An anthology of stories for teenagers exploring the topics of religion, belief, and spirituality by award-winning authors, including M.E. Kerr, Kyoko Mori, and Virginia Euwer Wolff.
"We must fight the tendency to reduce the world's cultures to sound bites and remember that all religions in all countries are composed of real people." So writes Lisa Rowe Fraustino in her introduction to Soul Searching, an inspired collection of short stories and the answer to the prayers of anyone looking for a book that ponders faith. Thirteen stirring narratives by acclaimed authors illuminate the world's major religions -- Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism -- as well as a few lesser-known belief systems. From Linda Oatman High's story of Sadie, who is shunned by her small Amish community, to Elsa Marston's Mujahhid, who grapples to understand the idea of jihad within the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, each of these thirteen adolescent protagonists is faced with a life-altering crisis that triggers an evaluation of the way he or she believes.
Year Eleven at an exclusive prep school in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, would be tough enough, but it is further complicated for Amal when she decides to wear the hijab, the Muslim head scarf, full-time as a badge of her faith--without losing her identity or sense of style.
The developing relationship between teenager Davie and a mysterious new boy in town morphs into something darker and more sinister when Davie learns firsthand of the boy's supernatural powers.
Eighteen-year-old Kate, who sometimes chafes at being a preacher's daughter, finds herself losing control in her senior year as she faces difficult neighbors, the possibility that she may not be accepted by the college of her choice, and an unexpected death.
Calliope and Eliot, two fifteen-year-olds in Asheville, North Carolina, begin to acknowledge some unpleasant truths about their parents and form their own ideas about love.
Between school and Al-Anon meetings, Jenna helps Mrs. Gladstone cope with escalating problems that result from the merger of Gladstone Shoes with Shoe Warehouse Corporation, while managing a new employee with a shoplifting record.
After her mother unexpectedly leaves her with her uncle's family, members of a fanatical Christian cult, Kirby tries to learn what has become of her mother and struggles to cope with the repressiveness of her new surroundings and to maintain her own identity.
Following her conscience leads high school freshman Mena to clash with her parents and former friends from their conservative Christian church, but might result in better things when she stands up for a teacher who refuses to include "Intelligent Design" in lessons on evolution.
After falling in love with an Abenaki Indian woman, a white great horned owl named Wabi transforms into a human being and has several trials and adventures while learning to adapt to his new life.
As the end of the world approaches, fourteen-year-old Vincent breaks away from his parents' religion and forms an odd alliance with a few other humans who have the ability to see the elves, pixies, and demons that are engaged in a battle to bring about a new epoch.
Eleven-year-old Malaak and her family are touched by the violence in Gaza between Jews and Palestinians when first her father disappears and then her older brother is drawn to the Islamic Jihad.
Keegan Flannery, feeling responsible for his twin brother's death and his mother's mental illness, believes he must atone by commiting suicide before his sixteenth birthday, but he gains new insights when he joins his school's wrestling team.
After rescuing her younger brother abandoned at a busy airport by their divorced father, fifteen-year-old Lily finds her faith in God sorely tested as she struggles to rescue herself from the bitterness and anger she feels.
An 11-year-old girl hopes for a Christmas miracle to bring her father home from the war in this story of friendship that will inspire children during the holiday season. "Cormier captures the sounds, smells, and mood of wartime America with deft strokes".--"Publishers Weekly".
Billy, recently deceased, keeps an eye on his best friend, fourteen-year-old Eddie, who has added to his home and school problems by becoming mute, and helps him stand up to a conservative minister and English teacher who is orchestrating a censorship challenge.
In a Pennsylvania town where anti-war sentiments are treated with contempt and violence, Matt, a fourteen-year-old girl living with a Quaker family, deals with the demons of her past as she battles bullies of the present, eventually learning to trust in others as well as herself.
After joining her new friends in the religious group called Fishers of Men, Dorry finds herself immersed in a cult from which she must struggle to extricate herself.
