National suicide prevention & Awareness month

The CDC lists suicide as the second leading cause of death for children and teenagers ages 10-24. Experts say that more teenagers and young adults die for suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease combined. There is an average of 3703 suicide attempts by high school students every day in the United States; 4 out of 5 of these teens have given clear warning signs.

In order to bring awareness to these facts and the serious impact of suicide rates in our country, September has been named National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month.

The following books in our library collection deal with suicide in a way that provides perspective and solidarity to those with mental and physical illnesses that may cause a suicide attempt:

• The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand
  • ​After her younger brother, Tyler, commits suicide, Lex struggles to work through her grief in the face of a family that has fallen apart, the sudden distance between her and her friends, and memories of Tyler that still feel all too real.
• Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glassgow
  • ​As she struggles to recover and survive, seventeen-year-old homeless Charlotte "Charlie" Davis cuts herself to dull the pain of abandonment and abuse.
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
  • ​Perks follows observant "wallflower" Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show . Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
• The Astonishing Color of After by Emily XR Pan
  • ​After her mother's suicide, grief-stricken Leigh Sanders travels to Taiwan to stay with grandparents she never met, determined to find her mother who she believes turned into a bird.
• All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
  • Told in alternating voices, when Theodore Finch and Violet Markey meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, both teetering on the edge, it's the beginning of an unlikely relationship, a journey to discover the "natural wonders" of the state of Indiana, and two teens' desperate desire to heal and save one another.
• It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
  • New York City teenager Craig Gilner succumbs to academic and social pressures at an elite high school and enters a psychiatric hospital after attempting suicide.
• I Was Here by Gayle Forman
  • In an attempt to understand why her best friend committed suicide, eighteen-year-old Cody Reynolds retraces her dead friend's footsteps and makes some startling discoveries.
• The Program by Suzanne Young
  • When suicide becomes a worldwide epidemic, the only known cure is The Program, a treatment in which painful memories are erased, a fate worse than death to seventeen-year-old Sloane who knows that The Program will steal memories of her dead brother and boyfriend.
• The History of Jane Doe by Michael Belanger
  • After his girlfriend commits suicide, a teenage history buff looks back at their relationship and tries to understand what lead to the tragedy.
• We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
  • After leaving her life behind to go to college in New York, Marin must face the truth about the tragedy that happened in the final weeks of summer when her friend Mabel comes to visit.
• Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
  • A day in the life of a suicidal teen boy saying good-bye to the four people who matter most to him.
• If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
  • Amanda Hardy only wants to fit in at her new school, but she is keeping a big secret, so when she falls for Grant, guarded Amanda finds herself yearning to share with him everything about herself, including her previous life as Andrew.
• Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang
  • One cold fall day, high school junior Liz Emerson steers her car into a tree. This haunting and heartbreaking story is told by a surprising and unexpected narrator and unfolds in nonlinear flashbacks even as Liz's friends, foes, and family gather at the hospital and Liz clings to life.
• And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard
  • Sent to an Amherst, Massachusetts, boarding school after her ex-boyfriend shoots himself, seventeen-year-old Emily expresses herself through poetry as she relives their relationship, copes with her guilt, and begins to heal.
• Skim by Mariko Tamaki
  • (Graphic Novel) Wiccan goth teen Kimberly Keiko Cameron sinks into a growing depression after her classmate's ex-boyfriend kills himself, sparking a school revolution that forces all the students to redefine themselves.

For more information on stress, anxiety, depression and suicide read the materials in  Cameron's Collection, found in the Gale Database > Gale ebooks.

If you or anyone you know is in need of emergency help call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 and visit their youth webpage for more resources.