Drug and Alcohol Abuse*

Drug and Alcohol Abuse*

/ The Death of Jayson Porter
Adoff, Jaime
In the Florida projects, sixteen-year-old Jayson’s struggles with the harsh realities of his life, which include an abusive mother, a drug-addicted father, and not fitting in at his predominately white school bring him to the brink of suicide.
/ Go Ask Alice
Anonymous
Based on the diary of a fifteen-year-old drug user chronicling her struggle to escape the pull of the drug world.
/ Lucy in the Sky
Anonymous
The diary of a teenage girl whose social drinking and drug use turn into addictions that cause her to become involved in a bad crowd, skip school, and lose control of her life.

/ Out of Reach
Carrie Arcos
Accompanied by her brother's friend, Tyler, sixteen-year-old Rachel ventures through San Diego and nearby areas seeking her brother, eighteen-year-old Micah, a methamphetamine addict who ran away from home.
Head Case
Aronson, Sarah
Seventeen-year-old Frank Marder struggles to deal with the aftermath of an accident he had while driving drunk that killed two people, including his girlfriend, and left him paralyzed from the neck down
/ Rosie and Skate
Bauman, Beth Ann
Fifteen-year-old Rosie and her sixteen-year-old sister Skate are looked after by their cousin Angie while their father, a drunk, spends a few weeks in jail, and both girls endure problems with boyfriends and family while living in an old Victorian house on the Jersey shore.
/ Drowning Instinct
Bick, Ilsa J.
Jenna Lord's first sixteen years were not a fairy tale. Her father is a controlling psycho and her mother is a drunk. She used to count on her older brother until he shipped off to Iraq. And then, of course, there was the time she almost died in a fire.
Other Topics: Family Abuse, Alcohol Abuse, Cutting
/ The Absolute Value of -1
Brezenoff, Steve
Four teenagers relate their experiences as they try to cope with problems in school and at home by smoking, drinking, using drugs, and running track.
/ Candy
Brooks, Kevin
Joe, an English boy from the right side of the tracks, is poised to get everything he has ever wanted, but he risks it all when he falls for Candy, and is drawn into her seedy, dangerous world.
/ Smack
Burgess, Melvin
After running away from their troubled homes, two English teenagers move in with a group of squatters in the port city of Bristol and try to find ways to support their growing addiction to heroin.
/ Out of This Place
Cameron, Emma
Follows three teens who struggle with hardscrabble realities, from Luke, who works at the local supermarket and tries to stay out of trouble; to Bongo, who drinks to avoid his abusive family; to Casey, who longs to escape her controlling father.
/
Walkaway
Carter, Aiden R.
Fifteen-year-old Andy, fed up with his alcoholic father and annoying older brother, leaves their northern Wisconsin cabin on his version of a walkabout, leaving his medications to combat depression, anxiety, and delusions behind.
/
Up Country
Carter, Alden R.
When his mother's drinking problem causes him to spend several months with country relatives in upstate Wisconsin, sixteen-year-old Carl begins to build a new life for himself, only to see it threatened by a serious mistake from his painful past.
/ A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich
Childress, Alice
The life of a thirteen-year-old Harlem youth on his way to becoming a confirmed heroin addict is seen from his viewpoint and from that of several people around him.
/ Leverage
Cohen, Joshua
High school sophomore Danny excels at gymnastics but is bullied, like the rest of the gymnasts, by members of the football team, until an emotionally and physically scarred new student joins the football team and forms an unlikely friendship with Danny
Other Topics: Bullies
Double Exposure

/ Birdsall, Bridget
Fifteen-year-old Alyx Atlas starts school in a new state with a new identity--as a girl--but a bully on the basketball court threatens to reveal that Alyx is an intersex person, which could disqualify Alyx and the team from playing in the state championship game.
We All Fall Down
Cormier, Robert
As The Avenger searches for the teenage boys who trashed a house in his neighborhood, Buddy, one of the trashers, increases his drinking in order to cope with his parents' separation and his obsession with the daughter of the owner of the vandalized house.
/
Crackback
Coy, John
Miles barely recalls when football was fun after being sidelined by a new coach, constantly criticized by his father, and pressured by his best friend to take performance-enhancing drugs.
