Book picks similar to
The Little Dark Thorn by Ruth M. Arthur
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young-adult
20th-century
Bullied Boy
Daring Diane - 2018
Self-image, body changes, and social changes chip away at individual’s self-confidence. Withdrawal and hiding can often seem like the easiest escape. You cannot escape from life. An excellent student, our hero is ripped from his friends and everything he knows when his father is moved across the country for his job. Intent on re-establishing the mother’s employment, the parents appear to withdraw from their high school student as he is dropped into a situation where he knows no one. Everyone experiences physical and emotional problems but our protagonist is ashamed of his body and won’t even talk to his parents who seem oblivious. Wearing baggy clothes, coats and hoods, it is easy to hide his body and isolate himself since he knows no one. Others assume he is overweight, shy or has acne problems. The strangely dressed student is a magnet for bullies and everyone else ignores him. Teachers might have gotten involved or pushed him to participate in class, but as an excellent student, grades are not an issue. Life evolves into a strategy to be left alone and survive another day. Because of this, attacks are not reported. An accident at school will expose our protagonist’s secrets to a classmate. How that classmate responds will change our protagonist’s life. There are still bullying and attacks, but with newfound confidence, our hero will deal with things differently. Can this quiet, isolated person evolve into an example and build real friendships while accepting life’s little hurdles? This series of books contain examples of high school life that help the reader to identify and deal with bullying behavior in a high school setting. The books in this series are intended to be safe reading for teens and tweens. Thank you for reading on Daring Diane Disclaimer This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Darkest Days
N.W. Harris - 2017
Composed of pure energy, this superior race has attacked the Anunnaki home world and is now setting a course for Earth.The energy-based aliens believe in a system of trial by battle. They seek to push Shane and his friends into the arena with the ones who killed their parents. The results will determine if humans deserve to live, or if they should be made extinct as well. It's up to Shane to keep his friends--and an army of kids who look up to him--alive. They'll be fighting not just for their own lives, but for the fate of the entire human race. Can the enemy of Shane's enemy be his friend, or is this just another species determined to exploit and destroy them?
The Monday Horses
Jean Slaughter Doty - 1978
Her pony's accident provides Cassie with an introduction to show horses.
Best Friends
Mary Bard - 1955
Someone to vent to, giggle with, and someone to help her face Millicent and the Select Seven at school every day. Those girls are boy crazy, talk in codes, and call Suzie “teacher’s pet.” It’s not easy being a teacher’s kid! And it’s not easy being eleven, going on twelve, without a best friend. Then Co Co Langdon moves in next door. Suzie has never met anyone like Co Co. First, she’s from France and has traveled all over the world. And second, she’s never been to school, having been tutored by the ultra-strict Mademoiselle. But now that Co Co is in America, she will go to school for the very first time. And Suzie will finally have a best friend by her side! First published in 1955, Best Friends follows two girls through one unforgettable school year as they take on mean girls, a cranky neighbor, boys, and a missing beloved neighborhood dog—but most of all, as they find out what it truly means to be best friends.
Like the Willow Tree: The Diary of Lydia Amelia Pierce, Portland, Maine, 1918
Lois Lowry - 2011
Thrust into the Shakers' unfamiliar way of life, Lydia must grapple with a new world that is nothing like the one she used to know.Now separated from her beloved brother, for men and women do not mix in this community, Lydia must adjust to many changes. But in time, and with her courageous spirit, she learns to find the joy in life again.
Kim/Kimi
Hadley Irwin - 1987
Half the time she is Kim Andrews, living in her all-white Iowa community-the other half she is Kimi Yogushi, searching for her true identity. She must find out more about her Japanese-American father, who died before she was born, and his family, if there is any. Perhaps then she can solve her inner conflict.
Bright Girls
Clare Chambers - 2009
They have been forced to leave their home in Oxford, where they live with their father, because of threats to their safety.