Going Underground by Susan Vaught. Sexting. It’s illegal, and it can get you into a lot of trouble. That’s the moral of this ABC-afterschool-special kind of YA novel in which the main character, Del Hartwick, becomes a felon because of a little “innocent” exchange of pictures instigated by his underage girlfriend. Because Del is just enough older to be charged with distribution of pornography and with a sex offense, he goes to juvie and then becomes a pariah in his hometown. The only job he can get is that of gravedigger in a private cemetery owned by a compassionate alcoholic.

I liked this one even though the “lesson” was front and center. It’s true that young teens can do things that will ruin or change their lives for the worse without even realizing what they’re risking. Shoplifting, sexting, trying drugs or alcohol, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time—all of these and more can be so dangerous, and young teens just don’t have the judgement to know what they’re risking. Maybe a book like Going Underground will preach that sermon to them in a way they can understand. I thought the book went a little too far in exonerating Del, saying that he had really done nothing wrong at all, but the point was that the punishment was way too harsh for the crime.

Freaks Like Us by Susan Vaught is after-school special-ish, too, but in a different way. Jason Milwaukee and his friends, Drip and Sunshine, are all self-described “freaks” from the alphabet class. You know, they’re alphabets, people with diagnoses like ADHD and SCZI (schizophrenic) and GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) and SED (severely emotionally disturbed) and SM (selective mute). Sunshine is the SM, and she and Jason and Drip have been friends for a long time. Sunshine actually talks to Jason, who calls himself Freak, and sometimes even to Drip.

However, one day, after the three friends walk home from school together, Sunshine disappears. Has she been kidnapped? Is she hiding? Has she run away without even telling Jason good-bye?

I thought all of this book was realistic and engrossing, except for the ending. Nevertheless, I recommend it for anyone who, like me, is interested in the way people on the edges of sanity think. Jason’s voice in the book is heart-breaking and vivid as he tries his best to hold himself together for the sake of finding Sunshine. (Jason’s “voices” do use some vlgar and obscene language, so if you don’t want to read that kind of language, be warned.) I wanted Jason to be able to overcome his mental illness, to get healed, but of course, that would be unrealistic with such a pernicious disease as schizophrenia. And I very much wanted to change the ending of the book, but I couldn’t do that either.

Try either or both books if you’re interested in reading about teens living on the margins of society, working to make a place for themselves in a world that often shows very little mercy or compassion for felons, freaks, and alphabets.