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Tearjerkers: Books for Teens
Abelove, Joan. Saying it Out Loud . 1999.
Mindy's mother is dying, her father won't talk about it, and all Mindy
wants is to have a second chance to tell her mother everything she never
said to her.
Bennett, James. I Can Hear the Mourning Dove . 1990.
Grace, who suffers from depression, attempts suicide after her
father's death.
Carter, Forrest. The Education of Little Tree . 1976.
Sensitive autobiographical account of the Cherokee way as seen through
the eyes of a young boy in the Appalachian Mountains.
Dessen, Sarah. Someone Like You . 1998.
Halley's junior year of high school includes the death of her best
friend Scarlett's boyfriend, the discovery that Scarlett is pregnant, and
Halley's own first serious relationship.
Doherty, Berlie. Dear Nobody . 1991.
During the 1960s, a teenage girl is sent to live in a home for teenage
girls.
Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon . 1966.
Mentally disabled Charlie Gordon participates in an experiment which
turns him into a genius, but only temporarily.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird . 1960.
Atticus Finch, a lawyer in a small southern town steeped in racism, is
appointed to defend a Negro on a rape charge in this contemporary American
classic.
McKinley, Robin. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of the Beauty and
the Beast . 1978.
Contrary to the name, 16-year-old Beauty is not the prettiest girl in
her family, but she is the cleverest, bravest and most honorable.
Mitchell, Margaret. Gone with the Wind . 1936.
A spoiled young southern belle vows to rebuild her family plantation
home after the Civil War and is swept off her feet by a man who infuriates
her.
Rawls, Wilson. Where the Red Fern Grows . 1961.
A boy living in the Ozark Mountains acquires two beloved coon hounds
and together the three of them experience danger, adventure, love and
sorrow.
Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn . 1947.
American masterpiece about a young girl's coming of age at the turn of
the century.
Yolen, Jane. Briar Rose . 1992.
Powerful novel that blends the legend of Sleeping Beauty with the
historical tragedy of the Holocaust.
