Grief, Loss and Terminal Illness
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Defining Dulcie
Acampora, Paul
Sixteen-year-old Johanna, one of the best students in her class, develops
a passionate attachment for troubled seventeen-year-old Paul and finds
her plans for the future changing in unexpected ways.
Mercy Lily
Albert, Lisa
Lily, a trained veterinary assistant, struggles after her mother is
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but after she begins to administer a
bee sting therapy when traditional treatments fail, Lily comes to
recognize her mother no longer wants to live.
Wintergirls
Anderson, Laurie Halse
Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death from
anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: a novel
Andrews, Jesse
Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social
group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his
life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he
once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia.
Sacred
Arnold, Elana K.
Since her older brother died, Scarlett has felt emotionally cutoff from
everyone on Catalina Island--except for her horse--and struggles with
anorexia, but when she meets a strange boy named Will Cohen, Scarlett
begins to rediscover herself.
Freak Magnet
Auseon, Andrew
Two teenagers who are burdened by grief and loss, Charlie and Gloria,
meet in a chance encounter and their relationship grows and the pair
begins to develop a strong connection to one another.
Freeze Frame
Ayarbe, Heidi
Fifteen-year-old Kyle believes he does not deserve to live after
accidentally shooting and killing his best friend.
Gil Marsh
Bauer, A.C.E.
High school track star Gil Marsh comes to terms with the loss of his
close friend and teammate Enko and his own mortality while on a
journey to find Enko's grave in this modern retelling of the ancient
Sumerian tale of Gilgamesh.
Never Ending
Bedford, Martyn
Traumatized by grief and guilt after her younger brother dies during a
family vacation, fifteen-year-old Shiv is sent away to an exclusive clinic
that claims to "cure" people like her.
Store Bought Baby
Belton, Sandra
The death of Leah's beloved older brother, and her parents' reactions to
the tragedy, raise questions for Leah about the meaning of family and
about her place in her own.
Pull
Binns, B.A.
After his father kills his mother, seventeen-year-old David struggles to
take care of his two sisters--and himself--while dealing with his grief,
guilt, and trying to fit in at a tough new school while hiding his past.
Mira in the Present Tense
Brahmachari, Sita
Mira Levenson uses her diary to try and make sense of friendship,
puberty, death, and other aspects of life as she approaches her twelfth
birthday.
The Life of Glass
Cantor, Jillian
Through her freshman year of high school, fourteen-year-old Melissa
struggles to hold on to memories of her deceased father, cope with her
mother's return to dating, get along with her sister, and sort out her
feelings about her best friend.
The Beginning of After
Castle, Jennifer
In the aftermath of a car accident that killed her family, sixteen-year-old
Laurel must face a new world of guilt, painful memories, and the
possibility of new relationships.
The Girl Next Door
Castrovilla, Selene
Sixteen-year-old Sam's best friend Jesse may only have months to live
after he is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and Sam does
everything she can to help, but when their friendship grows stronger and
they begin to fall in love, Sam wonders whether the young couple will
get a happy ending.
Prep
Coburn, Jake
A one-time tag artist, Nick tries to come to terms with the death of a
friend, to protect the brother of his would-be girlfriend, to escape the
violence of wealthy New York City prep-school hoods, and to figure
out who he really is.
Burning Up: a novel
Cooney, Caroline B.
When a girl she had met at an inner-city church is murdered, fifteenyear-old Macey channels her grief into a school project that leads her to
uncover prejudice she had not imagined in her grandparents and their
wealthy Connecticut community.
Deadline
Crutcher, Chris
Given the medical diagnosis of one year to live, high school senior Ben
Wolf decides to fulfill his greatest fantasies, ponders his life's purpose
and legacy, and converses through dreams with a spiritual guide known
as "Hey-Soos."
Pepperland
Delaney, Mark
Struggling to come to terms with the death of her mother in the late
1970s, sixteen-year-old Beatles fan Star Cochran hopes to find closure
by delivering to John Lennon a letter her mother wrote to him in 1964
but never sent.
Someone Like You
Dessen, Sarah
Halley's junior year of high school includes the death of her best friend
Scarlett's boyfriend, the discovery that Scarlett is pregnant, and Halley's
own first serious relationship.
