Urban Fiction for High School

Looking for more like Tyrell?  Urban fiction is a hot topic for teens right now, and many libraries are looking for titles that show the harsher side of city life from a teen’s perspective, much like Tyrell does. 

These are stories that include drug use, violence, sex, teen parenthood, crime, etc.  These aren’t necessarily pretty stories, and they definitely aren’t “safe” or “clean.”  But, for many teens, this is reality.  Inner city librarians or those working with young people who are incarcerated have reported that these books are “flying off the shelves” – or at least that’s how an article in Young Adult Library Services put it last fall referring to Philadelphia Public Libraries.  These books may or may not be appropriate for your library, but you’ll definitely want to be aware of this trend in YA lit.

One title that does fit most collections for teens while depicting the less pretty side of urban life is Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff.  First published in 1993, this novel and its sequel, True Believer, have remained relevant and readable.  Perhaps the staying power can be attributed to the format.  The story is told in simple, spare verse that tells just enough to keep the reader interested.  Or maybe it’s the characters.  LaVaughn is a teenager who is under a lot of pressure from her mother—a single parent—to go to college.  LaVaughn understands why her mother wants her to go to college, and she wants that for herself too.  But the idea of “College” has become too big to be real.  She describes the word college like furniture in their living room you have to walk around.  People in her neighborhood don’t go to college.  People in her neighborhood end up like Jolly.  Jolly is 17, with two kids, no high school diploma, and no money.  Jolly’s life is the sort of future that LaVaughn is trying to escape.  But the two young women become inextricably intertwined, and the result is a novel that has broad appeal and is full of hope.

LaVaughn learns from Jolly that the life of a teenage mother isn’t easy, but in Broken China by Lori Aurelia Williams, China learns that lesson herself.  China became a mother at twelve years old, and now, at 14, she is struggling to be a good mom to her little girl.  But finds that she is trapped by the choices she has made.  In Baby Girl by Lenora Adams, Sheree makes a different decision.  Like China, she too had gotten pregnant at twelve years old, but she decided to have an abortion.  Now, at seventeen, she is pregnant again, and looking at the life before her with the eyes of a mother as best she can. 

Give your collection an international feel with Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow.  Doria and her mother live just outside of Paris, France. Sounds glamorous, but life isn’t like the movies. The screenwriter of their life doesn’t know about happily ever after, says Doria.  Her world in the Paris projects isn’t actually all that different than that of an urban American teen. The international and multicultural elements of this book make it standout from the crop of urban fiction featuring African American characters in American cities.  And Doria’s precocious cynicism will speak to many teen readers. 

These are just a few options, check out this list for more urban titles for high school.