The document contains summaries of several young adult novels that deal with challenging topics such as poverty, abuse, disability, and terminal illness. Some of the novels described include The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian about an Native American boy who transfers to a wealthy school, Wish You Were Dead about students at a high school who go missing after their names are mentioned on an anonymous blog, and Before I Die about a teenage girl compiling a bucket list before she dies of cancer.

1. Sold by Patricia McCormick
Lakshmi, a thirteen year old girl who lives with her family
in a small hut in a remote village in Nepal finds her life
full of simple pleasures, despite her poverty.
When a severe monsoon ruins the little remaining crops
her family has, her gambling addicted step-father say she
must leave home to take a job as a maid to support the
family which she is proud and eager to do. After a long
journey across the border into India and on to Calcutta,
Laksmi arrives at “Happiness House” where she learns
that she has been deceived and sold into prostitution.
She is treated with cruelty: tortured, starved and
deceived into believing that she can work off her family’s
debt and return home.
Told in first-person, this stark prose is a reflection of the
emptiness in Lakshmi’s life.
When an American comes to the brothel to rescue girls,
Lakshmi finally feels a sense of hope.
Thousands of girls, like Lakshmi, are sold into
prostitution each year and this book, while fictional, is
based on interviews with current and former sex slaves in
Nepal and India.
Such a Pretty Girl – Laura Wiess
With her father imprisoned, 15-year-old Meredith thinks
she could live out her high-school days safely, but when
he is released early for good behavior, her security is
shattered.
A popular youth baseball coach, her father has abused
Mer as well as other boys and girls. With strict orders that
he not be left alone with his daughter, he is returned to
the condo complex where she and her mother live.
In contrast to Mer's terror, her mother is giddy with
delight at his return, and together the reunited couple

2. plans to conceive another child. Yet in the shadows and
stillness, Mer's nightmare begins anew.
This is a gritty, terrifying novel about a father's abuse of
power and trust, and the way two different teens,
Meredith and her paraplegic friend, Andy, deal with that
reality.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by
Sherman Alexie
This semiautobiographical novel is about Junior, a
Spokane Indian from Wellpinit, WA. This boy, born with
physical disabilities, loves to draw and is the target of
bullies.
Trying to break free from the poverty that is so pervasive
on the “rez”, he transfers to a wealthy, white school only
to find that he now finds it difficult to blend in back at
home. Junior deals with questions about being part of a
community and issues with personal identity.
The cartoons that are interspersed throughout the book
help further the story and reflect Junior’s artistic abilities.
Junior’s determination to improve himself and overcome
poverty, despite handicaps at birth, difficult
circumstances and race delivers a positive message in a
low-key manner.
Wish You Were Dead – Todd Strasser
The day after anonymous blogger wishes the popular girl
would die, she vanishes. The students of Soundview High
are scared and worried. Especially frightened and
wracked with guilt is Madison Archer, Lucy’s friend and
the last person to see her the night she disappeared.
As days pass with no sign of the missing girl, even the
attention of Tyler, an attractive new student, is not
enough to distract Madison from her growing sense of

3. foreboding. When two more popular students disappear
after their names are mentioned on the blog, the
residents of Soundview panic.
Meanwhile, Madison receives anonymous notes warning
that she could be next. Desperate to solve the mystery
before anyone else disappears, Madison turns to Tyler,
but can she trust him when it becomes clear that he
knows more than he’s sharing?
Look Me In the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s – John Elder
Robison
Ever since he was young, John Robison longed to connect
with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his
odd habits—an inclination to blurt out non sequiturs,
avoid eye contact, dismantle radios, and dig five-foot
holes (and stick his younger brother, Augusten
Burroughs, in them)—had earned him the label “social
deviant.”
It was not until he was forty that he was diagnosed with a
form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome. That
understanding transformed the way he saw himself—and
the world.
A born storyteller, Robison has written a moving, darkly
funny memoir about a life that has taken him from
developing exploding guitars for KISS to building a family
of his own. It’s a strange, sly, indelible account—
sometimes alien yet always deeply human.

4. Before I Die
Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against
hospital visits, endless tests, and drugs with excruciating
side effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I
Die list. And number one is Sex. Released from the
constraints
of “normal” life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her
feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up.
Tessa’s feelings, her relationships with her father and
brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, and her
new boyfriend, are all painfully crystallized in the
precious weeks before Tessa’s time finally runs out.
A Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book of the Year
A Booklist Editors’ Choice
A Book Sense Children’s Pick
A Kirkus Reviews Editors’ Choice
A Publishers Weekly Flying Start Author
An ALA-YALSA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults
Catch by Will Leitch
Everything comes easy for Tim Temples. He’s got a sweet
summer job, lots of love from the ladies, and parties with
his high school buddies. Why does he need to go to
college?
Then Tim falls hard for Helena—a worldly and
mysterious twenty-two year-old. Their relationship opens
his eyes to life outside the small town of Mattoon, Illinois.
Now Tim has to choose: Will he settle for being a small
town hero, or will he leave it all behind to follow his
dreams?