Keeping It Real

If there's no tomorrow / Jennifer L. Armentrout

Beginning her senior year of high school determined to finish college applications and reveal to her best friend how she really feels about him, Lena is devastated by a terrible accident that leaves her overwhelmed with guilt.

With the fire on high / Elizabeth Acevedo

Teen mother Emoni Santiago struggles with the challenges of finishing high school and her dream of working as a chef.

We were beautiful / Heather Hepler

Mia's scarred face is a constant reminder of the car crash that killed her sister, but a summer at her grandmother's Manhattan apartment and new friends help her find happiness again.

Under rose-tainted skies / Louise Gornall

Will teenaged Norah, who is struggling with agoraphobia and OCD, accept that she could be the right one for sweet, funny Luke?

You against me / Jenny Downham

When Mikey's younger sister claims to have been raped and he seeks to avenge the crime, he meets Ellie, the sister of the accused. They soon become friends which complicates the situation for everyone.

How to live without you / Sarah Everett

Determined to find her missing sister, Rose, seventeen-year-old Emmy returns to their Ohio hometown for the summer where she is faced with secrets and lies she never thought possible as she follows in Rose's last-known footsteps.

The lightness of hands / Jeff Garvin

A teen with bipolar II signs her father up to perform his legendary but infamously failed illusion on live television in the hope of making enough money to pay for desperately needed medication.

Girl on the line / Faith Gardner

After an attempted suicide and bipolar diagnosis, Journey decides to volunteer at a crisis center and discovers a community of people that may help her find the light within herself that she did not know existed.

How it feels to float / Helena Fox

Biz’s world turns from balance to grief and depression when her father, whom she has been seeing since his death when she was seven, suddenly stops appearing to her, and she must find a new normal.

I have lost my way / Gayle Forman

Three teenagers, Freya, Harun, and Nathaniel feel lost in various ways, and when they collide in Central Park, they begin to find purpose in their lives.

You know I'm no good / Jessie Ann Foley

When troubled teen Mia gets sent to Road Oak Academy, a therapeutic girls boarding school, she is forced to confront her painful past.

The name she gave me / Betty Culley

In this deeply emotional story, sixteen-year-old Rynn secretly decides to search for her biological family, learning that she has a younger sister in foster care two towns away, a discovery that could tear her adoptive family apart.

Sorry for your loss / Jessie Ann Foley

Pup Flanagan routinely settles for less and since his brother, the only one who made him think he could be more, dies, he basically sleepwalks through life, until a photography assignment changes his view of things.

Wintergirls / 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.

Tease / Amanda Maciel.

A teenage girl faces criminal charges for bullying after a classmate commits suicide.

By the time you read this, I'll be dead / Julie Anne Peters.

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.

Chlorine sky / Mahogany L. Browne

Picked on at home, criticized for talking trash while beating boys at basketball, and always seen as less than her best friend, a girl struggles to like and accept herself.

Far from the tree / Robin Benway

Feeling incomplete as an adopted child after placing her own baby up for adoption, Grace tracks down her biological siblings and struggles with the dynamics of being a middle child between an embittered brother and an outspoken sister.

Girl made of stars / Ashley Herring Blake

When Mara's twin brother Owen is accused of rape by her friend Hannah, Mara is forced to confront her feelings about her family, her sense of right and wrong, a trauma from her past, and the future with her girlfriend, Charlie.

Dreaming of Antigone / Robin Bridges

Six months after her twin sister dies of a heroin overdose, Andria finds herself in a relationship with the boy she blames for her sister's death.

A breath too late / Rocky Callen

After committing suicide just before high school graduation, Ellie Walker haunts her home and school, reflecting on her life of domestic violence, friendship with August, and dreams of a writing career.

Everything's not fine / Sarah J. Carlson

Seventeen-year-old Rose aspires to break out of small-town Sparta, Wisconsin and achieve her artistic dreams, just like her aunt Colleen, but first she must face her mother's heroin addiction and its ramifications.

Because I am furniture / Thalia Chaltas

The youngest of three siblings, fourteen-year-old Anke feels both relieved and neglected that her father abuses her brother and sister but ignores her, but when she catches him with one of her friends, she finally becomes angry enough to act.

Teach me to forget / Erica M. Chapman

After a failed suicide attempt, Ellery tries to return the gun she bought to the store and runs into Colter Sawyer, a boy from her school, who does everything he can to prevent her from trying to take her life again.

Bottled up / Jaye Murray

A high school boy comes to terms with his drug addiction, life with an alcoholic father, and a younger brother who looks up to him.

Waiting for you / Susane Colasanti

Fifteen-year-old high school sophomore Marisa, who has an anxiety disorder, decides that this is the year she will get what she wants-a boyfriend and a social life. However, things do not turn out exactly the way she expects them to.

Little & lion / Brandy Colbert

Returning home to Los Angeles from boarding school, Suzette grapples with her bisexuality when she and her brother Lionel fall in love with the same girl.

A scatter of light / by Malinda Lo

After a graduation party goes wrong, Aria's parents exile her to California to stay with her grandmother. Aria expects boredom, but what she finds is Steph Nichols, her grandmother's gardener. Soon, Aria is second-guessing who she is and what she wants to be. A summer that once seemed lost becomes unforgettable--for Aria, her family, and the working-class queer community Steph introduces her to.

Starfish / Lisa Fipps

Bullied and shamed her whole life for being fat, twelve-year-old Ellie finally gains the confidence to stand up for herself, with the help of some wonderful new allies.

