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Bookworm for Kids

   
Family Problems

KeeperKeeper
by Kathi Appelt, August Hall
Ages 8–12
Since her mother swam away and never returned seven years ago, 10-year-old Keeper, convinced that her mother is a mermaid, has lived on the Texas coast with her guardian Signe. Keeper has waited all summer for the blue moon, when Signe will make a special gumbo, but she accidentally spoils everything. So Keeper sets out in a small boat into the sea to find her mother and set everything right. Mermaid lore, local legends, Cajun superstitions, and natural history enliven this magical tale.

Prince CharmingThe Secret Life of Prince Charming
by Deb Caletti
Ages 12–up
Quinn is surrounded by women who have been disappointed by love. When her own romance also disintegrates, Quinn wonders if there are any good men out there. Then she discovers that her womanizing father, Prince Charming, may have stolen more than the hearts of the women he charmed. With her step-sisters, Quinn sets out to right her father’s wrongs by returning the stolen treasures.

JumpJump
by Elisa Carbone
Ages 12–up
P.K. (16) runs away from home to avoid being sent off to boarding school. Critter, who has the ability to see colors that reveal emotions, escapes from a psychiatric hospital. Bonded by a shared love of rock-climbing, the two hitchhike to Las Vegas to attempt the first-ever climb up a steep rock face. Pursued by the police, who believe that P.K.’s life is in danger, the pair share their hopes and fears of the past and present. Told from the perspectives of both teens, this exciting book explores themes of independence, belonging, love, and endurance.


FurnitureBecause I am Furniture
by Thalia Chaltas
Ages 12–up
Anke’s father is abusive to her older brother and sister, but not to her. She is invisible and helpless. Then Anke makes the volleyball team at school and her confidence builds until she begins to hope that her voice will soon be loud enough to rescue everyone at home, including herself. This powerful novel in poems is devastating yet offers empowerment and hope.

NormalWaiting for Normal
by Leslie Connor
Ages 10–up
Sixth-grader Addie’s mother disappears for days at a time, leaving the resilient Addie to struggle to maintain a normal life. Addie’s optimism in the face of child neglect makes for a powerful story.

Two MoonsWalk Two Moons
by Sharon Creech
Newbery Medal 1995
Ages 10–14

Salamanca Tree Hiddle’s mother leaves home on a spiritual quests, but promises to return. She doesn’t, and Sal and her father move from Kentucky to Idaho. Her new friend Phoebe is also 13 and also has a mother who vanished. Sal convinces her grandparents to drive to Idaho in search of her mother while telling the story of Phoebe. Sal’s journey through the grieving process of denial, anger, and acceptance is presented realistically and with compassion.

HappyfaceHappyface
by Stephen Emond
Ages 12–up
Our narrator, an introverted and artistically talented high school sophomore, decides to try out a new happy-go-lucky persona at his new school, and quickly earns the nickname Happyface. The plan works, and Happyface soon has a new collection of friends who accept him at face value. But his sketchbook reveals the truth: his parents’ failing marriage, his own broken heart, and the real reason he had to switch schools. Happyface is able to illustrate the feelings he can’t write about, and the reader is gradually able to get to know the real person behind the facade.

SuicideSuicide Notes
by Michael Thomas Ford
Ages 14–up
Jeff, the 15-year-old narrator, is in a psychiatric ward after a suicide attempt. At first convinced he is the only sane one surrounded by crazy kids, Jeff slowly begins to form relationships and to understand his own problems and confusions. This darkly humorous novel presents issues of identity in a compelling and witty manner.

KingKing of the Screwups
by K.L. Going
Ages 12–up
Liam Geller (17) has everything, a super-model mother, CEO father, popularity, and good looks. But somehow he always manages to do exactly the wrong thing and infuriate his father. When he is kicked out of the house he is sent to stay with his gay uncle who lives in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. To regain his father’s approval, Liam tries to reinvent himself as a nerd, but eventually the likeable Liam learns to just be himself.

DustOut of the Dust
by Karen Hesse
Newbery Medal 1998
Ages 11–up

Billie Jo (14) records the grim realities of living in the Oklahoma dust bowl during the Depression. In her free verse journal, she reveals her mother’s death and her own burns in a fire and her father’s grief. Billie Jo’s hope for a better future shines through all the pain and struggle to survive.

IdenticalIdentical
by Ellen Hopkins
Ages 14–up
Kaeleigh and Reanne are identical 16-year-old twins. From the outside their family seems perfect, but since an accident their mother is emotionally unreachable and the girls are self destructive in different ways. Narrated in free verse, this disturbing novel is both beautiful and shocking.

The Snowball EffectThe Snowball Effect
by Holly Nicole Hoxter
Ages 12–up
Lainey (18) has a lot to deal with—her mother commits suicide, leaving Lainey in charge of her challenging 5-year-old adopted brother Collin. Then her estranged older step-sister Vallery arrives to take charge. Lainey’s long-time boyfriend tries to help out, but she takes her anger out on him and breaks up. Lainey’s efforts to deal with her grief as she and Vallery try to work together to raise Collin are honestly and effectively portrayed.

