Research Guides: Mental Health in Children's and Young Adult Literature: Depression

About Depression

"Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. It is more than just feeling sad or going through a rough patch. Also called major depressive disorder or clinical depression, it affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems"

- National Alliance on Mental Illness

More Resources:

Related Conditions

Suicide:

"According to the CDC, each year more than 41,000 individuals die by suicide, leaving behind thousands of friends and family members to navigate the tragedy of their loss. Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death among adults in the U.S. and the 2nd leading cause of death among people aged 10-24; these rates are increasing." - National Alliance on Mental Illness
For more information and resources:

Self-harm:

"Self-harm or self-injury means hurting yourself on purpose. One common method is cutting yourself with a knife. But any time someone deliberately hurts herself is classified as self-harm. Some people feel an impulse to burn themselves, pull out hair or pick at wounds to prevent healing. Extreme injuries can result in broken bones." - National Alliance on Mental Illness
For more information and resources:

Picture Books

Some Days Are Lonely by
Young-Ah Kim
Call Number: Y 158 K

Publication Date: 2012

"Illustrates the feeling of loneliness and shows that a clear sky can appear and the sun can once again shine."
Cheer up, Mouse! by
Jed Henry
Call Number: YE HEN

Publication Date: 2013

"Mouse's friends try everything to keep their friend from feeling low-flapping in the sky, splashing in the water, leaping in the grass-but nothing seems to cheer him up."
Toot and Puddle: You Are My Sunshine by
Holly Hobbie
Call Number: YE HOB

Publication Date: 1999

"Puddle cannot make his friend Toot stop moping until a huge thunderstorm clears the air."
Stuck with the Blooz by
Caron Levis
Call Number: YE LEV

Publication Date: 2012

"When a monster named the Blooz comes to visit, a little girl tries everything she can think of to get rid of the feelings of sadness it brings."
The Red Tree by
Shaun Tan
Call Number: YE TAN

Publication Date: 2003

"A small child awakes to find blackened leaves falling from her bedroom ceiling, threatening to quietly overwhelm her. As she wanders around a world that is complex, puzzling and alienating, she is overtaken by a myriad of feelings."
A Blue Kind of Day by Rachel Tomlinson; Tori-Jay Mordey (Illustrator)
Call Number: YE TOM

Publication Date: 2022

Coen's family tries to cheer him up when he has a blue day. Their own strategies don't work, but listening to Coen helps them learn what he needs.
Blueloon by
Julia Cook
Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2012

"Meet Blueloon a sad little balloon who is suffering from depression. With help from the wise rock, Blueloon learns what he can do to bounce back to being the way he used to be bright, round, and full with a very straight string!"

Can I Catch It Like a Cold? by
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Staff

Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2009

"Alex begins to be negatively influenced by his father's depression, and as he wonders what the reasons are for his father's problems, he gets help from his mother, a friend, and a counselor, who explains the common mental health issue to him."

The Color Thief by
Andrew Fusek Peters

Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2015

"A child recounts his experience of losing his father to depression and a world without color. As the father seeks help, color begins to reappear and with it hope."

Books for Tweens

Blister by
Susan Richards Shreve
Call Number: Y SHR

Publication Date: 2001

"When a family tragedy occurs, ten-year-old Alyssa "Blister" Reed changes schools, moves to an apartment with her depressed mother while her father gets his own place, and tries to believe her grandmother, who tells her she is "elastic" and can handle it all."
Nobel Genes by
Rune Michaels
Call Number: Y MIC

Publication Date: 2010

"In Nobel Genes, a boy with a manic depressive mother seeks to find the truth of his father."
This Song Will Save Your Life by
Leila Sales
Call Number: Y SAL

Publication Date: 2013

"Nearly a year after a failed suicide attempt, sixteen-year-old Elise discovers that she has the passion, and the talent, to be a disc jockey."
Sorta Like a Rock Star by
Matthew Quick
Call Number: Y QUI

