Every family comes in different shapes, sizes, backgrounds, and goes through their own obstacles. At the end of the obstacles, some families come together, and others do not. Here’s a selection of fiction and non-fiction young adult books that are themed around the unique makeup of different families.
Three Dark Crowns
By Kendare Blake
In Three Dark Crowns, readers find out what happens when the king and queen of a mystical land give birth to triplets. How does a kingdom determine who is to be the royal heir with three firstborn daughters eligible for the crown? Have them fight to the death, of course! When they turn 16, these three girls with special powers are raised together to one day kill the other two for the crown.
Wonder
by R.J. Palacio
When a child named August is born with a disability, one sees throughout Wonder how it affects the people around him, especially his family and classmates. The reader gets to see from not only from August’s perspective in each chapter but from the other people in his life.
Finding Audrey
by Sophie Kinsella
Fourteen-year-old Audrey is struggling with an anxiety disorder that resulted from the bullying she endured in high school. Her family consists of her suffocating and overprotective mother, quiet father, unapologetically sarcastic older brother, and adorable little brother. Kinsella does a great job focusing on how Audrey’s diagnosis and prognosis affect family dynamics in Finding Audrey.
Where The Stars Still Shine
By Trish Doller
What happens when you are abducted by your mentally unstable mother at five years old and then sent back to your father at seventeen? This is Callie’s reality in Where The Stars Still Shine. She is forced to find normalcy when she has no idea what that might be. She has to make a new home, new life, and new family after years on the run with her mom.
By Elbie Love
Young Adult Assistant
Hoboken Library Staff Picks 
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