This blog post was written by NCTE member Liz Shults.
Teachers are incredible. I mean, you all knew that, right? If you are engaging on the NCTE blog, you are probably already aware of the awesomeness of teachers — particularly teachers of literacy! (Oh, and if someone hasn’t told you that you are awesome today, YOU ARE!)
I’m especially grateful for Twitter, which allows me to connect with teachers from around the country (world?) any time during the year. My Twitter teacher friends are nonstop with the excitement to share what they are doing in the classroom, give feedback and resources, and offer general encouragement. Using the hashtag #nctevillage, I’m able to connect immediately with teachers who have ideas I never would have thought of.
I was recently exploring the idea of identity and grief as it shows up in YA literature. Grief is an integral, inescapable part of the human experience and so often our students have experiences in which they have to navigate grief for the first time, and thus figure out what their identity is or will be within or beyond that grief. I knew the YA books that I had read that dealt with these things, but I knew there had to be more. Thus, I consulted my #nctevillage on Twitter:
#nctevillage : What YA books can you recommend that deal with grief or death? I already have We Are Okay, The Serpent King, and Long Way Down. Would love your other suggestions.
The following are all the incredible resources that were shared. I was able to cull through these and add many, many books to my library order and Amazon wish list. I hope this list is as helpful to you as it was to me!
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
The Thing about Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
Summerlost by Allie Condie
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira, translated by Dạ Oanh
Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen
Someone like You by Sarah Dessen
Before I Die by Jenny Downham
Tears of a Tiger by Sharon M. Draper
Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan
The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Signs of You by Emily France
In Your Shoes by Donna Gephart
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Looking for Alaska by John Green
The Summer of Broken Things by Margaret Peterson Haddix
I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Niimura
Things We Know by Heart by Jessi Kirby
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
A Handful of Stars by Cynthia Lord
The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace
100 Days by Nicole McInnes
The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
More Than This by Patrick Ness
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
The Wendy Project by Melissa Jane Osbourne and Veronica Fish
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X. R. Pan
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
Nation by Terry Pratchett
A World Without You by Beth Revis
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds
Michael Rosen’s Sad Book by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Quentin Blake
The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera
Counting by 7s by Holly Goldbery Sloan
Girl against the Universe by Paula Stokes
Sadie by Courtney Summers
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk
Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner
The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Thank you to everyone from the #NCTEvillage who made book suggestions!
@aaatkinson_
@ABoundlessBook
@adrigentry
@allisonfudgeELA
@allisonvolz
@AndersonGL
@ApolloReader
@auchster
@austin_p_snyder
@catherineb2319
@CMattern21
@DebbieAStewart
@EricaHaglund
@ErinMoonyeenHal
@FHSEnglishCT
@GraceHilsmier
@gregorjm
@GwenFlaskamp
@HannBann87
@HFLITerature
@jckjcg_jackie
@jckjcg_jackie
@JoshelinBoyd
@KarenBessin
@kprescottRHS
@kristinaulmer
@LaKiaLeo78
@LibSouthBSD87
@literatewoman
@LorainJane
@LundLibrarian
@MadHDavis
@MeganKortlandt
@mer_forbes
@miss_ampersand
@mixxmomma
@MrPaynenotMax
@ms_gruen
@Ms_StumbsClass
@MsCarrierELA
@oosterheerte
@r_monty
@ReadingJustice
@SabraGerber
@Sarahmaureenb
@sprite1961
@steveclark414
@SuzannaBoyd17
@SwinehartJulie
@tannertheteach
@thankfulpoet
@TheyCallMeMsJay
@ValHarder
@ValleyCShaia
Looking for even more resources for dealing with grief in the classroom?
- Language Arts, Vol. 94, No. 5, May 2017
- Theme: Trauma, Loss, and Literacies
- English Journal, Volume 107, Number 2, November 2017
- Theme: Death in the English Classroom
Find even more resources here.
Liz Shults is in her seventh year teaching high school English in Birmingham, Alabama. She has been a member of NCTE for almost a