Teen Fiction for Mental Health Awareness Month
Here is a selection of stories about teens dealing with depression, anxiety, grief and more. (Created April 2024)
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Ab(solutely) Normal
Sixteen authors create a variety of stories about teens facing mental health conditions and learning they do not have to be defined by those conditions.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Cartographers
Ocean Sun's acceptance to a prestigious college meets her mother's high expectations, but leaves her feeling adrift and depressed, and considering suicide. When she meets a white graffiti artist in a subway station, she begins to understand there are other ways to live.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Clementine
Since Halley's younger sister died of a peanut allergy two years before, she has struggled with grief, depression, and suicidal thoughts, but a stay at a "low-rent Outward Bound" program helps her to slowly heal.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Friday I'm in Love
Mahalia is determined to throw herself a queer coming-out party that also celebrates her Blackness, but challenging friendships, anxiety, and experiences of racism and homophobia threaten to derail her self-esteem.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Hoop and the Harm
Udoka has always loved basketball with a passion, and his level of play could take him to the pros, but his older brother's obsessive mentoring plus his own self-doubt has him wondering if he can really keep playing at all. Can a psychologist help him work through his anxieties?
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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If Tomorrow Doesn't Come
On the morning Avery decides she will end her life because of a falling out with her best friend and secret crush Cass, everyone learns an unstoppable asteroid will hit the planet in nine days. To spare her family and friends, Avery puts off her decision and meets Cass. Can they rebuild their friendship before the end?
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Immeasurable Depth of You
Brynn's obsession with death, anxiety, and isolation worries her mother so much she is sent to spend the summer with her father, who lives on a houseboat in the Everglades. There she meets Skylar, who is athletic, confident, and outgoing, but who harbors a secret that will draw Brynn out of her own darkest thoughts.
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Shut Up, This Is Serious
As daughters of hardworking immigrant families, Leti and Belén face a tough road ahead, especially when Leti realizes she is pregnant and her family will never accept her Black boyfriend. Meanwhile, Belén's father abandons her family and makes her dream of college harder to reach. Can the two face the legacy of familial abuse and find their future together?
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Skater Boy
Wes has earned his reputation as a bad boy, hanging out with his friends, failing school, and bullying others, but when his mother takes him to the Nutcracker, he is immediately attracted to Tristan, the Black star of the show. Can he come out, face his own family trauma, and grow out of his inability to open up to others by starting a relationship with Tristan?
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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