Publication Date: 2010

Although seventeen-year-old Amber Appleton is homeless and living in a school bus with her unfit mother, she is a relentless optimist. Eventually she experiences one burden more than she can bear and slips into a deep depression.
Fat Kid Rules the World by
K. L. Going
Call Number: Y GOI

Publication Date: 2003

"Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly 300 pounds, gets a new perspective on life when a homeless teenager who is a genius on guitar wants Troy to be the drummer in his rock band."
The Whole Story of Half a Girl by
Veera Hiranandani
Call Number: Y HIR

Publication Date: 2012

"When Sonia's father loses his job and she must move from her small, supportive private school to a public middle school, the half-Jewish half-Indian experiences culture shock as she tries to navigate the school's unfamiliar social scene. After her father is diagnosed with clinical depression, she finds herself becoming even more confused about herself and her family."
Dear Life, You Suck by
Scott Blagden
Call Number: Y BLA

Publication Date: 2013

"Irreverent, foul-mouthed, seventeen-year-old Cricket Cherpin, living under the watchful eye of Mother Mary at a Catholic boys' home in Maine, has such bleak prospects he is considering suicide when Wynona Bidaban steps into his world."

Books for Teens

The Opposite of Music by
Janet Ruth Young
Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2007

"With his family, fifteen-year-old Billy struggles to help his father deal with a debilitating depression. A novel about the lengths a family will go to in order to save one of their own, and the strength it takes to learn how to ask for help."

Some Kind of Happiness by
Claire Legrand

Call Number: Y LEG

Publication Date: 2016

"Finley Hart is sent to her grandparents' house for the summer, but her anxiety and overwhelmingly sad days continue until she escapes into her writings which soon turn mysteriously real and she realizes she must save this magical world in order to save herself."

How I Made It to Eighteen by
Tracy White

Call Number: Y 741 W

Publication Date: 2010

Based on the author's experiences, How I Made it to Eighteen is a frank portrait of what it's like to struggle with severe depression, bulimia, and drug addiction.

Black Box by
Julie Schumacher

Call Number: Y SCH

Publication Date: 2008

"When her sixteen-year-old sister is hospitalized for depression and her parents want to keep it a secret, fourteen-year-old Elena tries to cope with her own anxiety and feelings of guilt that she is determined to conceal from outsiders."

Trouble in My Head: A Young Girl's Fight with Depression by
Mathilde Monaque

Call Number: Y 616 M

Publication Date: 2007

"The author describes her experiences, including being hospitalized, with severe depression as a teenager."

The Burn Journals by
Brent Runyon

Call Number: Y 362 R

Publication Date: 2004

"Brent Runyon was fourteen years old when he set himself on fire. In this book he describes that suicide attempt and his recovery over the following year. Runyon takes us into his own mind. He shares his thoughts and hopes and fears with such unflinching honesty that we understand with a terrible clarity what it means to want to kill yourself and how it feels to struggle back toward normality."

100 Days of Cake by
Shari Goldhagen

Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2017

"Molly suffers from depression, and when she finds out that the exotic fishstore she works at is closing down, her whole life, which is already hanging on a thread, starts to crumble"

Damage by
A. M. Jenkins

Call Number: Y JEN

Publication Date: 2001

"Seventeen-year-old football hero Austin, trying to understand the inexplicable depression that has drained his interest in life, thinks that he has found relief in a girl who seems very special."

More Happy Than Not by
Adam Silvera

Call Number: Y SIL

Publication Date: 2015

After enduring his father's suicide, his own suicide attempt, broken friendships, and more in the Bronx projects, Aaron Soto, sixteen, is already considering the Leteo Institute's memory-alteration procedure to erase his memory when his new friendship with Thomas turns to unrequited love.

It's Kind of a Funny Story by
Ned Vizzini

Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2006

"A humorous account of a New York City teenager's battle with depression and his time spent in a psychiatric hospital."