The Truth About Forever
Dessen, Sarah
The summer following her father's death, Macy plans to work at the
library and wait for her brainy boyfriend to return from camp, but
instead she goes to work at a catering business where she makes new
friends and finally faces her grief.
Before I Die
Downham, Jenny
A terminally ill teenage girl makes and carries out a list of things to do
before she dies.
Darkness Before Dawn
Draper, Sharon
Recovering from the recent suicide of her ex-boyfriend, senior class
president Keisha Montgomery finds herself attracted to a dangerous,
older man.
Aftershock
Easton, Kelly
In shock and unable to speak after being in a car accident in Oregon
which killed his parents, seventeen-year-old Adam journeys across the
country to his home in Rhode Island.
Party Girl
Ewing, Lynne
The death of her best friend Ana in a drive-by shooting causes fifteenyear-old Kata to question her position in the Los Angeles gang life.
Fade to Black
Flinn, Alex
An HIV-positive high school student hospitalized after being attacked,
the bigot accused of the crime, and the only witness, a classmate with
Down Syndrome, reveal how the assault has changed their lives as they
tell of its aftermath.
If I Stay
Forman, Gayle
While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her
parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist,
weighs whether to live with her grief or join her family in death.
The Survival Kit
Freitas, Donna
After her mother dies, sixteen-year-old Rose works through her grief by
finding meaning in a survival kit that her mother left behind.
The Fault in Our Stars
Green, John
Sixteen year old Hazel, who has cancer, meets Augustus at a kids-withcancer support group and as they fall in love they both wonder how they
will be remembered.
Bleachers
Grisham, John
When his old coach dies, high school football star Neely Crenshaw
returns to his hometown after fifteen years, reunites with his former
teammates, and struggles to resolve his mixed feelings about the man.
No More Us For You
Hernandez, David
Isabel and Carlos, both seventeen, find themselves growing closer after
an unexpected accident forces them to confront both the harshness and
the beauty of life.
What We Do is Secret: a novel
Hillsbery, Thorn Kief
Street kid and hustler Rockets Redglare realizes he has come to a
turning point in his life after his closest friend commits suicide, and
Rocket struggles to find a way to get off the streets before it is too late.
That Time I Joined the Circus
Howard, J. J.
After her father's sudden death and a break-up with her best friends,
seventeen-year-old Lexi has no choice but to leave New York City
seeking her long-absent mother, rumored to be in Florida with a
traveling circus, where she just may discover her destiny.
A Time for Dancing: a novel
Hurwin, Davida Wills
Seventeen-year-old best friends Samantha and Juliana tell their stories
in alternating chapters after Juliana is diagnosed with cancer.
Choices
Jacobs, Deborah Lynn
Overcome with guilt over her brother's death, a teenaged girl shifts
between multiple universes in an attempt to find one in which he is
alive.
Would You
Jocelyn, Marthe
Nat's summer of work and hanging out with friends is suddenly changed
when her sister, Claire, is hit by a car and ends up in a coma.
A Certain October
Johnson, Angela
After a terrible accident, Scotty feels responsible for the death of
someone she hardly knew and struggles with her own reality while her
friends and family deal with their own troubles, but the prospect of a
boy and a dance add positive possibility back into Scotty's life.
Skinny
Kaslik, Ibi
After the death of their father, two sisters struggle with various issues,
including their family history, personal relationships, and an extreme
eating disorder.
Coaltown Jesus
Koertge, Ron
Walker finds his life forever changed when Jesus appears in his
bedroom after the death of his seventeen-year-old brother, Noah
Topics: Death and Dying, Grief
Deadville
Koertge, Ron
While visiting an injured classmate in the hospital, sixteen-year-old
Ryan, who is trying to come to terms with his sister's death from cancer,
meets a young patient who claims to be able to see into the world where
the dead live.
Side Effects
Koss, Amy Goldman
Everything changes for Isabelle, not quite fifteen, when she is
diagnosed with lymphoma--but eventually she survives and even
thrives.
Hold Still
LaCour, Nina
Caitlin wrestles with her feelings of devastation and helplessness after
her friend Ingrid commits suicide, and she turns to her family and
newfound friends for help while encountering love, broadening her
horizons, and using Ingrid's journal to heal.
Fade Far Away
Lantz, Francess Lin
Sienna Scully has never been close to her parents, but when she finds
out her father is dying from an inoperable brain tumor, she uses her art
to come to terms with their troubled relationship.
