All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

There are many YA novels about unlikely couples that make you fall in love with them and then break your heart (and by you, I mean you the reader). This is one of them, but you will love Violet and Finch so much that you will happily go along for the ride. They meet on top of the school bell tower, both contemplating suicide. Finch, the misfit kid, actually talks Violet off the ledge (literally), but later lets Violet take the credit for saving his life. Violet, a previously popular girl, has been traumatized by a car accident that took her sister's life and spared her own. Finch is sarcastic, intelligent, and perceptive, but suffers from bipolar disorder. His family either doesn't see the problem or refuses to acknowledge it, and in spite of many cries for help, he never gets the support he needs. Finch immediately is drawn to Violet, but has to convince her that he is worth her time (as he is the target of harassment at school he isn't immediately seen as boyfriend material). As they wander around Indiana for a school project, it's clear that they are going to fall in love and that it's not going to be easy. It seemed formulaic at first, but with characters so well fleshed out, who cares? If you like The Fault in Our Stars and Eleanor and Park (both compelling teen relationship books), you will definitely want to read All the Bright Places. Recommended for high school students-up.

The Radius of Us by Marie Marquardt

The Radius of Us is first and foremost a love story. Phoenix and Gretchen come from different worlds but they fall in love but they may never be able to be together due to forces outside of their control. Phoenix is an asylum seeker from El Salvador. His life is in danger due to gang violence in his home town and he has made an arduous journey north with his younger brother. At the U.S. border the brothers asked for asylum, and Phoenix is put into the Stewart Detention Center (a for-profit detention center in south Georgia) and his brother is put in a different facility in Texas. Phoenix meets a couple of women who get him released into their custody in an Atlanta neighborhood. That is where he meets Gretchen, a young woman who is having panic attacks due to a traumatic event in her life. As you read you discover what happened to Gretchen and what happened to Phoenix to bring them to that Atlanta neighborhood. It's a lovely story with a timely backdrop that makes it all the more heart wrenching. It is easy to blame immigrants on problems in America, but much harder to paint such broad strokes when you know their stories and the dangers they have faced in their quest for a better life. I have visited the Stewart Detention Center and written letters to detainees there, and it is a troubling place that people should be more aware of. I have also hosted Marie Marquardt at my school, and she writes from a place of deep knowledge and empathy for undocumented immigrants based on her research as an Emory University professor and her work with the nonprofit El Refugio.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

The Outsiders is a story that is almost universally loved by generations of young teenagers. I hadn't read it since my own childhood--probably when I was in middle school in the 1980s. so I decided to read it again for a middle school book club. It is the story of three brothers who live in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the 1960s. Their parents have died and the oldest brother, who is only about 20 years old, is the guardian of his younger brothers. The main character is Pony Boy, only 14 and a quiet, sensitive boy who misses his parents and adores his brother, Soda Pop. In this town there are rich kids called "socs" who drive fancy cars and there are "greasers" who wear leather jackets and smoke cigarettes and get in fights with the socs. Because this story is told from the point of view of a member of the greasers, readers empathize with the greasers, who by and large aren't bad kids, just kids who happen to have less money and less access to power in their community. They get their power from their gang and from fighting with the socs, who like to come to their side of town and torment greasers. Pony Boy is almost strangled in a fight, and his friend Johnny stabs a soc in the process of saving Pony Boy's life. They know that their story won't be believed so they go into hiding in a deserted rural church. S.E. Hinton gives us fully fleshed out characters in Pony Boy, Johnny, and the other greasers. They all have their life stories, their disadvantages, and the traits that make them unique and worthwhile. They become real people to the readers, and for 50 years kids have empathized with their situation and how they are treated by the socs. When tragedy strikes the greasers (in several forms), kids feel their pain and recognize the injustice they face. They say that reading fiction can enhance emotional intelligence, and I believe this book has stood the test of time because of its ability to draw kids into an emotional connection with complicated characters.

The Greenglass House by Kate Milford

Milo lives in an isolated inn at the top of a cliff. It's known to be a hideout for smugglers, but is usually deserted at Christmas time. Milo is looking forward to a relaxing week, but one by one, mysterious guests arrive at the inn, all with connections to the house that are revealed as the book goes on. Milo and the cook's daughter, Meddy, take on characters from a role playing game and start to hunt for objects that go missing, and find out some revealing secrets about the inn and themselves. This is a book for bright kids with good vocabularies--I found it a little hard to keep track of the characters and their motivations--but I have students who had no trouble with it. I also wasn't crazy about a twist in the story, but it made for a good discussion point. Recommended for good readers who are willing to stick with a tricky plot.

The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond by

Violet Diamond is biracial but she lives in a white world. Her father, who was black, passed away when she was young and she lives with her mother and sister, who are white, in a mostly white community near Seattle. Violet is getting older and realizing that she knows nothing about her father's side of the family. When she finds out that she has a grandmother she has never met, she comes up with a plan to meet her in spite of the fact that her grandmother has never been willing to meet with her. There is no action or adventure here, but it's a well-paced realistic story about a girl searching for her identity and finding out more about herself.

Scar Island by Dan Gemeinhart

Jonathan Grisby is being sent to prison--a creepy old juvenile detention center on an island. It's a terrible place, but Jonathan thinks he deserves the punishment he is getting. After just one miserable night, disaster strikes, leaving 16 young criminals without any adults in charge. It's a Lord of the Flies scenario for younger readers, and when one boy gets power hungry it could endanger everyone's lives. A good book for kids who like action, adventure, and books about troubled kids. Recommended for grades 4-7.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

This year's Newbery Medal winner is a fantasy about a witch, an abandoned child, and a village under the power of an evil influence. Each year a baby is left in the forest. The people of the Protectorate think that they must sacrifice a child to a witch. The witch, Xan, wonders why the people heartlessly abandon their children. You, the reader, aren't quite sure why the people are forced to sacrifice a baby each year. In this particular year, Xan falls in love with the abandoned baby girl and accidentally/on purpose feeds her moonlight, which fills the baby with magic. This is the story of how that girl, Luna, grows up in the forest with Xan and a couple of other magical creatures as her family. There is much going on in the Protectorate and in the forest, and it all comes together in the end of this charming yet complex story. Fantasy readers from 4th-7th grades will enjoy this book.