Coping With Disorders

This selected annotated list of fiction books about ADHD, anorexia, Axell-crown disease, bulimia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette's syndrome, and other disorders has been created for students, parents, teachers and counselors.

ADHD

95 Pounds of Hope , by Anna Gavalda ; translated by Gill Rosner
From the first day, school had always been torture for Gregory, but his expulsion from school in sixth grade allows him to find his own path and deal with his parents' fights and his beloved grandfather's illness.
New York: Viking, 2003, 90 p.

Joey Pigza Trilogy

Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, by Jack Gantos.
To the constant disappointment of his mother and teacher, Joey has trouble paying attention or controlling his mood swings when his perscription medicine wears off and he starts acting wired.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, copyright 1998, 153 p.

Joey Pigza Loses Control, by Jack Gantos.
Joey, who is still taking medication to keep him from getting too wired, goes to spend the summer with the hard-drinking father he has never known and tries to help the baseball team he coaches win the championship.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, copyright 2000, 195 p.

What Would Joey Do?, by Jack Gantos.
Joey tries to keep his life from degenerating into total chaos when his mother sends him to be home-schooled with a hostile blind girl, his divorced parents cannot stop fighting, and his grandmother is dying of emphysema.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002, 240 p.

The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan.
After learning that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea, twelve-year-old Percy is sent to a summer camp for demigods like himself, and joins his new friends on a quest to prevent a war between the gods.
New York: Hyperion Books for Children, 2005, 384 p.

Parents Wanted, by George Harrar ; illustrations by Dan Murphy.
Twelve-year-old Andrew, who has ADD, is adopted by new parents after years of other foster homes and desperately hopes that he will not mess up the situation.
Minneapolis, Minn.: Milkweed Editions, 2001, 239 p.

Trout and Me, by Susan Shreve.
Ben's troubles at school get progressively worse when he starts hanging around Trout, a new boy in his fifth grade class, who is also labeled as learning disabled.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002, 136 p.

ANOREXIA

Girls Under Pressure, by Jacqueline Wilson.
Ellie learns to deal with her self-image as she battles anorexia.
New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 2002, 214 p.

ASPERGER SYNDROME

The Case of the Prank That Stank, by Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz.
Seventh-graders Agatha Wong and Orville Wright, who has Asperger's syndrome, try to prove that the prank they organized did not cause the fire that burned down their rival school's field house.
New York: Razorbill, 2005, 182 p.

Colder Than Ice, by David Patneaude.
Josh Showalter, an insecure and overweight sixth-grader, hopes for a new start when he transfers to a school in northern Idaho, but he and his new friends are soon the target of a cold-hearted bully.
Chicago, Ill.: Albert Whitman & Company, 2003, 168 p.

AUTISM

Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko.
A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2004, 240 p.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon.
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.
New York: Doubleday, 2003, 256 p.

A Wizard Alone, by Diane Duane.
While Nita mourns her mother's death, teenage wizard Kit and his dog Ponch set out to find a young autistic boy who vanished in the middle of his Ordeal, pursued by the Lone Power.
San Diego: Harcourt, 2002, 319 p.

AXELL-CROWN DISEASE

Life in the Fat Lane, by Cherie Bennett.
Sixteen-year-old Lara, winner of beauty pageants and Homecoming Queen, is distressed and bewildered when she starts gaining weight and becomes a fat girl.
New York: Delacorte Press, copyright 1998, 260 p.

BULIMIA

Fat Chance, by Leslea Newman.
In a series of diary entries, thirteen-year-old Judi recounts her struggles to lose weight, hide her bulimia from her mother, find a boy friend, and decide on a profession.
New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1994, 214 p.

Perfect, by Natasha Friend.
Following the death of her father, a thirteen-year-old uses bulimia as a way to avoid her mother's and ten-year-old sister's grief, as well as her own.
Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 2004, 172 p.

CUTTING/SELF-MUTILATION

Cut, by Patricia McCormick.
While confined to a mental hospital, thirteen-year-old Callie slowly comes to understand some of the reasons behind her self-mutilation, and gradually starts to get better.
Asheville, NC: Front Street, copyright 2000, 136 p.

DYSCALCULIA

My Thirteenth Winter: a memoir, by Samantha Abeel.
New York: Orchard Books, 2003.

MOOD DISORDERS

The Illustrated Mum, by Jacqueline Wilson.
Ten-year-old Dolphin is determined to stay with her family, no matter what, but when her sister goes to live with her newly-discovered father, sending their mother further into manic-depression, Dolphin's life takes a turn for the better.
New York: Delacorte Press, 2005, 283 p.

OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER

Kissing Doorknobs, by Terry Spencer Hesser.
Fourteen-year-old Tara describes how her increasingly strange compulsions begin to take over her life and affect her relationships with her family and friends.
New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 1998, 149 p.

Not as Crazy as I Seem, by George Harrar.
As fifteen-year-old Devon begins mid-year at a new prestigious prep school, he is plagued by compulsions such as the need to sort things into groups of four.
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2003, 224 p.

TOURETTE'S SYNDROME

Quit It, by Marcia Byalick
Diagnosed with a neurological disorder that causes uncontrollable tics, such as coughing and head jerking, sixth-grader Carrie must cope with the embarrassment and strain of various reactions from friends, family, and strangers.
New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 2002, 144 p.