Everything Beautiful in the World
Levchuk, Lisa
Toward the end of the disco era, seventeen-year-old Edna refuses to
visit her mother, who is in a New York City hospital undergoing cancer
treatment, and barely speaks to her father, who finally puts her in
psychotherapy, while her crush on an art teacher turns into a full-blown
affair.
You Have Seven Messages
Lewis, Stewart
Luna and her family still struggle with their grief over her mother's
death, over a year since she was struck and killed by a taxi, but after
Luna goes to finally clean out her mother's studio she discovers her cell
phone, fully charged and with seven unheard voicemails, and after Luna
listens to the messages she learns unexpected truths about her mother
and begins to wonder whether her death was really an accident.
Topics: Hit and Run; Death, Grief
The New Normal
Little, Ashley
Teenager Tamar Robinson deals with the death of her sisters and the
subsequent loss of her hair.
Hothouse: a novel
Lynch, Chris
Teens D.J. and Russell, life-long friends and neighbors, had drifted
apart but when their firefighter fathers are both killed, they try to help
one another come to terms with the tragedy and its aftermath.
Pieces
Lynch, Chris
Eighteen-year-old Eric deals with the loss of his older brother Duane by
meeting three of the seven recipients of Duane's organs a year after his
death, and pondering who they are to him, and he to them.
24 Hours
Mahy, Margaret
During his first twenty-four hours after finishing high school,
seventeen-year-old Ellis unexpectedly becomes part of an inner-city
world far different from his comfortable life, which helps deal with his
best friend's recent suicide.
Amy & Roger's Epic Detour
Matson, Morgan
After the death of her father, Amy, a high school student and Roger, a
college freshman, set out on a carefully planned road trip from
California to Connecticut, but wind up taking many detours, forcing
Amy to face her worst fears and come to terms with her grief and guilt.
Breathless
McDaniel, Lurlene
A high school diving champion's diagnosis of bone cancer affects not
only his life, but those of his best friend, his sister, and his girlfriend.
Briana's Gift
McDaniel, Lurlene
When a pregnant seventeen-year-old girl is hospitalized and in a coma,
her younger sister faces several difficult choices while dealing with loss,
love, and life at Christmas time.
Heart to Heart
McDaniel, Lurlene
Relates the complicated friendship of a teenaged girl, her best friend,
her best friend's boyfriend, and a young heart transplant recipient.
Holly's Story (from the Angels in Pink Series)
McDaniel, Lurlene
With the support of her two best friends, high school senior Holly tries
to deal with the murder of her brother and her anger at God for allowing
the crime to happen.
Last Dance
McDaniel, Lurlene
Rachel Deering, a 13-year-old aspiring ballerina from Miami, finds
herself in the hospital, diagnosed with diabetes, and has to learn how to
manage her disease, cope with being different from her friends, and
wonder if she ever dance again.
Telling Christina Goodbye
McDaniel, Lurlene
Christina's friends and loved ones must learn to cope when she is killed
and two other high school seniors are injured in a car accident.
All Rivers Flow to the Sea
McGhee, Alison
After a car accident in the Adirondacks leaves her older sister Ivy braindead, seventeen-year-old Rose struggles with her grief and guilt as she
slowly learns to let her sister go.
Gone
McMann, Lisa
While eighteen-year-old Janie ponders her future with Cabe, knowing
that her being a dream-catcher means eventual blindness and crippling,
she encounters her past as the father she never knew is hospitalized with
brain trauma and seems to need her help.
Echo
Morgenroth, Kate
After Justin witnesses his brother's accidental shooting death, he must
live with the repercussions, as the same horrific day seems to happen
over and over.
Side Effects May Vary
Murphy, Julie
Alice is ready to go out in a blaze of glory, but then she discovers she's
in remission from cancer and she must deal with all of the mistakes
she's made and the people she's hurt.
The Mission
Myers, Jason
Kaden Norris moves to San Francisco to visit his cousin James after
Kaden's older brother is killed in Iraq, and is introduced to a life of
drugs, sex, and apathy.
Paranoid Park
Nelson, Blake
A sixteen-year-old Portland, Oregon skateboarder, whose parents are
going through a difficult divorce, is engulfed by guilt and confusion
when he accidentally kills a security guard at a train yard.
The Sky is Everywhere
Nelson, Jandy
In the months after her sister dies, seventeen-year-old Lennie falls into a
love triangle and discovers the strength to follow her dream of
becoming a musician.
After the Wreck, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings And Flew
Away
Oates, Joyce Carol
Blaming herself for the car accident on the Tappan Zee Bridge that
killed her mother, fifteen-year-old Jenna undergoes a difficult physical
and emotional recovery.
Salvation
Osterlund, Anne
Fate throws together superjock, Salvador Resendez and the quiet, shy
and a walking disaster, Beth Courant and they soon realize that their
attraction is irresistible, but when tragedy strikes and threatens to
destroy everything that Salva has worked for Beth hopes that her love
for him will be enough to pull him through.
Conditions of Love
Pennebaker, Ruth
During her freshman year at an elite high school in Dallas, Sarah tries to
come to terms with her own volatile emotions, her changing relationship
with her best friend, feelings about her mother, and new insights into
her dead father whom she idolized.
From from Xanadu
Peters, Julie Ann
Sixteen-year-old Mary-Elizabeth "Mike" Szabo, struggling to
understand her father's suicide and her own homosexuality, reaches the
breaking point when she falls in love with Xanadu, an exotic girl who
has moved to small Coalton, Kansas, from the big city.
My Sister’s Keeper: a novel
Picoult, Jodi
Thirteen-year-old Anna, conceived specifically to provide blood and
bone marrow for her sister Kate who was diagnosed with a rare form of
leukemia at the age of two, decides to sue her parents for control of her
body when her mother wants her to donate a kidney to Kate.
What Happened to Lani Garver
Plum-Ucci, Carol
Sixteen-year-old Claire is unable to face her fears about a recurrence of
her leukemia, her eating disorder, her need to fit in with the popular
crowd on Hackett Island, and her mother's alcoholism until the
enigmatic Lani Garver helps her get control of her life at the risk of his
own.
Just Like That
Qualey, Marsha
A tragic accident ending with the death of two people her own age
changes life forever for an eighteen-year-old woman.
Under the Wolf, Under the
Dog
Rapp, Adam
Sixteen-year-old Steve struggles to make sense of his mother's terminal
breast cancer and his brother's suicide.
A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life
Reinhardt, Dana
Sixteen-year-old atheist Simone Turner-Bloom's life changes in
unexpected ways when her parents convince her to make contact with
her biological mother, an agnostic from a Jewish family who is losing
her battle with cancer.
34 Pieces of You
Rodrigues, Carmen
After Ellie dies of a drug overdose, her brother, her best friend, and her
best friend's sister face painful secrets of their own when they try to
uncover the truth about Ellie's death.
Somebody Up There Hates You
Seamon, Hollis
Dying of cancer in a hospice, seventeen-year-old prankster Richard has
big plans for his final days.
You Are Not Here
Schutz, Samantha
Annaleah has always accepted that she and Brian must keep their
relationship a secret, but when Brian dies, Annaleah finds herself lost
and along as she silently grieves and is unable to share her pain with her
family, friends, and classmates.
Love You, Hate You, Miss You
Scott, Elizabeth
After coming out of alcohol rehabilitation, sixteen-year-old Amy sorts
out conflicting emotions about her best friend Julia's death in a car
accident for which she feels responsible.
Running Lean
Sharples, Diana L.
Told from their separate viewpoints, Calvin Greenlee copes with grief
over his brother's recent death by racing his vintage Yamaha on rural
North Carolina streets while his girlfriend, Stacey Youngblood, battles
anorexia, and their relationship may not survive the strain.
The Color of Silence
Shaw, Liane
Seventeen-year-old Alex decides not to speak and blames herself for the
car accident that took her best friend, Cali, until she meets Joanie at a
hospital who does not speak and has minimal control of her body.
Positively
Sheinmel, Courtney
Thirteen-year-old Emmy, grieving over her mother who died of AIDS,
resentful of having to live with her father and pregnant stepmother, and
despairing about her future, finds hope at a summer camp for HIVpositive girls like herself. Includes facts about Elizabeth Glaser, one of
the founders of the Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
Antsy Does Time
Shusterman, Neal
Fourteen-year-old Anthony "Antsy" Bonano learns about life, death,
and a lot more when he tries to help a friend with a terminal illness feel
hopeful about the future.
