Our November feature article and booklist "Bibliotherapy for Teens" by Erin E. Moulton received an outpouring of positive feedback from educators, authors, and librarians all over the globe. Here's what some of them said:
"Erin, this is a fabulous post and resource! Thank you! There is no question in my mind that reading about characters suffering from mental health issues reassures those who share it, and informs those who don’t. I am a school librarian in South Africa and just want to say well done—this excellent post [sic]. Thank you for the book recommendations, some I already know, but many more I know I will be glad one day that I found today."
Thank you, readers, for your abundance of thoughtful questions, lively discussion points, and insightful remarks. Many of you suggested additional titles for the Realistic Teen Fiction and Mental Health Booklist. Presented below is an expanded, updated list with readers’ contributions highlighted in bold.Anxiety disorder
Caletti, Deb. The Nature of Jade (S. & S., 2007) Baskin, Nora Raleigh. Anything but Typical (S. & S., 2009) Colasanti, Susane. Waiting for You (Viking, 2009) Herbach, Geoff. Stupid Fast (Sourcebooks Fire, 2011) *Roskos, Evan. Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets (Houghton Harcourt, 2013) Schutz, Samantha. I Don’t Want to Be Crazy (Scholastic, 2006) *also depressionAutism spectrum disorders
Brenna, Beverly. Wild Orchid (Red Deer, 2005) Choldenko, Gennifer. Al Capone Does My Shirts (Putnam, 2004) Erskine, Kathryn. Mockingbird (Philomel, 2010) Franklin, Emily, and Halpin, Brendan. The Half-Life of Planets (Hyperion, 2010) Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Doubleday, 2003) Houtman, Jacqueline. The Reinvention of Edison Thomas (Boyds Mills, 2012) Jacobs, Evan. Screaming Quietly (Saddleback, 2013) Kelly, Tara. Harmonic Feedback. (Holt, 2010) Miller-Lachmann, Lyn. Rogue (Penguin, 2013) Miller, Ashley Edward. Colin Fischer (Penguin, 2012) Roy, Jennifer. Mindblind (Marshall Cavendish, 2010) Sloan, Holly Goldberg. Counting By 7s (Dial, 2013) Stork, Francisco X. Marcelo in the Real World (Scholastic, 2009)Attention deficit disorder (ADD)/Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Costa, T.L. Playing Tyler (Strange Chemistry, 2013) Page, Katherine Hall. Club Meds (Simon Pulse, 2006) Rue, Nancy. Motorcycles, Sushi and One Strange Book (Zonderkidz, 2010)Bipolar disorder
Hopkins, Ellen. Impulse (S. & S., 2007) Niven, Jennifer. All the Bright Places (Knopf, 2015) Reed, Amy. Crazy (S. & S., 2012) Polsky, Sara. This Is How I Find Her (Albert Whitman, 2013) Sones, Sonya. Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy (HarperCollins, 1999) Smith, Hilary T. Wild Awake (HarperCollins, 2013) Wilson, Jacqueline. The Illustrated Mum (Delacorte, 2005) Wunder, Wendy. Museum of Intangible Things (Penguin, 2014)Borderline Personality Disorder
Jones, Patrick. Controlled (Darby Creek, 2014)Depression
Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why (Penguin, 2007) Cardi, Annie. The Chance You Won’t Return (Candlewick, 2014) Draper, Sharon M. “Hazlewood High Trilogy” (S. & S.) Ford, Michael Thomas. Suicide Notes (HarperCollins, 2008) Green, John, and Levithan, David. Will Grayson, Will Grayson (Dutton, 2010) Halpern, Julie. Get Well Soon (Feiwel and Friends, 2007) Hubbard, Jennifer R. Try Not to Breathe (Viking, 2012) Jenkins, A.M. Damage (HarperCollins, 2001) Jones, Traci L. Silhouetted by the Blue (Farrar, 2011) LaCour, Nina. Hold Still (Dutton, 2009) McNamara, Amy. Lovely, Dark and Deep (S. & S., 2012) Peters, Julie Ann. By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead (Hyperion, 2011) *Quick, Matthew. Sorta Like a Rock Star (Little, Brown, 2010) Sales, Leila. This Song Will Save Your Life (Farrar, 2013) Schmatz, Pat. Bluefish (Candlewick, 2013) Schumacher, Julie. Black Box (Delacorte, 2008) Vizzini, Ned. It’s Kind of a Funny Story (Hyperion, 2007) Warga, Jasmine. My Heart and Other Black Holes (HarperCollins, 2015) Wolitzer, Meg. Belzhar (Dutton, 2014) Zhang, Amy. Falling Into Place (HarperCollins, 2014) *also PTSD and autismDissociative disorder
Cusick, John M. Girl Parts (Candlewick, 2010) *Hopkins, Ellen. Identical (S. & S., 2008) Leno, Katrina. The Half Life of Molly Pierce (HarperCollins, 2014) *also eating disordersDual diagnosis: mental illness and substance abuse
Sáenz, Benjamin Alire. Last Night I Sang to the Monster (Cinco Puntos, 2009) *PTSD and alcoholismEating disorders
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Wintergirls (Viking, 2009) Anonymous. Letting Ana Go (Simon Pulse, 2013) Bell, Julia. Massive (Young Picador, 2003) Colbert, Brandy. Pointe (Putnam, 2014) Cooner, Dora. Skinny (Scholastic, 2012) Fehlbaum, Beth. My Big Fat Disaster (Merit, 2014) Friedman, Robin. Nothing (Flux, 2008) Friend, Natasha. Perfect (Scholastic, 2006) Hopkins, Ellen. Perfect (S. & S., 2011) Jaden, Denise. Never Enough (S. & S., 2012) Kaslik, Ibi. Skinny (Walker, 2006) Littman, Sarah Darer. Purge (Scholastic, 2009) Metzger, Lois. A Trick of the Light (HarperCollins, 2013) Reed, Amy. Clean (S. & S., 2011) Shahan, Sherry. Skin and Bones (Albert Whitman, 2014) Vrettos, Adrienne Maria. Skin (S. & S., 2006)Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Ayarbe, Heidi. Compulsion (HarperCollins, 2011) Chappell, Crissa-Jean. Total Constant Order (HarperCollins, 2007) Ellison, Kate. The Butterfly Clues (Egmont USA, 2012) Harrar, George. Not as Crazy as I Seem (Houghton Mifflin, 2003) Haydu, Corey Ann. OCD Love Story (S. & S., 2013) Hopkins, Ellen. Fallout (S. & S., 2010) Joyce, Rachel. Perfect (Random, 2014) Karo, Aaron. Lexapros and Cons (Farrar, 2012) McGovern, Cammie. Say What You Will (HarperCollins, 2014) Vaughn, Lauren Roedy. OCD, the Dude, and Me (Dial, 2013) Wilson, Rachel. Don’t Touch (HarperCollins, 2014) Young, Janet Ruth. The Babysitter Murders (S. & S., 2011)Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
War and Death Anderson, Laurie Halse. The Impossible Knife of Memory (Viking, 2014) Avashti, Swati. Chasing Shadows (Knopf, 2013) Doller, Trish. Something Like Normal (Bloomsbury, 2012) Herbach, Geoff. “Reinstein Trilogy” (Sourcebooks Fire) Morgenroth, Kate. Echo (S. & S., 2007) Parlato, Steven. The Namesake (Merit, 2013) Quick, Matthew. Boy21 (Little, Brown, 2012) Reinhardt, Dana. The Things a Brother Knows (Random, 2010) Skilton, Sarah. Bruised (Abrams, 2013) Abuse/Assault Dunbar, Helen. These Gentle Wounds (Flux, 2014) Fehlbaum, Beth. Courage in Patience (Kunati, 2008) Fehlbaum, Beth. Hope in Patience (WestSide, 2010) *King, A.S. Reality Boy (Little, Brown, 2013) Knowles, Jo. Lessons from a Dead Girl (Candlewick, 2009) Kuehn, Stephanie. Charm & Strange (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2013) **Kuehn, Stephanie. Complicit (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2014) *Mesrobian, Carrie. Sex and Violence (Carolrhoda, 2013) **Quick, Matthew. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock (Little, Brown, 2013) Perry, Jolene. Stronger Than You Know (Albert Whitman, 2014) ***Rainfield, Cheryl. Scars (WestSide, 2010) Rainfield, Cheryl. Stained (Houghton Harcourt, 2013) *also anxiety **also depression ***includes self-harm/injurySchizophrenia
Averett, Edward. Cameron and the Girls (Clarion, 2013) Bock, Caroline. Before My Eyes (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2014) *de la Peña, Matt. I Will Save You (Delacorte, 2010) James, Brian. Life Is But a Dream (Feiwel and Friends, 2012) Schindler, Holly. A Blue So Dark (Flux, 2010) Sheff, Nic. Schizo (Philomel, 2014) Suma, Nova Ren. 17 & Gone (Dutton, 2013) Trueman, Terry. Inside Out (HarperCollins, 2003) *also PTSDTourette syndrome
Ayarbe, Heidi. Compromised (HarperCollins, 2010) Conaghan, Brian. When Mr. Dog Bites (Bloomsbury, 2014) Friesen, Jonathan. Jerk, California (Speak, 2008) Reynolds, Jason. When I Was the Greatest (S. & S., 2014) Note: I was unable to identify realistic teen fiction titles for borderline personality disorder, panic disorder, seasonal affective disorder, and schizoaffective disorder. Feel free to suggest titles in the comments section.We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing