Some books have the power to make you laugh or get your adrenaline pumping. But these sad books for teens will make you shed at least a tear or two. They deal with death and disease, love and loss, childhood hardships and serious life lessons.
Breathless by Lurlene McDaniel
One careless stunt leaves champion diver Travis Morrison in the hospital with a broken leg. There he learns that his leg shattered so easily due to rare form of cancer. The best chance the doctors have of saving his life is by amputating his leg. But with cancer, survival is never a guarantee.
(Random House Children’s Books | May 2009 | ISBN: 9780385734592)
Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler
Is it better to have loved and lost than have never loved at all? Ask Ivy, who found a soulmate in her high school boyfriend, Tristan. But when Tristan is in a deadly car accident, Ivy’s life is changed forever. Crushed, Ivy must live every day knowing that she’ll never see her true love again. But then she starts to feel his presence—he’s become her guardian angel in order to protect her from the man who caused his own death. This collection of three short novels includes Kissed by an Angel, The Power of Love, and Soulmates.
(Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing | December 2008 | ISBN: 9781416978831)
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
Edward Tulane was a spoiled china rabbit who had no mind for anyone but himself. That is, until the day he's accidently tossed overboard into the middle of the ocean. Alone and helpless, Edward has time to reflect on his home life that he took for granted. After months in the ocean’s depths, Edward is rescued by a passing fisherman. He and his wife show Edward kindness, caring for him as if he were their own. But circumstances change, causing Edward to move on from one new companion to another. In each of them, he finds friendship and learns what it means to love.
(Candlewick Press | February 2006 | ISBN: 9780763625894)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brain Selznick
After his father dies, and his uncle disappears, Hugo is left alone living in the walls of a Paris train station. There he continues his uncle’s work, keeping the clockwork in motion. Before he died, his father found him an old, broken automaton and left him the notes to fix it. But one day, a grumpy, old toy salesman, steals his notebook contain his father’s instructions. Thinking they’re destroyed, Hugo uses his logic and spare parts from old toys in order to fix the automaton himself. That’s when he discovers its shocking connection to the toy salesman. Soon, the secrets of his past are revealed. But sometimes secrets are better left buried.
(Scholastic Canada | March 2007 | ISBN: 9780439813785)
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