IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, teens have been turning increasingly to books that explore large philosophical or spiritual questions. Who am I? What is the right way to live? What should I do with my life? Is there a God, and if so, what does that mean in terms of my life?
For about three decades, although sex was completely acceptable in books for teens, these books rarely presented young people who thought about religion or spirituality. Certainly some fantasies—by J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Phillip Pullman—explored religious questions and the classic themes of good and evil. However, realistic stories in which teens attended church or thought about their relationship to God were difficult to find except in books produced by religious publishers. Today, however, young adult literature has taken on a quest for spiritual or religious answers.
Obviously, teens following a particular religious or spiritual path will have been recommended volumes by their church or religious group. The books that follow explore the issues of religion and spirituality in general and will be appreciated best by those who still have a lot of questions rather than those who believe that for now they have found their own answers.
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Skellig
12–14 • Delacorte • 1998 • 182 pp.
PRINTZ HONOR
The British author David Almond has written many compelling and memorable novels for teens, including The Fire-Eaters. But his debut as a young adult novelist, for which he won both the Carnegie Medal and Whitbread Award, remains one of his most popular books.
After his parents move to a new but rundown house, ten-year-old Michael struggles with a different neighborhood and the deteriorating health of his baby sister. One day, in their ramshackle garage, Michael discovers an extraordinary creature covered in dust and spider webs, his face thin and pale, his food consisting of bugs and mice.
With the help of his neighbor Mina, Michael tries to rescue Skellig, finds food and medicine for him, and transports him to a safer place to live. In one brilliant scene, as they remove his decrepit black clothing, they discover that he has wings where his shoulder blades should be. And they begin to wonder who he might be—a human being, an angel, a bird, or a creature never before seen.
The book alternates between dreamlike scenes with Skellig to completely realistic ones in which Michael goes to school in this small English town, plays soccer, and learns about Darwinian evolution. As Mina and Michael care for the desiccated stranger, Michael himself gains some power and mastery in his own life. Then one incredible night the three dance together in a circle, and both Michael and Mina seem to grow their own wings. Finally, before Skellig leaves on the next part of his journey, he visits the hospital and helps save Michael's sister.
Lyrical, magical, and highly emotional, with a very real boy as the protagonist, the story makes frequent references to William Blake. In fact, Skellig can be characterized as a Blake drawing brought to life in prose. Although Michael is ten years old, the book works better with a slightly older reader because of the complexity of the issues involved. Both a mystery and an adventure story, it poses questions about faith, angels, life, spirituality, and creativity that linger with the reader. A great book for classroom discussion, book groups, or independent reading.
The Mists of Avalon
14–18 • Knopf • 1982 • 876 pp.
No saga has captured the imagination of English-speaking countries as powerfully as the romance of King Arthur and the Round Table; Mary Stewart's and T. H. White's versions have been included in the Fantasy section of 500 Great Books for Teens. But King Arthur's story most frequently has been told from a male perspective; Marion Zimmer Bradley imagines it from the point of view of the women in Arthur's life. Hence the landscape seems familiar to readers, but the perspective is unique and breathtaking.
Viviane, the Lady of the Lake, High Priestess of Avalon, has foreseen a united Britain under a high king who will remain true to Avalon and the old religion of Druid Goddess worship. However, across this land a new religion, worshipping a male Christ, has begun to take hold. Viviane chooses and trains Morgaine (Morgan Le Fay), Arthur's half-sister, to succeed her as priestess. Then, in sacred rites, Viviane brings the two together for mating; although Arthur's son Mordred comes from this union, Morgaine leaves Avalon, horrified by the incest she has unwittingly committed.
Arthur's queen Gwenhwyfar, frustrated over her barrenness, searches for solace in piety and the Christian religion. Ultimately she demands that Arthur fly the banner of Christ rather than that of the pagan Dragon. But when the Christians take the sacred cup of the Druids to use in their mass, the Goddess herself appears, inspiring the Knights of the Round Table to take up the quest of the Holy Grail. Basically, the author sides with the pagans in the struggle between the two religions, although she does present the first Christians in a positive light, for they engaged in a theology far different from that of their descendants.
