Behind You by Jacqueline Woodson

In a follow-up to If You Come Softly, Woodson explores what a life without Miah feels like for his family, friends, and girlfriend.

It's a short book (about a hundred pages) and I'm not sure how strongly it would stand on its own if you haven't read the first book. But as a continuation of the story - as a pondering of "what comes next" I enjoyed this revisiting of the characters. Each character deals with grief in their own way, and for that exploration, it might be valuable for teens - you get to see lots of different ways to react to life's changes.

The Sidekicks by Will Kostakis

Three young men, connected only by their friendship with Isaac; when suddenly he's gone, what do they have left?

These guys couldn't have less in common, and yet there's something special in each of them and it's not just Isaac. The book is told in three separate parts (you read all of one before you get to the next), so there's a bit of back and forth over the same timeline, but from different perspectives.

Each struggles with his grief differently - and all have unique ways of dealing with the loss. They're written as realistic teenaged boys: keeping secrets, making dumb choices, figuring things out.

What an awesome book! I'm going to be handing this one over a lot in the near future.

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie

In a heart-wrenching memoir, Sherman Alexie explores his complicated relationship with his mother and his grief after her death. The book's narrative is expressed through a combination of essays, poetry, honor songs, and more.

There's a tradeoff, depending on your reading format: the physical book has pictures, and you get the visual formatting in the poetry. In the audiobook you miss out on those - but you get ALL the emotion as the author reads this work himself.

And I do mean ALL the emotion - there's a river of tears from Alexie in the audiobook, and I can only imagine how many they edited out. It's sometimes overwhelming, in the true, honest way he expresses the story of his life and of his family. It's so, so good, but it took me a while to get through this audiobook - it's not the kind of thing you want to listen to every day.

The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

In a rough patch after his mom dies, 17-year-old Matt gets hired (and mentored) by his single, successful across-the-street neighbor, who owns the funeral home.

The job keeps him out of trouble, offers a little pocket money, and allows him to spectate on other people's grief in a reflection of his own. He also meets a girl whose grandmother has just passed away - a girl who challenges him in interesting, confusing ways.

Reynold's a shining star in the teen lit world, and for good reason. The book is sad without being maudlin, and it's realistic in the way modern kids deal with emotion. It's a fantastic urban book about a black neighborhood and the residents who occupy it.

Love, Alice by Barbara Davis

In the 1960s, a young English woman is sent away in shame. In the now, a young widow wonders where things went so wrong. The two stories meet and intermingle under the guard of a sad South Carolina cemetery angel.

The most famous marker in the cemetery sits not far from Dovie's fiance's headstone, where she visits every day to eat her lunch and wonder why he committed suicide. But one day her attention is drawn over to the Tate angel when an elderly woman leaves a letter (and her glasses) there.

Dovie's beating herself up about something she had no control over, and she's falling apart at the seams. Suddenly, it's much more interesting to get involved in somebody else's drama, even though she can clearly see this meddling is going to be bad for her career and future.

I'm not sure why I picked this book up, and I'm even less sure why I kept reading - it's way too saccharine for my taste, but I persisted. It's not a bad book - if you like romance novels and fated love stories you'll enjoy it. There are twists and minor surprises along the way. It resolves well. (Blech.)

Optimists Die First by Susin Nielsen

Grief can make you do weird things. In Petula's house, it's made Mom a cat hoarder, it's made Dad a workaholic, and Petula has turned to statistics, probability, and news of the strange in an all-out effort to reduce risk and stave off danger in all its disguises.

When the kids in (lame) art therapy class realize they're actually becoming friends, together they find ways to move past their problems and let go of some of their fear. Petula may even learn to walk the short way home past the construction site. But a big secret changes everything, and they're all forced to reevaluate their hearts: forgiveness may be harder to conquer than fear.

I loved this book, and I read it in a single sitting. They're quirky, fun teenagers with relatable lives and fears. They're each working through some heavy shit, and together they may just make it out alive.

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

A kindergartner is killed in a hit-and-run accident in the street in front of his house, right in front of his mother. Will the driver ever be found?

