The Best Norma Fox Mazer Books for Teens

Toni and Julie were both born right after their parents moved in next to one another, and the two girls have been as thick as thieves ever since. Toni's life is quiet and blissful while Julie is eager to move out and get away from her parents' constant fighting. 

When Julie’s mom moves her family to San Francisco for the summer, Toni is forced to figure out what her life is like when she's not one half of a whole. Some changes are fun, like getting to know the cutest boy in school, but some, like finding out the dark truth of your family's past, aren't so good.

Eight stories of adolescence, heartache, and the importance for young women to find themselves are compiled in this collection. 

Jessie Granatstein doesn’t think she’ll have anything to say in the journal her teacher asks her to write, until she finds the words pouring out of her fingers. Zoe Eberhardt has been raised and cherished by the strong, powerful women in her family, but she's not sure she's ready to form her own identity independent of them. Marylee is quiet and thoughtful, the polar opposite of her mother, but when she sees something she’s not supposed to, she realizes it might be time to start speaking out.

Pete Greenwood is a history nerd who loves reading big books about the past and wondering about how things used to be. That might be because Pete's own history is a pack of lies. For the last eight years, he’s lived with his uncle Gene under an assumed name. He’s had to keep his parents’ existence a secret ever since they committed an act of political protest that went tragically wrong. 

It's tough living a double life, being unable to trust anyone or make real friends. Things pick up when he meets Cary Longstreet, a cool kid who has her own secrets. Slowly learning to trust each other, Pete and Cary start to share their truths, but real life is messier than either of them are ready for.

Sarabeth Silver knows that her mom is different. She's younger than all her friends' mothers and also harder working, forced to clean other people's houses to make just enough money to pay for their tiny trailer. It’s always been just the two of them, but when tragedy suddenly strikes, Sarabeth will have to figure things out on her own. 

Sarabeth has never known either of her parents’ families, who refused to help when Jane got pregnant at sixteen. They're all she has left but is it worth trying to find them when they so callously rejected her mother when she needed them most?

In June 1940, twelve-year-old Karin Levi's world is torn apart as the German army occupies Paris. Karin, her older brother Marc, and their mother are forced to flee the city they love and seek safety wherever they can find it. 

When Maman falls ill and is unable to travel, Karin and Marc must leave her behind and travel to the safe harbor that is America. Will they ever get to see their beloved Maman again?

Going along with the crowd can have shattering consequences. Rollo Wingate, who’s always been the biggest guy in school, finds it easier to just go with the flow and let someone else take the lead. It's not hard to do when he and his two best friends are always on the same page. 

But then he finds himself going along with their plans to target Valerie Michon, a girl at their school. It starts out small. A jab here, an insult there. But things keep escalating, and soon things go out of control. Rollo knows that a line has been crossed, and he struggles to make sense of how things could have gone so wrong so quickly. Maybe for the first time, he’s going to have to figure it out for himself.

Jenny is still struggling with the death of her sister Gail, who was killed two years ago after being hit by a drunk driver. Her family struggles with the loss too, leaving Jenny adrift in her adolescence. 

Things start to change when she meets Rob, a new boy in school. She can’t look away when they pass each other in the halls. She knows there’s something between them, and he seems to know it too, until a chance conversation reveals something horrifying: Rob’s mother was the driver who killed Gail. She tries to pull away from Rob but she finds she needs his friendship now more than ever. Is she betraying her family by staying close to him?

When Vicki's father is laid off from his job, everything changes. Her family is forced to move out of their beloved home and into a cramped city apartment. She also has to go to a new school in a rougher area. 

Worst of all, one night, her father leaves the house and just disappears. Vicki soon finds herself living a double life, pretending to be okay on the outside while struggling with all this change on the inside.

Jessie Wells can't remember her father, James. He left her family when she was very young and she was raised by her mother. Now aged 15, Jessie is struck down by the desire to track down her dad, to find out something, anything, about the man who has left a shadow over her entire childhood. 

To find the man she always thought of as "the disappearing dude," she calls all the Wellses in the phone book, hoping to speak to someone who knows her father. But what will she do when she actually finds him?

Ami and her best friend, Mia, share almost everything. They do everything together, have the same interests, and even share the same letters in their names. Ami wants everything to remain exactly as it is. But when her parents separate and her mom moves out, she falls apart. 

Ami wants everything to go back to the way it was, but her mother is starting a new life for herself and her dad is dating her new science teacher. At least her friendship with Mia will stay the same... won't it?