Body Image and Wrestling With Weight Control

WINTERGIRLS
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder.

THIS BOOK ISN'T FAT, IT'S FABULOUS
by Nina Beck
Sixteen-year-old Riley Swain, pushed into spending Spring Break at an upstate New York "fat farm" by her father's fiancée, is happy with her weight but finds she has a lot to learn about friendship and love.

FAT CAT
by Robin Brande
Overweight teenage Catherine embarks on a high school science project in which she must emulate the ways of hominims, the earliest ancestors of human beings, by eating an all-natural diet and foregoing technology.

STAYING FAT FOR SARAH BYRNES
by Chris Crutcher
Eric and Sarah have been friends since junior high, when his weight and her scars made them outcasts. In high school, Eric has slimmed and Sarah doesn't let being an outsider hurt her. Now she sits silent in a hospital. Can Eric uncover her secret before it puts them both in danger?

THE CAT ATE MY GYMSUIT
by Paula Danziger
Marcy is 13, overweight and feels like she has no friends. But when her favorite teacher gets fired, she decides it's time to take some control over her life.

PERFECT
by Natasha Friend
Following the death of her father, a thirteen-year-old uses bulimia as a way to avoid her mother's and ten-year-old sister's grief, as well as her own.

FAT KID RULES THE WORLD
by K.L. Going
Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal and weighing nearly 300 pounds, gets a new perspective on life when a homeless teenager who is a genius on guitar wants Troy to be the drummer in his rock band.

WHEN ZACHARY BEAVER CAME TO TOWN
by Kimberly Willis Holt
This National Book Award-winning novel explores what happens when an obese 13-year-old moves into town and changes the community forever.

THE DUFF (DESIGNATED UGLY FAT FRIEND)
by Kody Keplinger
Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper starts sleeping with Wesley Rush, a notorious womanizer who disgusts her, in order to distract her from her personal problems, and to her surprise, the two of them find they have a lot in common and are able to help each other find more productive ways to deal with their difficulties.

JERSEY TOMATOES ARE THE BEST
by Maria Padian
When fifteen-year-old best friends Henry and Eve leave New Jersey, one for tennis camp in Florida and one for ballet camp in New York, each faces challenges that put her long-cherished dreams of the future to the test.

BLOB
by Frieda Wishinsky
It's hard enough for Eve to adjust to a new high school without the extra weight she's gained over the summer. Her best friend is ashamed to hang out with her, and she's become the focus of a schoolmate's cruelty. Determined not to be "that pathetic fat girl" at school, Eve struggles with a diet and forces herself to join a mentoring program. The diet only makes her food obsessed, and she feels she is failing as a mentor. How can a lonely fat girl gain the confidence she needs to succeed?

FOOD, GIRLS, AND OTHER THINGS I CAN'T HAVE
by Allen Zadoff
Fifteen-year-old Andrew Zansky, the second fattest student at his high school, joins the varsity football team to get the attention of a new girl on whom he has a crush.

Cliques, Bullies and the Friends that Help You Through It All

THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART TIME INDIAN
by Sherman Alexie
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

THE SWEETHEART OF PROSPER COUNTY
by Jill Alexander
In a small East Texas town largely ruled by prejudices and bullies, fourteen-year-old Austin sets out to win a ride in the next parade and, in the process, grows in her understanding of friendship and helps her widowed mother through her mourning.

YOU KILLED WESLEY PAYNE
by Sean Beaudoin
Hard-boiled seventeen-year-old Dalton Rev transfers to the mean hallways of Salt River High to take on the toughest case of his life. The question isn't whether Dalton's going to get paid. He always gets paid. Or whether he's gonna get the girl. He always (sometimes) gets the girl. The real question is whether Dalton Rev can outwit crooked cops and killer cliques in time to solve the mystery of "The Body" before it solves him.

AUDREY, WAIT!
by Robin Benway
While trying to score a date with her cute co-worker at the Scooper Dooper, sixteen-year-old Audrey gains unwanted fame and celebrity status when her ex-boyfriend, a rock musician, records a breakup song about her that soars to the top of the Billboard charts.

TANGERINE
by Edward Bloor
Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged his eyesight.

LIE
by Caroline Bock
Told in several voices, a group of Long Island high school seniors conspire to protect eighteen-year-old Jimmy after he brutally assaults two Salvadoran immigrants, until they begin to see the moral implications of Jimmy's actions and the consequences of being loyal to a violent bully.

THE PRICE OF LOYALTY
by Mike Castan
Mexican American middle-schooler Manny finds himself caught between going along with his friends who are set on forming a gang and cutting his ties to them and following his own inclination to stay out of trouble.

