5 Must Read Realistic Fiction Books for Young Adults

Check out our fantastic list of 5 . I, Kenzie, wrote these blurbs, and I hope you all enjoy these amazing books – I know I did!  These 5 realistic fiction books for young adults are must-reads for anyone interested in learning about some of the challenging problems of our generation and others through engaging and fast-paced stories. Many of the following also have a movie/musical that tells the story as well, for anyone interested in learning more about these fascinating character’s stories. My Mom read them too and also says they are awesome!

5 Must Read Realistic Fiction Books for Young Adults

5 Must Read Realistic Fiction Books for Young Adults

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Follow Starr Carter, a highschooler living in two worlds – her family’s poor black neighborhood, and her fancy suburban prep school – as she attempts to become who everyone from each world wants to see of her. But when her childhood best friend, Khalid, is shot by a police, everything changes. Khalid was unarmed, and following the laws. But he was still shot. As Khalid’s story spreads and begins to make national headlines, Starr is forced to speak out and stand up for what’s right. With police that are increasingly uninterested in what Starr has to say as a witness, her friends at school saying that maybe Khalid deserved what he got, and dangerous gangs that can – and will – hurt Starr and her family if she makes a wrong move, Starr has a lot to handle. But with her words and her actions, she can do it all.

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Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

Follow the life of Aza Holmes, who is within the tight grip of anxiety, through one year at highschool. When she and her best friend Daisy hear of a missing billionaire and the reward – $100,000 – they go searching for clues on where he might be at his mansion, but run into Aza’s old friend – and the billionaire’s son – Davis Pickett. Stand alongside Aza as she struggles to overcome her intense anxiety, maintain a relationship with Davis, Daisy, and her mom, all while hunting for the missing billionaire.

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Refugee by Alan Gratz

Ride along on three harrowing journeys with three different kids as they all are forced to go through horrible things to escape the current world around them. Josef, a Jewish boy in the 1930’s, boards a ship to flee the suppression and concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Isabel, a Cuban girl in 1994, sets off on a raft with her family in a desperate attempt to escape the riots and poverty attacking her community. And Mahmoud, a Syrian boy in 2015, sets off on a long trek across the continent in the hope of finding reprieve in Europe from the everyday violence and destruction plaguing his homeland. Although all the refugees face unimaginable dangers throughout their journeys, they all keep one thing that will lead, inspire, and connect them all in the end. Hope.

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Five Feet Apart

by Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry, and Tobias Iaconis

Stella Grant and Will Newman both have Cystic Fibrosis. Other than that, they couldn’t be more different. Will can’t wait until he turns 18 in one week, when he will be able to escape the hospitals he’s been in his whole life and actually go see the world. He doesn’t care about his fancy new clinical trial or anything his doctors tell him to do, because he’s going to die soon enough anyway. Stella always needs to be in control, and is always on top of all her meds to keep her lungs healthy, the only way she can get a lung transplant. Though hand sanitizer, gloves, and masks help, the best way to keep away an infection is one simple rule: six feet apart from all other CFers. Once Stella meets Will, the rule that had always seemed like safety to Stella starts to feel like a punishment. What if they could steal one foot back, after all their lungs have stolen from them their whole lives? Would it really be so bad if it meant their hearts wouldn’t become as broken as their lungs will always be?

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Dear Evan Hansen

by Val Emmich with Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek & Justin Paul

Evan Hansen’s therapist assigned him to write letters to himself to help soothe his intense anxiety. But when one of his letters ends up in the wrong hands, it’s misread, mistook, and misunderstood to be something that it was never meant to be. As Evan is drawn into a family grieving over their dead son, he finally gets the opportunity he’s been looking for his whole life: to belong. But as Evan spins himself deeper and deeper into a web of lies and deceit, he realizes that what he’s doing can’t be right, but if he’s helping people, what harm can be done? With the girl of his dreams, and the ability to finally impress his mom, every day is an amazing day. But as his web of lies starts to unravel, Evan finally has to face his biggest problem, ever since the beginning of this whole mess he made: himself. 

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