Not sure which books to read? Let our TBF authors tell you which ones they recommend! Visit our Resources page, then scroll down to "TBF One Book Recommendations". You will also find a more complete list of books by each author under TBF Book List.

The Dead Inside: A True Story Biographical, 9781492635734 Recommended for teens Recommended to read before TBF At age fourteen, Cyndy Etler had escaped from her violent home only to be reported as a runaway and sent to a drug rehabilitation facility that changed her world. Behind the closed doors of Straight, Inc., the program used bizarre and intimidating methods to treat its patients. In this memoir, Cyndy recounts the living nightmare that she endured for sixteen months at Straight, Inc.

We Can’t Be Friends: A True Story Biographical, 9781492660903 Recommended for teens I wasn't popular before I got locked up in Straight Inc., the notorious "tough love" program for troubled teens. But when you're psychologically beaten for sixteen months, you start to absorb the lessons. The lessons in Straight were: You are evil. Your peers are evil. Everything is evil except Straight, Inc. Before long, you're a true believer. And when you're finally released, sent back into the world, you crave safety. Crave being back in the warehouse. And if you can't be there, you'd rather be dead. This is the story of my return to my high school. This is the true story of how I didn't die.

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Interviews

• Cyndy Etler, author of the memoir THE DEAD INSIDE, on proving she can do the impossible

Videos

• The Dead Inside: Book Trailer

• I'm a trained boxer.
• My father was married to the Tootsie Roll heiress before he married my mother. I'm like, a chromosome away from being candy-rich.
• Animals talk to me, and I understand them.
• Years after my husband and I built our dream home in North Carolina, I visited the youth homeless shelter in Connecticut where I had stayed 30 years earlier...and realized the two places are almost twins.
• I spent 17 years teaching struggling teens in alternative and inner city high schools.
• If I were a superhero I would be Señora Oyente, Lady Listener, with the power to understand what kids are saying in any language they use. I'd heal whatever the kids struggle with, just by listening.
• If you can only read one of my books before TBF you should read The Dead Inside: A True Story, because it tells the raw, real story of what many kids go through - abuse at home; trying weed to fit in; being forced to OBEY - in other words, the story the system makes sure you don't hear.