Best of
Teen

1983

Fallen Angels


Walter Dean Myers - 1983
    A coming-of-age tale for young adults set in the trenches of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, this is the story of Perry, a Harlem teenager who volunteers for the service when his dream of attending college falls through. Sent to the front lines, Perry and his platoon come face-to-face with the Vietcong and the real horror of warfare. But violence and death aren't the only hardships. As Perry struggles to find virtue in himself and his comrades, he questions why black troops are given the most dangerous assignments, and why the U.S. is there at all.

Sooner or Later


Bruce Hart - 1983
    Thirteen-year-old Jessie Walters experiences her first feelings of love when she meets a seventeen-year-old musician but she feels she must lie about her age to him.

The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth


Marilyn Singer - 1983
    Their love lives, and those of their friends, parallel those of the play. An American Library Association Best Book, 1983.

Clicking Beat on the Brink of Nada


Keith Hale - 1983
    Set in Arkansas but first published in Amsterdam under the title Clicking Beat on the Brink of Nada, Cody quickly won praise from reviewers and readers across Europe and North America and caught the attention of William S. Burroughs and other writers who befriended the young author (Hale began writing the novel when he was sixteen). The first edition of the book was immediately banned in the United Kingdom during Margaret Thatcher's Operation Tiger. Today, Clicking Beat remains current and continues to be unique in both coming of age literature and the gay literary canon.

Wheels for Walking


Sandra Richmond - 1983
    But at the end of a wonderful ski weekend together, a car accident leaves Sally fully paralyzed. This powerful book details Sally’s struggles from her first moments of terror in the hospital through the months in traction. When her vertebrae have healed and she remains paralyzed, she must face the prospect of never recovering. Guilt-ridden at causing pain to her family and boyfriend, she enters rehab, navigating an emotional roller coaster ride and eventually hooking up with a dangerously angry fellow patient who introduces her to drugs and alcohol. After months in a hospital ward, she visits the beach with her therapist, and realizes that her life may not be over. First published to wide acclaim in 1987, this striking novel is based on the author's own experience of suffering a similar accident to Sally's at age 25. This edition includes a foreword by Sandra Richmond's sons, who plan to donate the profits to breast cancer research.