I’ve always wanted to publish a book for teenagers, but I’m not quite sure about the story I want to tell. When I was in high school I wrote a ton of poetry and short stories that I thought were pretty funny, but I struggle now to find the space to sit down and write. Instead, I spend most of my time reading, which is I guess is not a bad thing. Some of my favorite reading is the writing of my students at DHS. I have really fond memories from when I sponsored writing club and got to hear the stories that teenagers wanted to tell. To honor these and other teen authors, I bring you books written by teenagers for teenagers. All of these titles are available in the DHS library. Come on down and check one out!
Break by Hannah Moskowitz, written during her junior year of high school
Seventeen-year-old Jonah is on a quest to break every bone in his body, and his best friend Naomi is there to film each attempt, as he crashes his skateboard or dives into an empty pool. His 16-year-old brother, Jesse, has deadly food allergies and their parents aren’t vigilant about keeping the house safe, so that job has fallen to Jonah, who is weighed down by the responsibility. He breaks his bones so that as he heals he becomes stronger (“It’s sort of a natural bionics thing. Break a leg, grow a better leg. Break a body, grow a better body”), a belief treated with almost religious reverence from some, like Naomi (who calls it a “revolution”), but that eventually results in his being institutionalized. Moskowitz, who wrote the story while a high school junior, paces the story well and creates in Jonah a believable and complex protagonist. Love interest Charlotte is one-dimensional, and Naomi strains credulity as she eggs Jonah on. But the brothers’ relationship is poignant, and Moskowitz’s depiction of Jonah and Jesse’s respective traumas-and a family drowning in dysfunction-are viscerally real. -Publishers Weekly
Eragon: A Novel by Christopher Paolini, written when he was 17
Was the mysterious blue stone that appears out of nowhere sent by accident or is teenage Eragon meant to have it? When a dragon, Saphira, hatches from it, beast and boy connect (in much the same way dragons and riders do in Anne McCaffrey’s popular Pern series) and face danger together. In this story, Eragon is thrust into a new role as the first Dragon Rider in more than 100 years who is not under the evil king’s control. After the king’s ghastly minions kill Eragon’s uncle as they search for the teen, Eragon and Saphira, mentored by the village’s aged “storyteller,” hunt for the killers and, in turn, find themselves being hunted. This unusual, powerful tale, begun when Paolini was 15 (he’s now 19) and self-published in 2002 before being picked up by Knopf, is the first book in the planned Inheritance trilogy. It’s obvious that Paolini knows the genre well–his lush tale is full of recognizable fantasy elements and conventions. But the telling remains constantly fresh and fluid, and he has done a fine job of creating an appealing and convincing relationship between the youth and the dragon. It’s an impressive start to a writing career that’s sure to flourish. -Booklist
The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi, she completed this novel when she was 19.
Oyeyemi, born in Nigeria and now a 20-year-old Cambridge student, has written about what she knows while drawing on Nigerian folklore and a belief in the power of the mind to alter reality. Born of a Nigerian mother and a British father, Jessamy, a difficult child, feels somehow out of place in London. When she is eight, her mother decides a trip to Nigeria to meet her African relatives might define Jessamy’s sense of identity and perhaps erase her sometimes violent tantrums. While there, Jessamy can’t connect with her Nigerian cousins, but she meets a “barefoot and strange” new friend, TillyTilly, whom surprisingly no one else ever sees. After the family’s return to London, nothing much has changed; Jessamy has no real friends, and she begins to experience periodic fevers. TillyTilly shows up and becomes an increasingly dominant figure in Jessamy’s life, eventually revealing information that changes her perception of herself. Oyeyemi subtly weaves together Nigerian myth and a classic doppelganger tale to create a sensitive and precocious debut. -Booklist
Hail Caesar by Thu-Huong Ha, the author started writing this book at age 15.
Senior John Miller is known as Caesar, and indeed, he rules his suburban high school. Basketball champ and ladies’ man, Caesar gets any girl he wants and uses his considerable charm and influence to take advantage of many. Enter a new girl, Eva, who is not the least bit impressed by Caesar. Naturally, he becomes obsessed with trying to gain her interest. First-time author Ha, who started this novel at age 15, is now a freshman at Princeton. She captures the rhythm and cadence of teens’ speech and interior monologues, both of which include profanity. Though Caesar is a bona fide jerk, he is not without redeeming qualities, particularly evident in his concern for his 13-year-old sister, who is starting to engage in risky behavior. Eva is biracial (Eurasian), but, refreshingly, Ha does not make this a major point in Caesar’s attraction to her. Equally refreshing is the ending, which is not tidily resolved or predictable. Ha creates characters who dare to ponder big questions, even if they have no clue as to the answers. -Booklist
Please Don’t Kill the Freshman by Zoe Trope, Age 14
The 44-page nucleus of this book was originally published by a small press when the author was 14. Her precociously perceptive and preternaturally poisonous pen then drew the attention of HarperCollins, which offered her a six-figure book deal to keep the caustic coming-of-age diary ranting and raving through the increasingly irrelevant remainder of her high school career. Zoe’s entries chronicle her tortured search for truth in love and art, her faltering faith in the value of activism in the face of universal apathy, and her bottomless disdain for just about every figure and fixture in her high school life. The language is undeniably raw-a hip mixture of bald statement, cyberesque shorthand, and stream-of-consciousness prose. Her frank accounts of her transgender search for the perfect kiss and her first girlfriend who becomes her first boyfriend will surely shock certain audiences. Still, like Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower (MTV, 1999), this is an important offering for exceptional, alienated readers-the talented and the tortured misfits who need to know that they are not alone. The fact that a dorky teen can actually pursue personal success completely on her own terms; make lots of people read, wince, laugh, and think; and score a major wad of cash in the bargain will actually give them something to cheer about.-School Library Journal
Additional Titles by Teen Authors:
In the Forests of the Night by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes (age 13)
Red: The next generation of American writers-teenage girl on what fires us their lives today
Crazy by Benjamin Lebert (age 16)
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (complete in 1817 when the author was 19)
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