Graceling by Kristin Cashore

In the opening scene of this story, Katsa, hooded and dressed like a boy, moves through underground caverns doping her opponents and knocking a killer flat with a single blow.

In this world, there are certain people called Gracelings who are born with a special skill. Katsa's grace is that she is a stone-cold killer.

Easily identified by having two different colored eyes, Gracelings, though blessed with such amazing powers as laser vision or hearing people's thoughts, are not worshipped, they're shunned, kind of like medieval X-Men.

The court found out Katsa's grace when her uncle touched her leg inappropriately. With a flick of her hand, she smashed his skull like an overripe tomato.

Katsa meets her match when she encounters Po, another killer Graceling, and the only person who can stand up to her in a fight -- thus kicking off a rich and romantic fantasy novel with the coolest girl heroine in YA. 

Bibliotherapeutic value: Although she can kill, Katsa can do much more. It is about getting out from under someone else's controlling grip; about a disenfranchised girl finding her true power.

Cashore, Kristin. Graceling. New York: Harcourt Children's Books, 2008.

ISBN: 015206396X.  $17.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Richard Mayhew is a regular Londoner with an average job and a supremely annoying fiancee. Then, on his way to a very important dinner to discuss his future with a VIP, he is swept into the world of a strange girl, who seems to fall out of a wall and into the street, battered and bleeding.

It's not long before Richard, who (being the nice guy he is) takes Door home to care for her, is tangling with something even more ferocious than his bitchy girlfriend -- such as the dark forces of London Below, a parallel and perilous world lurking underneath, beside, and (at times) inside the city itself. Richard and Door team up with the flamboyantly sinister Marquis de Carabas to fight the evil villains who are hell bent on destroying them.

My husband had this book lying around and I picked it up. Brilliant stuff.

Bibliotherapeutic value: A story about self-realization and overcoming paralysis to do the right thing. Cathartic and deep.

Gaiman, Neil. Neverwhere. New York: Harper Perennial, 2003)

ISBN: 0060557818. $13.99.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The story begins with a horrible murder, but one person in the house survives, a toddler who manages to stumble outside and wander to the graveyard down the street. There, the ghosts discover, adopt and name him; "Nobody" or Bod is the only truly alive person in this haunted place.

But the killer is still out there, and he's still on the prowl.

A fanciful, fantastic book filled with a little bit of fear and lot of humor; the ghosts are far more friendly and kind than the humans.

While most YA books disassociate themselves from the past, this one treats past and present as one. Gaiman is a master at weaving in layers of history, creating a rich world in which fun and dread inhabit the same playground.


Bibliotherapeutic value: Although Bod's story begins with mass murder and his life is run through with danger, he also finds friendship and nurturing at the hands of others (though those others are often supernatural!). Bod, often too trusting, has to discover who will protect him and who won't. About navigating danger in the world.

Gaiman, Neil. The Graveyard Book. New York: HarperCollins, 2008.

ISBN: 0060530928. $17.99.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Mia seems to have it all -- cool parents, musical talent, a rock star boyfriend. But then there's the accident, which leaves her at the side of the road looking at her parents' mangled dead bodies. When the emergency technicians arrive, pull a body out of the car, and begin to work on it, she realizes that it's her own.

Caught in a dreamlike limbo suspended between life and death, Mia observes as she and her brother are taken to the hospital. While doctors and nurses try to resuscitate them both, Mia looks over her own life and what she has left of it. She has to decide whether she's going to go with her parents or opt to live.

A hypnotic, slim tale about trauma, friendship, and what makes life worth living.

Bibliotherapeutic value: Though Mia has to deal with serious trauma, and she sees things that no one should ever see, this book -- which threatens to become a dread-logged tale about death -- becomes a pensive meditation on friendship and life.

Forman, Gayle. If I Stay. New York: Speak, 2010.

ISBN: 014241543X. $8.99.

Kin: The Good Neighbors, Book One by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh

A Graphic Novel by Holly Black; illustrations by Ted Naifeh


Rue Silver’s mother has disappeared and, though she’s still hanging out with her goth-punk friends, she’s also beginning to see strange things – sticks turn into human shapes, people pop up with pointy ears and very strange ways.