Under the Wolf, Under the Dog by
Adam Rapp

Call Number: Y RAP

Publication Date: 2004

Sixteen-year-old Steve struggles to make sense of his mother's terminal breast cancer and his brother's suicide in a facility for troubled youth.

Impulse by
Ellen Hopkins

Call Number: Y HOP

Publication Date: 2007

"Three teens who meet at Reno, Nevada's Aspen Springs mental hospital after each has attempted suicide connect with each other in a way they never have with their parents or anyone else in their lives."

All the Bright Places by
Jennifer Niven

Call Number: Y NIV

Publication Date: 2015

"Told in alternating voices, when Theodore Finch and Violet Markey meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school--both teetering on the edge--it's the beginning of an unlikely relationship, a journey to discover the 'natural wonders' of the state of Indiana, and two teens' desperate desire to heal and save one another"

Cut by
Patricia McCormick

Call Number: Y MCC

Publication Date: 2000

"While confined to a mental hospital, thirteen-year-old Callie slowly comes to understand some of the reasons behind her self-mutilation, and gradually starts to get better."

When We Collided by
Emery Lord

Call Number: Y LOR

Publication Date: 2016

"Can seventeen-year-old Jonah save his family restaurant from ruin, his mother from her sadness, and his danger-seeking girlfriend Vivi from herself?"

Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets by
Evan Roskos

Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2013

"A sixteen-year-old boy wrestling with depression and anxiety tries to cope by writing poems, reciting Walt Whitman, hugging trees, and figuring out why his sister has been kicked out of the house."

Backlash by
Sarah Darer Littman

Call Number: Y LIT

Publication Date: 2016

"When Christian, a boy she knows only through Facebook, posts a lot of nasty comments on her page, fifteen-year-old Lara tries to kill herself--but that is only the beginning of the backlash for her sister, Sydney; her former friend Bree; and her classmates."

The Memory of Light by
Francisco X. Stork

Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2016

"When Victoria Cruz wakes up in the psychiatric ward of a Texas hospital after her failed suicide attempt, she still has no desire to live, but as the weeks pass, and she meets Dr. Desai and three of the other patients, she begins to reflect on the reasons why she feels like a failure compared with the rest of her family, and to see a path ahead where she can make a life of her own."

My Heart and Other Black Holes by
Jasmine Warga

Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2015

"Seventeen-year-old Aysel's hobby--planning her own death--take a new path when she meets a boy who has similar plan of his own."

Walkaway by
Alden R. Carter

Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2008

"Fifteen-year-old Andy, fed up with his alcoholic father and annoying older brother, leaves their northern Wisconsin cabin on his version of a walkabout, leaving his medications to combat depression, anxiety, and delusions behind."

The Glow Stone by
Ellen Dreyer

Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2006

"Sixteen-year-old Phoebe cannot help but wonder if she will suffer chronic depression like her mother and her recently-deceased uncle, who shared her passion for rock-collecting, until the terrifying experience of being lost in a cave provides the answer."

Try Not to Breathe by
Jennifer Hubbard

Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2013

"The summer Ryan is released from a mental hospital following his suicide attempt, he meets Nicki, who gets him to share his darkest secrets while hiding secrets of her own."

Solitaire by
Alice Oseman

Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2015

"Tori Spring feels completely disconnected from her life--until she meets the relentlessly cheerful Michael Holden, and a series of schoolwide pranks starts to draw her out of her shell."

Romancing the Dark in the City of Light by
Ann Jacobus

Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2015

"A troubled American teen, living in Paris, is torn between two boys, one of whom encourages her to embrace life, while the other--dark, dangerous, and attractive--urges her to embrace her fatal flaws."

Understanding Suicide by
Connie Goldsmith

Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2016

"Examines risk factors, warning signs, ways to reach out to a suffering loved one, and precautions that can save lives."

We Are the Ants by
Shaun David Hutchinson

Call Number: Not in our collection.

Publication Date: 2016

"After the suicide of his boyfriend, Henry deals with depression and family issues, all while wondering if he was really abducted and told he has 144 days to decide whether or not the world is worth saving."