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FICTION:

Speak
By Laurie H. Anderson (YA ANDERSON) 197p HS
Everyone blames Melinda, but no one knows the truth about that night.

The Hanged Man
By Francesca Lia Block (YA BLOCK) 137p HS
When her father dies, Laurel stops eating and starts losing control.

Candy
By Kevin Brooks (YA BROOKS) 368p HS
Boring Joe’s life becomes “interesting” when he hooks up w/ Candy’s world of drugs & violence.

True Confessions of a Heartless Girl
By Martha Brooks (YA BROOKS) 192p HS
When a troubled teen shows up in a small town, a single mother, two elderly women, and a lonely man find a better future.

Smack
By Melvin Burgess (YA BURGESS) 327p HS
Gemma & Tar leave home looking for freedom...and find themselves giving it all up for smack.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
By Stephen Chbosky (YA CHBOSKY) 213p HS
What do you do when you're caught between trying to live your life--and trying to run from it?

Beauty Queen
By Linda Glovach (FIC GLOVACH)168p HS
A 19-year-old girl tells the story how her alcoholic mother and her mother’s abusive boyfriend drive her to heroine addiction.

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
By Joanne Greenberg (YA GREENBERG) 300p HS
Deborah must overcome the seductiveness of madness and rejoin the real world with the help of her brilliant psychiatrist and terrified parents.

Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey
By Margaret P. Haddix (YA HADDIX) 108p HS
An English class assignment to keep a daily journal becomes important for Tish when she begins sharing her real concerns.

Crank
By Ellen Hopkins (YA HOPKINS) 573p HS
Kristina's downward spiral from perfect daughter to drug addict is told in stark verse.

Stoner and Spaz
By Ron Koertge (YA KOERTGE) 169p HS
He's Brooks Brothers, she's Salvation Army. He's never even smoked a cig, she's got 20 different chemicals running through her veins. But when these two lonely teens meet one night at Ben's favorite hang, sparks fly. At least for Ben they do.

Rx
By Tracy Lynn (YA LYNN) 262p HS
Thyme Gilcrest is popular and smart. But Thyme is also a drug dealer.

Cut
By Patricia McCormick (YA MCCORMICK) 136p HS
"Then I placed the blade next to the skin on my palm."

Beast
By Walter Dean Myers (YA MYERS) 170p HS
When Anthony goes home to his Harlem neighborhood, he finds out the girl he loves is doing drugs.

Lisa, Bright and Dark
By John Neufeld (YA NEUFELD) 125p HS
At sixteen, Lisa suffers a nervous breakdown that no one can explain.

Don’t Think Twice
By Ruth Pennebaker (YA PENNEBAKER) 262p HS
Pregnant Anne finds a different world when she comes to stay at a home for unwed mothers in 1960s Texas.

33 Snowfish
By Adam Rapp (YA RAPP) 179p HS
A homeless boy finds a new life while running from the police with a drug-addicted prostitute.

Under the Wolf, Under the Dog
By Adam Rapp (YA RAPP) 304p HS
Steve's life has been anything but uneventful for the past year, and coming to terms with so many life-altering experiences has left him a wreck. Can he survive everything life is throwing his way?

Treacherous Love
By Beatrice Sparks, ed. (YA SPARKS)164p HS
Jennie is already confused and in anguish, but all that pales when she falls for her teacher.

Crosses
By Shelley Stoehr (YA STOEHR)153p HS
Unhappy at home, Nancy and her friend Katie adopt punk lifestyles and find relief in cutting themselves, until Nancy is forced to confront her problems.

Can't Get There From Here
by Todd Strasser (YA STRASSER) 208p MS/HS
Tired of being hungry, cold, and dirty from living on the streets of New York City with a tribe of other homeless teenagers who are dying, one by one, a girl named Maybe ponders her future and longs for someone to care about her.

Leslie’s Journal
By Allan Stratton (YA STRATTON) 196p HS
For Leslie, grade nine was trouble-filled and grade ten is worse. Enter Jason McCready, new at school and ultra-cool. Leslie is in love!

When She Hollers
by Cynthia Voigt (YA VOIGT) 177p MS/HS
Tish has endured abuse from her stepfather for far too long. Now she will stop it. Whatever the cost.

Changing Jareth
By Elizabeth Wennick (YA WENNICK) 278p HS
An unflinching portrayal of the darker side of life and one teenager's against-the-odds struggle to take responsibility for his actions and realize his potential.

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REAL LIFE STORIES:

Jay’s Journal
By Beatrice Sparks, ed. (133.4 SPA)192p HS
Jay's journal reveals his growing involvement with witchcraft before his suicide at age 16.

Annie’s Baby: The Diary of Anonymous, A Pregnant Teenager
By Beatrice Sparks, ed. (306.8743 ANN) 245p HS
When Annie discovers she's pregnant, she's devastated. With no one she can talk to, she pours her heart out to her diary, her feelings of panic, self-doubt, and the hope that some day she can turn her life around.

Girl, Interrupted
By Susanna Kaysen (362.21 KAY) 168p HS
In 1967, 18-year old Susanna voluntarily admitted herself to a two-year stay at a psychiatric institute, with a diagnosis of "borderline personality."

Kim: Empty Inside: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager
by Beatrice Sparks, ed. (362.25 KIM)165p HS
When Kim can't handle things, she eats. Then she purges. Sometimes she fasts. She knows she isn't as thin as the other girls on her gymnastics team, but eating is the one thing she can control -- or can she?

A Million Little Pieces
By James Frey (362.29 FRE) 381p HS
James Frey's memoir of drug addiction and recovery was a bestseller even before Oprah picked it for her book club, but the subsequent revelations about discrepancies between the story and the author’s real life touched off a national debate about the line between fact and fiction.

Smashed: The Story of a Drunken Girlhood
By Koren Zailickas (362.292 ZAI 2005) 342p HS
Like many girls, she took her first tentative sips at the age of 14. Two years later, she would remember few details of the night she landed -- bruised, filthy, and completely spent -- in the local emergency room, a couple of drinks away from death by alcohol poisoning.

Katie.com: My Story
(364.153 TAR) 196p HS
How does a harmless 'Net romance become an encounter with a pedophile?

Almost Lost: The True Story of an Anonymous Teenager’s Life on the Streets
(616.85 ALM) 240p HS
"Who in his right mind wants to talk to a shrink? I don't want to talk about anything. I don't want to feel anything, taste anything ... or anything."

Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self
(616.85 GOT) 222p HS
Lori has one goal: "to be the thinnest eleven-year-old on the entire planet."

Wasted: A Memoir
By Mayra Hornbacker (616.85 HOR) 298p HS
"How did your eating disorder start? the therapists ask years later, watching me pick at my nails, curled up in a ball in an endless series of leather chairs. Hell if I know."

It Happened to Nancy
By Beatrice Sparks, ed. (616.97 ITH) 241p HS
The editor of the classic Go Ask Alice has compiled the poignant journals of a 14-year-old date-rape victim who contracted AIDS and died.

A Hole in My Life
By Jack Gantos (813.54 GAN) 199p HS
From a young man who spent 15 months in a federal prison for drug smuggling and eventually became a successful author.

MS = Most appropriate for middle schoolers
MS/HS = Most appropriate for middle/high schoolers
HS = Most appropriate for high schoolers

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