Summer reading is a standing part of a school’s curriculum, but what prepares you for class in the fall doesn’t necessarily prepare you for, well, anything else. College is a whole different animal from high school, and if you really want some reading to help you prep for new people, new living situations, new emotions, […]
Young adult author Jessica Verdi has written about a teen living with HIV (My Life After Now) and a girl going to a “reparative therapy” camp to learn how to like boys instead of girls (The Summer I Wasn’t Me). Needless to say, Verdi doesn’t shy away from tough situations in her work—and her upcoming spring […]
Issues of mental health are tricky enough to understand in life; to capture them well in literature can be nearly impossible. It’s far too easy to get caught up in stereotypes, misinformation, and stigmatization. But when a book does get it right, it can be a literal lifesaver. Literature with teen protagonists suffering from mental […]
In Joe Shine’s Bobby Sky: Boy Band or Die, charming delinquent Hutch has broken the law one time too many and is given a choice. He can rot in jail, or he can join FATE, Future Affairs Education and Training, where he’ll learn to be the deadly protector of a future famous person. Two years […]
I wish I could remember what led me to It’s Kind of a Funny Story. I desperately want to share the meet-cute origin story of my love affair with this novel, but I don’t recall it. But that doesn’t stop this book from being one of the most important reads in my life, and it […]