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All the Feels Middle School |
Fiction with tough themes and/or sad endings. |
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Something kindred
by Ciera Burch
Forced to spend the summer before senior year in Coldwater, Maryland, where her estranged and dying grandmother lives, Jericka makes a chilling discovery that causes her to question everything she thought she knew about her mother, her childhood, and the lines between the living and the dead.
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Red
by Annie Cardi
When Tess's decision to get an abortion goes public, she is rejected and harassed by people in her community, but she soon finds solace in her music and uses her voice to end the cycle of abuse in her small town.
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Bright red fruit
by Safia Elhillo
"Samira is determined to have a perfect summer filled with fun parties, exploring DC, and growing as a poet--until a scandalous rumor has her grounded and unable to leave her house. When Samira turns to a poetry forum for solace, she catches the eye of an older, charismatic poet named Horus. For the first time, Samira feels wanted. But soon she's keeping a bigger secret than ever before--one that that could prove her reputation and jeopardize her place in her community"
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You're breaking my heart
by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
When the strange new girl at her high school takes her to a place underneath the subways of New York, where people like them can go and find a home, Harriet Adu, who is riddled with guilt over her brother's death, gets a second chance at being a better person.
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Break to you
by Neal Shusterman
This fast-paced, highly compelling story exposes what life is like in a juvenile detention center?—?and reveals the hearts of two teens, Adriana and Jon, who are forced to live in desperate circumstances.
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One last chance to live
by Francisco X. Stork
NIco, a Bronx high school senior surrounded by gangs and drugs, records how he comes to terms with the death of the girl he loved and finds a reason to move on with life.
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Brighter than the sun
by Daniel Aleman
Leaving Tijuana, Mexico, behind to find a part-time job in San Diego to help her dad, 16-year-old Sol, with her life divided by an international border, grapples with loneliness and the part of her that may never want to return home.
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Spin
by Rebecca Caprara
After the tragic death of her family, 16-year-old Arachne flees to the city of Colophon, where her skills as a weaver are put to the test, leading to a confrontation with the goddess Athena that results in an exposé of divine misdeeds and unexpected redemption.
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I kick and I fly
by Ruchira Gupta
Instead of being sold into Bihar, India's sex trade, 14-year-old Heera stays at a local hostel for at-risk girls where she learns, through the practice of martial arts, that her body is a vessel through which she can protect herself and those around her.
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Time out
by Sean Hayes
When high school basketball star Barclay Elliot comes out during the biggest pep rally in the town's history, he is faced with unexpected hostility until his best friend Amy introduces him to Christopher, who offers him a real shot at love.
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The weight of everything
by Marcia Argueta Mickelson
Following her mother's tragic death, seventeen-year-old Sarah takes on the role of caretaker to her grieving father and younger brother, which leaves little time and emotional energy for a relationship, but when a school project helps her rediscover her love of art, her perspective shifts.
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Chaos theory
by Nic Stone
A senior at Windward Academy, Shelbi, who has a diagnosed mental illness, keeps to herself until she forms a connection with Andy Criddle, who is battling addiction, but the closer they get, the more the past threatens to pull them apart.
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Saints of the household
by Ari Tison
After breaking up a fight that harms their school's star soccer player in the process, two Bribri American brothers have to lay low due to their physically abusive father and grapple with the weight of their actions to find their way forward.
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The 9:09 project
by Mark H. Parsons
Seventeen-year-old Jamison finds hope after the loss of his mother, and recognizes the role that family, friends, and even strangers can play in the healing process if you are open and willing to share your experience with others.
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The ghosts we keep
by Mason Deaver
Everything happens for a reason. At least that's what everyone keeps telling Liam Cooper after his older brother Ethan is killed suddenly in a hit-and-run. Feeling more alone and isolated than ever, Liam has to not only learn to face the world without one of the people he loved the most, but also face the fading relationships of his two best friends in the process. Soon, Liam finds themself spending time with Ethan's best friend, Marcus, who might just be the only person that seems to know exactly what they're going through.
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No beauties or monsters
by Tara Goedjen
Even though she is suffering from memory loss and hallucinations, Rylie must unravel her family's secrets in order to save herself and find her missing friend
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Bad girls never say die
by Jennifer Mathieu
In this gender-flipping reimagining of S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders" set in 1964 Houston, Evie must redefine what it means to be a bad girl and rethink everything she knows about loyalty after she is saved from the unimaginable by a good girl from the "right" side of the tracks.
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The cost of knowing
by Brittney Morris
Struggling with constant visions of the future whenever he touches an object or person, 16-year-old ice-cream shop employee Alex Rufus finds his life upended when he has a premonition about the imminent death of his brother.
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Where echoes lie
by Shannon Schuren
In this eerie thriller of a ghost story, a teenage girl must solve the mystery of the ghost bride that has haunted her community in rural Kentucky for more than a century.
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Thirty talks weird love
by Alessandra Narvâaez-Varela
In Cuidad Juâarez, Mexico in 1999, where kidnapping of girls and women is common, a woman approaches thirteen-year-old Anamaria claiming to be her future self, offering advice and requesting help
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Fadeaway
by Elaine Vickers
When a high school basketball star goes missing overnight after thousands watched him secure the title for his team, his best friend, his conflicted ex-girlfriend and his devastated younger brother search for clues that expose deeply hidden community secrets.
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King and the dragonflies
by Kacen Callender
A 12-year-old boy spends days in the mystical Louisiana bayou to come to terms with a sibling's sudden death, his grief-stricken family and the disappearance of his former best friend amid whispers about the latter's sexual orientation. By the award-winning author of Hurricane Child.