After Ever After
Sonnenblick, Jordan
Although Jeff and Tad, encouraged by a new friend, Lindsey, make a
deal to help one another overcome aftereffects of their cancer treatments
in preparation for eighth-grade graduation, Jeff still craves advice from
his older brother Stephen, who is studying drums in Africa.
A Walk to Remember
Sparks, Nicholas
When a twist of fate makes Jamie Sullivan his date at the homecoming
dance, Landon Carter never dreamed they would fall in love, but as he
comes to realize his true feelings for Jamie, he learns of a terrible secret
that will take his love away from him forever.
Irises
Stork, Francisco X.
Teenage sisters Kate and Mary are forced to make adult decisions
regarding the direction of their lives after their loving but old-fashioned
father dies suddenly and leaves them alone with their mother, who has
been in a persistent vegetative state since an accident four years earlier.
Can also be used for health issues: coma
Fall For Anything
Summers, Courtney
Eddie Reeves's father commits suicide, and as she seeks for answers,
she meets Culler Evans, a photographer and former student of her
father's who may know the secret to her father's death.
Artichoke’s Heart
Supplee, Suzanne
When she is almost sixteen years old, Rosemary decides she is sick of
being overweight, mocked at school and at Heavenly Hair--her mother's
beauty salon--and feeling out of control, and as she slowly loses weight,
she realizes that she is able to cope with her mother's cancer, having a
boyfriend for the first time, and discovering that other people's lives are
not as perfect as they seem from the outside.
Broken Soup
Valentine, Jenny
A photographic negative and two surprising new friends become the
catalyst for healing as fifteen-year-old Rowan struggles to keep her
family and her life together after her brother's death.
Homestretch
Volponi, Paul
Five months after losing his mother, seventeen-year-old Gas runs away
from an abusive father and gets a job working at an Arkansas race track,
surrounded by the illegal Mexican immigrants that he and his father
blame for her death.
Muckers
Wallace, Sandra Neil
Felix O'Sullivan, standing in the shadow of his dead brother, an angry,
distant father, and racial tension, must lead the last-ever Muckers high
school football team to the state championship before a mine closing
shuts down his entire town.
Converting Kate
Weinheimer, Beckie
After moving from Arizona to Maine, sixteen-year-old Kate tries to
recover from her father's death as she resists her mother's dogmatic
religious beliefs and attempts to find a new direction to her life.
Adios, Nirvana
Wesselhoeft, Conrad
As Seattle sixteen-year-old Jonathan helps a dying man come to terms
with a tragic event he experienced during World War II, Jonathan
begins facing his own demons, especially the death of his twin brother,
helped by an assortment of friends, old and new.
When You Were Here
Whitney, Daisy
When his mother dies three weeks before his high school graduation,
Danny goes to Tokyo, where his mother had been going for cancer
treatments, to learn about the city his mother loved and, with the help of
his friends, come to terms with her death.
Every Time a Rainbow Dies
Wiliams-Garcia, Rita
After seeing a girl raped and becoming obsessed with her, sixteen-yearold Thulani finds motivation to move beyond his interest in his pigeons
and his grief over his mother's death.
Blind Faith
Wittlinger, Ellen
While coping with her grandmother's sudden death and her mother's
resulting depression and fascination with a spiritualist church, whose
ministers claim to communicate with the dead, fifteen-year-old Liz
finds herself falling for a new neighbor whose mother is dying of
cancer.
Behind You
Woodson, Jacqueline
After fifteen-year-old Jeremiah is mistakenly shot by police, the people
who love him struggle to cope with their loss as they recall his life and
death, unaware that 'Miah is watching over them.
Beneath a meth moon: an elegy
Woodson, Jacqueline
Laurel Daneau, having lost her mother, grandmother, and home in
Hurricane Katrina, thinks things are going well with her new life as a
cheerleader and the girlfriend of basketball start T-Boom, but after TBoom introduces her to meth and she finds the drug helps her deal with
her past, she must rely on the help of an artist named Moses and her
friend Kaylee to overcome the addiction.
All These Lives
Wylie, Sarah
Convinced that she has nine lives after cheating death twice as a child,
sixteen-year-old Dani tries to forfeit her remaining lives in hopes of
saving her twin sister, Jena, whose leukemia is consuming their family.
How to Save a Life
Zarr, Sara
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.
*Plot summaries and images provided by Follett.