Dasia (Forever)-a middle grade novel tackling serious topics

 

Dasia (Forever) by Nic Stone, a middle grade novel sprinkled with letters in a verse format, provides a raw, emotional perspective of Dasia, a 13 year-old who is in the hospital receiving cancer treatment. Through Dasia's dates and timestamps, the reader is taken to her home before her treatment where she is grieving over an abusive father, missing her older brother who is serving time for a crime he didn't commit, rejected by her younger brother who is starting to hang out the same crowd that got her brother into trouble, and worst of all, cautiously walking on eggshells around her erratic mother who has undiagnosed depression and PTSD.  

Dasia finds her older brother's journal and writes to him about what her life is like now that he is gone.  She pours her heart into these letters and lets him in on the harsh realities she must face, aside from her cancer diagnosis. The reader is then brought back to the present when Dasia is isolated in the hospital for several weeks as she gets her treatment which leaves her weak.  

One night she is visited by another patient, Jimmy, who brings out Dasia's true self.  By sharing details about her own life, Dasia learns how to speak about her own struggles.  

Readers will come away with a deeper understanding of adolescent emotions, thinking, and ways to help those who have similar situations as Dasia and Jimmy.   There is a surprise in the story that completely caught me off guard and reaching for the tissue box.  This is an important topic that deserves to be read, shared and discussed by middle grade readers, teens, and adults. 

Although this is a spin-off of the Dear Martin trilogy of young adult books by Nic Stone, the reader does not have to have read those books in order to read Dasia (Forever). 

It will probably encourage those readers to pick up the books in the Dear Martin series, however! 

Mental Health Books for YA & Middle Grades

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and no group can use it more than adolescents. In my 20+ years of being an educator and 15+ years as a school librarian, I can attest that offering books as bibliotherapy helps.  It helps the student and their caregivers when navigating difficult moments that they cannot bear alone.  

This past year I was awarded a grant that had me work alongside my high school's wellness center counselor to select books for student support groups, as well as adding specific books requested by students to the school library collection. In my experience, the books that touch on the survival aspect of mental health struggles are what readers want to read and learn about with the hopes of transferring those successes to their own lives. 

Here are the nonfiction and fiction books that I recommend for young adults and some middle grade readers:

Brave Face, a memoir, How I Survived Growing Up, Coming Out, and Depression by Shaun David Hutchinson. Young adult audience and up.

 

The Beasts in Your Brain, Understanding and Living with Anxiety and Depression by Katherine Speller. Young adult audience and up.

It Won't Ever Be the Same, A Teen's Guide to Grief and Grieving by Karie Leigh. Middle grade audience and up. 

The Anxious Generation, How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt. Young adult audience and up. 

The Amazing Generation, Your Guide to Fun and Freedom in a Screen Filled World by Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price.  Middle grade audience and up. 

Look Me in the Eye, My Life With Asperger's by John Elder Robison. Young adult audience and up.

One in a Million, a graphic memoir by Claire Lordon. Young adult audiences and up. 

Channel Kindness: Stories of Kindess and Community by Born This Way Foundation Reporters and Lady Gaga. Middle grade audiences and up.

Move, How Physical Activity Helps Maintain Mental Health by James Roland. Middle grade audiences and up. 

Brain on Fire, My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan. Young adult audience and up. 

Obsessed, a Memoir of My Life with OCD by Allison Britz. Young adult audiences and up.

Invisible Differences, A Story of Autism, Adulting, and Living a Life in Full Color by Julie Dachez, Madmoiselle Caroline, Edward Gauvin. Young adult audience and up. 

Art Cure, The Science of How the Arts Save Lives by Daisy Fancourt. Young adult audience and up.

Helping Teens Who Cut, Using DBT Skills to End Self-Injury by Michael Hollander. Young adult audience and up. 

Heads Up, Changing Minds on Mental Health by Melanie Siebert. Middle grade audience and up. 

Teen Guide: Social Anxiety by Mary Gerard. Middle grade audience and up.

Where to Start, A Survival Guide to Anxiety, Depression and Other Mental Health Challenges from Mental Health America and Gemma Correll. Middle grade audience and up. 

Puzzled: A Memoir About Growing up with OCD by Pan Cooke. Middle grade audience and up. 

Fitting Indian by Jyoti Chand and Tara Anand. Young adult audience and up. 
 

Age 16 by Rosena Fung. Middle grade audience and up. 

Weirdo by Tony Weaver, Jr., Jess & Cin Wibowo. Middle grade audiences and up. 

Shoot the Moon by Matt Beam. Young adult audience and up. 

Ash & Feather by Sharon Frances. Middle grade audience and up. 

Louder Than Hunger by John Schu. Middle grade audience and up. 

Ab(solutely) Normal, Short Stories that Smash Mental Health Stereotypes edited by Nora Shalaway Carpenter and Rocky Callan. Young adult audience and up. 

The Dark Matter of Mona Starr by Laura Lee Gulledge. Young adult audience and up. 

Yolk by Mary H.K. Choi. Young adult audience and up. 

Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert. Young adult audience and up. 

The Weight of Zero by Karen Fortunati. Young adult audience and up. 

How it Feels to Float by Helena Fox. Young adult audience and up.

Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton. Young adult audience and up. 

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. Young adult audience and up. 

