OMG! - Teen Fiction about Religion
Abdel-Fattah, Randa
Does my head look big in this? (2005)
Amal's world is turned upside-down when she chooses to wear the hijab at her prep
school.
Beale, Fleur
I am not Esther (2004)
After her mother unexpectedly leaves her with her uncle's family, members of a
fanatical Christian cult, Kirby tries to learn what has become of her mother and
struggles to cope with the repressiveness of her new surroundings and to maintain her
own identity.
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker.
Leap of Faith (2007)
Forced to attend a Catholic middle school because of her conduct, Abigail discovers a
talent for theater and develops a true religious faith.
Brande, Robin
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature (2007)
Following her conscience leads high school freshman Mena to clash with her parents
and former friends from their conservative Christian church, but might result in better
things when she stands up for a teacher who refuses to include "Intelligent Design" in
lessons on evolution.
Carlson, Melody
Finding Alice (2003)
Teenager Alice is hearing voices in her head. Can one of them be God's?
Crutcher, Chris
Sledding Hill (2006)
Billy, recently deceased, keeps an eye on his best friend, fourteen-year-old Eddie, who
has added to his home and school problems by becoming mute, and helps him stand up
to a conservative minister and English teacher who is orchestrating a censorship
challenge.
Dickinson, Peter.
Tulku. (1993)
A thirteen-year-old boy escapes from slaughter by the Boxers in China and joins forces
with an English botanist and her escort, traveling with them to Tibet where the power of
Buddhist monks transforms the lives of all of them.
Dorris, Michael
A yellow raft in blue water (1998)
Three generations of Native American women relay the stories of their lives, intertwined
with spiritual myths and social circumstances.
Erskine, Kathryn.
Quaking (2007)
In a Pennsylvania town where anti-war sentiments are treated with contempt and
violence, Matt, a fourteen-year-old girl living with a Quaker family, deals with the
demons of her past as she battles bullies of the present, eventually learning to trust in
others as well as herself.
Grimes, Nikki
Dark sons (2007)
Poems compare and contrast the conflicted feelings of Ishmael, son of biblical patriarch
Abraham, and Sam, a teenager in New York City, as the come to terms with being
abandoned by their fathers and their love for their younger stepbrothers.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson
Leaving Fishers (2004)
After joining her new friends in the religious group called Fishers of Men, Dorry finds
herself immersed in a cult from which she must struggle to extricate herself.
Hautman, Pete
Godless (2005)
When Jason Bock and his high school friends create their own religion to worship the
town's water tower, what started as a joke begins to take on a power of its own.
Heuston, Kimberley
The Shakeress (2004)
While searching for her true self and for the way to meet the needs of her personal sense
of spirituality, an orphaned teenaged girl joins a Shaker community in mid-nineteenth
century New England and learns about a new religion called Mormonism.
Hoffman, Alice
Incantation (2006)
During the Spanish Inquisition, 16 year old Catholic Estrella discovers her family's true
Jewish identity, and the consequences are tragic.
Jacobson, Jennifer
Stained (2006)
In Weaver Falls, New Hampshire, in 1975, seventeen-year-old Jocelyn looks for
answers when her lifelong neighbor and friend, Gabe, mysteriously disappears and she
learns that, while her boyfriend, Benny, has been telling everything to a priest, Gabe has
been keeping terrible secrets.
Jolin, Paula
In the Name of God (2007)
Determined to follow the laws set down in the Qur'an, seventeen-year-old Nadia
becomes involved in a violent revolutionary movement aimed at supporting Muslim rule
in Syria and opposing the Western politics and materialism that increasingly affect her
family.
Kass, Pnina
Real Time (2004)
Sixteen-year-old Tomas Wanninger persuades his mother to let him leave Germany to
volunteer at a kibbutz in Israel, where he experiences a violent political attack and finds
answers about his own past.
Kidd, Ronald
Monkey town : the summer of the Scopes trial (2006)
When her father arrests a local teacher for teaching evolution, the resulting trial prompts
Frances to rethink many of her beliefs about religion, as well as her relationship with her
father.
Koja, Kathe
Buddha boy (2004)
Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student whom the school
bullies torment and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that impace Jinsen,
himself, and the entire school.
Laird, Elizabeth
A little piece of ground (2006)
During the Israeli occupation of Ramallah in the West Bank of Palestine, Karim and his
friend create a secret place for themselves where they can momentarily forget the
horrors of war.
Lester, Julius
Time's memory (2006)
Ekundayo, a Dogon spirit brought to America from Africa, inhabits the body of a young
African American slave on a Virginia plantation where he experiences loss, sorrow, and
reconciliation in the months preceding the Civil War
Levithan, David
Wide awake (2006)
In the not-too-distant future, when a gay Jewish man is elected president, 16-year-old
Duncan examines his feelings for his boyfriend, his politics and his religious beliefs, and
tries to determine his place in the world.
Nolan, Han
When We Were Saints (2003)
Inspired by his grandfather's last words and guided by a girl who believes they are
saints, fourteen-year-old Archie sets out on a spiritual quest that takes him from
southern Appalachia to the Cloisters Museum in New York City.
Nye, Naomi Shihab
Habibi (1997)
When fourteen-year-old Liyanne Abboud, her younger brother, and her parents move
from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the Palestinian village where her
father was born, they face many changes and must deal with the tensions between Jews
and Palestinians.
Reinhardt, Dana.
A brief chapter in my impossible life (2006)
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.
Roth, Matthue.
Never mind the Goldbergs (2005)
A seventeen-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl leaves her home in New York for the
summer to film a television show in California.
Sanchez, Alex
The God Box (2007)
When openly gay Manuel transfers to Paul's high school, Paul, a born-again Christian,
begins to question his own sexuality.
Sonnenblick, Jordan
Zen and the Art of Faking It (2007)
When thirteen-year-old San Lee moves to a new town and school for the umpteenth
time, he is looking for a way to stand out when his knowledge of Zen Buddhism, gained
in his previous school, provides the answer--and the need to quickly become a
convincing Zen master.
Spencer, Katherine
Saving Grace (2006)
After her brother's death, Grace has difficulty finding meaning in her life and begins to
get into various kinds of trouble, until a mysterious new girl at school helps her find her
way back to family, old friends, and even God.
Tolan, Stephanie
Ordinary Miracles (2002)
Tired of being a twin, Mark tries to spend more time away from his twin brother and
meets a scientist who challenges some of Mark's long-held Christian beliefs about
heaven, God, prayer, and death.
Turnbull, Ann
No shame, no fear (2004)
n 17th century England, a time of immense religious persecution, a Quaker and an
Anglican fall in love against all odds.
Weinheimer, Beckie
Converting Kate (2007)
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.
Wittlinger, Ellen
Blind faith (2007)
While coping with her grandmother's sudden death and her mother's fascination with a
spiritualist church whose ministers claim to communicate with the dead, 15-year-old Liz
finds herself falling for a new neighbor whose mother is dying of cancer.