Reading Well for Teens suggests recommended reading to help teens aged 13-18 understand your feelings and boost your confidence. Teens and health and wellbeing experts have chosen the books to help you manage your emotions and cope with difficult times.
All these books from The Reading Agency are available to borrow with your library card.
You Can Change the World!: Everyday Teen Heroes Making a Difference Everywhere
Margaret Rooke
Capturing the energy, vitality and idealism of young people, this book presents practical and positive changes teens can make to help transform the world around them. Tackling political activism, body image, cyberbullying, and more, this toolkit provides positive role models to help teens see what is possible and build their resilience.
If you want to achieve against the odds and create genuine impact, this book may be the encouragement you need.
Be Happy, Be You: The Teenage Guide to Boost Happiness and Resilience
Penny Alexander
Being a teenager has its own unique challenges, but it’s also the perfect time to shape your own mental wellbeing and happiness. There are tons of ideas to try from creating an anxiety toolkit, to planning a digital detox and meditating, plus you’ll learn the science behind why they work. Carry out the activities by yourself or with family and friends and take your happiness into your own hands!
One in a Hundred Thousand
Linni Ingemundsen
Fifteen year old Sander wishes he was like everyone else. But he has Silver-Russell syndrome, a condition that affects one in a hundred thousand. It means he is smaller than all the other kids in school, a place where the biggest and the loudest get all the attention. Like Niklas. Everyone thinks Niklas is cool and good-looking – except Sander. He doesn’t like the way Niklas brags, behaves like a jerk and lies. Niklas is one of life’s tall people and next to him, Sander always ends up feeling small. But Sander is different in more ways than one. He notices things other people miss, and he’s noticed something about Niklas.
Be Resilient: How to Build a Strong Teenage Mind for Tough Times
Nicola Morgan
Some events in life will always be out of our control, whether it’s a global crisis or a traumatic event at home. ‘Be Resilient’ shows that the power to cope is in our hands. Discover how to develop the skill of mental resilience in this fascinating guide from award-winning author and teenage brain expert Nicola Morgan.
From building a support network to building optimism, find positive, practical advice for preparing for, coping with and bouncing back from the toughest of times.
The Mental Health and Wellbeing Workout for Teens
Paula Nagel
This easy-to-understand, engaging guide arms teens with healthy thinking habits and coping strategies for staying on top of their mental health. Using tried and tested therapeutic techniques, readers are given the tools to build their own personalised mental health ‘workout’ to boost their emotional resilience and wellbeing.
Teens will be better equipped to recognise negative thoughts and emotions, monitor their mood and behaviour, and flex their positive thinking muscles in order to combat the mental health blips we all face sometimes.
My Intense Emotions Handbook: Manage Your Emotions and Connect Better with Others
Sue Knowles
This is a guide to the emotional and interpersonal issues you may encounter as a young adult, packed with advice and real-life stories of hope and resilience from people in similar situations. This book will help you to gain an understanding of the influence of your early emotional experiences, and share tried-and-tested strategies, drawing on a range of psychological approaches and evidence-based strategies.
My Anxiety Handbook: Getting Back on Track
Sue Knowles
Showing that anxiety is a normal human emotion that many people face, this book helps young people understand the ins and outs of their own anxiety and helps them to challenge the difficult patterns they may get into. Co-written with a college student who has experienced anxiety herself, it is a relatable and straightforward guide. As well as providing tried-and-tested advice and exercises that are proven to reduce feelings of anxiety, it includes recovery stories from young people who have managed their symptoms successfully.
Anxiety is Really Strange
Steve Haines and Sophie Standing
Understanding how anxiety is created by our nervous system trying to protect us, and how our fight-or-flight mechanisms can get stuck, can significantly lessen the fear experienced during anxiety attacks. In this guide, anxiety is explained in an easy-to-understand, engaging graphic format with tips and strategies to relieve its symptoms, and change the mind’s habits for a more positive outlook.
