18 books like The porcupine of truth
Demi-gods
"Atmospheric and lushly detailed, Demi-Gods captures the wonder and menace of adolescence in ways both unsettling and profound." --Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train and A Piece of the World "A brutally beautiful coming-of-age story that sings with language as lovely, wild, and full of ominous longing as the young woman at its center." --Robin Wasserman,…
Shares: Dysfunctional families, Bildungsromans
All the ugly and wonderful things
"As the daughter of a drug dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. It's safer to keep her mouth shut and stay out of sight. Struggling to raise her little brother, Donal, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible adult around. Obsessed with the constellations, she finds peace in the starry night sky above the fields behind her house, until one night her star gazing…
Shares: Dysfunctional families, Family life, Bildungsromans
Ramona and Her Father
Lately Ramona had the terrible feeling that she was the only happy member of the Quimby family. Since her father lost his job, he seemed too worried to love her anymore. Ramona's mother and big sister Beezus had become awfully busy and and grouchy. Even Picky-picky, the family cat, was grumpy. He didn't like her new cheaper food and had eaten the Quimby's Halloween jack-o'-lantern…
Shares: Family Problems, Family life, Family
Define Normal
Now in its fourth hardcover printing, Define "Normal" has become a word-of-mouth phenomenon. This is a thoughtful, wry story about two girls--a "punk" and a "priss"--who find themselves facing each other in a peer-counseling program, and discover that they have some surprising things in common. A brand-new reading-group guide written by the author is included in the back of this paperback edition.
Shares: Family Problems, Family, Friendship
A Dog's Purpose
A Dog's Purpose is a 2010 novel written by American author W. Bruce Cameron. It chronicles a dog's journey through four lives via reincarnation and how he looks for his purpose through each.
Shares: Alcoholism, Young Adult
Boy Swallows Universe
Raw, whimsical, existential, heartbreaking, modern mythology
Shares: Dysfunctional families, Bildungsromans, Friendship
Secrets, Lies, and Algebra
Tess loves math because it's the one subject she can trust — there's always just one right answer, and it never changes. But then she starts algebra and is introduced to those pesky and mysterious variables, which seem to be everywhere in eighth grade. When even your friends and parents can be variables, how in the world do you find out the right answers to the really important questions, like…
Shares: Social Themes, Family, Friendship, Young Adult
The tears of dark water
"Daniel and Vanessa Parker are an American success story. He is a Washington, D.C. power broker, and she is a physician with a thriving practice. But behind the gilded fac̦ade, their marriage is a shambles, and their teenage son, Quentin, is self-destructing. In desperation, Daniel dusts off a long-delayed dream of theirs--a sailing trip around the world. Little does he know, the voyage he hopes…
Shares: Dysfunctional families, Family life
The bent twig
Unlike other young women of her generation, who were "bred up from childhood to sit behind tea-tables and say the right things to tea-drinkers," Sylvia Marshall - the "twig" of this novel - was reared to think for herself and to trust her own instincts and experience. This, coupled with her passionate temperament, makes Sylvia a compelling figure as she resists efforts to mold her with every…
Shares: Bildungsromans, Family
Young Mungo
Born under different stars, Protestant Mungo and Catholic James live in a hyper-masculine world. They are caught between two of Glasgow’s housing estates where young working-class men divide themselves along sectarian lines, and fight territorial battles for the sake of reputation. They should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all, and yet they become best friends as they find a…
Shares: Children of alcoholics, Bildungsromans
The carnival at Bray
his promising debut, set in the heyday of grunge, tells the story of Maggie Lynch, a displaced Chicagoan and grunge music fan, living in a quiet town (Bray) on the Irish Sea. Maggie was uprooted from her friends, her music scene, and her beloved Uncle Kevin when her romantically fickle mother married her latest boyfriend, resulting in a move to his hometown. During her time of difficult…
Shares: Bildungsromans, Young Adult
Rex Zero and the end of the world
In the summer of 1962 with everyone nervous about a possible nuclear war, ten-nearly-eleven-year-old Rex, having just moved to Ottawa from Vancouver with his parents and five siblings, faces his own personal challenges as he discovers new friends and a new understanding of the world around him.
Shares: Family life, Bildungsromans, Family, Friendship
The peppered moth
"It is 1912 and Bessie Bawtry is a small child living in Breaseborough, a South Yorkshire mining town. Unusually gifted, she sits quietly and studies hard, waiting for the day when she can sit the Cambridge entrance exam and escape the kind of life her ancestors have never even thought to question. Her parents are in awe of her - who is this swan-child, is she a freak? (Where did she get her…
Shares: Bildungsromans, Family
Dark Angel
At last, Heaven would find the happiness she longed for... free from the scorn and contempt of her past!
In her grandmother's fine, rich Boston house, Heaven Leigh Casteel dreamed of a wonderful new life -- of new friends, the best schools, beautiful clothes and most important, love. The pearls of culture, wisdom and breeding would now be hers. Soon she would make the Casteel name respectable,…
Shares: Family Problems, Dysfunctional families
Caddie Woodlawn
Caddie Woodlawn is a children's historical fiction novel by Carol Ryrie Brink which received the Newbery Medal in 1936 and a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958. The original 1935 edition was illustrated by Newbery-award-winning author and illustrator Kate Seredy. Macmillan released a later edition in 1973, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman.
Shares: Social Themes, Family
Fall On Your Knees:A Novel
The story of a jinxed family, a catalog of rape, incest and death. James Piper abuses his daughter, atones by sending her to New York to study singing while he goes to war, she returns pregnant, dies in childbirth when her mother opens her to save her twins. One of the twins dies, mother commits suicide, the second twin contracts polio while being baptized in a creek by an aunt, the aunt is raped…
Shares: Dysfunctional families, Family
Sounder
Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is jailed for stealing food for his family, a young black boy grows in courage and understanding by learning to read and through his relationship with his devoted dog Sounder.
Shares: African Americans, Family life, Family
Stuart Little
Stuart Little is no ordinary mouse. Born to a family of humans, he lives in New York City with his parents, his older brother George, and Snowbell the cat. Though he's shy and thoughtful, he's also a true lover of adventure.
Stuart's greatest adventure comes when his best friend, a beautiful little bird named Margalo, disappears from her nest. Determined to track her down, Stuart ventures away…
Shares: Social Themes, Family, Friendship