When her father is arrested for the murder of his student and the presumed murder of his wife, a sinister parallel world of faeries (aka “The Good Neighbors”) begins to crawl out of the shadows. Is Rue crazy, or is the thin veil of normalcy in her everyday world being pulled aside so that she can see things as they really are?

Sharp and dark, the entire book is drawn in a hypnotic black and white. The creepy alternative dreamworld is repulsive and seductive at the same time.

In the post-Twilight era, teens were flocking to Black's Tithe series -- a gritty book about faeries. The cover image of this graphic novel is pretty alluring. And goth-punk faeries? Pretty fun stuff.

Bibliotherapeutic value: Rue begins the book with a tough (“no worries”) attitude, but she soon realizes that she has plenty to worry about. The intensity of this graphic novel is nicely paired with Rue’s tough-as-nails approach; this story captures the feeling that many teens have that they are living in a strange world in which they are not understood by anybody, and in which their parents might not be the people that they’ve always imagined.

Black, Holly and Naifeh, Ted. The Good Neighbors: Kin. New York: Graphix, 2008.

ISBN: 978-0-439-85562-4. $16.99

Coraline: The Graphic Novel by Neil Gaiman

Coraline and her family have just moved in to a new home, a large rural manse inhabited by an odd mouse trainer and two blowsy yet charming ladies who used to be actresses. An inveterate explorer who is mind-numbingly bored in this new place, Coraline explores her strange new home.

On her travels, she discovers a door that carries her to a parallel world where her "other mother" -- an extremely creepy maternal doppelganger with the general looks of her real mother but buttons for eyes and witchy hands -- and "other father" live. Suddenly, Coraline's real parents vanish, and Coraline knows that only she can save herself and bring them back.

Chilling (yet at times funny), Gaiman's story taps into some deep fears about abandonment and the dangers lurking in the world outside the home. P. Craig Russell's meticulous, painterly illustrations bring the humor and strangeness of this tale to life.

Graphic novels of books have always seemed like film novelizations to me -- an abbreviated shadow of the original. I've always heard that this is one graphic novel that one-ups the original story. And what a spooky story.

Bibliotherapeutic value: A curious girl who ventures into a perilous world, Coraline is a great model of a self-reliant tween who battles a force that threatens to swallow her up. A story about facing down life's dangers.

Gaiman, Neil. Coraline. New York: Scholastic, 2003.

ISBN: 0380977788. $16.99.

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Paul lives in a world where the cheerleaders gun Harleys at pep rallies, the quarterback is a drag queen, and Paul's own kindergarten teacher states on his progress report that he is gay. This high school sophomore's life is easy and angst-free until he meets Noah, the artsy new kid in town, who is completely crush-worthy.

Generally, it wouldn't be a problem, except there's Paul's angry ex, Kyle, who is suddenly reaching out to him; there's his depressed best friend Tony, whose religious parents refuse to accept that he's gay. And then there's his other best friend, Joni, who is swept up in a relationship with a difficult, controlling jock.

Suddenly, life's not so easy anymore. How can Paul connect with Noah when his life is a roiling mess. And, soon enough, he's asking himself if he'll ever truly connect with anyone.

With a main character who is completely comfortable with his homosexuality, Boy Meets Boy is a book about friendship, family, and romance.

Fanciful yet full of humorous day-to-day teen drama, this is a lighthearted book with serious issues at its core.

Bibliotherapeutic value:  Imagining a world in which gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people are accepted highlights the harsh realities (and unfairness) of what GLBTQ teens go through every day. This book creates a pleasant fantasy world in which everyone is accepted, no matter what. Boy Meets Boy is full of hope -- with a strong central character who is very self-assured -- and it's a reminder of how far we are from a world in which everyone is accepted.

Levithan, David. Boy Meets Boy. New York: Knopf/Borzoi, 2003.

ISBN 0-375-92400-0. $17.99.