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
by Stephen Chbosky
Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie is navigating through the strange worlds of love, drugs, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," and dealing with the loss of a good friend and his favorite aunt.

IF A TREE FALLS AT LUNCH PERIOD
by Gennifer Choldenko
Kirsten and Walk, seventh-graders at an elite private school, alternate telling how race, wealth, weight, and other issues shape their relationships as they and other misfits stand up to a mean but influential classmate, even as they are uncovering a long-kept secret about themselves.

LEVERAGE
by Joshua C. Cohen
High school sophomore Danny excels at gymnastics but is bullied, like the rest of the gymnasts, by members of the football team, until an emotionally and physically scarred new student joins the football team and forms an unlikely friendship with Danny.

POPULAR
by Alissa Grosso
Told from their different viewpoints, Fidelity High seniors Olivia, Zelda, Nordica, and Shelly observe their clique, the elite entourage of popular Hamilton Best, crumbling due to lies and secrets, including one that could destroy Hamilton's world.

BRUTAL
by Michael B. Harmon
Forced to leave Los Angeles for life in a quiet California wine town with a father she has never known, rebellious sixteen-year-old Poe Holly rails against a high school system that allows elite students special privileges and tolerates bullying of those who are different.

DARK DUDE
by Oscar Hijuelos
In the 1960s, Rico Fuentes, a pale-skinned Cuban American teenager, abandons drug-infested New York City for the picket fence and apple pie world of Wisconsin, only to discover that he still feels like an outsider and that violent and judgmental people can be found even in the wholesome Midwest.

THE MISFITS
by James Howe
Four unpopular 7th graders, cruelly taunted by classmates, band together to confront the bullies.

P.S. LONGER LETTER LATER and SNAIL MAIL NO MORE
by Ann M. Martin and Paula Danziger
Tara and Elizabeth use snail mail and then email to "talk" about everything that is occurring in their lives and to try to maintain their closeness as they face big changes.

SHINE
by Lauren Myracle
When her best friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover the culprits in her small North Carolina town.

BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS, I'LL BE DEAD
by Julie Anne Peters
High school student Daelyn Rice, who has been bullied throughout her school career and has more than once attempted suicide, again makes plans to kill herself, in spite of the persistent attempts of an unusual boy to draw her out.

BYSTANDER
by James Preller
Thirteen-year-old Eric discovers there are consequences to not standing by and watching as the bully at his new school hurts people, but although school officials are aware of the problem, Eric may be the one with a solution.

BAD APPLE
by Laura Ruby
Tola Riley, a high school junior, struggles to tell the truth when she and her art teacher are accused of having an affair.

OKAY FOR NOW
by Gary D. Schmidt
As a fourteen-year-old who just moved to a new town, with no friends, an abusive father, and a louse for an older brother, Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him until he finds an ally in Lil Spicer – a fiery young lady. Together, they find a safe haven in the local library, inspiration in learning about the plates of John James Audubon's birds, and a hilarious adventure on a Broadway stage.

SOME GIRLS ARE
by Courtney Summers
Regina, a high school senior in the popular – and feared – crowd, suddenly falls out of favor and becomes the object of the same sort of vicious bullying that she used to inflict on others, until she finds solace with one of her former victims.

JUMPED
by Rita Williams-Garcia
The lives of Leticia, Dominique and Trina are irrevocably intertwined through the course of one day in an urban high school after Leticia overhears Dominique's plans to beat up Trina and must decide whether or not to get involved.

Life Changes and Dealing With Family

THE SLEDDING HILL
by Chris Crutcher
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.

EVERYTHING I WAS
by Corinne Demas
Thirteen-year-old Irene helps in her grandfather's plant nursery, makes new friends, and begins to learn what she really wants and needs after her father, having lost his job as an investment banker, moves her and her mother to his father's farmhouse upstate.

REVOLUTION
by Jennifer Donnelly
An angry, grieving seventeen-year-old musician facing expulsion from her prestigious Brooklyn private school travels to Paris to complete a school assignment and uncovers a diary written during the French revolution by a young actress attempting to help a tortured, imprisoned little boy – Louis Charles, the lost king of France.

HIDDEN
by Helen Frost
When fourteen-year-olds Wren and Darra meet at a Michigan summer camp, both are overwhelmed by memories from six years earlier when Darra's father stole a car, unaware that Wren was hiding in the back.

IMPULSE
by Ellen Hopkins
Three teens who meet at Reno, Nevada's Aspen Springs mental hospital after each has attempted suicide connect with each other in a way they never have with their parents or anyone else in their lives.

