What Are The Best Books For Incarcerated Youth Programs?

Question

Young adult novels with raw themes, like anger and redemption arcs, might resonate—books for juvenile detention centers should spark difficult conversations, not lecture.

livlynnette · Answer

Life After Prison by Terry Morrone is a wonderful example of stories about personal transformation. Especially for children and teens of incarcerated youth it is wonderful to read a realistic and very relatable story of a protagonist trying to find work in legitimate endeavors while the pull of his life of crime before serves as a constant test to his new resolve. This book focuses on the day to day struggles of the protagonist rather than describing the prison system itself. The story feels immediate and real.

Emma · Answer

I really believe books can be a lifeline for kids in jail. They offer a chance for kids to escape from their current situation and grow. I’d recommend “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas for so many reasons including it being real, raw and dealing with so many of the systemic issues that these daily dealing kids are up against. I’d also recommend “Monster” by Walter Dean Myers. Written in a screenplay format makes it very accessible. I think “Long Way Down” by Jason Reynolds is also very hopeful. Written in poetry it can be very tough to read but so worth it. And finally “Ghost” by Jason Reynolds. It’s a sports book but deals heavily with trauma and finding redemption. It’s a very realistic book to many of these youth’s lives.

Samuel · Answer

I try to pick books that in some way mirror the lives of kids who have been through the system as young people, but also offer up the possibility of seeing lives very different from their own. ‘March’ by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, for example, is a wonderful graphic novel about the Civil Rights Movement that contains many lessons about how to carry on in the face of adversity. And ‘The 57 Bus’ by Dashka Slater is a powerful true story about a crime that affected two teens very differently, and can serve as a jumping off point for discussions about accountability and about empathy.

For more lighthearted but meaningful novels, I would suggest including The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo in a self-expression workshop and All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely in a discussion about police violence where students can debate from different perspectives.

Adapted for YA readers, the honest and raw story of ‘Heavy’ by Kiese Laymon explores his struggles with addiction as well as his family, giving young readers mirrors of their own lives and windows to new possibilities.

Olivia · Answer

Youth in jail need books that speak to their lives and experiences. Written for incarcerated youth, ‘Punching the Air’ by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam is a novel in verse about a young man wrongly convicted of murder. Bryan Stevenson’s ‘Just Mercy’ is a powerful true story about justice and a need for empathy in the lives of young people and adults alike, and has been adapted for younger readers.

But also great options in the Fantasy genre are ‘The House in the Cerulean Sea’ by TJ Klune and ‘Dear Martin’ by Nic Stone (letters to Dr. King about police brutality).

Also useful would be George M. Johnson’s memoir We Are Not Broken, exploring the experiences of Black, queer young people, and Angie Thomas’s novel Concrete Rose, a prequel to The Hate U Give exploring a young man’s struggles with life in a gang. These books are more than fun reads; they validate young people’s experiences and open up conversations about identity and second chances.

Michelle Ramsey · Answer

I'd like to think that programs that use poetry slams and writing workshops would be very powerful. This way, the book can be the catalyst for creative output, and kids can have journals and writing prompts to go along with the books. I'd want kids to write their own work, so perhaps starting with a book like 'The Lightning Thief' and having them write a modern myth about themselves, or reading a powerful memoir and then having them write their own personal vignette. The book becomes a 'mentor text' and not just another thing for them to read. It helps shift the focus from reading something passively to creating something of value, helping kids feel more agency and voice. Perhaps the best book of all would be one that inspires them to write their own.

Rene Mauricio · Answer

As someone who has been involved in promoting teen reads, I can say that a series is your best friend to hook a reader to follow your recommended read. If you recommend the first book in a series, teens will look forward to the next library delivery date hoping to read the next installment of the series. Although ‘The Maze Runner’ series has its many failures as a series, it managed to gain many teen readers due to the survival aspect and puzzle solving that they were able to read about. Another popular author of series for this age group is Rick Riordan. Although he writes in many different mythologies, his books are always humorous, action-packed and feature outsiders who discover their power. Recently published ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ by the author of ‘The Hunger Games’ series, Suzanne Collins, is another ‘diet’ book that explores the nature of evil in a series of ways and how systems work. (This is a much more nuanced book than the original ‘Hunger Games’ trilogy).

Mayris Ibujés · Answer

Books about the justice system are important to discuss. They should be discussed with a critical perspective rather than a negative one. This means that instead of reading books about terrible justice systems, we should read books such as ‘Just Mercy’ and ‘The New Jim Crow’ by Michelle Alexander (perhaps a young adult adaptation of this book could be written). Furthermore, there are books such as ‘The Trials of Morrigan Crow’ by Jessica Townsend, which is a fantasy novel about a girl who is cursed and put on trial for something that she did not do. The themes in this novel can be used to discuss how unfair blame can occur and how systemic bias is sometimes at play. It is not the intention of these novels to depress the reader but rather to inform and empower them with knowledge of the system so that they can either attempt to navigate it or attempt to change it.

Esther Reid · Answer

Another area worth mentioning are interactive books such as Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style stories (e.g. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin). Not only do these require the active participation of a reader in order to determine the direction of a story but also in terms of decision making. Journaling books, often part prompt and part creative space (e.g. Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith) are another growing area of literature that encourages a reader to engage with a book in a tactile and creative manner. These books are not about reading a story; rather they allow the reader to create their own story. This kind of literature provides a powerful shift in terms of how one views reading from a largely passive activity to a highly interactive one.

Kendall Owensby Hyde · Answer

Do libraries have policies governing book bans, and how do those policies play out in practice? I’ve come across a number of booklists for young people banned because they contain “controversial” material about issues of race, sex, and police abuse. In such cases, the “best” books may well be those that get to explore these same issues through allegory or historical fiction. For people trying to select books for young people in such environments, there is often a considerable element of stealth involved. It’s a colorless and un satisfactory reality, but one that many people in this field have to navigate on a daily basis. ‘Animal Farm’ might, for example, be okay to include while a straight-to-the-point critique of current situations would not. This is part of the fight for intellectual freedom.

Virginia Eguia Mendoza · Answer

Books that teach specific skills through story are very useful. Not textbooks, but novels. I mentioned “The Knife of Never Letting Go” by Patrick Ness already. There’s a very subtle exploration of communication with animals in that, but there are far more direct examples of novels that contain characters learning skills such as cooking, car repair, gardening or coding. These stories can show the frustration of learning, the persistent practice and the ‘aha’ moment. They could encourage a growth mindset. Pairing such a book with the chance to learn the relevant skill(s) would be even better and could connect readers more strongly with the world of the story and with their own potential in the real world.

Mike Medina · Answer

I wouldn’t want to read something that made crime seem cool or that part of street life glamorous. There are plenty of stories out there about people rebuilding their lives after mistakes, finding identity in new ways, etc. “Monster” by Walter Dean Myers is written as if it were a screenplay or journal of the main character, which makes for a really engaging read. It challenges one’s perspective on the justice system. “Ghost Boys” by Jewell Parker Rhodes is another book dealing with police violence and its legacy, but suitable for younger teens. As for fantasy, most stories about overcoming oppression within a world where it is systemic is pretty compelling. There are a lot of amazing fantasy stories about marginalized groups fighting to preserve their magic or simply to be treated equally under the law. One of my favorites is “Children of Blood and Bone” by Tomi Adeyemi.

What Are The Best Books For Incarcerated Youth Programs?

11 Answers

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