Hope
Rhian Ivory
The summer between school and sixth form college. When Hope doesn’t get into drama college, and her friends do, all her plans fall apart. She’s struggling with anger, grief for her father and a sense that her own body is against her. She meets Reilly on the ferry and his texts give her someone to talk to. But this isn’t a story about a boy fixing everything. It’s about trying new things, having the courage to ask for help and that when things seem to be all over, that might be just the beginning.
Frankie’s World
Aoife Dooley
How do you fit in and stand out when you feel different to everyone around you? 12-year-old Frankie knows she’s not like anyone else in her class: she’s different, but she can’t quite figure out why. Is it the new freckle on her nose, or the fact she’s small for her age? Or that she has to go to the hospital sometimes? Everyone else seems to think she’s weird too, and they make fun of her at school. Frankie’s dad left when she was a baby – maybe he was different too? It would explain why she always feels like an alien. So she and her best-friend Sam, embark on a mission to track him down.
Jemima Small Versus the Universe
Tamsin Winter
Jemima Small is funny and super smart. She knows a lot of things. Like the fact that she’s made of 206 bones, over 600 muscles and trillions of cells. What she doesn’t know is how that can be true and yet she can still feel like nothing… Or how being made to join the school’s “special” healthy lifestyle group – A.K.A Fat Club – could feel any less special.
But Jemima also knows that the biggest stars in the universe are the brightest. And maybe it’s her time to shine…
The Year I Didn’t Eat
Samuel Pollen
14-year-old Max only has one person he can really talk to. Her name is Ana – also known as anorexia, his eating disorder. Max writes to Ana every day. She feeds on his fears, encouraging him to lose more and more weight. For Christmas, Max gets an unusual present from his older brother Robin: a geocache. He hides it in the forest near their house, thrilled by the anonymity it gives him. Anyone can leave Max a note – and soon, he gets one from the mysterious ‘E’. Could it be the Evie, the new girl at school, playing tricks on him? In the midst of a family crisis, Max’s eating disorder quickly deteriorates. Ana pulls him further and further away from his family and friends, until he feels totally alone. Can anyone help him find a way out?
The Body Image Book for Girls
Charlotte Markey
It is worrying to think that most girls feel dissatisfied with their bodies, and that this can lead to serious problems including depression and eating disorders. Body image expert Dr Charlotte Markey uses her 25 years of experience to help girls aged 9-15 develop a positive body image and improve their overall wellbeing. Covering puberty, mental health, self-care, why diets are bad news, dealing with social media, and everything in-between.
Being You: The Body Image Book for Boys
Charlotte Markey, Daniel Hart and Douglas Zacher
From early childhood boys often feel pressured to be athletic and muscular. But what impact does this have on physical and mental well-being through their teens and beyond? ‘Being You’ has the answers! It’s an easy-to-read, evidence-based guide to developing a positive body image for boys aged 12+. It covers all the facts on puberty, diet, exercise, self-care, mental health, social media, and everything in-between. Boys will find answers to the questions most on their mind, the truth behind many diet and exercise myths, and real-life stories from other boys. Armed with this book, they will understand that muscles don’t make a man – it’s enough simply being you!
When Shadows Fall
Sita Brahmachari
Kai, Orla and Zak grew up together, their days spent on the patch of wilderness in between their homes, a small green space in a sprawling grey city. Music, laughter and friendship bind them together and they have big plans for their future – until Kai’s family suffers a huge loss. Trying to cope with his own grief, as well as watching it tear his family apart, Kai is drawn into a new and more dangerous crowd, until his dreams for the future are a distant memory. Excluded from school and retreating from his loved ones, it seems as though his path is set, his story foretold. Orla, Zak and new classmate Om are determined to help him find his way back. But are they too late?
You Will Be Okay: Find Strength, Stay Hopeful and Get to Grips With Grief
Julie Stokes
The death of a parent, sibling or friend is one of the most traumatic experiences for a child and it can be hard to know how to talk to them about it. In this honest, comforting and strength-building guide, children can look toward the future with hope. The author shares case studies of children’s stories of loss. She offers comforting and practical advice for coping, remembering and taking time for you.
