Controversial YA Topics

Reverie

Kane Montgomery was the last person at his school to find out he was gay. As other students at school gradually became aware of it (before he did), the sleepover and party invitations stopped coming and friends dropped off the… Read More ›

All-American Muslim Girl

Allie Abraham is the almost-16-year-old daughter of an academic father and a psychologist mom.  Her dad is of Muslim heritage but not practicing; her mom was raised Catholic but converted to Islam when she married.  As Allie’s father has pursued… Read More ›

Saving Everest

Beverly is the only Black girl in her high school. She lives with her alcoholic, needy, and not-always-responsible mom in a ratty apartment. She takes care of her mom more than vice versa. She has an “aunt” who parties hard… Read More ›

The Tenth Girl

Mavi is the teenage daughter of a South American political activist who is eventually rounded up by the police and hauled off to who-knows-where. Knowing that she herself is in danger and urged on by her mother just before the… Read More ›

Verify

Chicago around the year 2073 is not the Chicago we know today. Crime-infested, run-down areas have been cleared of blight and are models of prosperity and community involvement. The one internet provider and the one news source sanctioned by the… Read More ›

Slay

Kiera is a Black honors student at Jefferson Academy in Bellevue WA, where the student body is overwhelmingly white. Having transferred from a school where the majority of the student body consisted of students of color, Kiera has had to… Read More ›

Suggested Reading

Clara Evans, graduating senior at the private Lupton Academy, lives, eats and breathes books–fiction books, in particular. Although her best friend, LiQui, is student council president and, through her, Clara associates with non-book-fanatic people (going to Friday night football games… Read More ›

Sorry for Your Loss

Pup Flanagan has spent most of his seventeen years as (in his mind) an undistinguished person compared to his seven older siblings. At school he is accepted by his classmates but generally ignored, neither liked nor disliked. He has no… Read More ›