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All this time
by Mikki Daughtry
After a traumatic accident, Kyle feels lost until he meets Marley, who seems like the girl of his dreams, but as they grow closer he fears he is headed for another crash
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The year after you
by Nina de Pass
Haunted by her role in a best friend's accidental death, Cara enrolls in a Swiss boarding school where new classmates and a possible romantic interest encourage her to let down her walls and embrace a new start.
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In your shoes
by Donna Gephart
Miles is an anxious boy who loves his family's bowling center. Amy is the new girl at school, who tries to write her way to her own happily-ever-after and does not want to live above her uncles funeral home. Then Miles and Amy meet in the most unexpected way ... and it is the beginning of everything.
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Dear Universe
by Florence Gonsalves
A high school senior anxiously battles the demands of college admissions and her father's terminal illness before a creative hospital volunteer helps her find balance. By the award-winning author of Love & Other Carnivorous Plants.
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Punching the air
by Ibi Aanu Zoboi
The award-winning author of American Street and the prison reform activist of the Exonerated Five trace the story of a young artist and poet whose prospects at a diverse art school are threatened by a racially biased system and a tragic altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood.
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Brief chronicle of another stupid heartbreak
by Adi Alsaid
Struggling with writer's block after being dumped after graduation, a teen romance columnist in fear of losing her college scholarship chronicles the relationship of a couple that has planned their end-of-summer breakup.
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The silence between us
by Alison Gervais
After moving to Colorado, deaf seventeen-year-old Maya is forced to attend a hearing school, where she must navigate a new life and prove that her lack of hearing will not stop her from pursuing her dreams. Includes an interview with the author.
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The how & the why
by Cynthia Hand
A novel told from the viewpoints of an adoptee and the teen mother who gave her up 18 years earlier follows Cassandra's search for clues about her true identity in the letters left behind by her birth mother. By the best-selling author of the Unearthly trilogy.
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More than we can tell
by Brigid Kemmerer
When Rev Fletcher and Emma Blue meet, they both long to share secrets, his of being abused by his birth father, hers of her parents' failing marriage and an online troll who truly frightens her.
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Dear Rachel Maddow
by Adrienne Kisner
Brynn Harper writes unsent e-mails to her favorite news anchor as she deals with a breakup with her first girlfriend, her parents' dysfunctions, and the death of her older brother.
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Five feet apart
by Rachael Lippincott
Seventeen-year-olds Stella and Will, both suffering from cystic fibrosis, realize the only way to stay alive is to stay apart, but their love for each other is slowly pushing the boundaries of physical and emotional safety.
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To be honest
by Maggie Ann Martin
After her older sister goes to college, Savannah is left home alone with her weight-obsessed mother, and must find consolation in a new relationship with George, who has insecurities of his own.
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The girl with the broken heart
by Lurlene McDaniel
To escape her father's overprotectiveness, twenty-year-old Kenzie Caine spends the summer working at a horse farm rehabilitating Tennessee Walking horses, where a good deed results in a violent end to the summer and the revelation of her attractive assistant's secrets.
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Buried beneath the baobab tree
by Adaobi Nwaubani
After being kidnapped by the Boko Haram, a young Nigerian student is made to practice the radical beliefs of her captors, but plans for an escape and a return to her family and previous way of life.
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We are okay : a novel
by Nina LaCour
After picking up and leaving everything behind in California, eighteen-year-old Marin, with the help of her former friend, must confront her grief and the truths that caused her to flee her home.
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Everything all at once
by Katrina Leno
When her struggles with anxiety worsen in the aftermath of a family death, Lottie is bequeathed a series of letters from her late aunt, a best-selling author, who leaves instructions to help Lottie overcome her fears and explore her own literary voice. By the author of The Lost & Found.
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Girl against the universe
by Stokes, Paula
Maguire, who has horribly bad luck, tries to isolate herself to protect others, but soon encounters Jordy, an aspiring tennis star, who is determined to help break her unlucky streak
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The boy in the black suit
by Jason Reynolds
Working in the local funeral home to support his family after his mother's death and his father's descent into alcoholism, Matt falls in love with a tough girl who never cries and who understands his loneliness. By the author of When I Was the Greatest.
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Orbiting Jupiter
by Gary D Schmidt
Twelve-year-old Jack narrates the story of foster teen Joseph, who after serving time in a juvenile facility has been placed with a family on a rural Maine farm and who resolves to track down the daughter he has never met.
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See you at Harry's
by Johanna Knowles
Fern feels invisible in her family, where Sarah is working at the family restaurant, Holden is struggling with bullies, and Charlie is the center of attention, and when tragedy strikes, the bond holding the family together is stretched almost to the breaking point.
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Punching bag
by Rex Ogle
Punching Bag is the compelling true story of a high school career defined by poverty and punctuated by outbreaks of domestic abuse. Rex Ogle, who brilliantly mapped his experience of hunger in Free Lunch, here describes his struggle to survive; reflects on his complex, often paradoxical relationship with his passionate, fierce mother; and charts the trajectory of his stepdad's anger. Hovering over Rex's story is the talismanic presence of his unborn baby sister. Through it all, Rex threads moments of grace and humor that act as beacons of light in the darkness. Compulsively readable, beautifully crafted, and authentically told, Punching Bag is a remarkable memoir about one teenager's cycle of violence, blame, and attempts to forgive his parents-and himself.
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The dark matter of Mona Starr
by Laura Lee Gulledge
A graphic-novel depiction of the inner life of a teen with depression follows the experiences of Mona Starr, who learns how to manage profound feelings of unworthiness through therapy, art, writing and the support of a few good friends.
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