For me, it was a book called ‘The Outsiders’ by S.E Hinton. It is known as a literary classic these days, but it was quite hard hitting when it was released back in the 1960s.
In a nut shell; It is about a group of semi-impoverished greaser friends growing up in 1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma, and all the life challenges they face, and how they react to prejudice against them whilst coping with family issues.
It was the first book that made me realise that some people in society don’t get it easy growing up, and I discovered what it meant to live on the ‘wrong side of town’ and what societal prejudice was. The outsiders was the first novel I read that brought up hard subjects like; domestic violence, alcoholism, street gang violence etc.
It was the first book to shatter my naive way of thinking about the world, at 13 years old! It is still one of my favourite stories to this day, and for all its slightly dark themes, I love the compassionate friendship and brotherhood that is displayed in this book!
In elementary school I read Sideways Stories From Wayside School by Louis Sachar. It’s a goofy, silly book in which each chapter focuses on a student in a wacky classroom. One chapter is about a boy named DJ who comes to school one day with a huge smile on his face, which causes the other students to spend the entire chapter trying to guess why he’s so happy. He doesn’t answer. At the end, he explains: “You need a reason to be sad. You don’t need a reason to be happy.”
That blew my mind. Later, that experience factored into how I discovered that I had depression as a child.
As an adult, Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich made me change my view of economics and social status.