BeautyOutside Beauty
by Cynthia Kadohata
Ages 12–up
When 12-year old Shelby’s beautiful mother is critically injured in a car crash, Shelby and her three sisters are parceled out to their four different fathers. As Shelby plans to reunite the sisters, she begins to appreciate her father’s kindness and begins to understand the difference between beauty and perfection.

SwingsJumping Off Swings
by Jo Knowles
Ages 14–up
Ellie craves a boyfriend, but instead she gets pregnant by Josh, who avoids her after their one time together. Afraid to tell her parents, she confides in her best friend Corinne, and the compassionate mother of her childhood friend Caleb. Josh confides in Caleb, who begins spending time with Corinne because of their shared concern for Ellie. This sensitive and absorbing novel shows how a crisis can change a person’s life as well as the lives of others around her.
 
OverI Know It’s Over
by C.K. Kelly Martin
Ages 14–up
Still coping with his parents’ divorce, 16-year-old Nick is stunned when his ex-girlfriend Sasha tells him she is pregnant. Nick struggles to do the right thing by Sasha. His pain and uncertainty are portrayed with frankness in this emotionally complex coming-of-age story.

WaysWays To Live Forever
by Sally Nicholls
Ages 9–12
Eleven-year old Sam is in the final stages of leukemia. In his journal he keeps facts, questions, and lists. As the book progresses, Sam’s friend Felix dies and Sam begins to decline. Sam and his family face death with humor and grace in this moving novel.

JacobJacob Have I Loved
by Katherine Paterson
Newbery Medal 1981
Ages 12–up

Growing up on Chesapeake Bay island in the early 1940s, Louise knows that like Esau from the Bible she is hated while her twin sister Caroline, like Jacob, is the one everyone loves. While the family pampers the beautiful and gifted Caroline, lonely and miserable Louise learns the way of the watermen from old Captain Wallace. Eventually Louise learns that she has her own strengths.

Last NightLast Night I Sang to the Monster
by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Ages 14–up
Zach (18) is bright, articulate, and in a rehab center for drugs and alcohol. But Zach doesn’t remember how he got there, he only knows it was something really bad. Written as a homework assignment for his therapist, this beautifully written first-person narrative offers insight into addiction, dysfunction, and mental illness.

StitchesStitches
by David Small
Ages 12–up
In this memoir, David Small tells the story of his boyhood in the 1950s. Believing that science can fix everything, his radiologist father subjected David to numerous x-rays for various childhood ailments, resulting in cancer that was untreated for years. At age 14, unaware that he had throat cancer and was expected to die, David awoke from an operation left him nearly mute. Beautifully told from a child’s perspective, this pen and ink graphic novel is both dark and delightful.

Maniac MageeManiac Magee
by Jerry Spinelli
Newbery Medal 1991
Ages 8–12

After being orphaned as a baby, Jerry Magee is brought up by his aunt and uncle, who fight all the time. He runs away at age eight to Two Mills, Pennsylvania and becomes a folk hero—Maniac Magee, the boy who can outrun any dog, hit any pitch, untie any knot. He is taken in by a black family but that causes problems in the racially divided town. Maniac keeps searching for the perfect family and eventually helps the town bridge the gap between racial and cultural differences.

Last Summer of the Death WarriorsThe Last Summer of the Death Warriors
by Francisco Stork
Ages 14–up
Pancho Sanchez (17) is sent to a Catholic orphanage after his father and sister die within a few months. Pancho is determined to avenge the death of his sister by killing the man he believes is responsible. D.Q., a fellow orphan, asks Pancho to come with him to Albuquerque as support during his brain cancer treatment. Pancho agrees since that's where the man he is stalking lives. But D.Q.’s “Death Warrior Manifesto,” a document he has composed to help him live out his last days with purpose, gradually influences Pancho to consider choosing life over murder. This powerful novel deals with themes of responsibility, racial and family tension, and the purpose of life.

MarceloMarcelo In The Real World
by Francisco Stork
Ages 14–up
Marcelo Sandoval hears music no one else can hear and attends a special school specializing in autism and Asperger’s. The summer before his senior year, he arranges a job caring for ponies, but his father wants him to work in the mail room in his law firm in order to experience the real world. and then attend a regular school in the fall. Readers enter Marcelo’s private world as he navigates the unfamiliar world outside his school in this powerful novel celebrating the difference in all of us.

GlimpseGlimpse
by Carol Lynch Williams
Ages 12–up
Hope (12) is horrified when her sister Lizzie (14) tries to shoot herself. Lizzie becomes an elective mute and is institutionalized and Hope desperately tries to understand what has happened. Ever since their father died, Hope and Lizzie relied on each other. Their mother is a reluctant parent at best, turning tricks to support the family and her dependence on alcohol. Narrated in blank verse from Hope’s perspective, flashbacks fill in the girls’ past. The appalling truth is finally revealed when Hope reads Lizzie’s diary in this lyrical yet heartbreaking novel.

Dicey's SongDicey’s Song
by Cynthia Voigt
Newbery Medal 1983
Ages 12–up

Dicey (13) and her three siblings are living on a farm with her grandmother. Their father deserted the family, and their mother is in a mental institution. Used to being the main support for her siblings, Dicey must get used to the fact that they don’t need her in the same way. All of the children must adjust to a new school and a new life with Gram, who is fiercely independent. (sequel to Homecoming)