/ Lock and Key
Dessen, Sarah
When she is abandoned by her alcoholic mother, high school senior Ruby winds up living with Cora, the sister she has not seen for ten years, and learns about Cora's new life, what makes a family, how to allow people to help her when she needs it, and that she too has something to offer others.
/ Runner
Deuker, Carl
Living with his alcoholic father on a broken-down sailboat on Puget Sound has been hard on seventeen-year-old Chance Taylor, but when his love of running leads to a high-paying job, he quickly learns that the money is not worth the risk.
/ High School High
Freeman, Shannon
High school freshman Brandi, Marisa, and Shane deal with dating, friendship, and drug addiction.
/ Lush
Friend, Natasha
Unable to cope with her father's alcoholism, thirteen-year-old Sam corresponds with an older student, sharing her family problems and asking for advice.
/ Saint Iggy
Going, K.L.
Iggy Corso, who lives in city public housing, is caught physically and spiritually between good and bad when he is kicked out of high school, goes searching for his missing mother, and causes his friend to get involved with the same dangerous drug dealer who deals to his parents.
/ Something Like Hope
Goodman. Shawn
Shavonne, a fierce, desperate seventeen-year-old in juvenile lockup, wants to turn her life around before her eighteenth birthday, but corrupt guards, out-of-control girls, and shadows from her past make her task seem impossible
Other topics: juvenile crime and teen pregnancy
/ The White Horse
Grant, Cynthia D.
In her writing for a concerned teacher, sixteen-year-old Raina reveals her troubles with a dysfunctional family, life on the streets, drug abuse, and finally an unplanned pregnancy.
/ Blood Brothers
Harazin, S.A.
With his best friend on life-support after taking drugs at a party, seventeen-year-old Clay, a medical technician, recalls their long friendship, future plans, and recent disagreement, and tries to figure out who is responsible for the accidental overdose.
/ Burned
Hopkins, Ellen
Seventeen-year-old Pattyn, the eldest daughter in a large Mormon family, is sent to her aunt's Nevada ranch for the summer where she temporarily escapes her alcoholic, abusive father and finds love and acceptance, only to lose everything when she returns home.
/ Crank
Hopkins, Ellen
Kristina Georgia Snow's life is turned upside-down, when she visits her absentee father, gets turned on to the drug “crank”, becomes addicted, and is lead down a desperate path that threatens her mind, soul, and her life.
/ Fallout
Hopkins, Ellen
Written in free verse, explores how three teenagers try to cope with the consequences of their mother's addiction to crystal meth and its effects on their lives.
/ Glass
Hopkins, Ellen
Kristina is determined to break her addiction to drugs in order to keep her newborn child; but when she fails and the pull becomes too strong, her greatest fears are quickly realized.
/ Chasing Tail Lights
Jones, Patrick
Seventeen-year-old Christy, sad since her father's death, ignored by her mother, and abused by her drug-dealing half-brother, finds friends who help her learn to stand up for herself and move past the old hurts and fears that are keeping her down.
/ Harmonic Feedback
Kelly, Tara
When Drea and her mother move in with her grandmother in Bellingham, Washington, the sixteen-year-old finds that she can have real friends, in spite of her Asperger's, and that even when you love someone it does not make life perfect.
/ Little Peach
Kern, Peggy
Hospitalized in Brooklyn, New York, fourteen-year-old Michelle recalls being raised in Philadelphia by a loving grandfather and drug-addicted mother before running away and getting lured into prostitution.
/ The Gospel of Winter
Kiely, Brendan
Managing the challenges of his fractured family by taking Adderall, sneaking drinks, and confiding in an abusive priest, sixteen-year-old Aidan finds support from new friends including a crush, a wild girl, and a swim-team captain with his own secrets.
/ Stoner & Spaz
Koertge, Ronald
A troubled youth with cerebral palsy struggles toward self-acceptance with the help of a drug-addicted young woman.
