Realistic Fiction
Books classified into the "realistic fiction" category are those books that include elements that could certainly happen in real life. These books are often set in modern times or a timeless setting, so readers can connect with them. Realistic fiction books are things that could happen in real life, but have not. They are not life stories or stories of specific things that have happened to specific people, but they are believable.
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The Books:
The Year of Secret Assignments/Finding Cassie Crazy by Jaclyn Moriarty
ages 13 and up
The hilarious, well-written and entertaining novel of Australian author Jaclyn Moriarty is as heartwarming, heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud novel. Told entirely in the notes, love letters, e-mails, death threats and secret assignments of three best friends and their three penpals.
Finding Cassie Crazy is the poignant tale of best friends Lydia, Emily, and Cassie, three Year 10 students at Ashbury High School. When their English teacher assigns a year-long project, the Ashbury-Brookfield Pen Pal Project, they are forced to write letters to students at the rival high school, Brookfield High School. As it turns out, the dreaded "Brooker Kids" are just as quirky as the girls are. Sebastian and Charlie are crazy and funny, just like the girls, but then there's Matthew Dunlop...a raving lunatic who doesn't exist?
A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass
ages 12 and up
In the extremely colorful world of Mia, everything looks different. Noises have colors. People have auras. Letters have colors. And while this is perfectly normal to her, other people don’t seem to think so, so she has kept all of these colors a secret. In Mia’s world, synesthesia is perfectly normal. Synesthesia is what Mia has, a condition in which senses are crossed. When she hears a noise, she sees a color, and while rare, this condition does exist. The only problem is, hardly anyone knows about it, even Mia’s own family, who thinks she’s seeking attention, or her best friend, who turned on her because she kept such a big secret. It seems that the only friend she has left that doesn’t think she’s crazy is Mango, her beloved and sickly cat. And when Mia goes away to meet others with synesthesia, her life is once again flipped upside down.
An emotional (and colorful) masterpiece is Wendy Mass’s first novel. A Mango Shaped Space is a rollercoaster of chuckles, smiles, and tears, rolled into the story of one very special girl and her cat.
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
ages 14 and up
Anna Fitzgerald never wondered how babies came to be, but why. She was born for a sole reason; to be her sister, Kate’s, keeper. A cancer patient, Kate needed platelets, organs, and a friend from her sister. Anna was conceived to provide everything Kate needed to get better. But when Anna suddenly seeks the help of a lawyer to no longer be Kate’s donor and body, the Fitzgerald’s entire world collapses. As Kate spirals downward, secrets are revealed, love is lost, and a family’s struggle is turned into utter turmoil. Through it all, a single question stands: Why did Anna even want to refuse to donate so Kate could live? And at the basis of the secrets and emotions of the family is Kate.
Told in multiple point of views, My Sister’s Keeper is the perfect illustration of the bonds of sisters and family, bonds that sometimes seem to break if pushed too far.
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
ages 14-15 and up
Nineteen minutes isn’t really that long of a time. But nineteen minutes can change the world, as a small New Hampshire town learns. When, in nineteen minutes, Peter goes on a shooting spree at his high school that eventually ends the life of over ten students and teachers and affects the lives of hundreds more. As the trial and story develop, a small town grieves, a girl forgets, and secrets are revealed that rock a small town and nearly shake it to the ground.
The latest novel by Jodi Piccoult is a seamless mystery, thriller, and horror story bound in love, hatred, and rifts between friends. In this chilling and edge-of-your-seat thriller, lives are unwound, a town is shaken, and secrets behind a murder reveal themselves.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
ages 13 and up
After a summer party, Melinda is silenced and hated. Her group at high school, the “Plain Janes”, disbands after Melinda calls the police after a life-changing and rattling experience. For her, in her first year of high school, her life has been, so far, social suicide. She is the outcast in a school full of cliques, and a much hated member of the student body. Melinda suffers from “spastic laryngitis”, as she calls it, when her throat closes and her lips hurt and she just can’t speak. Her old friends are unforgiving, and her new friends are not real friends. But she doesn’t think that speaking is necessary if no one listens. She is the headache to teachers and the guidance counselor, the mystery to her parents, and the prey of Andy Evans. Only she knows the real reason she has suddenly gone mute, and the truth is shocking.
Laurie Halse Anderson crafts a sarcastic and witty, first-person account of school, cliques, and real life in the absolutely stunning Printz Honor book and a National Book Award finalist.