Add to all these details the traditional jousts, love permutations, sexual liaisons, and battles, and the large, sprawling work often seems far too short for readers. Bradley continued the saga in The Forest House, Lady of Avalon, and Priestess of Avalon, which was completed after her death by her writing partner, Diana L. Paxson. The book weaves feminism with religious discussion and speculation—never forgetting, however, to tell an exciting and spellbinding tale.
The Alchemist
14–18 • Harper • 1993 • 174 pp.
Written by a Brazilian novelist, the story of Santiago, a Spanish shepherd boy, reads like an exotic fable. Driven by a need to travel, Santiago wants to pursue a recurring dream in which he goes to Egypt and finds hidden treasure. An old man advises him to pursue his own Personal Legend, claiming that "when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." So with courage Santiago sells his flock and goes to Tangier, where a thief steals his money. There he works in a crystal shop, prospers, and then travels with an Englishman to find a famous alchemist. Finally, Santiago makes the last leg of his journey to the pyramids and learns that the treasure he sought is waiting in the place he least expects it.
Having studied alchemy for eleven years, Paulo Coelho wrote The Alchemist in two weeks. First published in Portuguese in 1988, the book sold a mere 900 copies, and the Brazilian publishing house decided not to reprint it. But Coelho's next novel received a great deal of attention, bringing The Alchemist to the top of the bestseller list. Over time this small book, translated into almost sixty languages, sold over 20 million copies—more than any other book from Brazil and any book written in Portuguese.
In a narrative that speaks to following one's own heart and dreams, Coelho teaches his lessons with originality and restraint. He explores spirituality and faith, how everything has a soul, how God resides in a grain of sand or a flower. The book has proven so popular with young readers that textbook editions have been created, with a guidebook for teachers, in countries all over the world.
ANITA DIAMANT
The Red Tent
14–18 • St. Martin's • 1997 • 321 pp.
The only daughter of the biblical Jacob, Dinah finds herself cherished by Jacob's four wives. In her first-person account of her life, readers are immersed in the biblical world of Israel and Egypt around 1500 B.C., and they watch how Jacob's marriages to Rachel, Leah, Zilpah, and Bilhah affect the community of women. Through songs and stories, the mothers and grandmothers pass their wisdom on to the next generation. They exchange these stories in the red tent, where women sequester themselves at times of monthly cycles, birthing, and illness. There they enjoy one another's companionship, trade secrets like bracelets, and worship household gods. Eventually, Dinah goes to Canaan, witnesses the reunion of Jacob and Esau, becomes a midwife, and flees to Egypt.
Taking liberties with the strict biblical account, Anita Diamant weaves a fascinating tale, filled with flawed and very human and sensuous people. Dinah, who does not have a voice in the Bible, has been given a powerful one here, providing texture and content to the sketchy biblical stories. Published quietly and with little fanfare, The Red Tent became a word-of-mouth bestseller, supported by the clergy of various denominations. Those who prefer biblical history unadulterated tend not to embrace this work, but for those teens struggling to understand religion and their relationship to God, it can be highly effective and memorable.
LEIF ENGER
Peace Like a River
14–18 • Atlantic • 2001 • 312 pp.
Asthmatic Reuben Land has been dead for twelve minutes when his father, Jeremiah, orders him to breathe "in the name of the living God." Hence Reuben believes in miracles and has no problem talking about them. But after he turns eleven, he needs this faith more than ever. For after his brother, Davy, is jailed for the murder of two intruders into the family home, Davy escapes to the Badlands of North Dakota. Reuben, his younger sister Swede, and his father head out to find him; so does the FBI. But it appears that the family has support from a higher power. Narrated by Reuben, but including a heroic story of the cowboy Sunny Sundown written by Swede, the book sweeps readers along in a story where biblical allusions abound.
The author wrote Peace Like a River for his entire family and created a story that can be enjoyed by a wide readership. Often chosen for an entire community or area to read, the book also works extremely well in teen-adult discussion groups. This beautiful and evocative novel, with a title from a traditional American hymn, celebrates family, faith, and miracles.
ANNE FADIMAN
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
14–18 • Farrar, Straus • 1997 • 339 pp.
