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All About Books: Social Issues

Literature is one of the ways to understand and combat the difficult social issues that shape our world.

We gain tolerance, and empathy when we read about the struggles of others and we may learn more about ourselves in the process!

Social/ Emotional Health

All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters
Cut by Patricia McCormick
Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Fans of the Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa
Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella
Gravity Journal by Gail Sidonie Sobat
Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
Letting Ana Go by Anonymous
Made You Up by Francesca Zappia
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
OCDaniel by Wesley King
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida
The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern
The Spark by Kristine Barnett
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green; David Levithan
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Societal Conflict

This Book Won't Burn by Samira Ahmed

Bullying & Violence

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
All the Rage by Courtney Summers
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Bronxwood by Coe Booth
Dear Bully by Megan Kelley Hall
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Fishtailing by Wendy Phillips
The Girls by Emma Cline
Goth Girl Rising by Barry Lyga
Hate List by Jennifer Brown
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Letters to a Bullied Girl by Olivia Gardner; Emily Buder; Sarah Buder
Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt
Playground by 50 Cent Staff
Room by Emma Donohue
Shooter by Caroline Pignat
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Street Pharm by Allison van Diepen
Takedown by Allison van Diepen
To This Day by Shane Koyczan
The Truth about Alice by Jennifer Mathieu
Tyrell by Coe Booth
Under the Bridge by Rebecca Godfrey

Substance Abuse/Addiction

Last Night I Sang to the Monster by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Louis Undercover by Fanny Britt; Isabelle Arsenault (Illustrator)
Med Head by James Patterson; Hal Friedman
Tweak by Nic Sheff
We All Fall Down by Nic Sheff

Challenging Relationships

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
Bitter End by Jennifer Brown
The Dogs by Allan Stratton
Educated by Tara Westover
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Emmy and Oliver by Robin Benway
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Happyface by Stephen Emond
How It Feels to Float by Helena Fox
The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown
A Very, Very Bad Thing by Jeffery Self
We Are All Made of Molecules by Susin Nielsen-Fernlund
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
The Year They Fell by David Kreizman
Ziggy, Stardust and Me by James Brandon
Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
North of Normal by Cea Sunrise Person

Discrimination

The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof; Sheryl WuDunn
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Internment by Samira Ahmed
On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo