Realistic Fiction

When Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death. 

 

Brooks, Martha. Mistik Lake

After Odella's mother leaves her, her sisters, and their father in Manitoba and moves to Iceland with another man, she then dies there, and the family finally learns some of the many secrets that have haunted them for two generations. 

 

Efaw, Amy. After

In complete denial that she is pregnant, straight-A student and star athlete Devon Davenport leaves her baby in the trash to die, and after the baby is discovered, Devon is accused of attempted murder. 

 

Felin, M. Sindy. Touching Snow

After her stepfather is arrested for child abuse, thirteen-year-old Karina's home life improves but she is pressured by her younger sister, their uncle, and a friend to testify against him, while her mother and other well-meaning adults persuade her to claim responsibility. 

Green, John. Looking for Alaska

Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash. 

 

Lecesne, James Absolute Brightness

In the beach town of Neptune, New Jersey, Phoebe's life is changed irrevocably when her gay cousin moves into her house and soon goes missing. 

Levithan, David. Love is the Higher Law

Three New York City teens express their reactions to the bombing of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and its impact on their lives and the world. 

Madigan, L.K. Flash Burnout

Blake’s life is way too complicated. He’s a sophomore in high school with a girlfriend and a friend who is a girl. One of them loves him. One of them needs him. Can he please them both? 

McCormick, Patricia. Sold

Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi, enjoys her life until the Himalayan monsoons wash away her family's crops and she is sold to a brothel in India by her stepfather.  

Mitchard, Jacquelyn. All We Know of Heaven

When Maureen and Bridget, two sixteen-year-old best friends who look like sisters, are in a terrible car accident and one of them dies, they are at first incorrectly identified at the hospital, and then, as Maureen achieves a remarkable recovery, she must deal with the repercussions of the accident. 

 

Myers, Walter Dean. Sunrise Over Fallujah

Robin Perry, from Harlem, is sent to Iraq in 2003 as a member of the Civil Affairs Battalion, and his time there profoundly changes him. 

 

Reinhardt, Dana. How to Build a House

Devastated by her parent's divorce Harper Evans spends the summer with 11 other students building a house for a family in Tennessee and finds herself healing while making new friends. 

Shaw, Susan. Safe

When thirteen-year-old Tracy, whose mother died when she was three years old, is raped and beaten on the last day of school, all her feelings of security disappear and she does not know how to cope with the fear and dread that engulf her. 

Sonnenblick, Jordan. Notes from the Midnight Driver

After being assigned to perform community service at a nursing home, sixteen-year-old Alex befriends a cantankerous old man who has some lessons to impart about jazz guitar playing, love, and forgiveness. 

 

Werlin, Nancy. Rules of Survival

Seventeen-year-old Matthew recounts his attempts, starting at a young age, to free himself and his sisters from the grip of their emotionally and physically abusive mother.