Novels about Problems and Issues Updated January 2007

Novels about Problems and Issues
Updated May 2007

High school senior Kate Malone is an over-achiever: a gifted student who loves science and math and hopes to go to MIT. She wants to go to MIT so much, in fact, that it is the only school she’s applied to—but she hasn’t told anyone that.

Pressures on Kate abound. Her father, a charismatic but often over-booked preacher, needs Kate’s help around the church and around the house, since her mother has been dead for years and her younger brother, Toby, has allergies and asthma that often leave him very ill. Kate’s boyfriend, Mitch, is her soul-mate, but when Kate isn’t accepted to MIT, she turns away from him—and everyone else who thinks she applied to other back-up schools.

The pressures increase when an unpopular girl at school, Teri Litch, and her family—members of the church Kate’s father runs—move in with the Malones after their house burns down. Kate knows that Teri steals things from her—a watch, a necklace—but she is afraid to confront her and knows that her father won’t back her up, in part because he about the fate of Teri and her two-year-old brother, Mikey, who are on their own, since their mother is mentally unstable.

As Kate watches, she gets to know Teri better, and realizes she’s different than Kate realized. She is a talented carpenter, and is supervising the reconstruction of her house, and she is a devoted caretaker for Mikey. But just as Teri and the crew are beginning to make progress on the house, a horrible accident occurs that reveals a dark secret about Teri’s past and makes Katie see her in a different light, and changes her own perspective considerably and permanently.

In a story that’s likely to appeal to readers who enjoyed Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel, Speak, fifteen-year-old Faith Duckle returns to school after having spent time in a mental institution. Her hospitalization was preceded by a brutal gang rape at school by a group of boys she encounters in the hallways upon her return.

Faith is different now: she’s lost fifty pounds and she’s haunted by an imaginary companion, a ghost of her formal self she calls the Fat Girl, who is constantly reminding her who and what she used to be. The Fat Girl’s influence is powerful, and she chips away at Faith’s self-confidence and endangers the healing she has accomplished. When The Fat Girl finally wears her down, convincing her that she must get even with the boys who assaulted her, Faith breaks down and commits a violent act of revenge.

Forced to flee town after her crime, Faith seeks refuge with a traveling circus that she learned about from Charlie, a young man she worked with who told her about his own experiences on the road with the eclectic band of performers. In the circus, Faith confronts her fears and more importantly, begins to redefine herself—not as a former fat girl, but as a courageous, smart, and powerful woman.

Scenes of the circus life, both in front of and behind the stage, reveal a fascinating culture of drama and an assortment of intriguing misfits who co-exist in a world most of us never experience. Like Melissa in Speak, it is through escape, and then through art (in this case, performance art) that Faith gains courage and self-worth. A highly readable and beautifully written book.

Frank, E.R. Life is Funny.
In this series of interconnected stories about eleven teenagers in Brooklyn, E.R. Frank creates a collection of miniature worlds that expose the often harsh truths about being a teen in the 90s. Although the subject matter is frequently bleak, there is a great deal of humor and happiness in the lives of these characters, who despite their troubles and flaws, are entirely likeable. Even though each story felt complete, I still found myself rooting for and wanting to know more about the characters and wishing that they would be mentioned later in the book, which they sometimes were.

Among the characters are the angry, nearly illiterate, Eric, who is raising his young brother, Mickey; Grace and Sam, who are both models and find that having a beautiful face isn’t necessarily a guarantee that you’ll have a beautiful life; Keisha and Gingerbread, who discover each other—and first love; Monique and Molly, sisters who save each other from themselves and from their crazy mother; and Drew, who has listened to his father beat his mother long enough.

I loved this book. At first, I struggled to get into it, expecting a traditional plot line, but once I met the characters, I found myself longing for more of their stories and their lives; if there is anything at all that’s disappointing about this book, it’s that there isn’t more of it! E.R. Frank doesn’t hesitate to use the language teens use, and she does it extremely well; obviously she has an ear for dialogue and for the lives that teens lead and the problems they wrestle with.

Fifteen-year-old Robin is surrounded by beautiful people who treat sex casually and drift in and out of relationships. Her mother is sexually promiscuous, her father is married to a much younger woman who Robin suspects is unfaithful, and she is attracted to her older neighbor, a man who approaches her for sex and alternates between treating her like a friend and treating her like an object. On top of these issues, Robin is dealing with the loss of her best friend, who has moved across the country.

Her problems are not easily resolved, and because of that, this novel may challenge some readers. Robin does, however, find happiness with a boy from her school, who likes her despite her appearance and who teaches her to like herself.

Some sexual situations may limit readership, but overall, the story is complex enough to hold readers’ attention and there is much to talk about—Robin’s treatment at the hands (literally) of her neighbor, for example, and the ethical dilemma she faces when discovers that her father’s wife may be unfaithful. This might make a good read for an older-age high school book discussion group.

Book Cover

Many people are familiar with psychological disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette’s Syndrome, and assorted eating disorders, but very few know what synesthesia is.

Mia experiences the world differently than other people—for her, letters and numbers have colors, and so do people, sometimes. She hides her secret interpretation of the world from everyone, until an incident in math class forces her to talk to her parents about what’s going on.

Sessions with a therapist reveal that Mia has synesthesia, not a mental illness but a brain disorder in which “wires” from her senses are mixed up, causing certain images and ideas to be connected in her brain to other images and ideas that they are not usually connected to. (In many synesthetes, people smell music or taste shapes). By working with the therapist, Mia gets to meet other young people who also have synesthetes, including a boy with whom she forms a special friendship. She’s also able to work through her feelings of grief over her grandfather’s death and learn to explain her condition to others.