This is a fantastic twisty thriller full of complex characters, and I'm afraid to give too much plot synopsis because I don't want to give anything away. Chapters alternate between characters and perspectives (annoyingly, one is in second-person).

The setting, the mystery, and the characters in this book reminded me of the British crime drama "Broadchurch." Fantastic, and highly recommended!

Finding Mr. Brightside by Jay Clark

Two teenagers connected only by a tragic car accident that took the lives of their philandering parents.

Juliette is addicted to Adderall, a passed-down legacy from her glamorous, over-achieving mother. Juliette knew about the affair and chose to shelter her wanna-be-author father's fragile ego. On the other hand, Abram was blindsided when his tennis-loving, uber coach father died; he and his mother had no idea there was another woman. Abram's depression means he's snacking and sleeping his days away in a Paxil fog.

They meet in the CVS and tentative politeness turns into an actual friendship. Maybe the only way to get past this grief, anger, and embarrassment is with someone who truly understands.

I loved these broken, real characters and their life-raft friendship. They each recognize a way to help the other heal, even though they feel helpless to do the same for themselves. And the budding romance is sweet and also very realistic.

The book is very well written and completely consuming. I couldn't wait to find out what would happen, hoping the whole way that love might win over in the end.

Everybody's Fool by Richard Russo

I love funny, true, heart-tugging literary fiction about small towns and the people you meet who live in them. Every town's unique, yet there's a commonality in all of them.

Sully's a crusty geezer with a short life expectancy due to a bad heart. Rub is Sully's needy best friend - Rub's also the name of Sully's mangy little dog because he loves barking orders and seeing which of them responds. Then there's Sully's former lover Ruth, who owns the diner, and her husband the junk man. Get the picture?

The other part of the story lies with police chief Doug Raymer, who's coming unraveled faster by the minute as the story goes on. He starts out by obsessing over his dead wife while standing at attention in the sun in uniform during a funeral, where he eventually faints and lands in the fresh-dug hole. That's just the start of his problems.

I loved, loved, LOVED this book. I adored this book. It's smart and funny, and the audiobook narration by Mark Bramhall was stellar. That's not to say I couldn't see through the plot in several places (I right away knew the identity of Becca's lover), but I was willing to overlook that for the startling turns the plot made elsewhere.

There are a few loose ends not wrapped up at the end, but I'm also OK with that. This was the second time Russo has presented us with life from North Bath, New York, so perhaps we can hope for more someday (but I won't hold my breath: there were 22 years between "Nobody's Fool" and this one).

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick

A year after his wife's death, while making an attempt to clean out her closet, Arthur discovers a fancy charm bracelet he's never seen.  Why did Miriam keep this hidden? Do the charms mean something?

This is a cute, thoughtful book in the same genre as The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry or A Man Called Ove; Arthur has become stuck in a rut, because if he eats breakfast at EXACTLY the same time every day and if he obsesses about watering the fern then maybe he won't have to deal with the fact that his wife is never coming back and his whole world is different.

The charms lead Arthur on an unexpected journey - true travels, yes, but also an emotional journey through and out of the grief that's been crippling him. He reconnects with the world and his family, and finds a purpose in moving forward.

I've already recommended it once, and it will be popular with library readers. A good, quaint find!

The Underwater Welder by Jeff Lemire

Working in the sea deep below a Canadian oil rig, welder Jack Joseph knows his job: focus on the weld, hold a steady hand. But one day he sees something from the corner of his mask and everything begins to unravel.

He's brought up to the surface, revived, and sent home early from his stint aboard the rig. Going home should be a blessing because Jack's wife Susie is on the verge of giving birth, but Jack's restless to discover what he saw in the deep water outweighs his impending fatherhood.

This black-and-white graphic novel shows through flashbacks and some time travel trickery how Jack's grief for his missing father is affecting his joy for the birth of his own son. In the introduction there's reference to the TV show the Twilight Zone - which is really how this story feels.

It's bleak and sad, but also told very well.