EVERYBODY SEES THE ANTS
by A. S. King
Overburdened by his parents' bickering and a bully's attacks, fifteen-year-old Lucky Linderman begins dreaming of being with his grandfather, who went missing during the Vietnam War, but during a visit to Arizona, his aunt and uncle and their beautiful neighbor, Ginny, help him find a new perspective.

SEAN GRISWOLD'S HEAD
by Lindsey Leavitt
After discovering that her father has multiple sclerosis, fifteen-year-old Payton begins counseling sessions at school, which lead her to become interested in a boy in her biology class, have a falling out with her best friend, develop an interest in bike riding, and eventually allow her to come to terms with life's uncertainties.

HOTHOUSE
by Chris Lynch
Teens D.J. and Russell, life-long friends and neighbors, had drifted apart but when their firefighter fathers are both killed, they try to help one another come to terms with the tragedy and its aftermath.

JELLICOE ROAD
by Melina Marchetta
Abandoned by her drug-addicted mother at the age of eleven, high school student Taylor Markham struggles with her identity and family history at a boarding school in Australia.

UNDER THE MESQUITE
by Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Throughout her high school years, as her mother battles cancer, Lupita takes on more responsibility for her house and seven younger siblings, while finding refuge in acting and writing poetry.

BECOMING NAOMI LEÓN
by Pam Muñoz Ryan
This touching story shows a girl discovering who she really is when her absent mother reappears in her life.

DRUMS, GIRLS, & DANGEROUS PIE
by Jordan Sonnenblick
Things are going great for Steven - until his 5-year-old brother is diagnosed with leukemia and the family is changed forever.

AFTER EVER AFTER
by Jordan Sonnenblick
Although Jeff and Tad, encouraged by a new friend, Lindsey, make a deal to help one another overcome aftereffects of their cancer treatments in preparation for eighth grade graduation, Jeff still craves advice from his older brother Stephen, who is studying drums in Africa.

THE LAST SUMMER OF THE DEATH WARRIORS
by Francisco X. Stork
Seventeen-year-old Pancho is bent on avenging the senseless death of his sister, but after he meets D.Q, who is dying of cancer, and Marisol, one of D.Q.'s caregivers, both boys find their lives changed by their interactions.

WHERE THINGS COME BACK: A NOVEL
by John Corey Whaley
Seventeen-year-old Cullen's summer in Lily, Arkansas, is marked by his cousin's death by overdose, an alleged spotting of a woodpecker thought to be extinct, failed romances, and his younger brother's sudden disappearance.

ABSOLUTELY MAYBE
by Lisa Yee
When living with her mother, an alcoholic ex-beauty queen, becomes unbearable, almost seventeen-year-old Maybelline "Maybe" Chestnut runs away to California, where she finds work on a taco truck and tries to track down her birth father.

Prejudice, Difference and Making Peace With Yourself

TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT ME
by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Lebanese-Australian Jamilah, known in school as Jamie, hides her heritage from her classmates and tries to pass by dyeing her hair blonde and wearing blue-tinted contact lenses, until her conflicted feelings become too much for her to bear.

TWISTED
by Laurie Halse Anderson
After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his ever-angry father, seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when life starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts.

FREAK MAGNET
by Andrew Auseon
Two teenagers, both burdened by grief and loss, find each other and gradually develop a strong connection to one another.

YOU
by Charles Benoit
Fifteen-year-old Kyle discovers the shattering ramifications of the decisions he makes, and does not make, about school, the girl he likes, and his future.

MY INVENTED LIFE
by Lauren Bjorkman
During rehearsals for Shakespeare's "As You Like It," sixteen-year-old Roz, jealous of her cheerleader sister's acting skills and heartthrob boyfriend, invents a new identity, with unexpected results.

LIE
by Caroline Bock
Told in several voices, a group of Long Island high school seniors conspire to protect eighteen-year-old Jimmy after he brutally assaults two Salvadoran immigrants, until they begin to see the moral implications of Jimmy's actions and the consequences of being loyal to a violent bully.

WILL
by Maria Boyd
Seventeen-year-old Will's behavior has been getting him in trouble at his all-boys school in Sydney, Australia, but his latest punishment, playing in the band for a musical production, gives him new insights into his fellow students and helps him cope with an incident he has tried to forget.

IF A TREE FALLS AT LUNCH PERIOD
by Gennifer Choldenko
Kirsten and Walk, seventh-graders at an elite private school, alternate telling how race, wealth, weight, and other issues shape their relationships as they and other misfits stand up to a mean but influential classmate, even as they are uncovering a long-kept secret about themselves.

