Book Finder

Two teens — one black, one white — grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension. Written in tandem by two award-winning authors, this story shares the alternating perspectives of Rashad and Quinn as the complications from that single violent moment, the type taken from the headlines, unfold and reverberate to highlight an unwelcome truth.

A father’s anguished account of his promising son’s meth addiction and its painful impact on the entire family is honest, raw, and full of information about the realities of drug addiction.

Meg Medina transports readers to a time when New York seemed balanced on a knife-edge, with tempers and temperatures running high: the infamous summer of 1977, when the city is besieged by arson, a massive blackout, and a serial killer named Son of Sam who shoots young women on the streets. Seventeen-year-old Nora Lopez’s family life isn’t going so well, either. Before she turns eighteen and can strike out on her own, Nora will discover that the greatest dangers are often closer than we like to admit — and the hardest to accept.

Hopkins has become the leading author of novels in verse, mainly due to her gritty, unflinching subject matter. Crank, her first novel, deals with Kristina/Bree and her addiction to crystal meth.

A drug deal goes south and a cop has been shot. Lil J’s on the run. And he’s starting to get dope sick. He’d do anything to change the last twenty-four hours, and when he stumbles into an abandoned building, it actually might be possible. Elements of magical realism intensify this harrowing story about drug use, violence, perceptions of reality, and second chances.

The powerful graphic memoir from Jarrett Krosoczka about growing up with a drug-addicted mother, a missing father, and two opinionated grandparents. Hey, Kiddo is a profoundly important story about a family grappling with addiction and finding the art that helps you survive. National Book Award finalist.

You can see related interviews with Jarrett about Hey, Kiddo on Jarrett's website, as well as his TED talk in which he shares his personal story.

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship — and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever. 

At-risk teenagers congregate at a safe house, and we gradually learn what brought each of them there—an unplanned pregnancy, harassment about sexual orientation, and an unloving foster parent. A complicated poetic format (sestinas) doesn’t make for a complicated read — the plot is equal to the poetry.

When Jefferson’s attorney states, “I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this,” disillusioned teacher Grant Wiggins is sent into the penitentiary to help Jefferson gain a sense of dignity and self-esteem before his execution.

Fifteen-year-old Will’s big brother has been shot and killed. According to the rules that Will has been taught, it is now his job to kill the person responsible. He easily finds his brother’s gun and gets on the elevator to head down from his eighth-floor apartment. But it’s a long way down to the ground floor. At each floor, a different person gets on to tell a story. Each of these people is already dead. As they relate their tales, readers learn about the cycle of violence in which Will is caught up.

This story of a young African-American man caught up in a robbery gone bad is a contemporary classic. The screenplay format makes it appealing to reluctant readers, but it’s also well deserving of its honor as the first recipient of the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult literature.

Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic.

Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright’s powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.

Seventeen-year-old Peter Houghton wakes up one day, loads his backpack with four guns, walks into the school cafeteria, and kills nine students and one teacher in the span of nineteen minutes. Why?

Kiara has Asperger’s syndrome, and it’s hard for her to make friends. She wishes she could be like her hero Rogue — a misunderstood X-Men mutant who used to hurt anyone she touched until she learned how to control her special power. When Chad moves in across the street, Kiara hopes that, for once, she’ll be able to make friendship stick. When she learns his secret, she’s so determined to keep Chad as a friend that she agrees not to tell. But being a true friend is complicated and it might be just the thing that leads Kiara to find her own special power. The story celebrates everyone’s ability to discover and use whatever it is that makes them different.

An African-American teenage boy is charged with setting a transgender white teen on fire aboard a bus in Oakland, California. The riveting story behind the headlines is told in brief, gripping chapters that invite teens to think deeply about social justice issues.

Spoon and Gabi are in love and decide to stay together, even after Spoon leaves Harlem to spend his senior year at a prestigious prep school. When he comes home during break, he discovers that Gabi is addicted to heroin — “the beast.” Will Spoon and Gabi be able to resist the lure of street life and maintain their love for each other?

Every week, 17-year-old Tracy Beaumont writes letters to Innocence X, asking the organization to help her father, an innocent Black man on death row. After seven years, Tracy is running out of time — her dad has only 267 days left. Then the unthinkable happens. The police arrive in the night, and Tracy’s older brother, Jamal, goes from being a bright, promising track star to a “thug” on the run, accused of killing a white girl. Determined to save her brother, Tracy investigates what really happened between Jamal and Angela down at the Pike. But will Tracy and her family survive the uncovering of the skeletons of their Texas town’s racist history that still haunt the present?