When sixteen-year-old Jason Bock and his friends create their own religion to worship the town's water tower, what started out as a joke begins to take on a power of its own.
In the novel, Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his family for a contemplative life, then, restless, discards it for one of the flesh. He conceives a son, but bored and sickened by lust and greed, moves on again. Near despair, Siddhartha comes to a river where he hears a unique sound. This sound signals the true beginning of his life -- the beginning of suffering, rejection, peace, and, finally, wisdom.
While searching for her true self and for the way to meet the needs of her personal sense of spirituality, an orphaned teenaged girl joins a Shaker community in mid-nineteenth century New England and learns about a new religion called Mormonism.
During the Spanish Inquisition, sixteen-year-old Estrella, brought up a Catholic, discovers her family's true Jewish identity, and when their secret is betrayed by Estrella's best friend, the consequences are tragic.
In Weaver Falls, New Hampshire, in 1975, seventeen-year-old Jocelyn looks for answers when her lifelong neighbor and friend, Gabe, turns up missing and she learns that, while her boyfriend has been telling everything to a priest, Gabe has been keeping terrible secrets. Jocelyn has two boys in her life. And a priest. Gabe has shared fourteen years of growing up next door. He's "a golden boy, an all-star." Yet now, in the spring of 1975, he's missing, disappeared on the brink of senior year at Weaver High. The whole town is set to go searching for him. Benny has only been in New Hampshire since January, yet for Joss, he's the answer to a long-held prayer to be someone in somebody's eyes. She loves them both. Father Warren -- hair turning white and "kind of cool in his black clothes" -- is a link between the three of them. Or a wedge. Or a threat. For Joss, the priest holds power over her sense of herself; for Benny, power over his soul; for Gabe, so mysterious and alluring, he holds the power of destiny. In a story shot with suspense, these four characters, and the lives of others they've touched in their small town, intermingle with unforgettable force.
Determined to follow the laws set down in the Qur'an, seventeen-year-old Nadia becomes involved in a violent revolutionary movement aimed at supporting Muslim rule in Syria and opposing the Western politics and materialism that increasingly affect her family.
Sixteen-year-old Tomas Wanninger persuades his mother to let him leave Germany to volunteer at a kibbutz in Israel, where he experiences a violent political attack and finds answers about his own past.
When her father hatches a plan to bring publicity to their small Tennessee town by arresting a local high school teacher for teaching about evolution, the resulting 1925 Scopes trial prompts fifteen-year-old Frances to rethink many of her beliefs about religion and truth, as well as her relationship with her father.
Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that impact Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.
When Maya accompanies her mother to India to sell her grandfather's house, she uncovers family history relating to her parents divorce and learns more about herself and her relationship with her mother.
Fifteen-year-old Marne is excited to be able to spend her summer vacation in Hawaii, not realizing the change in her lifestyle it would bring staying with her aunt, seven cousins, and uncle who is a Chasidic rabbi.
Just before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, an anti-American Muslim group gains power in Java, and Isaac, the twelve-year-old son of American missionary doctors, finds his world turned upside-down.
After her mother abandons them, fifteen-year-old Megumi tries to understand her father's need for his mistress while dealing with her own aching isolation.
Inspired by his grandfather's last words and guided by a girl who believes they are saints, fourteen-year-old Archie sets out on a spiritual quest that takes him from southern Appalachia to the Cloisters Museum in New York City.
Although dismayed and embarrassed when his father takes him on the road to get rich preaching the word of God, fourteen-year-old Steven finds himself caught up in the money and the things it can buy.
"Memorable...A book profound in its vision of humanity, of religion, and of art." THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Here is the original, deeply moving story of Asher Lev, the religious boy with an overwhelming need to draw, to paint, to render the world he knows and the pain he feels, on canvas for everyone to see. A loner, Asher has an extroardinary God-given gift that possesses a spirit all its own. It is this force that must learn to master without shaming his people or relinquishing any part of his deeply felt Judaism. It will not be easy for him, but he knows, too, that even if it is impossible, it must be done.... "A novel of finely articulated tragic power...Little short of a work of genius." THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
In their senior year of high school, three best friends, Nikki, Alicia, and Sam, attempt an "experiment" in which they each befriend a classmate they think needs attention and try to improve that person's life.
