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February is National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month (TDVAM). This is an issue that impacts everyone – not just teens – but their parents, teachers, friends, and communities as well. Together, we can raise the nation’s awareness about teen dating violence and promote safe, healthy relationships. The NNLM Reading Club has selected three books to get the conversation started.

Share Trustworthy Resources

Dating Matters®: Strategies to Promote Healthy Teen Relationships is a comprehensive teen dating violence prevention model developed by CDC to stop teen dating violence before it starts. Dating Matters is an evidence-based teen dating violence prevention model that includes prevention strategies for individuals, peers, families, schools, and neighborhoods. It focuses on teaching 11 to 14-year-olds healthy relationship skills before they start dating and reducing behaviors that increase the risk for dating violence, like substance abuse and sexual risk-taking. (PDF)

LoveIsRespect.Org is a special project of the National Domestic Violence Hotline funded through the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act Program. The organization can connect teens with local domestic violence advocates for crisis counseling and referrals. It also offers a live chat option for teens. For information, call 866.331.9474 or text LOVEIS to 22522.

Preventing Teen Dating Violence Fact Sheet (PDF)

Runaway & Homeless Youth and Relationship Violence Toolkit Recognizing and understanding the intersection of runaway and homeless youth and intimate partner violence (including dating, domestic and sexual violence) is critical to creating meaningful services and effective intervention and prevention strategies for both homelessness and relationship abuse, and in creating partnerships between the programs working with youth at risk.

 Things We Haven's Said: Stories of Sexual Abuse and Recovery | Edited by Erin Moulton | 2018
208 pages | Zest Books | ISBN: 978-1942186342 | Interest Level: Grade 8 - Grade 12
A collection of poems, essays, letters, and interviews written by a diverse group of adults
who survived sexual violence as children and adolescents. This anthology is a resource to
help teens upend stigma and create a better future.

Book

Intelligent, popular, handsome, and wealthy, sixteen-year-old Nick Andreas is pretty much perfect—on the outside, at least. What no one knows—not even his best friend—is the terror and anger that Nick faces every time he is alone with his father. Then he and Caitlin fall in love, and Nick thinks his problems are over. Caitlin is the one person he can confide in, the only person who understands him. But when Nick’s anger and jealousy overtake him, things begin to spiral out of control and Nick realizes that he’s more his father’s son than he wants to be. Now Nick must confront his inner demons to stop the history of violence from repeating itself. 

Winner of the Black-Eyed Susan Award | An ALA Top 10 Best Book for Young Adults | An International Reading Association Young Adult Choices List Pick | A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age Pick

Breathing Underwater | Alex Finn | Harper Teen | 2019 reprint | 272 pages | ISBN: 978-0064472579 | WorldCat

Author

Alexandra Flinn is an American writer of novels for young adults. Her books have appeared on the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller lists and have been translated into over twenty foreign languages. Many of her books have made the American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults lists, as well as Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Several of her novels are modernized versions of classic fairy tales.

Book

Laura Dean, the most popular girl in high school, was Frederica Riley's dream girl: charming, confident, and SO cute. There's just one problem: Laura Dean is maybe not the greatest girlfriend. Reeling from her latest breakup, Freddy's best friend, Doodle, introduces her to the Seek-Her, a mysterious medium, who leaves Freddy some cryptic parting words: break up with her. But Laura Dean keeps coming back, and as their relationship spirals further out of her control, Freddy has to wonder if it's really Laura Dean that's the problem. Maybe it's Freddy, who is rapidly losing her friends, including Doodle, who needs her now more than ever. Fortunately for Freddy, there are new friends, and the insight of advice columnists like Anna Vice to help her through being a teenager in love. 

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me | Author Mariko Tamaki and illustrator Rosemary Valero-O’Connell | First Second; illustrated edition | 2019 | 304 pages | ISBN: 978-1626722590 | WorldCat

Author

Mariko Tamaki is a New York Times Bestselling writer of comics and prose. She has received Doug Wright, Eisner and Ignatz Awards as well as Caldecott and Printz Honors for her works. She has had the pleasure of working for Marvel, DC Comics, Abrams, Dark Horse, and Boom Studios on various superhero-type things.

Official Website of Mariko Tamaki

Book

The girls at North Bay Academy are taking sides. It all started when Mike Parker's girlfriend showed up with a bruise on her face. Or, more specifically, when she walked into the principal's office and said Mike hit her. But her classmates have questions. Why did she go to the principal and not the police? Why did she stay with Mike if he was hurting her? Obviously, if it's true, Mike should face the consequences. But is it true? Some girls want to rally for Mike’s expulsion—and some want to rally around Mike. As rumors about what really happened spread, the students at North Bay Academy will question what it means to be guilty or innocent, right or wrong. 

What Kind of Girl | Alyssa B Sheinmel | Sourcebooks Fire | 2021 reprint | 384 pages | ISBN: 978-1728222042 | WorldCat

Author

Alyssa Sheinmel is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels for young adults, including A Danger to Herself and Others and Faceless. She is the co-author of The Haunting of Sunshine Girl and its sequel, The Awakening of Sunshine Girl. Alyssa grew up in Northern California and New York, and currently lives and writes in New York City.

Official Website of Alyssa Sheinmel