Based on Irish immigrant Frank McCourt's best-selling autobiography, Angela's Ashes explores the struggles of young Frankie and his family. The story of a boy growing up during the Great Depression and World War II in a nation under the yoke of the Catholic Church, tradition, extreme poverty and unemployment, and the seemingly universal Irish curse of alcohol is told in this absolutely captivating memoir. Not only is this book historically accurate, but it also emphasizes the terrible situations that millions of people had to (and have to) endure. The book is a biting condemnation of alcoholism without being polemic; instead, it is a memory of the narrator's family's daily existence due to his father's drinking. If you ever decide to give Angela's Ashes a go, approach it with care and an open mind. Also, bring Kleenex and, like young Frank, observe without jumping to conclusions.

Letters written by a young boy named Charlie make up the plot. Charlie is writing about the 1990s, his first year in high school. He makes friends with and spends a lot of time with some older folk. He discusses his first love, relationship, and good and bad situations. In letters, he describes his transformation from a "Wallflower" to a person who engages in life to the fullest. Through Charlie, Stephen Chbosky has written a very moving coming-of-age story that’s touching and will transport you back to those wild and emotional days when growing up was like riding a roller coaster. While Charlie doesn't exactly serve as a good role model, he demonstrates that being different is okay and that friends can come in many forms. This novel is a yearning for the past and hopeful anticipation of the future.

Aristotle "Ari" Mendoza and Dante Quintana, two young men growing up in El Paso, Texas, in the 1980s, are the subjects of Sáenz's story. From the age of fifteen to seventeen, we follow their lives, follow them through amusing incidents, awful mishaps, and tragic losses. The book is written in brief, poetic chapters and is told from Ari's perspective. The reader is left to observe as their awkward and cautious acquaintance develops into a connection that will challenge Ari's self-perceptions and capacity for love. The prose is beautiful. The dialogue is flawless. The narrative is calm and soft but masterfully draws the reader along. It's a great novel that can be somber, humorous, honest, authentic, and poignant. You'll be motivated by Dante and Ari to continue seeking out the secrets of the universe in both the world and within yourself.

Author Ta-Nehisi Coates published this book as a letter to his teenage son. The latter had been traumatized by the entire incident, following the sad events in Ferguson, Missouri, where adolescent Michael Brown was killed by a local police officer. Coates tried to examine and clarify institutional and cultural racism in Between the World and Me and its damaging effects on people and society. It's an incredibly enlightening and open-minded look at the realities of being black in America. It doesn't offend the reader by proposing a fix for the issues. Instead, its sole goal is to get the reader to understand how deeply ingrained and institutionalized racism, hate, and fear are in America and the American Dream. This book should be read numerous times and passed on to the younger generation. Universities and secondary schools should include it in their curricula to foster and promote meaningful conversation free from judgment and bias. This is a book with depth and enduring value.

In The Giver, a young boy named Jonas lives in a society free of crime and grief. In this Utopian (or rather Dystopian?) society, children are assigned their jobs at the age of twelve, which they will train for and work at for the remainder of their life. Everything is a choice, even your partner and parents. The book is relatively short and easy to read because it is intended for young adults. However, this does not imply that the book is irrelevant for more mature audiences. It raises influential questions about our culture, societies, and the importance of memory and emotions. Any young adult, possibly over thirteen, would greatly benefit from reading it. Overall, this is a well-written, thought-provoking series that explores the ideas of society, love, greed, control, and freedom.

16-year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster is the narrator of the story. Hazel has thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs. Hazel's parents coerce her into going to the support group, where she meets and falls in love with 17-year-old ex-basketball player, amputee, and osteosarcoma survivor Augustus Waters. The Fault in Our Stars is remarkable because it normalizes a tragic aspect of life that is surprisingly neglected in fiction. A novel that isn't hesitant to both inspire readers with optimism and boldly expose them to the sad reality of their own oblivion. It's a heartwrenching book about two suffering teenagers' brief but rich lives. Everyone should read this book at least once, then return to it time and time again until they realize that life is not measured by the number of years you live but by the quality of those years.

A Long Way Gone is a compelling account of a child's journey through hell and back. In this memoir, author Ishmael Beah delivered an engrossing tale of the horrors he had to endure at a young age. At age twelve, he escaped rebel attackers and traversed a violently altered landscape. By the time he was thirteen, Beah, a genuinely good lad at heart, discovered that he was capable of genuinely horrific acts after being taken in by the government army. After being eventually freed and transferred to a rehabilitation facility, his life started over at the age of 16. There, he faces drug addiction, terrifying nightmares, and the immense difficulty of learning how to live a life that doesn't revolve around murder. He helplessly tries to reclaim his humanity and rejoin the civilian population, which treats him with mistrust and fear. This memorable memoir of a young kid whose teenage years turned into a killing field is eventually a tale of hope and forgiveness. In this book, harrowing, terribly honest, and haunting, Ishmael represents the thousands of young soldiers whose stories will never be heard.

A young girl's experience of adjusting to grief, loss, and change following her father's death is the subject of Tiger Eyes. There is a lot in this book. Among the topics of death, dying, letting go, and recovery, Blume discusses peer pressure, drinking, despair, friendship, family relationships, and a little bit of teen love. Not your typical one depicted in almost every young adult novel - the super steady and passionate - but the sweet, shy, almost innocent one. Overall, it's a moving and dramatic book about grieving and healing. With great sensitivity and realism, the author also addresses other topics significant to the book's characters, such as sexuality, drug and alcohol use, and the balance between safety and independence. For a juvenile work of fiction, Tiger Eyes is a heartfelt and incredibly realistic book.

The Catcher in the Rye follows 16-year-old Holden Caulfield for two days after he is dismissed from prep school. Holden, confused and disheartened, is looking for the truth while railing against the "phoniness" of the adult world. The Catcher in the Rye is an excellent work of young adult fiction that captures the profound human urge for connection and the perplexing sense of loss we experience as we grow up. It is an elegy to teenage alienation. Holden Caulfield, the main character in the book, has become a symbol of adolescent disobedience. Complex topics relating to innocence, identity, belonging, loss, and connection are also addressed in the book. It's an essential read for each new generation.

In the author’s debut novel, Every Body Looking, Ada, the daughter of an immigrant father and an African American mother, struggles to find a place for herself in America and her own family. Ada's story spans her earliest recollections, including the abuse she endured at the hands of a cousin, her mother's rejection and subsequent relapse, and her father's efforts to give his American daughter a home that is more like the one he knew in Nigeria. Every Body Looking is one of those stories that reads quickly but packs a serious emotional punch and makes you care deeply about the protagonist. It's hard to admit that it's an enjoyable read as the story is very traumatic, yet it's one that had to be told and had to be read. And although, at times, brutal, it's nonetheless a beautiful book.