Sixteen-year-old atheist Simone Turner-Bloom's life changes in unexpected ways when her parents convince her to make contact with her biological mother, an agnostic from a Jewish family who is losing her battle with cancer.
In 1878, after her mother's death on the way West, thirteen-year-old Lizzy Enders is left by her father at a convent school in Sante Fe, where she must deal with being the only non-Catholic student and where she plays a part in what some consider a miracle.
When purple-haired Mayla Strong struts down the center aisle of Salliesburg Independent Christian Church, the bug-eyed congregation strains to get a peek at her pierced nose and lip. Determined to make her heavenly Father proud, Mayla's sincere and often hilarious attempts to let Him change her from the inside out take her into some difficult places, all the while growing in faith and wisdom. Guaranteed fiction!
When thirteen-year-old San Lee moves to a new town and school for the umpteenth time, he is looking for a way to stand out. His knowledge of Zen Buddhism provides the answer--and the need to quickly become a convincing Zen master.
After her brother's death, Grace has difficulty finding meaning in her life and begins to get into various kinds of trouble, until a mysterious new girl at school helps her find her way back to family, old friends, and even God.
In 1922, the Ku Klux Klan led the drive for an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant referendum that made it illegal for Oregon parents to send their children to parochial schools. Against this historical backdrop, teen brothers Carl and Adam Matuski travel to Portland, after their mother's death to live with their Uncle Pete. Unfortunately, life in a bigotry-poisoned town is unbearable, and 15-year-old Carl wants to go back east until Adam is accused of stealing jewelry from an affluent family whose daughter Adam had been dating. Addressing themes of religious intolerance and ethnic discrimination, this YA novel is taut, vivid, and stirring and will appeal to all ages. Highly recommended. Sternberg, a finalist for the Edgar Award (Uncovering Sadie's Secrets), resides in Pennsylvania.Library Journal
Tired of being a twin, Mark tries to spend more time away from his twin brother and meets a scientist who challenges some of Mark's long-held Christian beliefs about heaven, God, prayer, and death.
In England in 1662, a time of religious persecution, fifteen-year-old Susanna, a poor country girl and a Quaker, and seventeen-year-old William, a wealthy Anglican, meet and fall in love against all odds.
In the summer of 1965, teenager Paul Sutton, a northern Minnesota farm boy, takes a job at a gas station in town, where his strict religious upbringing is challenged by new people and experiences.
After moving from Arizona to Maine, sixteen-year-old Kate tries to recover from her father's death as she resists her mother's dogmatic religious beliefs and attempts to find a new direction to her life.
While coping with her grandmother's sudden death and her mother's resulting depression and fascination with a spiritualist church, whose ministers claim to communicate with the dead, fifteen-year-old Liz finds herself falling for a new neighbor whose mother is dying of cancer.
Living in the inner city amidst guns and poverty, fifteen-year-old LaVaughn learns from old and new friends, and inspiring mentors, that life is what you make it--an occasion to rise to. In this second novel of Wolff's "Make Lemonade" trilogy, 15-year old Verna LaVaughn is visited by Jody, a boy she knew as a child who comes back to the housing project where she lives. Jody behaves as if he's in love with her, but Jody is wrestling with questions of his own identity.
When a new, white student nicknamed "The Jesus Boy" joins her sixth grade class in the winter of 1971, Frannie's growing friendship with him makes her start to see some things in a new light.
Having been cruelly abused by her mother until the age of sixteen, a young woman numbs the pain with drugs and loses herself until she finds God through the Mormon Church.
Fourteen-year-old Marina and sixteen-year-old Jed accompany their parents' religious cult, the Believers, to await the end of the world atop a remote mountain, where they try to decide what they themselves believe.
