Literary Teen Fiction
For teens who want to read something more challenging than the usual books, here’s a list of award-winning literary teen novels.
 Tender Morsels – Margo LanaganA young woman who has endured unspeakable cruelties is magically granted a safe haven apart from the real world and allowed to raise her two daughters there, until the barrier between her world and the real one begins to break down. |
 The Book Thief – Markus ZusakTrying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel–a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors. |
 Nothing – Janne TellerWhen 13-year-old Pierre Anthon leaves school to sit in a plum tree and train for becoming a part of nothing, his 7th grade class mates set out on a desperate quest to find the meaning of life. |
 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark HaddonDespite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically gifted, autistic, 15-year-old boy decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor’s dog and uncovers secret information about his mother. |
 The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: The Pox Party – M. T. AndersonDiaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War. |
 Jellicoe Road — Melina MarchettaAbandoned by her drug-addicted mother at the age of eleven, high school student Taylor Markham struggles to uncover her family history and forge a sense of identity, but every clue leads to more questions as Taylor tries to put together the pieces of her past. |
 The White Darkness — Geraldine McCaughreanTaken to Antarctica by the man she thinks of as her uncle for what she believes to be a vacation, Symone–a troubled fourteen year old–discovers that he is dangerously obsessed with seeking Symme’s Hole, an opening that supposedly leads into the center of a hollow Earth. |
 Butterfly - Sonya HartnettAriella “Plum” Coyle fears the disapproval of her friends, feels inferior to her older brothers, and hates her awkward, adolescent body but when her glamorous neighbor befriends her, Plum starts to become what she wants to be–until she discovers her neighbor’s ulterior motive. |