This compelling nonfiction study chronicles the clash between a Hmong family and the American medical community, a conflict between Western medicine and Eastern spirituality. Lia Lee's family immigrated to California from Laos in 1980. Born in 1982, Lia was diagnosed as epileptic by American doctors at three months, but her family called her disease "the spirit catches you and you fall down." Western doctors prescribed twenty-three different types of medicine over four years; her family wanted to practice holistic healing and hire shamans. Because the two cultures did not come together, Lia became brain dead after a massive seizure, although her parents continued to care for her. The book serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of "cross-cultural medicine."
Vivid, deeply felt, and well researched, the story shows the encounter of two disparate cultures as the author sympathizes with each point of view. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down works well for an entire school to read, because it raises important issues about different approaches to medicine, healing, spirituality, community, and culture.
PAUL FLEISCHMAN
Whirligig
12–14 • Holt • 1998 • 133 pp.
Right before his seventeenth birthday, Brent Bishop attempts suicide driving his car while drunk. Although he lives, he kills another teenager, Lea Zamora. As restitution, Lea's mother asks that Brent honor her daughter by placing four whirligigs, built by him and featuring Lea, in the four corners of the country. Seeing a chance for atonement, Brent sets out by bus on this strange mission that not only transforms his life but that starts to affect, positively, the lives of others. As he travels to Washington, California, Florida, and Maine, he takes an inward journey and begins to reflect about how both good and bad actions can have a ripple effect. As he builds his whirligigs, they become more complex, more beautiful, more a true homage to Lea's life and spirit.
Paul Fleischman weaves Brent's first-person narrative with the stories of four individuals, dramatically different in background (a young violinist, an immigrant from Puerto Rico, a survivor of Auschwitz, a Maine teenager), who come upon the whirligigs and find the answers they have been seeking. In other hands, this mélange of viewpoints and five protagonists would prove confusing, but Fleischman—as he did in Seek and Breakout —once again proves his mastery of using multiple voices to create a narrative.
In the end, Brent confesses his thoughts and feelings to a painter in Maine, and she provides the perspective and the forgiveness that he has been desperately seeking on his journey. In a unique story, Brent and young readers learn how small, positive deeds can have powerful consequences and how a single action can reverberate—just like a whirligig, turning in the wind.
MARGARET GEORGE
Mary, Called Magdalene
14–18 • Viking • 2002 • 630 pp.
As someone who had written many sprawling historical and biographical novels, Margaret George turned her hand to a fictional account of the life of Mary Magdalene, since scant historical material exists about her. Possessed by demons as a young girl, Mary desperately sought a cure; then a prophet named Jesus cast out these devils. Mary finally chose to leave her family and children to become a disciple of Jesus. Basing some of the novel on the Gnostic accounts, such as the Gospel of Mary, George brings Mary to the center of Christ's work, showing sixteen disciples, four of them women, as the closest followers. Mary remains at the center of the early Christian church in this novel, and George has done enough research to make her version credible. Certainly Mary, Called Magdalene opens up discussion—and often sends young readers in search of other material about the early Christian church.
MYLA GOLDBERG
Bee Season
14–18 • Doubleday • 2000 • 275 pp.
Eliza Naumann, at nine, believes herself to be the dullest member of her intellectual Jewish family. With a lawyer mother, brilliant older brother, and her father, a cantor at the synagogue, Elly seems only to have a rare aptitude for spelling. When she competes at local contests, the letters take on a life of their own and she experiences mystical insight into words. Consequently her father shifts all his attention to her because of this rare gift, believing that she can fulfill the teachings of the Kabbalah scholar Abulafia, a Jewish mystic who taught enlightenment through the alignment of letters and words. As they pursue these studies and the spelling bee circuit, Elly's brother joins the Hare Krishnas, and her mother descends into madness.
The novel, which explores religious devotion, love, and family dynamics, captures as well as any work of fiction the obsessive personality and its consequences. In the end, Elly must declare her own independence from her father and her family, which she does during the national spelling bee. In Bee Season, the spelling bee becomes a metaphor for childhood; desperately trying to please her parents, Elly realizes, ultimately, that she never can.
MAREK HALTER
Sarah
14–18 • Crown • 2004 • 295 pp.
