Mental Health in Children's and Young Adult Literature

Tamsen married her musician sweetheart and dropped out of high school, so when her equally young husband dies suddenly she is still only seventeen, and totally lost--but when she is caught trespassing the judge insists that she return to the school life that she thought she had escaped, and forced to face the reality that her life has really just begun.

"Haunted by grief and by her past after losing her family, fifteen-year-old Green retreats into her ruined garden as she struggles to survive and heal emotionally and physically on her own."

"Told from their own viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Jill, in grief over the loss of her father, and Mandy, nearly nineteen, are thrown together when Jill's mother agrees to adopt Mandy's unborn child but nothing turns out as they had anticipated."

"As war surges in the dystopian society around her, sixteen-year-old Divergent Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves--and herself--while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love." Sequel to Divergent.

"While living with her Gram in Vermont, eleven-year-old Aubrey writes letters as a way of dealing with tragic losses in her family."

"Eighth-grader Molly's ability to throw a knuckleball earns her a spot on the baseball team, which not only helps her feel connected to her recently deceased father, who loved baseball, it helps in other aspects of her life, as well."

"Fifth-grader Cally Louise Fisher stops talking, partly because her father and brother never speak of her mother who died a year earlier, but visions of her mother, friendships with a homeless man and a disabled boy, and a huge dog ensure that she still communicates."

"Losing a loved one is devastating at any age, but it can be especially trying for those going through the changes that adolescence brings. These engrossing stories offer first-person narratives of young adults coping with the death of someone close to them. As these teens work through their grief, they find strength within themselves while they struggle to move on from these tragedies. "