Teen Tearjerkers Fiction Title: A Summer to Die Author: Lois Lowry Summary: Thirteen-year-old Meg faces her sister's terminal illness. Title: A Time for Dancing Author: Davida Wills Hurwin Summary: Juliana and Samantha, ballet dancers and best friends, share their experiences in alternating chapters after Juliana is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Title: All Rivers Flow to the Sea Author: Alison McGhee Summary: After a car wreck in the Adirondacks leaves her sister Ivy in a permanent vegetative state, younger sister Rose struggles to piece her life back together. Title: America Author: E.R. Frank Summary: After years of being lost inside the foster care system, surviving abuse as well as a suicide attempt, mixed-race America must learn to forgive himself as well as others. Title: Autobiography of My Dead Brother Author: Walter Dean Myers Summary: Jesse tries to make sense of the violence in his Harlem neighborhood and seeks escape in his sketchbook while his friend, Rise, joins a gang. Title: Breathing Underwater Author: Alex Flinn Summary: When Nick is sent to anger-management counseling for hitting his girlfriend, he is required to keep a journal of his thoughts and reflects on the abuse he suffered from his own father. Title: Dancing Naked Author: Shelley Hrdlitschka Summary: Kia finds out she's pregnant and struggles with the difficult decision of whether she will have an abortion, raise her baby herself, or give up her baby for adoption? Title: Elsewhere Author: Gabrielle Zevin Summary: After Liz is hit by a taxi, she wakes up in a place that is both similar yet vastly different from earth. Title: Emako Blue Author: Brenda Woods Summary: Fourteen-year-old Emako was on her way to becoming a singing sensation, until a bullet cut her life short. Now four of Emako's classmates remember her, revealing bits of their own lives in the process. Title: Hanging on to Max Author: Margaret Bechard Summary: When he couldn't face his girlfriend's decision to give their baby away, Max ends up a seventeen-year-old single dad. Title: Jacob Have I Loved Author: Katherine Paterson Summary: For many years Louise lives her life in the shadow of her smart and beautiful twin sister. When her jealousies dwindle she finds her own identity. Title: Memories of Summer Author: Ruth White Summary: After her father moves the family to Michigan in the 1930s, Lyric watches as her beautiful older sister, Summer, is slowly consumed by mental illness. Title: The Book Thief Author: Marcus Zusak Summary: Death narrates the story of Liesel, whose foster family struggles to keep a Jewish man hidden in their basement during World War II. Title: The First Part Last Author: Angela Johnson Summary: Bobby is a normal teen - going to school, hanging out with friends, and occasionally getting into trouble. Find out how this changes when he decides to raise his baby daughter by himself. Title: The Lovely Bones Author: Alice Sebold Summary: Fourteen-year-old Susie is horrifically murdered; she watches from beyond the grave as her family and friends deal with their grief. Title: The Perks of Being a Wallflower Author: Stephen Chbosky Summary: Charlie writes of his first high school experience in letters to an unnamed "friend." Title: The Rules of Survival Author: Nancy Werlin Summary: Seventeen-year-old Matthew struggles to protect his two younger sisters from his abusive mother. Title: Whale Talk Author: Chris Crutcher Summary: TJ recruits a bunch of misfits, outcasts and losers to be on his school's new swim team. As a team, they disrupt their school’s status quo and popularity hierarchy. Title: Where I Want to Be Author: Adele Griffin Summary: Lily must come to terms with the death of her mentally ill sister, Jane, and returning to school without her long-term boyfriend by her side. Title: Where the Heart Is Author: Billie Letts Summary: Novalee's boyfriend ditches her in a Wal-Mart parking lot, leaving her seven months pregnant and alone with nowhere to go. Title: You Don't Know Me Author: David Klass Summary: John, a high school freshman, invents alternate realities in his head to cope with his stepfather's physical and emotional abuse.