Tough Topics for Teens
All the Bright Places By Jennifer Niven
NOW A NETFLIX FILM, STARRING ELLE FANNING AND JUSTICE SMITH!
The New York Times bestselling love story about two teens who find each other while standing on the edge.
Theodore Finch is fascinated by death. Every day he thinks of ways he might kill himself, but every day he also searches for—and manages to find—something to keep him here, and alive, and awake.
Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her small Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.
When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school—six stories above the ground— it’s unclear who saves whom. Soon it’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink. . . .
“A do-not-miss for fans of Eleanor & Park and The Fault in Our Stars, and basically anyone who can breathe.” —Justine Magazine
“At the heart—a big one—of All the Bright Places lies a charming love story about this unlikely and endearing pair of broken teenagers.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A heart-rending, stylish love story.” —The Wall Street Journal
“A complex love story that will bring all the feels.” —Seventeen Magazine
“Impressively layered, lived-in, and real.” —Buzzfeed
The Lucky Ones By Liz Lawson
For fans of Thirteen Reasons Why, This Is How It Ends, and All the Bright Places, comes a gripping novel about life after. How do you put yourself back together when it seems like you've lost it all?
May is a survivor. But she doesn't feel like one. She feels angry. And lost. And alone. Eleven months after the school shooting that killed her twin brother, May still doesn't know why she was the only one to walk out of the band room that day. No one gets what she went through--no one saw and heard what she did. No one can possibly understand how it feels to be her.
Zach lost his old life when his mother decided to defend the shooter. His girlfriend dumped him, his friends bailed, and now he spends his time hanging out with his little sister...and the one faithful friend who stuck around. His best friend is needy and demanding, but he won't let Zach disappear into himself. Which is how Zach ends up at band practice that night. The same night May goes with her best friend to audition for a new band.
Which is how May meets Zach. And how Zach meets May. And how both might figure out that surviving could be an option after all.
A Chicago Public Library Systems selection for Best Teen Fiction
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2020
A Texas Library Association 2021 Reading List selection
"A harrowing and beautifully told story about how far the tentacles of tragedy can reach. May's story of grief, survival, and reckoning is tenderly and honestly explored. A simply stunning debut." --Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces
"A must-read for fans of Thirteen Reasons Why and This Is How It Ends."--Paste Magazine
"Gripping, emotional, suspenseful, and ultimately hopeful" --Karen M. McManus, New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying
What I Carry By Jennifer Longo
"A deeply touching story about survival, hope, and love." --Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author
A powerful and heartwarming look at a teen girl about to age out of the foster care system.
Growing up in foster care, Muir has lived in many houses. And if she's learned one thing, it is to Pack. Light. Carry only what fits in a suitcase.
Toothbrush? Yes. Socks? Yes. Emotional attachment to friends? foster families? a boyfriend? Nope! There's no room for any additional baggage.
Muir has just one year left before she ages out of the system. One year before she's free. One year to avoid anything--or anyone--that could get in her way.
Then she meets Francine. And Kira. And Sean.
And everything changes.
When You Were Everything By Ashley Woodfolk
For fans of Nina LaCour's We Are Okay and Adam Silvera's History Is All You Left Me, this heartfelt and ultimately uplifting novel follows one sixteen-year-old girl's friend breakup through two concurrent timelines--ultimately proving that even endings can lead to new beginnings.
"Stunning." --Nic Stone, bestselling author of Dear Martin and Odd One Out
You can't rewrite the past, but you can always choose to start again.
It's been twenty-seven days since Cleo and Layla's friendship imploded.
Nearly a month since Cleo realized they'll never be besties again.
Now Cleo wants to erase every memory, good or bad, that tethers her to her ex-best friend. But pretending Layla doesn't exist isn't as easy as Cleo hoped, especially after she's assigned to be Layla's tutor. Despite budding friendships with other classmates--and a raging crush on a gorgeous boy named Dom--Cleo's turbulent past with Layla comes back to haunt them both.
Alternating between time lines of Then and Now, When You Were Everything blends past and present into an emotional story about the beauty of self-forgiveness, the promise of new beginnings, and the courage it takes to remain open to love.
"Breathtakingly beautiful....Woodfolk has a way of making words sing and burst with light." --Tiffany D. Jackson, award-winning author of Monday's Not Coming and Let Me Hear A Rhyme
The Year After You By Nina de Pass
"I love this sad, beautiful, hopeful book." --Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces and How to Make Friends With the Dark
For fans of Nina LaCour and Jennifer Niven, a richly layered novel that's both uplifting and heartbreaking, about piecing yourself together after loss and the dark truths we choose to keep from each other and ourselves.
San Francisco. New Year's Eve. A tragic accident after the party of the year. Cara survives. Her best friend, G, doesn't.
Nine months later, Cara is still struggling, consumed by grief and a dark secret she'd rather forget. In the hopes of offering a fresh start, her mother sends her to boarding school in Switzerland, a place where no one knows what happened--and where they never will, if Cara can help it.
But her new classmates Ren and Hector won't let her close herself off. They are determined to break down the walls she has so carefully built up. And maybe Cara wants them to . . . especially Hector, who seems to understand her like no one else does.
The problem is that the closer Cara gets to Hector, the more G slips away. If moving on means letting go of the past--and admitting what she did that night--Cara's not sure how. But a second chance awaits, if she can only find the strength within herself.
"A poignant exploration of grief, guilt, and forgiveness." --Sophie Kinsella, New York Times bestselling author of Finding Audrey and the Shopaholic series
"Transportive and redemptive, this is a gentle story about the universality of grief, the beauty of self-forgiveness, and how new friendship can help heal old wounds."--Ashley Woodfolk, author of The Beauty That Remains and When You Were Everything
"Atmospheric....this is a delicious read."-Irish Times
"A good choice for readers who enjoyed Stephanie Perkins's Anna and the French Kiss and Gayle Forman's If I Stay."--SLJ
