If you like a good cry--or like Lurlene McDaniels books, these are for you.

Abelove, Joan.  Saying It Out Loud.
Everyone thinks Mindy's mom is going to die, but no one will talk to her about it. How will she make it through life without her mother?

Deaver, Julie Reece.  Say Goodnight, Gracie.
When a car accident kills her best friend Jimmy, with whom she has shared everything from childhood escapades to breaking into the professional theater scene in Chicago, seventeen-year-old Morgan must find her own way of coping with his death.

Hawes, Louise.  Rosey in the Present Tense.
Unable to accept the sudden death of his Japanese American girlfriend Rosey, seventeen-year-old Franklin finds that she has come back to him as a spirit. But can she stay forever?

Hurwin, Davida.  A Time for Dancing.
Seventeen-year-old best friends Samantha and Juliana tell their stories in alternating chapters after Juliana is diagnosed with cancer.

Mazer, Norma Fox.  Girlhearts.
Sarabeth Silver's life is turned upside-down when her mother dies suddenly, leaving her orphaned, confused, and at the mercy of everyone who seems to know what is best for her.

McNamee, Graham.  Hate You.
Seventeen-year-old Alice hates her father because he choked her when she was a child and severely damaged her vocal cords. As a way of dealing with it, she writes songs she'll never be able to sing. But, she still has this hatred for him. Will she ever be able to get rid of it?

Nelson, Theresa.  Earthshine.
Slim, living in Hollywood with her actor father Mack, who has AIDS, and his companion Larry, joins a busful of parents and children united by AIDS looking for Boz, a magical place where miracles happen.

Pennebaker, Ruth. Both Sides Now.
Liza and her father have always believed that being positive and acting normal is what keeps things normal. So, neither of them are willing to acknowledge the seriousness of the breast cancer that Liza's mother is suffering from. Then everyday things start going wrong and Liza starts feeling like maybe she can't control everything after all.

Trueman, Terry.  Stuck in Neutral.
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, relates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he believes his father is planning to kill him.

Wartski, Maureen Crane.  Candle in the Wind.
On the night of a party celebrating his acceptance into Harvard, Harris Mizuno, a Japanese-American teenager, is shot dead by an elderly white man who mistakes him for an intruder when Harris asks to use the phone because his car has stalled.