In the tradition of Diamant's The Red Tent, the French author Marek Halter weaves a tale of the wife of Abraham, Sarah, who remained barren until she was an old woman. Born to one of the lords of Ur, Sarah flees her wedding in distress. She becomes a priestess of Ishtar and leaves the city with Abraham, who has been called by his God to find a new land for his people. Abraham, acting only on faith, sets off with Sarah, who leaves the comforts of civilization to wander through the wilderness.
In this theological fantasy or fictional portrait of a biblical figure, Sarah and her sexuality, feelings, and emotions are explored; she emerges as a complex and extremely sympathetic heroine. The striking jacket image draws readers into this feminist saga; the story then keeps them engrossed in Sarah and her journey.
PETE HAMILL
Snow in August
14–18 • Little, Brown • 1997 • 384 pp.
In 1947, during a raging snowstorm, an eleven-year-old Catholic altar boy, Michael Devlin, ends up assisting the aging rabbi Judah Hirsch with the Sabbath duties at his synagogue. Michael thereby becomes the Shabbos goy for the temple, lighting fires and doing other work forbidden to Orthodox Jews on the Sabbath. Fatherless because of World War II but with a wonderful relationship with his mother, Michael clearly needs the conversation, wisdom, and attention of the rabbi. Michael learns Yiddish; the rabbi, a refugee from Prague, learns English. In their anti-Semitic, gang-ridden Brooklyn neighborhood, Michael has to hide his motives for spending so much time with his friend. Witnessing the brutal beating of a Jewish shopkeeper, Michael must also decide whether to remain silent or come forward, knowing that he and his mother will face recrimination if he does the honorable thing.
But this harsh landscape has been lit with miracles. At the rabbi's first baseball game, he and Michael see Jackie Robinson play for the Dodgers. Michael discovers the Kabbalah; he builds a rare and beautiful friendship with the old man. In an ending shaped by magical realism, Michael summons forth the ancient Golem from Prague, who helps solve the neighborhood's problems during a snowstorm in August. Although some have difficulty with the ending, Snow in August —a book about faith, belief, and magic—is often chosen as a multigenerational Community Reads title.
Godless
12–14 • Simon & Schuster • 2004 • 198 pp.
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
Contemporary literature for adolescents too rarely presents a young person struggling with God and spirituality. But that is the primary concern of the protagonist of Godless, sixteen-year-old Jason Bock. Raised in a Roman Catholic family and in absolute rebellion against the Church, Jason decides to invent a religion of his own. He worships the town's water tower and invents a cult: "Chutengodianism—a religion with no church, no money, and only one member. I have a religion, but I have no faith. Maybe one day I'll find a deity I can believe in. Until then, my god is made of steel and rust."
However, Jason finds others willing to follow him, and one night they ascend the sides of the "Ten-legged God" to celebrate midnight mass and swim in the dark, vast water reserve. These antics send one member to the hospital, one to a psychiatric ward, and Jason to prison and 210 hours of community service. Bloodied but unbowed, Jason holds fast to his rebellion until the end of the book, continuing to walk what his father calls "a long, lonely road."
With a lot of smart, snappy dialogue and an intriguing central figure, Godless may not solve any of the questions raised by Jason's spiritual journey, but at least this thought-provoking novel opens those issues up for discussion.
JOHN IRVING
A Prayer for Owen Meany
14–18 • Morrow • 1989 • 543 pp.
While playing a Little League game in a small New Hampshire town, Owen Meany, a social outcast with a high-pitched voice, hits a foul ball that strikes Johnny Wheelwright's mother on the head and instantly kills her. Narrating the story, Johnny shows how the boys still cling to their friendship. Owen even cuts off his friend's fingers to keep Johnny from having to serve in Vietnam. In time Owen, a latter-day prophet and Christ figure, inspires true Christian belief in Johnny.
Written with political anger about American society at the end of the 1980s, the novel has survived because of its portrait of a friendship and its central question—why does Johnny become a Christian because of Owen Meany? The novel also contains John Irving's trademark characters—oddballs, freaks, and true originals—which have earned this book, as well as The Cider House Rules and The World According to Garp, many devoted readers.
BEN MIKAELSEN
Touching Spirit Bear
12–14 • Harper • 2001 • 241 pp.
