Middle Grade Books that Tackle Mental Health
Thankfully, there are so many MG books being written about mental health. Some of these books are about children struggling with mental health issues and some are about a family member. They help the kids see themselves in the story or their family in the story, as well as help middle graders develop a better understanding and empathy for those who are struggling with a mental illness. Here are some of my favorites from the past. These are older books – books sure to be on your library’s shelves.
FINDING PERFECT
By Elly Swartz
Molly is a twelve year old girl who is a poet, a friend to many, a great student and a caring sister. However, she has a secret.
Everything in her life must be perfect. Her glass animal collection must be spaced evenly on her desk, her hair must be combed an even amount of times, her food can’t touch another food, she washes her hands ten times before she eats and she silently counts everything by fours. (more)
OCD
NEST
By Esther Ehrlich
I couldn’t put this touching book down and finished it easily in a day. Miss Ehrlich’s beautiful descriptions of the marshes made me feel like I was trudging through the woods and climbing the dunes with Chirp, the main character. more
grief
Things that Surprise You
By Jennifer Maschari
Emily is about to begin middle school and is feeling all of the usual angst that goes along with that. However, Emily has a lot of other issues to deal with and they all involve change.. Her parents have recently gotten divorced, her mother is working a lot more hours, her best friend is suddenly only interested in being on the field hockey team with lots of new friends and her older sister is living in a residential facility to help with her eating disorder. more
Sister with an eating disorder
My LIfe in the fish tank
By Barbara Dee
Zinny is one of four children in a perfectly normal family who is living a perfectly normal life. Her brother Gabriel is 18 and about to begin college. Her sister Scarlett is 16, and then there’s her little brother Aiden who is in the third grade. Summer is ending, Gabriel is moving into his college dorm and the rest of her family is about to begin the new school year. Zinny and her two best friends (girls she’s been best friends with for years) walk to school together, talk about boys together and eat lunch together. So all is normal, until the night the phone call changes her family’s life to anything but normal. It’s the night they learn Gabriel wrecked his friend’s car and is in the hospital. It’s the night they learn he’s shouting crazy things in the ambulance and the emergency room. And it’s the night when, just maybe, he wrecked the car on purpose. And finally it’s the night Zinny’s family’s life became very, very different. more
Brother with bipolar depression
the Science of breakable Things
By Tae Keller
This memorable middle grade book about friendships, family, science and mental illness is Natalie’s story about surviving seventh grade, finding a second best friend and most of all, gaining a better understanding of her mother’s depression. She helps us understand the fear that she may never find her old mom again and her desperation to do so. more
Mom with depression
Bea is for Blended
By Lindsey Stoddard
Bea and her mom refer to themselves as Team Ember. It’s always just been the two of them in their townhome, plus Grandma Bea who takes care of Bea when her mom is at work, Aunt Tam (Bea’s second mom) who lives next door and Maximilian, her best friend. more
Anxiety
THE SUMMER OF JUNE
By Jamie Sumner
June will be starting middle school in the fall, but first she has the magical summer ahead of her. June has been struggling with extreme anxiety for many years, but she’s determined to move on with the help of a caring counselor and a supportive, understanding mom. She knows she doesn’t want to be “the girl who pulls out her hair because of the anxious thoughts in her head or the nervous mouse girl who is scared all the time and runs from everything”. more
Anxiety
No Fixed Address
By Susin Nielsen
Felix’s story will grab you from the very first page. We immediately feel his fear about being in a police station and being questioned by a kind, but nonetheless a police officer, about his iffy living arrangements and about his quirky, but loving mom. We learn about his astute P.O.O. (powers of observation) that help him to better understand the world around him. And then we learn a little more of Felix’s story about he and his mom have been living in a stolen van for the past four months more
Parent depression
Parent suicide
Lasagna Means I Love you
Between the Lighthouse and You
grief
Where the Watermelons Grow
Parental schizophrenia
Sidetracked
Child with anxiety
Kat Greene Comes Clean
Parent with OCD
The War That Saved My Life
Child with PTSD
Each Tiny Spark
The True History of Lyndie B. Hawkins
Parent with PTSD
The Magical Imperfect
Parent with depression; child with selective mutism
Good Enough
Child with eating disorder
Taking Up Space (Disordered Eating)
Child with disordered eating pattern; parent recovering from eating disorder
The Battle of Junk Mountain
Grandparent with hoarding disorder
BREATHING UNDERWATER
OPERATION FROG EFFECT
vilonia beebee takes charge
THE YEAR WE FELL FROM SPACE
Family member’s depression