Mental Health Awareness Month: Recommended YA Fiction and Nonfiction

Updated April 28, 2026
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Lewis and Clark Library Lewis and Clark Public Library
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Mental Health Awareness Month: Recommended YA Fiction and Nonfiction

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(Don't) call me crazy : 33 voices start the conversation about mental health
Jensen, Kelly
Paper Book
Talk openly about mental health with thirty-three diverse and empowering actors, athletes, writers, and artists in thisaward-winning book. Contributors include: Kristin Bell, Nancy Kerrigan, S. Jae-Jones, Meredith Russo, V.E. Schwab, and Adam Silvera, among many others.
I am not your perfect Mexican daughter
S
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A "stunning" (America Ferrera) YA novel about a teenager coming to terms with losing her sister and finding herself amid the pressures, expectations, and stereotypes of growing up in a Mexican American home. "Alive and crackling--a...
The Anxiety Club: How to Survive Modern Life
Fanget Frederic
Paper Book
In The Anxiety Club we are introduced to three characters, each with a different form of anxiety. After hearing their stories, we follow them into the therapy room where they discover the behavioral, cognitive and emotional tools to help free themselves from anxious thinking. Many people believe...
Be you, only better : real life self-care for young adults (and everyone else)
Hugstad, Kristi
Paper Book
Along with all the perks of becoming an adult come challenges and the need to learn skills that help you self-regulate as you venture into new experiences. Highlighting five key areas of life -- physical, mental, emotional, social, and financial -- Be You, Only Better offers science- and experience...
Challenger deep
Shusterman, Neal
Paper Book
National Book Award * Golden Kite Award Winner * Six Starred Reviews A captivating novel about mental illness that lingers long beyond the last page, Challenger Deep is a heartfelt tour de force by New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman. Caden Bosch is...
The coven tendency
Mikuta, Zoe Hana
Paper Book
Zoe Hana Mikuta delivers a bloody and unrelenting fantasy about young witches dangling on the edge of love and obsession, of magic and madness, of life and death (and death and death and death). . . Just like her mother and her mother's mother, 18-year-old Vanity Adams is...
Darius the Great is not okay
Khorram, Adib
Paper Book
Darius doesn't think he'll ever be enough, in America or in Iran. Hilarious and heartbreaking, this unforgettable debut introduces a brilliant new voice in contemporary YA. Winner of the William C. Morris Debut Award "Heartfelt, tender, and so utterly real. I'd live...
The flip side
Walz, Jason
Paper Book
This breathtaking, page-turning graphic novel is a supernatural survival story in which a grieving teen finds himself in a haunting alternate reality--the frightening embodiment of his depression. For fans of Stranger Things and Nimona. Theo's best friend has died,...
Harbor me
Woodson, Jacqueline
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! Jacqueline Woodson's first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming celebrates the healing that can occur when a group of students share their stories. It all starts when six kids...
A heart in a body in the world
Caletti, Deb
Paper Book
When everything has been taken from you, what else is there to do but run? So that's what Annabelle does--she runs from Seattle to Washington, DC, through mountain passes and suburban landscapes, from long lonely roads to college towns. She's not ready to think about the why yet,...
Hello Sunshine (a Graphic Novel)
Young, Keezy
Paper Book
In this lush and romantic queer horror graphic novel, a troubled teen disappears from his small town-sending his loved ones on a paranormal journey to bring him home. Noah is heartbroken. He returns from Bible camp to find that Alex, his secret boyfriend, has had a...
Here I am, I am me : an illustrated guide to mental health
Bean, Cara
Paper Book
This colorful graphic novel adventure through the brain demystifies and destigmatizes emotional and mental health for children through accessible language and lessons. Join author-illustrator Cara Bean in Here I Am, I Am Me, as she takes readers on an...
Invisible Wounds : Graphic Journalism
Ruliffson, Jess
Paper Book
Over the past five years, Jess Ruliffson has travelled across the country interviewing veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. She shares the stories of men, women, and non-binary people who struggle to reconcile their wartime experiences with their postwar lives. In this compassionate book,...
It Won't Ever Be the Same: A Teen's Guide to Grief and Grieving
Leigh, Korie
Paper Book
Help young people name, express, and give shape to their grief with this book on grieving for teens. Whether teens are in the midst of their first grief experience or have experienced grief before, It Won't Ever Be the Same is designed to support them. Reflections, analogies,...
Little & Lion
Colbert, Brandy
Paper Book
A stunning novel on love, identity, loss, and redemption. When Suzette comes home to Los Angeles from her boarding school in New England, she's isn't sure if she'll ever want to go back. L.A. is where her friends and family are (as well as her crush, Emil). And her stepbrother,...
Love, Sivvy: A Novel Inspired by the Life, Letters, and Diaries of Young Sylvia Plath
Toalson, R L
Paper Book
This intensely relatable historical novel-in-verse follows the young adult years of the exceptionally talented tortured poet, Sylvia Plath, as she casts off the limiting expectations of American women and forges her own path. Perfect for fans of Girl in Pieces.​ ...
The resilient teen : 10 key skills to bounce back from setbacks and turn stress into success
Raja, Sheela
Paper Book
"Well researched and up to date, including the acknowledgement of teens' struggles with the Covid-19 pandemic.... Belongs on every young adult's bookshelf." --Kirkus Reviews (starred) 10 powerful skills to help you manage stress, bounce back from difficult...
Shout : a poetry memoir
Anderson, Laurie Halse
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller and one of 2019's best-reviewed books, a poetic memoir and call to action from the award-winning author of Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson! Bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson is known for the unflinching way she writes about, and...
The spectrum girl's survival guide : how to grow up awesome and autistic
Castellon, Siena
Paper Book
Moonbeam Children's Book Awards - Silver Medal Winner Nautilus Silver Book Award Winner Purple Dragonfly Book Awards - First Place "Never be ashamed of being different: it is this difference that makes you extraordinary and unique." This...
This moth saw brightness
Vacharat, A. A.
Paper Book
A weird and revelatory debut that vividly captures the dislocation of growing up BIPOC and neurodivergent in a country awash in both conspiracy theories and genuine conspiracies. "The invisible D in my name is my mother's second most lasting contribution to my life." ...
This Winter
Oseman, Alice
Paper Book
A very special Heartstopper story set over a challenging holiday season... Reuniting Tori Spring, her little brother Charlie, and Charlie's boyfriend Nick, this novella sees the Spring siblings brave a particularly difficult festive season.
Turtles all the way down
Green, John
Paper Book
FEATURED ON 60 MINUTES and FRESH AIR "So surprising and moving and true that I became completely unstrung." - The New York Times Named a best book of the year by: The New York Times, NPR, TIME, Wall...
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