SAHARA SPECIAL
by Esmé Raji Codell
When a special-needs student joins a mainstream classroom, she discovers her own extraordinary talents with the help of an inspiring teacher.

SUBWAY GIRL
by Peter Converse
In Hong Kong, Chan Tze Man, called Simon Chan, leaves high school because he can't master English, but when he befriends Amy, a Chinese- American who knows little Chinese, their unlikely bond gives hope to both.

THE 10 P.M. QUESTION
by Kate De Goldi
Twelve-year-old Frankie Parsons has a quirky family, a wonderful best friend, and a head full of worrying questions that he shares with his mother each night, but when free-spirited Sydney arrives at school with questions of her own, Frankie is forced to face the ultimate ten p.m. question.

RAGE
by Jackie Kessler
Sixteen-year-old Missy copes with being an outcast at school and stress at home by cutting herself with a razor blade, until Death chooses her as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, War, and offers her a new blade.

NOW PLAYING: STONER AND SPAZ II
by Ronald Koertge
High-schooler Ben Bancroft, a budding filmmaker with Cerebral Palsy, struggles to understand his relationship with drug-addict Colleen while he explores a new friendship with A.J., who shares his obsession with movies and makes a good impression on Ben's grandmother.

CAMO GIRL
by Kekla Magoon
A poignant novel about a biracial girl living in the suburbs of Las Vegas examines the friendships that grow out of, and despite, her race.

MEXICAN WHITEBOY
by Matt de la Peña
Sixteen-year-old Danny searches for his identity amidst the confusion of being half-Mexican and half-white while spending a summer with his cousin and new friends on the baseball fields and back alleys of San Diego County, California.

FREAK THE MIGHTY
by W.R. Philbrick
Two opposites join forces to create a strong and unusual friendship.

PROJECT MULBERRY
by Linda Sue Park
A Korean-American girl comes to terms with her heritage and her new town through a science project.

HOW TO SAY GOODBYE IN ROBOT
by Natalie Standiford
After moving to Baltimore and enrolling in a private school, high school senior Beatrice befriends a quiet loner with a troubled family history.

MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD
by Francisco X. Stork
Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm.

ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY
by Mildred D. Taylor
A black family living in the South during the 1930's are faced with prejudice and discrimination which their children don't understand.

AMERICAN BORN CHINESE
by Gene Luen Yang and Lark Pien
This graphic novel portrays the life of a young Chinese-American boy who moves from San Francisco’s Chinatown to the suburbs, where he is one of two Asian children in the school.

GEEKTASTIC: STORIES FROM THE NERD HERD
by various authors
Geektastic covers all things geeky, from Klingons and Jedi Knights to fan fiction, theater geeks, and cosplayers. Whether you're a former, current, or future geek, or if you just want to get in touch with your inner geek, Geektastic will help you get your geek on!

Struggling With Schoolwork, Sports and Making Your Mark

COMPULSION
by Heidi Ayarbe
Poised to lead his high school soccer team to its third straight state championship, seventeen-year-old star player Jake Martin struggles to keep hidden his nearly debilitating obsessive-compulsive disorder.

THE END OF THE LINE
by Angela Cerrito
In the prison-like school that is his last chance, thirteen-year-old Robbie tries to recover from events that brought him there, including his uncle's war injuries and the death of a classmate who may have been his friend.

THE VIEW FROM SATURDAY
by E. L. Konigsburg
Told from the viewpoints of five characters, this Newbery Award-winning novel shows what happens when a diverse group of middle-schoolers form an academic Olympic team.

ANGRY YOUNG MAN
by Chris Lynch
Eighteen-year-old Robert tries to help his half-brother Xan, a seventeen-year-old misfit, to make better choices as he becomes increasingly attracted to a variety of protesters, anarchists, and the like.

MIDDLE SCHOOL, THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE
by James Patterson
When Rafe Khatchadorian enters middle school, he teams up with his best friend, "Leo the Silent," to create a game to make school more fun by trying to break every rule in the school's code of conduct.

NOBODY WAS HERE: SEVENTH GRADE IN THE LIFE OF ME, PENELOPE
by Alison Pollet
Life in New York in the 1980s is made more difficult for a middle school girl by problems at home and at school.

BLUEFISH
by Pat Schmatz
Everything changes for thirteen-year-old Travis, a new student who is trying to hide his illiteracy, when he meets a sassy classmate with her own secrets and a remarkable teacher.

THE RUNNING DREAM
by Wendelin Van Draanen
When a school bus accident leaves sixteen-year-old Jessica an amputee, she returns to school with a prosthetic limb and her track team finds a wonderful way to help rekindle her dream of running again.