Alligator Candy: A Memoir by David Kushner

David Kushner grew up with a hole in his life - the empty spot where his next-oldest brother should have been. And while the Kushner family moved forward, its surviving members living and achieving, they all carried the grief of losing 11-year-old Jon.

David was four years old when his brother died. He was too young to really understand what was going on, but certainly not too young to miss the brother he'd worshipped. His memory wiped clean most of it away, and throughout his life David remained mostly naieve to the details of Jon's death.

In bits and pieces, he eventually opens up to the story - but mostly, it's the death and funeral of their father (36 years after Jon's death) that compels David to turn his journalism skills to this tragic story and research, read, and interview his way into a full account of Jon's demise.

The book's well written and honest, though a bit emotionless even though it's personal. It's Kushner's factual, journalistic style that makes it so shocking then, later, when he coldly lays bare the facts of the murder.

To carry the weight of that information must be crushing - what was done to the child - and for me it made things even more stunning how the family members each dealt with the knowledge yet led fulfilling lives.

Isabelle Day Refuses to Die of a Broken Heart by Jane St. Anthony

Her new home in Minneapolis is a duplex, with nosy elderly landladies downstairs. A new school, a new town, and a different life - but all Isabelle really wants is the old life back.

It's a universal yearning when something bad has happened - I just want things the way they were before! - and St. Anthony does a lovely job addressing it for kids (Isabelle is in eighth grade, but this book could read younger with no problem.) You like Isabelle right away, and I rooted for her to make new friends and not get stalled in her grief.

And while the book is set in the 1960s, it feels contemporary and not stuck in history: A lack of technology is the only real giveaway, and perhaps that the events of the landlord sisters lives are so far back in time, now.

At 140 pages it's not an intimidating read for kids, and the short chapters make it easy to digest. You like the characters enough to keep reading, and the emotion is so real and relatable.

I really, really liked this one!

This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

A week of sitting shiva for his deceased, lapsed-Jew father isn't what Judd Foxman wants to do right now. It's going to get ugly if the four grown Foxman siblings have to all live under the same roof for a full week. But there isn't really any choice.

Not that Judd's really got anything better to do - he's separated from his wife after he found her in bed with his boss. Oh, and for that same reason, he's now jobless and living in a basement apartment.

So maybe a week in his mom's basement might not be that bad.

The book's funny, and the sibling love-hate relationships are very realistic. They're each comfortable in their consigned sibling roles, and yet also dying to be something else altogether.

PS: I've seen the 2014 movie version of this (same title, starring Jason Bateman as Judd) and it stayed pretty close to the book, with a few notable exceptions and the usual simplification of the storylines. It should probably tell you something that I sought out the book after enjoying the movie. Additionally, I laughed out loud when Judd in the book remembers his Mom working out in the 80's and trying to get a butt like Jane Fonda's - because in the film Jane Fonda plays the mom.

Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah Moskowitz

Craig and Lio's friendship seems to be leaning towards something more than "just friends," but each boy carries a heavy burden of grief into their fresh, budding relationship.

The dark pall of 9/11 is only a year in the past, and the Beltway Sniper is all over the news; schools and parents are on high alert to perceived threats and security concerns. Which only makes things more stressful and tense for one boy missing his first big love and another whose twin is dead. They try to find solace and happiness together, but it's a lot to process when you're just a teen.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was the realistic way the 24/7 news coverage of public security threats affect the people in the book - many of them take it very personally, in a fashion that's true to the time. While the relationship between the teens is at the center of the story, their homosexuality is in no way the dramatic core of the book.

See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles

Twelve-year-old Fern has a crazy, big family: she's the third of four kids, and feels invisible. Her older brother may be gay but hasn't admitted it yet, her younger baby brother's just a spoiled pain, and her sister (the oldest) is angry with the world and working at the family's restaurant during a gap-year before college. Dad is always coming up with embarrassing, loony promotional ideas for the restaurant, and as a result, Mom's continually striving to tune out the chaos in favor of inner peace.

But in a mere moment, everything changes. Life will never be the same.

This is an excellent book, and also gut wrenching. Emotionally draining. I listened to the audiobook on a car trip and considered quitting because it was putting such a pall over my drive. But I also so badly wanted to know what happened that I persevered.