Chaos Theory by Nic Stone. Young adult audience and up. 

A World Without You by Beth Revis. Young adult audience and up.

Buzzing by Samuel Sattin and Rye Hickman. Middle grade audience and up. 

If you're looking for book suggestions with an elementary school audience, check out my list HERE.

Comment on your favorite books that touch on mental health topics that would be good for readers.

The Pools: A Fairy Tale Set in Modern Day

When an author branches out of their typical writing style and format, it takes a reader with an open mind to judge the book on its own merits, rather than from what the author typically writes. That is the case for The Pools by E. Lockhart. I have read all of E. Lockhart's other works and was expecting much of the same in this story, yet, I was surprised at each turn of the plot.  

In The Pools, the reader is introduced to Lexie, a mysterious teenager who arrives to town to live with her aunt, ill mother and little sister. The fresh water pools in the town are what drew Lexie's family there with the hopes of healing her ailing mother. There is a deep town lore about the pools from a long time ago when people who bathed in them got turned into birds. As Lexie settles into her new life, she also partakes in the pools and meets Chester, a fellow high school student with a mysterious past he is keeping from Lexie. Their relationship grows in sweet ways despite having their disagreements at times. Although the last argument they have is the final time they see each other before Chester, along with Lexie's younger sister and three other community members disappear after using the pools. Without spoiling the story, the burden of bringing them back to their human forms is what drives Lexie to the surprising conclusion. 

The strength of The Pools is the verse format that Lockhart uses to propel the story forward and develop the characters.  It feels like a fairy tale being told but in a modern-day setting. The themes are universal, however, and that is what makes the story stand out. 

Thanks to Net Galley for allowing me to read and review an Advanced Reader Copy since the book publishes on October 6, 2026. 

Poetry Month for Middle and High School Readers

 Poetry Month is a time to reintroduce the art of language to readers. In the middle and high school level, I am often met with groans and eye-rolls when the topic of poetry comes up, however, with these recommended books, I've been able to turn around the minds of even the most reluctant readers.  These writers are creating literary experiences for readers to celebrate ideas through language and those groans and eye-rolls turn into expressions of piqued curiosity and intrigue.

The poetry collection, Wearing My Mother’s Heart by Sophia Thakur is full of multigenerational voices of a grandmother, mother and daughter describing their experiences of being women through different lenses. This is recommended for middle grade readers and up. 

A non-fiction novel-in-verse, The Mysterious Virginia Hall World War II’s Most Dangerous Spy by Claudia Friddell is about an American woman who becomes a spy for the British during WWII. Her many aliases and missions are detailed with photographs and maps of her adventurous experiences. This is recommended for middle grade readers and up. 

Historical fiction novel-in-verse, One Step Forward by Marcie Flinchum Atkins, is about Matilda Young, a 15 year old girl who takes up the cause of suffrage in 1913 & becomes the youngest protestor to be arrested for it. Over the course of 7 years the reader goes with Matilda on her journey of activism. This is recommended for middle grade readers and up. 

Contemporary fiction novel-in-verse thriller, Blood Gone Cold by Katy Grant is about two quarreling sisters who are going through a home invasion at their family’s cabin in the woods. They must put their differences aside in order to survive. This book is a hi-Lo book in that it’s of high interest to young adults but is written at a lower, elementary reading level. 

Everything is Poison by Joy McCullough is a historical fiction story that takes place in Rome in the 1600s. 16 year old Carmela is finally old enough to work alongside her mother in the apothecary but soon learns that healing potions aren’t the only concoctions that are made there: poisons are also distributed to women who are in desperate need of them. This is a mixed-format book in that it is written in both novel-in-verse and prose and it is recommended for young adult readers and up. 

Away by Megan E. Freeman is the follow-up to her award-winning novel in verse, Alone. In Alone, there is an emergency evacuation of a town in Colorado while twelve year old, Maddie, gets left behind. For months without human contact, news or electricity, she, along with her dog, tries to survive and figure out what happened that sent her entire community far away. 

In Away, there are four teens who find one another while at the emergency evacuation camp and as they get to know one another, they uncover mysteries around the emergency. What information is being kept from the public and why?  This book is a mix of formats from verse to letters and scripts. It can be read as a stand alone story or as a sequel to Alone. Both books are recommeded for middle grade readers and up. 

 The contemporary, novel-in-verse, I Can't Even Think Straight by Dean Atta, tells the story of teenager, Kai, who is grappling with his identity. It's not easy because his best friends are giving him different kinds of advice:  does he stay closeted or share who he really is with his family and community?  Kai's journey gets even tougher when he falls for the new boy at school who returns his feelings.  Kai finds his way to deal with the consequences of his choices and faces his family and friends with renewed self-confidence. This book is recommeded for young adult readers and up. 

 The contemporary, novel-in-verse mystery, Wolfpack by Amelia Brunskill, captures the reader's attention immediately as one of the nine teenage girls living isolated from society in the woods disappears. Her fellow cult members, also teenage girls, are determined to uncover what happened to her. The story is told in alternating perspectives so the layers of what each person knows to be true are revealed, but only to the reader.  Will they find out if their missing friend left on purpose or did something or someone make them disappear? This book is recommended for young adult readers and up. 

Do you have any novels-in-verse that you'd recommend? Please share in the comments below and we can keep the conversation going.