Reviews and Blog Posts: Realistic Fiction

Things are going pretty well for Sam. He's getting better at skateboarding, his mum has a nice new boyfriend and he met a pretty girl at a party. The pretty girl ends up being his girlfriend and they spend loads of time together watching TV and hanging out. But then...

When Ben was 14, his father announced he was gay. Ben's mother left, leaving Ben with his dad, and eventually his dad's partner, Edward. Ben thinks it was pretty selfish of his dad to marry someone and have a kid all the while knowing that he was gay, and he...

Addie and her Mommers have just moved to a new part of town - to a busy corner in a little trailer. Addie likes small spaces and new places so she thinks it will be okay. She can still play flute in school and makes friends with the people over...

Rosemary is just about to turn sixteen and she has been fat all her life. Her mom and her aunt are always needling her and gave her a treadmill for Christmas! It's her life; why do they care what she looks like? But when her mom is diagnosed with cancer...

March, 2002. The United States is still reeling from the September 11 attacks, but hasn't gone to war yet. Are the terrorists still out there? Two mothers on the same street in New Jersey die of brain aneurysms on the same night. Coincidence? Maybe, but then some of their children,...

Nikki loves to eat - she loves the taste of food, it makes her feel better when she's sad, and she can even vent her anger by pretending each crunchy chip is a mean boy. But Nikki's mama packs unhealthy food in her lunch and she gets called "Supersize" because...

Jesse, Vicks, and Mel all work at the Waffle House. Jesse and Vicks are best friends and Mel is the new girl. Jesse has just found out that her mom has cancer and doesn't know how to cope. Vicks' boyfriend has been gone to college for two weeks and she...

Honey and Agnes are both 14 and live at Mount Blessing - a religious compound. That's where the similarities end. Agnes wants to live up to the examples of the saints and the perfection that Emmanuel, the group's leader, expects of them. Honey sneaks TV, swears, and thinks that even...

Denver. 1973. Some of the old territorial laws are still on the books, and that means that Kate Hope, age 14, is a bona fide practicing lawyer, part of Hope & Hope, Attorneys, with her grandfather. What started out as her helping out in the office because of "Judge" Hope's...

"Skim" is Kimberly Keiko Cameron, private school student, semi-Goth, semi-Wiccan, prone to introspection in her diary. This graphic novel explores her thoughts on a classmates' boyfriend's suicide and her school's reaction to it (ranging from counselor lectures to the popular girls forming a club called Girls Celebrate Life! to bring...