Realistic fiction for teens

Stories about teens dealing with problems.

This booklist was contributed by Appleton Public Library Reference and Information Services Staff, 3/07 

Teen relationships

Blind sighted by Peter Moore(2002)Kirk, a creative misfit who is in trouble at high school because he is bored with his classes, learns to deal with his alcoholic mother, new friends, and life with the help of a blind young woman who hires him to read to her.

Born blue by Han Nolan(2001)Janie was four years old when she nearly drowned due to her mothers neglect. Through an unhappy foster home experience, and years of feeling that she is unwanted, she keeps alive her dream of someday being a famous singer.

Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn(2002)After being expelled from a fancy boarding school, Cyd Charisse's problems with her mother escalate after Cyd falls in love with a sensitive surfer and is subsequently sent from San Francisco to New York City to spend time with her biological father.

Hard love by Ellen Wittlinger(2001)After starting to publish a zine in which he writes his secret feelings about his lonely life and his parents' divorce, sixteen-year-old John meets an unusual girl and begins to develop a healthier personality.

Life is funny: a novel by E. R. Frank(2000)The lives of a number of young people of different races, economic backgrounds, and family situations living in Brooklyn, New York, become intertwined over a seven year period.

The murder of Bindy MacKenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty(2006)Class brain Bindy Mackenzie has alienated her entire high school but when she realizes someone is trying to kill her, she has to make friends in order to get help.

Spellbound by Janet McDonald(2001)Raven, a teenage mother and high school dropout living in a housing project, decides, with the help and sometime interference of her best friend Aisha, to study for a spelling bee which could lead to a college preparatory program and four-year scholarship.