Posts by Megan Honig

How long has it been since you’ve checked out the nonfiction side of the teen section in your library? Here are some standout titles—you can find them with young adult biographies.

The Bite of the Mango

Mariatu Kamara grew up in Sierra Leone, where rebel soldiers and the government were at war. At age 12, Mariatu was caught in a rebel attack. She escaped—but first, the rebels cut off her hands. Wounded and separated from her family, Mariatu had to learn a new set of survival skills. Though there are bleak moments in the book, there is also a happy ending: Mariatu now works for UNICEF, an international organization that helps young people.

Have you got a few minutes? Good, because once you open these books, you’re going to want to keep flipping through.

When I worked on a public information desk, it was one of the most common questions from teens: where are the books on abuse? Sometime readers related to the stories, sometimes they just wanted to read about awful things happening to someone else, and sometimes it was a mix of the two.

Split, by Swati Avasthi, is one of the most emotionally sophisticated teen books I’ve read about abuse in a long time.

Gentlemen by Michael Northrop

Micheal Benton (his parents spelled “Michael” wrong and never got around to fixing the birth certificate) and his friends Tommy, Bones, and Mixer aren’t stupid, but they aren’t the school type:

For 80 years, New York Public Library staff shared the best titles for teens in an annual list called Books for the Teen Age.

Last year, Books for the Teen Age became Stuff for the Teen Age, a multimedia, multi-format, targeted, and teen-tested list of the best of the year in teen books, music, graphic novels, movies, games, and more.

This year, Stuff for the Teen Age becomes a blog.