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Teen Realistic Fiction Books Click on title for availability |
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Free Girls
by Kristen McCallum
This one is for all the labeled 'bad kids' who need someone to see the good in them. Full of heartache but never short on hope. --Sonido Reyes, bestselling and award-winning author of The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School A heartfelt coming-of-age debut about a girl starting over while keeping secret that she's spent the last year in juvenile detention. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Leah Johnson. Sixteen-year-old Jasmine Cooper is back after twelve months at Guiding Hearts Home for Troubled Girls, and nothing is the way it was. Her mom has remarried and now there's a big new house, a shiny new family, and a fancy new school. Jas feels completely out of place, and things only get more complicated when her mom insists that her fresh start include hiding the truth of where she's been and cutting off people from her past. As Jas settles into her new life bonding with her seemingly perfect stepsister, making a close-knit group of besties, and maybe even falling for the cute girl in class, it starts to feel like her second chance might actually be real. But when a friend from the detention center reaches out to reconnect, Jas worries that everything she's built could fall apart. How long can she keep her past a secret? And how many times can she spin the truth before she forgets who she really is?
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In the Country I Love
by Alaa Al-Barkawi
Told in multiple voices, two Iraqi American best friends, a struggling teen father and the communitys golden boy, see their forbidden friendship ignite a chain of events that exposes family secrets and forces them to confront questions of identity, faith, racism, and justice.
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The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue
by Zoulfa Katouh
From the celebrated author of As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow comes a poignant novel about a Syrian American girl who uses a magical sketchbook to turn her grief into art, painting miraculous murals of her mother's life in Syria. Seventeen-year-old Jihad Dabbagh has always seen life with a heightened sense for colors, one of many magical blessings the women in her family possess. But Jihad's gift changes depending on her mood. When depression sets in, the world is a colorless oasis, and in the wake of her mother's sudden death, the world has become a permanent shade of grey. Broken by tragedy, Jihad's family doesn't believe her color loss. Her father sends her to the elite Braxton Academy to finish her senior year. There, Jihad's name and hijab put a target on her back. Her haven comes in the form of an old sketchbook carved from a tree in her hometown in Syria--a country she only knew through her mother's stories. Jihad hasn't picked up a brush in over a year, but finds herself channeling the colors of her hurt, pain, and grief as she paints the story of her mother's journey in Syria. When graffiti of that same mural starts magically popping up all over New York, her art goes viral and the world takes notice, the threat of legal consequences is imminent. To reclaim her voice, Jihad will have to paint a new future for herself and Braxton, guided by the resilience of her mother's story.
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One Word, Six Letters
by Adib Khorram
Two teen boys grapple with identity and accountability and set off a ripple effect within their community after a school assembly is disrupted by a shouted slur. A] searing, deeply felt dual-POV novel, --Publishers Weekly, starred reviewA must have. --School Library Journal, starred review Freshmen Dayton and Farshid couldn't be more different--or so it seems. When Dayton takes a dare and shouts the f-slur at a visiting author during a school event, it sets off a chain reaction that forces both boys to face parts of themselves they'd rather ignore. Dayton, grappling with the fallout of his actions, faces rejection from his friends, disappointment from his parents, and a growing awareness of the harm he's caused. Meanwhile, Farshid is left to untangle his own feelings--about himself and about the quiet struggle of coming to terms with his queerness in a world steeped in heteronormativity. As their lives unexpectedly intersect, Dayton and Farshid must reckon with what kind of men they want to become and whether they have the courage to defy toxic masculinity and societal expectations. Timely, raw, and deeply thought-provoking, this novel is perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds and Nic Stone.
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Perfect Enough (Good Different #2)
by Meg Eden Kuyatt
The companion novel to the beloved and award-winning Good Different.Selah is a dragon.Or at least, she feels like one. And she finally figured out how to spread her wings and soar.Armed with her sensory tools, her notebooks and poems, and her newfound knowledge about her autism, Selah is heading to writing camp for the summer. She's excited to work on her writing, perform at the final showcase, and to meet more kids like her.Things aren't so simple though. As soon as she arrives, she realizes that her bully from home is there too. Ezra is chaotic, attention-seeking, and always teasing her.Selah is determined not to let him ruin her summer. But soon it turns out that it's not just Ezra causing problems. . . . As kind and enthusiastic as Selah's new friends are, they don't fully understand her autism and how overwhelming this new environment is for her.Friend drama, classes, overstimulation, and her relationship with Ezra all start to feel like a lot. But surely Selah can make it through just a few weeks without reaching her breaking point again . . . right?
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Room to Breathe
by Kasie West
When her father is investigated by the FBI, Indys life begins to fall apartincluding her friendshipsbut when she finds herself locked in her schools bathroom with one of her ex-best friends, Beau, the two have one final chance to understand what went wrong.
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Shards of Silence
by Brian Lee Young
In his first YA novel, award-winning author Brian Lee Young (Diné) bridges the generational divide between a Navajo teen at an elite prep school and his great-grandmother's experience at a federal boarding school for Indigenous students. The book is an eye-opening call for community healing and a profound coming-of-age story. Even if it hurts to leave behind his friends and family in Navajo, New Mexico--especially his great-grandmother, Mildred--Derrick knows his scholarship to an elite East Coast boarding school is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.Sagefield Academy is totally different from life on the rez: His new classmates vacation in Europe and take study drugs. Derrick wants to stick to caffeine, but handling sports, school, and a twenty-page term paper, all while dodging comments about his hair and heritage, feels straight-up impossible.Back home, Másání Mildred's health is fading quickly. On the phone, she begs Derrick to leave Sagefield. When he realizes her fear comes from her time in federal Native boarding schools, he knows he's finally found the term paper theme he believes in: carrying her voice into the future.Derrick will need to shatter a steadfast generational silence to untangle his great-grandmother's memories--though her story might change him, and his family, forever.
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That Was Then, This Is Now
by S. E. Hinton
Sixteen-year-old Mark and Bryon have been like brothers since childhood, but now, as their involvement with girls, gangs, and drugs increases, their relationship seems to gradually disintegrate.
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We Became Wild
by H. D. Carver
Navigates the untamed wilderness of teenage girlhood with fierce honesty. --Joy McCullough, New York Times best-selling author of Blood Water PaintExplores the wild--in our hearts and in nature, deftly excavating joy hidden beneath the rubble of grief. --Rebekah Faubion, author of Lost Girls of Hollow LakeReeling from the death of their best friend, two girls hike the Pacific Crest Trail in her honor in this fierce young adult debut.
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