A Monster Calls
Patrick Ness
Conor has the same dream every night, ever since his mother first fell ill, ever since she started the treatments that don’t quite seem to be working. But tonight is different. Tonight, when he wakes, there’s a visitor at his window. It’s ancient, elemental, a force of nature. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth. Patrick Ness takes the final idea of the late, award-winning writer Siobhan Dowd and weaves an extraordinary and heartbreaking tale of mischief, healing and above all, the courage it takes to survive.
Booked
Kwame Alexander
Twelve-year-old Nick is a football-mad boy who absolutely hates books. In this follow-up to the Newbery-winning novel The Crossover, football, family, love, and friendship take centre stage as Nick tries to figure out how to navigate his parents’ break-up, stand up to bullies, and impress the girl of his dreams. These challenges – which seem even harder than scoring a tie-breaking, game-winning goal – change his life, as well as his best friend’s. This energetic novel-in-verse by the poet Kwame Alexander captures all the thrills and setbacks, the action and emotion of a World Cup match.
Stay a Little Longer
Bali Rai
Aman’s dad is gone, leaving her feeling lost and alone. She struggles to talk about it, but it’s a fact and he isn’t coming back. When a lovely man called Gurnam moves in to her street and saves Aman from some local bullies, he and Aman quickly become friends, perhaps even like family. But Gurnam has his own sadness. One that’s far bigger than Aman can understand, and it’s tearing his life apart.
Social Anxiety Relief for Teens
Bridget Flynn Walker
Social anxiety is a serious-yet often overlooked-form of anxiety commonly experienced by teens. If left untreated, it can lead to a significantly increased risk of developing depression and even addiction in adulthood. In Social Anxiety Relief for Teens, Bridget Flynn Walker presents a five-step cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program to help teens gain confidence and stop living in fear of social situations.
A simple, five-step program to overcome the social anxiety standing between you and a happier, more confident life.
Social Media Survival Guide
Holly Bathie
This friendly and comprehensive guide is filled with information on everything from privacy settings, direct messaging and cyberbullying, to appearance-enhancing filters, influencers and fake news. An essential book for equipping young people with the important skills they need to manage their social media safely and confidently. Includes links to websites with more advice and support.
Empower your kids to stay safe online with this fun, comprehensive guide for kids aged 10+.
Queer Up: An Uplifting Guide to LGBTQ+ Love, Life and Mental Health
Alexis Caught
In this empowering and uplifting book, award-winning podcaster Alexis Caught sets out to help queer and curious teenagers explore their LGBTQ+ identity and understanding. Alongside the author’s personal experiences are first-hand stories from notable LGBTQ+ figures, providing a inclusive account of what it means to grow up queer. With chapters on questioning, coming out, friends and family, love, sex, shame, pride and allyship, this is insightful, thoughtful and reassuring book is essential reading for any questioning teen and their allies looking to support them.
Coming Out Stories: Personal Experiences of Coming Out from Across the LGBTQ+ Spectrum
Emma Goswell and Sam Walker
An empowering, witty and uplifting collection of coming out stories and advice from LGBTQ+ people from around the world, based on the hugely successful podcast ‘Coming Out Stories.’ Whether you’re gay, pan, queer, bi, trans, non-binary, or an ally, this uplifting go-to resource is filled with helpful advice and tips on what to expect, and inspirational quotes from leading LGBTQ+ figures, to help you live your life as your most authentic self. Welcome to the family!
Welcome to St Hell: My Trans Teen Misadventure
Lewis Hancox
Lewis has a few things to say to his younger teen self. He knows she hates her body. He knows she’s confused about who to snog. He knows she’s really a he and will ultimately realize this. But she’s going to go through a whole lot of mess (some of it funny, some of it not funny at all) to get to that point. Lewis is trying to tell her this – but she’s refusing to listen. In ‘Welcome to St. Hell’, author-illustrator Lewis Hancox takes readers on the hilarious, heartbreaking and healing path he took to make it past trauma, confusion, hurt and dubious fashion choices in order to become the man he was meant to be.
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