It's not too heavy a story for kids - every day, real-life kids deal with these same issues and more, and I'm glad books like this (and many others, too) illustrate they are not alone. It's exceptionally written, and worth reading. But it's also not a light novel, and I think it would be best accompanied by a discussion with a kid who reads it, to help iron out their emotions and thoughts about the events of the tale. I know I spent some quiet time, contemplating, at its completion.

The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick

Completely narrated in letters to Richard Gere, this story of a man's journey of self-discovery unfurls story by story. Bartholomew is a little slow-minded and he's never had a job besides taking care of his mother, but at 38 years old he's got to stand on his own now that brain cancer has taken her. And in the course of grief counseling - and a major roadtrip adventure - his horizons begin to expand.

The book's very funny, but a little sad, and also philosophical. Bartholomew does lots of research at the library, so even though the angry man in his stomach sometimes calls him retarded, he's also thoughtful about Buddhism and Tibet (Gere's interests) and his own Catholic upbringing.

Author Matthew Quick has become a prominent voice for mental illness awareness and social understanding because he's such a master at putting the reader inside the head of his unusual and broken characters. This is the third book of his that I've read, and each has been wonderful and eye-opening for me in terms of compassion and empathy.

I really enjoyed this book and was engrossed from start to finish. It's a fairly fast read, but the story and characters will stick with you long after the final page.

Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher

It's hard enough to be a teenage girl in love - but what if you fell for two guys? Well, at least in this story, somebody's going to end up dead.

Brit teen "Zoe" is writing letters to a death row inmate in Texas. She figures she can unburden herself to Mr. Harris since he killed his wife - he'll understand that terrible things can happen in the heat of passion. A boy is dead, and Zoe is to blame ... but it's going to take almost a year, a lot of letters, and a complicated backstory before we get to that.

This is a fun, addictive, and frustrating novel. I was completely sucked into the story and I read it in just two sittings - but I had to constantly stop myself from jumping to the end to find out WHICH ONE?!? And about the time you think, "a-ha!" you'll also wonder, "Was that a red herring?"

Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson

A happenstance meeting, punctuated by a gun, changes the lives of everyone inside the Circle K gas station. Single young mom Shandi becomes smitten with the strong lonely hero who puts himself between her son and the gun. But like real life, things aren't that easy: William's got his own issues, and he isn't likely to simply fall head over heels because Shandi says so. Complicating matters are his best friend, her best friend, and so, so much more.

Jackson is an absolutely wonderful writer - a real reader's delight. She's both funny and emotional, and her characters are genuine and relatable; they're flawed in all the true ways, rendering them three-dimensional. They're practically living breathing people because you recognize in them yourself and others you know.

In addition to the pseudo-romantic storyline, there's another piece to the tale: Shandi coming to terms with her son's conception. She's been in strong denial about what happened that night, but facing a gun makes her realize she owes it to everyone to face down the dragon. Incidentally, William's in a perfect position to help with that, too.

Drop everything, and pick up this book! I'm not one for romance stories, so understand that for me Jackson's name on the cover trumps the word "love" in the title. And I certainly wasn't disappointed. I loved, loved, loved this book.

Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield

Music geeks who came of age during the 1990s will find fraternity in Sheffield's tales of his relationship, marriage and widowhood. Despite the subject of grief, this is an often-funny book with touchstones for even those who haven't experience his kind of loss.

You remember mix tapes, right? Finding, combining, and recording music in a perfect combination to express a mood or emotion is an artform lost in today's playlist-and-shuffle world. Rob and Renee created tapes to help with dishwashing and going to sleep along with the more common dance and exercise compilations. 

It's easy to understand how Sheffield's connections to music shift after Renee's sudden death. There are songs he'll never listen to the same way again - some for better, some for worse. And this book will make you dust off those old mixtapes from your own life and also run to iTunes for some new finds.

The audiobook version is read by the author, which brings a new layer of meaning to the tough and terrible times he experiences after Renee. He does a commendable job getting through it - I'm not sure I'd have been so strong.