Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Top Ten Kids/Teen Books That Tackle Tough Issues

It's Tuesday and that means Top Ten day over at The Broke and the Bookish.  Today's topic is Books That Tackle Tough Issues.  I love this one because I always enjoy thought-provoking books that teach me or make me think about something (I love the alliteration, too!).  In fact, I wrote my own Top Ten list a few years ago of Books That Taught Me Something, which is a bit similar.

For this week's list, I tried to stick to more recent books I've read that have tackled a wide variety of tough topics and to books written for kids/teens/YA (you can read my Top Ten list of grown-up books at Book By Book).

Top Ten Kids/Teen Books That Tackle Tough Topics:

  1. Three Little Words (memoir) by Ashley Rhodes (foster care)
  2. Go Ask Alice (drug addiction)
  3. Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor (divorce, unreliable parents, child neglect)
  4. Thunder Over Kandahar by Sharon E. McKay (plight of girls/women in Afghanistan)
  5. A Million Shades of Gray by Cynthia Kadohata (effects of war on children)
  6. Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel (animal rights)
  7. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (effect of war on society, citizens, and soldiers)
  8. Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin and Rules by Cynthia Lord (autism, treatment of people who are different)
  9. Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott (abduction, rape)
  10. Nothing But the Truth by Justina Chen Headley (personal identity, mixed races, fitting in)

What are your favorite books that tackle tough issues?

5 comments:

Lissa said...

good list. you have some authors i have read, but not the books. may have to investigate further. =D

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you included autism on your list! I wanted to but didn't have any books that I knew of...now I do. They'll definitely be on my TBR pile!

Lark Andrea said...

How could I have forgotten Living Dead Girl when I was making my list?

Reading Lark's Top 10

Anne@HeadFullofBooks said...

Three Little Words is so disturbing. Good Choice!

Marce said...

Hi Sue, I am considering reading Rules, i'm intrigued.

My Top Ten

http://teawithmarce.blogspot.com/2011/07/top-ten-books-that-tackle-tough-issues.html