Page-Turning YA Reads That Model Forgiveness
by Dena McMurdie
Learning how to forgive other people is an essential life skill, and teenagers will have plenty of opportunities to practice it. From tumultuous relationships to friendship drama, teen life is full of hurt feelings, bruised egos, and misunderstandings. One way to encourage forgiveness in your teen is by having them read books that model it. These novels are about teens giving and receiving forgiveness and learning how to move forward.
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Heartbreakers and Fakers
Teen dating is a messy business, and most of them experience plenty of misunderstandings that they need to resolve. When Penny kisses Kai, her best friend’s boyfriend, their friendship — and her relationship with her boyfriend — implodes. Penny and Kai try to redeem themselves by starting a fake relationship, but things get even more complicated when they develop real feelings for each other.
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Where She Went
Available from:This bestselling sequel to If I Stay is a heart-wrenching story about growing up, grief, and forgiveness. Three years after the accident that changed everything, Adam has reached his dreams of fame and fortune as a rockstar. But the grief he feels over Mia’s abandonment consumes him until a chance encounter offers them redemption and forgiveness. Together, Adam and Mia work through the hurt and pain until Adam gets the closure he needs to let go of his anger.
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The Summer of Lost Letters
When Abby finds a stack of love letters in her recently deceased grandmother’s possessions, she goes to Nantucket for the summer to investigate. While she’s there, she meets the letter writer’s grandson, and they team up to find out why their grandparents’ romance didn’t work out. They discover difficult realities about their Jewish heritage, the challenges their grandparents faced during World War II, and come to terms with the effects of the past on their lives.
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The Girls I've Been
Available from:Sometimes, forgiveness can mean putting the past behind you. As the daughter of a con woman, Nora has experienced more than her fair share of hardships. But when she, her girlfriend, and her ex-boyfriend get taken hostage in a bank robbery, they’ll have to use all their resources to make it out alive. This thrilling novel is about a heist gone wrong, complicated teenage relationships, and healing from past trauma.
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Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf
This book offers a raw and unflinching look at rape and the aftermath of such a horrific event in a young person’s life. It tackles this topic from the victim’s point of view and a rape apologist’s perspective. After Ali gets raped by her crush at a party, Blythe befriends her. Out of misplaced loyalty to the rapist, Blythe tries to convince Ali to keep quiet about what happened. But as the girls connect on a deeper level, they both have to accept the truth about that night, find their inner strength, and move forward.
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When You Were Everything
Available from:Growing up can mean growing apart from your childhood friends. When a small misunderstanding balloons into a full-fledged rivalry between Cleo and Layla, their friendship shatters. Both girls will have to accept responsibility for their actions, forgive themselves and each other, and move on — even if it’s not together.
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Chlorine Sky
Available from:Forgiving someone doesn’t always mean that you let them back into your life. However, it can mean that you let go of your negative feelings and move on, like Skyy in this novel in verse. When her best friend becomes her bully, Skyy has no choice but to discover who she is without her BFF by her side. This heartfelt novel is about forgiving, forgetting, and moving forward.
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Breathless
Available from:When Claude’s father walks out on their family, her heart shatters. She and her mother head to a remote island off the coast of Georgia for the summer, where she meets an Earth-loving boy named Miah. As they grow closer, Claude must grapple with her broken trust and decide how much of her heart she’s willing to give away.
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The Lucky Ones
In The Lucky Ones, readers meet May, who survived a school shooting but lost her brother in the incident. We also meet Zach, whose mother agreed to defend the shooter in court. When these teens cross paths, they must face their grief and find the healing and hope they desperately need. This story is a timely and moving novel about senseless violence, survivor’s guilt, and finding hope after tragedy.
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House of Hollow
Available from:When they were children, Iris and her two older sisters disappeared without a trace. Then, one month later, they reappeared unharmed and with no memory of what happened to them. When the oldest sister disappears again, the two remaining sisters must wrestle with their past and figure out what happened all those years ago in this dark, twisted fairy tale.
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Neverworld Wake
Available from:Beatrice’s boyfriend died while they were in high school, and she hopes that a weekend reunion with her old friends will help her find answers about his death. But when they get caught in a bizarre time loop and repeat the same day over and over, Beatrice uncovers disturbing secrets about herself and her friends. She must come to grips with the death of her boyfriend and the roles that she and her friends had in it if she wants to escape the time loop alive.
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