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
ages 15-16 and up
A thrilling and dangerous war is on, against the enemy, and fifteen-year-old New Yorker Daisy is sent to live with her Aunt Penn in England and her four cousins. When her aunt leaves and is stranded in Occupied Oslo, Daisy and her cousins are left to fend for themselves in their large house on the countryside, a place free of adults and full of a strange love between Daisy and her fourteen-year-old cousin, Edmond. But as their situation slowly gets worse and troops move into their home, they are on the move, caring for each other as best as they can.
The first-person narrative of Daisy is both a unique and a thought-provoking read set in the world of the future, torn by war and a taboo love.
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
ages 12-13 and up
In the epitome of the coming of age novel, Judy Blume crafts the tale of suburbia and real life of a teenage girl.
Set in suburbia, Margaret is girl coming into her teenage life. Armed with her three friends, Margaret experiences heartbreak, happiness, and anything else that life throws at her. Told with frank honesty, Margaret’s life is chronicled with all of the ups and downs that real girls face. And, through it all, Margaret goes to a strange place (for her) for help: God. But when she moved to New Jersey, she began to think that maybe talking to God wasn't that normal after all, and all she really wants to do is fit in.
In a book that has brought controversy over the years, yet has become a feel-good book for any teenage girl struggling, Judy Blume makes Margaret a timeless friend.
Leap Day by Wendy Mass
ages 13 and up
Josie is a Leaper. She’s sixteen, but it is her fourth birthday. How? Josie was born on Leap Day, occurring only once every four years. In Wendy Mass’s second novel, taking place only over the course of one day, Josie turns sixteen, takes a driving test, participates in a scavenger hunt and is initiated. She lives an odd life at high school, beginning by the fact that she’s a Leaper.
Told in a two-part point of view, one close to Josie and one an all-knowing narrator, Leap Day is the story of growing up with your best friends and being happy with yourself.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
ages 14-15 and up
In his touching and startling debut novel, Mark Haddon explores the mind of Christopher Boone, an autistic boy who screams when touched but has a gift with math. At seven minutes past midnight, fifteen-year-old Christopher sees something that is not quite normal. His neighbor's dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, dead. When he goes out to see the dog, stroking it and hugging it in the night, his neighbor catches him and has him put in jail. Afterwards, Christopher pledges to find out who killed this poodle.
By his own narrative, Christopher states that this is a murder mystery novel, but it is more than that. Simply and honestly, Mark Haddon ventures into the mind of an autistic boy, without making it heart wrenching or pitying, just everyday life.
Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn
ages 14-15 and up
Tackling abuse and violence in the mind of the abuser, Alex Flinn paints a picture of a scarred young man with definite problems, but the problems he is causing are far worse than those he has. While it is always difficult to sympathize with someone who could do such horrible things, this debut novel at least makes the reader understand the causes and roots of an abuser.
Nick is a high school guy. He's popular, friendly, and has a girlfriend he really loves. But he also has a temper, and an abusive side that lands him with a restraining order against Caitlin, his girlfriend. He has a hard time admitting that he ever hit her. Sure, there was a slap here and there, and a punch if he was really angry. But she did things to him, too. She sung in the talent show when he had forbidden her from doing it. Because she did it anyway, Nick beats her so that she is begging him to stop, and yet he doesn't admit he ever really hit her.
This startlingly honest novel gives no euphemisms for beatings, but lets the reader understand what Nick's early life was like, and why he abused Caitlin. Told in two different points of view, after the trial and Nick's journal assigned to him by the teacher of his Family Violence Class, Breathing Underwater offers a look at a basically untouched subject with superb storytelling.
Skinny by Ibi Kaslik
ages 15-16 and up
In the debut novel by Canadian author Ibi Kaslik, the tale of two sisters, a family secret, and a life-threatening disorder is told in a witty, real, and thoughtful way.
Giselle Vasco is a twenty-two-year-old medical student with some medical and emotional problems of her own. Anorexic, Giselle has struggled with self-image and self-worth her entire life. She was born into a Hungarian family escaping communism, five months after her parents entered the country. Her father had always doubted if Giselle was actually his child, and when her younger sister, Holly, was born, the rift widens and Giselle nearly falls in. Inches from death from anorexia, Giselle is admitted to a hospital, gets out, comes home, and spirals downward again.
Told in a two-part narration, Giselle's and Holly's, this provocative novel of family, disease, and self-esteem winds into a thrilling and educational story in the mind of an anorexic girl.