Mango-Shaped Space is a sweet story and a good introduction to what it might feel like to have synesthesia and to experience the world so differently.

The Memory of Running by Ron McLarty.

Smithy Ide is 43, overweight, addicted to alcohol and cigarettes, and spends his days working at a toy factory where he’s responsible for making sure the arms on a soldier doll are attached correctly. He’s unhappy with his life, but seems powerless to change it until a series of tragedies occur that lead to his transformation.

Smithy’s parents are injured in a car crash and then die within days of each other, and soon afterward, he learns that his older sister, Bethany, has turned up dead in an L.A. morgue. In an impulse decision, Smithy picks up his old bicycle and begins pedaling across the country to identify and claim Bethany’s body.

As he travels across the country, Smithy’s encounters with a series of people who need his help, as well as his examination of the past and a resurrected relationship with an old neighbor cause him to reconsider himself and regain a self of worth and purpose.

Smithy will remind readers a little of Forrest Gump and John Kennedy Toole’s character Ignatius J. Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces—smarter, maybe, and even more likeable, but equally lost and bewildered in a world that he doesn’t fully understand and which doesn’t completely accept him. In chapters that alternate between his current journey and his past, Smithy puts together a picture of a family struggling to help his desperately mentally ill sister as her behavior challenges them again and again, until ultimately, he’s able to forgive himself and Bethany and move on with his newly improved life.

Carolina “Nine” Livingston is surprised but certain that her English teacher, Mr. Mann, is attracted to her the same way she is to him. They share a love of poetry—especially that of Emily Dickinson—and a similar sense of humor. Soon Nine finds herself alone with Mr. Mann, and she realizes they truly are compatible.

When their relationship crosses the boundary between teacher-student, Nine and Mr. Mann are nervous but continue to see each other, making plans for the future, sharing poetry, and Nine believes, solidifying their connection against the odds.

Just when Nine thinks that she and Mr. Mann have formed an intimate and lasting bond, however, the world crashes in, and her confidence, trust, and reality are shattered—she finds herself betrayed and confused, and seeks to alleviate her anger and remedy her hurt, slipping into obsessive and frightening behavior.

Nine’s voice will remind many readers of Melinda’s from Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel, Speak, and although the circumstances are different, the humor and suspense will appeal to readers seeking an intelligent, if troubled, narrator.

Carrie Bell’s life falls into disarray when her fiance in paralyzed after diving from a pier. After 8 years, Carrie had been ready to end the relationship, but now that Mike is injured, she feels pressured to stay by his side. As she weighs the choices—staying with him or leaving—she is desperately unsure of how to proceed, and so escapes to look for answers within herself.

Armed with a talent for designing and sewing her own clothes, she leaves her hometown for what is originally intended to be a short stay in New York City, connecting with an old high school classmate and moving in temporarily with him and his roommates. While there, she encounters Kilroy, a man she had met earlier, while still at home, and the two begin an often-confusing, somewhat complicated relationship.

Even as she pursues courses in design and sewing and becomes more involved in her relationship with Kilroy, Carrie cannot forget the life she has left behind—her mother, her best friend, Jamie, and especially Mike and his family—and she knows it will take an incredible courage to go back and face what she abandoned. Armed with a better understanding of herself and what she is capable of doing, Carrie returns to confront her fears and her mistakes.

This is a compelling, moving, and sometimes uncomfortable look at how we handle tragedy and react to our worst and best impulses.

As a three-year-old, Kate Fitzgerald is diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia that will surely kill her if a suitable blood and bone marrow donor isn’t found. When no matches are found in their immediate family, Sara and Brian Fitzgerald decide to conceive another child—a child, who through genetic selection, will be a perfect donor match for their dying child.

Thirteen years later, Kate Fitzgerald continues to fight for her life—having lived as long as she has only because her younger sister, Anna, has spent a lifetime donating blood and marrow that keeps her alive. Now in the throes of another life-threatening infection, Kate desperately needs a kidney transplant in order to live. Anna, exhausted from a lifetime of harvesting, decides that enough is enough; she secures a lawyer and sues her parents for medical emancipation, knowing that in doing so, her sister will surely die.

Picoult has created a almost inescapable dilemma, one that challenges her characters’ ethics, morals, and love for one another, and one that will keep readers turning pages late into the night. There are no easy answers here: readers can sympathize with the devoted mother who will do anything to save her child, the father who understands the agony his younger daughter is going through, and the deep sadness of an entire family facing certain pain and loss.

Like Picoult’s other novels, My Sister’s Keeper blends the intricacies of family and interpersonal relationships with courtroom drama to keep a tight grip of her readers. The story move along smoothly, alternating between the viewpoints of both parents, the young donor, her lawyer, and other minor characters to offer readers insight into the effects of this complicated problem, and plot twists keep you guessing about what will happen next.

Hunter’s job might well be the best teenage job ever: he is an official “cool hunter” for a well-known athletic shoe company. His job is to spot trends before they become trends—to look out for “innovators”—teens who think up their own fashion statements—and report on those trends to his boss, Megan. He also participates in focus groups with other teens, who meet to watch new commercials and judge products for the company.

Things get weird, however, shortly after he spots Jen, one of the ahead-of-the-trendsetters that he’s always on the look-out for; befriending her can give him an inside edge on spotting new fads and impress his boss. Hunter and Jen hit it off, and soon they’re hanging out together. Not long after they meet, however, Hunter’s boss Mandy mysteriously disappears, and Jen and Hunter must track her down. When they go looking, they discover a bizarre cache of the coolest shoes they’ve ever seen, as well as evidence that an underground organization is working to undermine mainstream marketing.

This is a hip, funny, and suspenseful story about the power of advertising and “branding” and the way people get swept up in them.