"...writing about trauma is a way of understanding it, overcoming it, and integrating it into one's life story."--Lynn Z. Bloom, University of Connecticut, Storrs

This link is divided into four sections:

1. books intended for adults with a plot centered around a teen,
2. professional self-help books,
3. professional scholarly books, and
4. professional scholarly books focusing on literary criticism.

With differing learning styles, people tend to gravitate towards a variety of types of books.  These four sections are included to give interested education students a deeper background of the issues surrounding the teen survivors mentioned in the Teen Books link.  I indicated my personal preferences, so that those with limited time may more productively focus their reading efforts.

KEY: * = good resource; ** = great resource; *** = best resource

Adult and Professional Books

Articles and Further Resources

Bastard Out of Carolina, by Dorothy Allison. New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : Dutton, 1992 (National best seller; interwoven rough south Carolina family tale, centering around young Ruth Anne Boatwright; available at Mt. Mercy College library and Cedar Rapids Public Library.)

In the Land of Winter, by Richard Grant.  New York : Avon Books, 1997 (A tale of witch hunting in present-day New England; available at Cedar Rapids Public Library.)

PUSH: a Novel, by Sapphire. New York : Alfred A. Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1996 (Self-portrait of a black teenage girl whose father rapes her and who gains hope when a courageous teacher inspires her to learn to read; available at Cedar Rapids Public Library, Coe College library, Cornell College library, and Mt. Mercy College library.)

A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley. New York : Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1991 (A Pulitzer Prize winner; involves an Iowa farm family, inheritance, and abuse memories; available at Mt. Mercy College library and Cedar Rapids Public Library.)

PROFESSIONAL BOOKS, Self-help

Allies in Healing: When the Person You Love Was Sexually Abused as a Child, by Davis, Laura.  New York, N.Y. : HarperPerennial, 1991 (Written specifically to help partners understand and cope with the unique challenges of loving someone who's healing; available at Cedar Rapids Public Library.)

***Courage to Heal: a Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis. New York : Perennial Library, 1988 (Overview of the impact of sexual abuse, along with ideas for healing; available at Cedar Rapids Public Library, Cornell College library, and Mt. Mercy College library.)

Courage to Heal Workbook: a Guide for Women and Men Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, by Laura Davis. New York : Perennial Library, 1990 (Accompanies above book; includes specific exercises to apply principles in one's own life; available at Cedar Rapids Public Library, Cornell College library, and Mt. Mercy College library.)

**Our Bodies, Ourselves: a Book by and for Women, by The Boston Women's Health Book Collective. New York : Simon & Schuster, 1998 (Comprehensive issues affecting women; available at Cedar Rapids Public Library, Cornell College library, and Mt. Mercy College library.)

*Sexual Character:  Beyond Technique to Intimacy, by Marva J. Dawn.  Grand Rapids, Mich. : W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1993 (Religious approach for partners where one person is healing from abuse; available at Mt. Mercy College library.)

Woman Inside:  A Resource Guide Designed to Lead Women From Incest Victim to Survivor, by Patty Derosier Barnes. Racine, WI : Mother Courage Press, 1989 (additional suggestions for healing; available at Cedar Rapids Public Library.)

PROFESSIONAL BOOKS, Scholarly

***Authoring a Life: a Woman's Survival In and Through Literary Studies, by Brenda Daly. Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, 1998 (Powerful bibliotherapeutic book; available at Mt. Mercy College library.)

***Father-Daughter Incest, by Judith Lewis Herman. Cambridge, Mass. ; London : Harvard University Press, 2000, 1981 (well-written analysis of this large societal problem; 1981 edition available at Cedar Rapids Public Library, Coe College library, and Cornell College library; 2000 edition--which effectively addresses the false memory syndrome--available at Mt. Mercy College library.) 

My Father's House: a Memoir of Incest and of Healing, by Sylvia Fraser. New York : Ticknor & Fields, 1988, 1987 (biography; available at Cedar Rapids Public Library, Coe College library, and Cornell College library.) 

*Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, by Mary Pipher. New York : Putnam, 1994 (focuses on pressures facing today's teen females; available at Cedar Rapids Public Library and Cornell College library; video available at Mt. Mercy College library.)

The Secret Trauma:  Incest in the Lives of Girls and Women, by Diana E.H. Russell. New York : Basic Books, 1999, 1986 (1986 edition available at Cedar Rapids Public Library, Coe College library, Cornell College library, and Mt. Mercy College library; 1999 edition--includes negative perspective of the false memory syndrome--available through inter-library loan.) 

*Victimized Daughters: Incest and the Development of the Female Self, by Janet Liebman Jacobs. New York : Routledge, 1994 (Examines the effects of incest on female personality formation; available at Coe College library.)

PROFESSIONAL BOOKS, Literary Criticism

Haunted Bodies:  Gender and Southern Text, by Anne Goodwyn Jones and Susan V. Donaldson. Charlottesville : University Press of Virginia, 1997 (analysis of a variety of southern authors' works; available at Coe College Library.)

Incest and the English Novel, 1684-1814, by Ellen Pollak. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003 (historical perspective of how incest was treated in past literary works--helpful because young adult literature is a contemporary genre; available at Coe College library and Mt. Mercy College Library.)

Created by Robyn Clark-Bridges, Evening Supervisor at Mount Mercy College's Busse Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  This project was completed for a reference class assignment in the University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science program. Last updated 5/11/05.  Send comments and suggestions to rclark@mtmercy.edu