The sun is also a star / Nicola Yoon

Natasha is a girl who believes in science and facts. Daniel has always been a good son and good student. But when he sees Natasha he forgets all that and believes there is something extraordinary in store for both of them.

A list of cages / Robin Roe

Adam, a high school senior, rescues Julian (a freshman) from an abusive situation.

100 days / Nicole McInnes

A teen girl suffers from progeria, a rare disease that causes her to age rapidly. This is the story of three unlikely friends learning to live life to its fullest before ultimately letting it go.

Forgive me, Leonard Peacock / Matthew Quick

A day in the life of a suicidal teen boy saying good-bye to the four people who matter most to him.

The sound of letting go / Stasia Ward Kehoe

At seventeen, Daisy feels imprisoned by her brother Steven's autism. Her only escape is into the world of jazz through her trumpet playing, but when her parents decide to send Steven to an institution she is not ready to let him go.

Every body looking / Candice Iloh

A mixed-heritage dancer's coming of age within the African diaspora is shaped by abuse at the hands of a cousin, her mother's descent into addiction, and her father's efforts to create a Nigerian-inspired home in America.

The list / Siobhan Vivian

Every year at Mount Washington High School somebody posts a list of the prettiest and ugliest girls from each grade-- this is the story of eight girls, freshman to senior, and how they are affected by the list.

The silence that binds us / Joanna Ho

When her brother’s suicide results in racial accusations being hurled against her parents for putting too much “pressure” on him, Maybelline Chen challenges these ugly stereotypes through her writing and decides to speak out despite the consequences.

Cracked / K.M. Walton

When Bull Mastrick and Victor Konig wind up in the same psychiatric ward at age sixteen, each recalls and relates in group therapy the bullying relationship they have had since kindergarten, but also facts about themselves and their families that reveal they have much in common.

How it ends / Catherine Lo

When new girl Annie befriends Jessica on the first day of tenth grade and defends her from bullying, they begin a friendship that both girls need, but it is one based on assumptions and misunderstandings that ultimately threaten to drive them apart.

In the wild light / Jeff Zentner

Attending an elite prep school in Connecticut on a scholarship with his best friend (and secret love) science genius Delaney Doyle, sixteen-year-old Cash Pruitt, from a small town in East Tennessee, struggles with emotional pain and loss until his English teacher suggests writing poetry.

Take me with you when you go / David Levithan and Jennifer Niven

Ezra Ahern wakes up one day to find his older sister, Bea, gone. No note, no sign, nothing but an email address hidden somewhere only he would find it. Ezra never expected to be left behind with their abusive stepfather and their neglectful mother--how is he supposed to navigate life without Bea?

How to become a planet / Nicole Melleby

Wanting to stay with her mother instead of moving to her wealthier father’s home in the city when she is diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety, a once-aspiring astronomer finds support from the Hayden Planetarium Hotline, a new tutor and a new friend.

Recovery road / Blake Nelson

While she is in a rehabilitation facility for drug and alcohol abuse, seventeen-year-old Maddie meets Stewart, who is also in treatment, and they begin a relationship, which they try to maintain after they both get out.

Something happened to Ali Greenleaf / Hayley Krischer

Blythe promises to fix things after her best friend rapes naive Ali at a party, drawing her into the ruthless popular crowd while Ali is still reeling.

No one is alone / Rachel Vincent

When Michaela's mom dies and she has to move in with her dad, she discovers he's been married with kids all this time and she's the product of an affair.

What I carry / Jennifer Longo

In her final year in foster care, seventeen-year-old Muir tries to survive her senior year before aging out of the system.

Girls like us / Randi Pink

In the summer of 1972, three girls from very different backgrounds struggle to come to terms with being pregnant.

The year they fell / David Kreizman

When their parents are killed in a plane crash, a group of former childhood friends, who are now entering their senior year in high school, are pulled back together by the tragedy.

Fear of missing out / Kate McGovern

Learning that her cancer has returned, a teen who is determined not to miss out on anything investigates a radical cryopreservation procedure that will keep her in frozen hibernation but alive until a future cure becomes available.

The words we keep / Erin Stewart

When sixteen-year-old Lily Larkin's older sister, Alice, begins to struggle with her mental health, Lily attempts to keep everything together and perfect, despite her own growing anxiety.

All the bright places / Jennifer Niven

Meeting on the ledge of their school's bell tower, misfit Theodore Finch and suicidal Violet Markey find acceptance and healing that are overshadowed by Finch's fears about Violet's growing social world.

The year I didn't eat / Samuel Pollen

Fourteen-year-old Max records his efforts to control his anorexia in a therapist-prescribed journal that also chronicles his parents' difficult relationship and his feelings for a new girl at school, Evie.

The Tragedy Paper / Elizabeth LaBan

While preparing for the most dreaded assignment at the Irving School, Duncan gets wrapped up in the tragic tale of Tim Macbeth, a former student who had a relationship with the wrong girl, and his own ill-fated romance with Daisy.

My whole truth / Mischa Thrace

After killing her attacker, seventeen-year-old Seelie must prove in court and in the hallways of her high school that she acted in self-defense.

Letting go of gravity / Meg Leder

Parker struggles to reconnect with her twin brother, Charlie, who is recovering from cancer, and to deal with her anxiety about her own future.

The astonishing color of after / Emily X.R. Pan

After her mother's suicide, grief-stricken Leigh Sanders travels to Taiwan to stay with grandparents she never met, determined to find her mother who she believes turned into a bird.

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Book List: Keeping It Real

Sachem Public Library