At fifteen, Cole Matthews seethes with anger. He hates his abusive alcoholic father and his distant mother. One day, when his rage goes out of control, he attacks a classmate and severely damages him. Instead of a jail sentence, Cole is sent to live by himself on an island off the coast of Alaska. Mauled by a huge white bear, he almost loses his life. But when he returns from the hospital, a Tlingit elder shows him how to use meditation, dancing, wood carving, and action to heal from anger and hatred. As Cole struggles to live in isolation, he undergoes a spiritual transformation that changes his vision of himself and those around him.
Unusual in its plot, Touching Spirit Bear combines the elements of a survival novel with those of an intriguing spiritual journey.
CHAIM POTOK
The Chosen
14–18 • Simon & Schuster • 1967 • 304 pp.
Set in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, from the end of World War II until about 1950, The Chosen begins on a baseball field with a group of boys around fifteen years old. One team, from the school of Hasidic Jews, regards the other, composed of Orthodox Jews, with scorn; they compete with the ferocity of a holy war. Danny Saunders, the son of the rabbi of the Hasids, hits a ball so hard that it strikes the eye of the narrator, Reuven Malter, the son of an Orthodox Jew and teacher of the Talmud. After this hostile first encounter, a friendship develops between the two boys. The novel explores the growth of these extraordinary young men, their relationships with their fathers, the closed community in which they live, and their struggle to sustain their religious life and tradition in a secular age.
Chaim Potok's first novel, published for adults, deals with reverence, responsibility, holiness, learning, tradition, and the pain of defending these ideals against the world. Ultimately, the characters struggle with universal issues: "A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life. It is hard work to fill one's life with meaning." Because of its subject matter and its brilliant execution, the novel has become a staple of high school reading lists over the last four decades.
SHARON SHINN
Archangel
14–18 • Ace • 1996 • 390 pp.
In the land of Samaria, the angel Gabriel stands next in line to become Archangel. But before he does, he needs to find his wife, marry her, and sing with her in the annual Gloria, the festival of song to praise Jovah. A homing device on his wrist, called the Kiss of the God, brings him together with his wife, a common slave girl named Rachel. But Rachel quickly becomes a thorn in his side; with a lot of bickering, the two disaffected but predestined lovers at last bring about the removal of the evil Archangel Raphael and start to put the kingdom in order.
With many names that sound like those of ancient Israel and with a cast of angels and archangels, this book and the other volumes of the Samaria series— Jovah's Angel, The Alleluia Files, Angelica, and Angel-Seeker —have become favorites in the religious community because they present characters with strong faith and discuss the nature of God. However, in these books Jovah happens to be a spaceship controlling the actions of a colony. Still, this combined romance, science fiction, and religious novel sweeps readers up in a highly inventive fantasy world and in some beautifully described angel wings.
The Bronze Bow
12–14 • Houghton Mifflin • 1961 • 256 pp.
NEWBERY MEDAL
For ten years, since the death of his father at the hands of the Romans, eighteen-year-old Daniel bar Jamin of Galilee has lived on hatred, wanting only to avenge his loss. While apprenticed to the village blacksmith, Daniel is treated so badly that he runs away to the mountains. There, he lives with a band of refugees directed by Rosh. Some consider Rosh a savior, others, a bandit. After the blacksmith dies, Daniel goes back to his village to care for his sister, Leah. There he and his friend Joel recruit young men who will become part of a liberating army. But in this war-torn land, another messiah has been preaching, a man named Jesus, who encourages love rather than vengeance. In the final chapter, Jesus heals Leah, and Daniel sets out on a path quite different from the one he had previously embraced.
Elizabeth George Speare wrote The Bronze Bow as a Sunday school supplement; she disliked the portrayals of Jesus in the media at the time and wanted to make Christ a real human being. Although a superb historical novel—which vividly recreates the time period and won for Speare a second Newbery Medal—the book fell into disfavor for many years because of the appearance of Jesus Christ as a character. However, recently it has been appearing on middle school reading lists—for many of the same reasons that books such as Anita Diamant's The Red Tent have made their way onto high school reading lists. A brilliant historian, Speare generally wrote from her head; the most emotionally satisfying of all of her work, The Bronze Bow definitely came from her heart.