Tearjerkers

Catalyst
by Anderson, Laurie Halse
Eighteen-year-old Kate, who sometimes chafes at being a preacher's daughter, finds herself losing control in her senior year as she faces difficult neighbors, the possibility that she may not be accepted by the college of her choice, and an unexpected death.

Speak
by Anderson, Laurie Halse
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.

Tell me Everything
by Coman, Carolyn
After her mother dies in a rescue mission on a snowy mountain, twelve-year-old Roz wonders if talking to God, and to the boy for whom her mother died, can help her understand what happened.

Driver's Ed
by Cooney, Caroline B.
Three teenagers' lives are changed forever when they thoughtlessly steal a stop sign from a dangerous intersection and a young mother is killed in an automobile accident there.

Running Loose
by Crutcher, Chris
Louie, a high school senior in a small Idaho town, learns about sportsmanship, love, and death as he matures into manhood.

Chicago Blues
by Deaver, Julie Reece
Lissa, a seventeen-year-old art sudent living on her own in Chicago, must raise her eleven-year-old sister when their alcoholic mother becomes incapable of caring for her.

Say Goodnight to Gracie
by Deaver, Julie Reece
When a car accident kills her best friend Jimmy, with whom she has shared everything from childhood escapades to breaking into the professional theater scene in Chicago, seventeen-year-old Morgan must find her own way of coping with his death.

Dreamland: A Novel
by Dessen, Sarah
After her older sister runs away, sixteen-year-old Caitlin decides that she needs to make a major change in her own life and begins an abusive relationship with a boy who is mysterious, brilliant, and dangerous.

Invincible Summer
by Ferris, Jean
Seventeen-year-old Robin, in treatment for leukemia, falls in love with a boy who also has the disease, and together they attempt to survive their ordeal.

Wrecked
by Frank, E. R.
After a car accident seriously injures her best friend and kills her brother's girlfriend, sixteen-year-old Anna tries to cope with her guilt and grief, while learning some truths about her family and herself.

Keesha's House
by Frost, Helen
Seven teens facing such problems as pregnancy, closeted homosexuality, and abuse each describe in poetic forms what caused them to leave home and where they found home again.

Phoenix Rising, or, How to Survive Your Life
by Grant, Cynthia D.
Helen's death at eighteen from cancer shatters the lives of her parents and siblings, especially younger sister Jessie who tries to cope with her feelings of pain and confusion by reading pages from Helen's diary.

Don't you dare read this, Mrs. Dunphrey
by Haddix, Margaret Peterson
In the journal she is keeping for English class, sixteen-year-old Tish chronicles the changes in her life when her abusive father returns home after a two-year absence.

Disobedience: A Novel
by Hamilton, Jane
Henry Shaw, a high-school senior, is as comfortable with his family as any seventeen-year-old can be. When he stumbles on his mother's e-mail account, however, Henry realizes that everything is not quite as it seems. There, under the name Liza38, is undeniable evidence that his mother is having an affair with Richard Polloco, a violin maker with an appealing way with words and a romantic spirit, that in Henry's estimation, his own father woefully lacks. Over the course of his final year of high school, Henry observes each member of the family, trying to anticipate when they will find out about the infidelity and what the knowledge will mean to each of them.

A Time for Dancing
by Hurwin, Davida
Seventeen-year-old best friends Samantha and Juliana tell their stories in alternating chapters after Juliana is diagnosed with cancer.

Damage
by Jenkins, A. M.
Seventeen-year-old football hero Austin, trying to understand the inexplicable depression that has drained his interest in life, thinks that he has found relief in a girl who seems very special.

The First Last Part
by Johnson, Angela
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.

The Silver Kiss
by Klause, Annette Curtis
A mysterious teenage boy harboring a dark secret helps Zoe come to terms with her mother's terminal illness.

Kinship
by Krisher, Judy
In 1961 fifteen-year-old Pert, who lives with her mother in Kinship, Georgia, meets her long-absent father and discovers the true meaning of home.

A Summer to Die
by Lowry, Lois
Thirteen-year-old Meg envies her sister's beauty and popularity. Her feelings don't make it any easier for her to cope with Molly's strange illness and eventual death.

Shadow Boxer
by Lynch, Chris
After their father dies of boxing injuries, George is determined to prevent his younger brother, who sees boxing as his legacy, from pursuing a career in the sport.

How do I love thee? : Three Stories
by McDaniel, Lurlene
A collection of three stories in which teenagers facing life-threatening illnesses find that love can make all things bearable.

Swallowing Stones
by McDonald, Joyce
Dual perspectives reveal the aftermath of seventeen-year-old Michael MacKenzie's birthday celebration during which he discharges an antique Winchester rifle and unknowingly kills the father of high school classmate Jenna Ward.

Drowning Anna
by Mayfield, Sue
Anna Goldsmith moves from London to a small Yorkshire town, a beautiful and an ace student, she is praised by her teachers, and assigned to play center fielder in hockey, displacing Hayley Parkin. At first Hayley, the captivating and witty, most popular girl in school, befriends Anna, who acts as her seemingly devoted friend. Then Hayley begins her cruel games. What starts as innocent teasing leads to mean remarks, and even violence, toward frightened Anna. But Hayley's cunning leaves a deeper impression on Anna than anyone, even her best friend Melanie, could have ever anticipated.

Petey
by Mikaelsen, Ben
In 1922 Petey, who has cerebral palsy, is misdiagnosed as an idiot and institutionalized; sixty years later, still in the institution, he befriends a boy and shares with him the joy of life.

Bottled Up: A Novel
by Murray, Jaye
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.

Earthshine: A Novel
by Nelson, Theresa
Slim watches over her father, a disarmingly charismatic man, as his struggle with AIDS reaches its climax.

Dancing on the Edge
by Nolan, Han
A young girl from a dysfunctional family creates for herself an alternative world which nearly results in her death but which ultimately leads her to reality.

Peeling the Onion
by Orr, Wendy
Following an automobile accident in which her neck is broken, a teenage karate champion begins a long and painful recovery with the help of her family.

Remembering Mog
by Rodowsky, Colby F.
After graduating from a private high school in Baltimore, Annie comes to terms with the loss of her sister who had been murdered two years earlier.

Claws
by Weaver, Will.
Jed and Laura, two popular Minnesota high school students, find their seemingly perfect lives suddenly in chaos when they discover that each has a parent who is having an affair with the other.

Facing the Music
by Willey, Margaret
Through her love of music and membership in her brother's band, sixteen-year-old Lisa learns to deal with her feelings of abandonment following her mother's death.