/ The Porcupine of Truth
Konigsberg, Bill
Seventeen-year-old Carson Speier is bored of Billings, Montana, and resentful that he has to help his mother take care of his father, a dying alcoholic whom he has not seen in fourteen years--but then he meets Aisha, a beautiful African American girl who has run away from her own difficult family, and together they embark on a journey of discovery that may help them both come to terms with their lives.
/ Imperfect Birds
Lamott, Anne
Rosie Ferguson, a teenage girl who seems to be successful on the surface, causes strife in her family due to her lies about drug and alcohol use and other risky behaviors.
/ Raiders Night
Lipsyte, Robert
Matt Rydeck, co-captain of his high school football team, witnesses the rape of a rookie player by teammates and struggles with his own use of performance-enhancing drugs.
/ Smashed
Luedeke, Lisa
Maine high school senior Katie Martin is set to win a field hockey scholarship until her life is derailed by drinking, a car accident, and an angry classmate.
/ Buried
MacCready, Robin Merrow
When her alcoholic mother goes missing, seventeen-year-old Claudine begins to spin out of control, despite her attempts to impose order on every aspect of her life.
/ Flash Burnout
Madigan, L.K.
Fifteen-year-old amateur photographer Blake gains self-awareness through his relationships with a girlfriend and a friend who he helps come to terms with her feelings about her homeless, methamphetamine-addicted mother.
/ Jellicoe Road
Marchetta, Melina
Abandoned by her drug-addicted mother at the age of eleven, high school student Taylor Markham struggles with her identity and family history at a boarding school in Australia.
/ Parrot in the Oven: mi vida: a novel
Martinez, Victor
Manny relates his coming of age experiences as a member of a poor Mexican American family in which the alcoholic father only adds to everyone's struggle.
/ In Ecstasy
McCaffrey, Kate
Fifteen-year-old best friends Sophie and Mia find their lives changing in ways they never could have imagined after Sophie convinces Mia they should try ecstasy.
/ My Brother’s Keeper
McCormick, Patricia
Thirteen-year-old Toby Malone struggles to keep his family together after his father leaves; however, keeping his older brother Jake's drug habit from their mother is getting harder and harder.
/ Ten Things We Did (and probably shouldn't have)
Mlynowski, Sarah
Sixteen-year-old April, a high school junior, and her friend Vi, a senior, get a crash course in reality as the list of things they should not do becomes a list of things they did while living parent-free in Westport, Connecticut, for the semester.
/ Joseph
Moses, Shelia P.
Fourteen-year-old Joseph tries to avoid trouble and keep in touch with his father, who is serving in Iraq, as he and his alcoholic, drug-addicted mother move from one homeless shelter to another.
/ Bottled Up
Murray, Jaye
A high school boy comes to terms with his drug addiction, life with an alcoholic father, and a younger brother who looks up to him.
/ Run the Game
Myers, Jason
A cocaine-addicted teenaged guitarist in a rock band falls dangerously in love with a fourteen-year-old prostitute.
/ The Beast
Myers, Walter Dean
A teenager from Harlem struggles to save his girlfriend from herself when she develops a drug problem while he is away at a Connecticut prep school.
/ Dope Sick
Myers, Walter Dean
Seeing no way out of his difficult life in Harlem, seventeen-year-old Jeremy "Lil J" Dance flees into a house after a drug deal goes awry and meets a strange man who reveals different turning points in Lil J's life when he could have made better choices.
/ Faking 19
Noel, Alyson
Seventeen-year-old Alex and her best friend M set out to explore the night-life scene of L.A., pretending to be nineteen so they can get into the hippest parties and clubs, but Alex soon learns that partying and lying can lead to more trouble than she can handle.
/ A Room on Lorelei Street
Pearson, Mary E.
To escape a miserable existence taking care of her alcoholic mother, seventeen-year-old Zoe rents a room from an eccentric woman, but her earnings as a waitress after school are minimal and she must go to extremes to cover expenses.
/ What Happened to Lani Garver
Plum-Ucci, Carol
Sixteen-year-old Claire is unable to face her fears about a recurrence of her leukemia, her eating disorder, her need to fit in with the popular crowd on Hackett Island, and her mother's alcoholism until the enigmatic Lani Garver helps her get control of her life at the risk of his own.
/ Hick
Portes, Andrea