PTSD BOOK LIST

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Breaker Boy
Joan Hiatte Harlow
TPL Book, WorldCat

Breaker Boy is a historical fiction story set in 1911 Pennsylvania’s coal mines. Corey is almost 12. That’s the age boys start working in the local mines. Just before he begins his new job, he falls through ice and is saved by his mysterious neighbor. The two quickly form a bond as Mrs. Chudzik, the neighbor, helps Corey through panic attacks brought on by his accident and prepares him for working in very tight spaces in the mines.  

If We Were Giants
Dave Matthews, Clete Barrett Smith
TPL Book, Hoopla, WorldCat

Trigger Warnings: Death, Violence

Kirra is amazed with the outside world and the stories it holds. So, it is lucky that she is chosen to be a Helper and assist her father as they travel from their hidden away community inside a dormant volcano to neighboring villages to attend storytelling contests. Her job is to watch and learn so that she can one day become the storyteller. Then a quick and terrible tragedy strikes and Kirra finds herself doing everything she can to forget the stories and memories of her past. When that tragedy threatens to come again, will she be able to use her power of storytelling to face her past and save her future?

The Size of the Truth
Andrew Smith
TPL Book, WorldCat

Seven years ago, when little Sam Abernathy was four years old, he fell. Not onto the ground, into it. Specifically, he fell into an abandoned well. For the next three days, Sam was hungry, and wet, and tired, and harassed by an armadillo named Bartleby. Today, 11-year-old Sam finds himself catapulted two years ahead in school landing him as the smallest, youngest 8th grader in his school. To make matters worse, he’s in the same grade, and the same classes, as the hulking, scary, murderous, James Jenkins. Will he be able to find a way to navigate middle school and make it out alive?