s, experience with grief, loss, and sadness. Marin’s mother dies in a surfing accident when she’s almost 3; she is raised near that same beach in San Francisco by her grandfather, Gramps. The narrative is divided between Marin’s present in New York and her past in California. The present-day events occur in December during the winter break of Marin’s first year in college; the past... Read We Are Okay Summary

We Were Here is a Newbury-Award-winning, young adult novel written by Matt De La Pena. Published in 2011, the first person narrative is written in diary form in the voice of the teenaged protagonist, Miguel Castaneda. The story begins with Miguel’s description of his admission to juvenile hall, a detention facility near his family home in Stockton, California. His father, a member of the US Army, was killed in action the preceding year. While the... Read We Were Here Summary

Whale Talk, a young adult novel by Chris Crutcher, is the story of events in the senior year of The Dao (T.J.) Jones, the adopted, multiracial son of white parents who live in the small town of Cutter, Washington. Narrated from a first-person perspective, the novel explores the impact of family, athletics, violence, and bullying on the lives of modern teens.The inciting incident of the novel occurs when T.J., a skilled swimmer who refuses to... Read Whale Talk Summary

When I Was the Greatest, published in 2014 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, is the debut novel by award-winning young adult fiction writer Jason Reynolds. It tells a nuanced and often emotional coming-of-age story in a low-income and predominantly Black New York borough. This is not a romanticized portrait but rather an earnest one that does not shy away from representing the harsher effects of poverty alongside heartfelt depictions of friendship, family, and community... Read When I Was the Greatest Summary

Gayle Forman’s young adult novel Where She Went is the sequel to If I Stay and features the same characters: Mia Hall and Adam Wilde. Told in sparse prose from Adam’s point of view, it contains themes of loss, sacrifice, closure, family, and the aftermath of grief.As the novel begins, Adam’s band Shooting Star is one of the biggest rock acts in the world. However, on the eve of their new tour, Adam, the star... Read Where She Went Summary

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Winger is a young adult novel written by American author Andrew Smith and first published in 2013. It belongs to the genre of contemporary early 21st century teen fiction and garnered recognition from the American Library Association (ALA), Publishers Weekly, and the Junior Library Guild. Because of Winger’s storyline involving LGBTQIA+ issues, it was also chosen as part of the ALA’s 2014 Rainbow List in 2014, made up of books for children and young adults... Read Winger Summary

Wintergirls is a young-adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson published in 2009 by Penguin Books. Wintergirls is the winner of the 2010 Milwaukee County Teen Book Award and has received several other award nominations. Wintergirls follows the mental health journey of Lia Overbrook as she attempts recovery from anorexia, depression, and other mental health issues. Lia spends the weeks during Thanksgiving and Christmas struggling to gain closure over her former best friend Cassie’s death. Lia... Read Wintergirls Summary

Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton follows a 16-year-old boy with schizophrenia as he navigates mental illness, life at a new school, and a clinical drug trial. The book won the Yalsa Best Fiction for Young Adults award in 2018 and was a nominee for the Rhode Island Teen Book award. Roadside Attractions released a feature film of the same name based on the book in August 2020. This guide follows the 2017 Random... Read Words on Bathroom Walls Summary

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