October is National ADHD Awareness month, so I thought it would be a good time to shine a spotlight on ADHD. I asked around in my author circles for fiction books with main characters with ADHD, and got… nothing. But don’t worry, I didn’t let that stop me! I have tracked down a number of books for you.
What is ADHD
ADHD is a neurodivergency that features a difference in attention control. It is considered a neurodevelopmental disorder and affects both children and adults. While everyone has occasional issues moderating attention, it is more pervasive in individuals with ADHD, and may appear as:
- hyperactivity
- inattention
- lack of focus
- impulsivity
- executive dysfunction
- hyperfocus (intense focus on a project or activity)
You can find the ADHD diagnostic criteria here. It has historically more difficult to diagnose girls than boys, but awareness of this issue is increasing.
ADHD often occurs together with other neurodevelopment disorders such as autism, learning disabilities, mood disorders, etc.
Since ADHD impacts behaviour, people often see those with ADHD as willful or attention-seeking and see ADHD as a behavioural disorder. There are, however, physiological differences in the brain and there is a definite genetic component.
Medication can improve some of the symptoms of ADHD. Meditation, exercise, nutrition, and accommodations may also be helpful.
Books
I have two main characters with ADHD. Parker Jurek appears in the standalone YA novel, Endless Change.
Endless Change
She was a broken bird
He was a mender of wings
Parker’s mother always said he jumped into things without thinking first, and that’s exactly what he did when he saw Dakota, cold and hungry, fending for herself on the city streets. How could he ignore the pain and fear in her dark eyes? Dakota was eager to go to school and she made friends quickly, eager to make up for a dismal childhood full of deprivation and abuse by enjoying every moment she could.
But there was something wrong with Dakota. It wasn’t just the hollowness in her eyes or her traumatic past. Others sensed it too and warned Parker not to get too close to Dakota. But despite his questions, he just can’t help falling for her.
Dakota holds her secrets close, and Parker is worried that if he pushes too hard for answers, she’ll just run away.
Placed on the In the Margins Committee Recommended Reads, 2018 by Library Services for Youth in Custody.
By the author of Tattooed Teardrops, winner of the Top Fiction Award, In the Margins Committee, 2016.
If you enjoy gritty contemporary young adult books like those by John Green and Stephen Chbosky, give P.D. Workman’s Endless Change a try.
In a genre dominated by kick-ass heroines in post-apocalyptic dystopian worlds, wizards and magical realism, Ms. Workman is carving out her own niche. Her books show us real kids facing scary real-life problems in the modern world. Her work is both an invitation to empathy and a cautionary tale.
—Talena Winters
The other is Zachary Goldman, who appears in both Zachary Goldman Mysteries (as the main character) and in the Kenzie Kirsch Medical Thrillers (as a secondary character).
She Wore Mourning
A dead child.
A mother deep in mourning.
Private Investigator Zachary Goldman’s life isn’t all roses, but he tries to put his own shattered life behind him to investigate the death of five-year-old Declan Bond.
Declan’s death has been ruled an accident, but his grandmother thinks there is more to it. She fears Declan’s mother will not be able to find peace until Zachary can give them an answer once and for all. But as Zachary digs into the circumstances surrounding Declan’s death, he finds that all is not as it seems, and somebody doesn’t want him to find the truth.
As Christmas Eve, the deadline for solving the case looms closer, both Isabella and Zachary fall deeper into the darkness. they’ll have to survive Christmas Eve to find it.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Psychologically complex and gripping … Zachary must deal with his own psychological issues as well as those of the child’s parents along with attempts on his life. I’m binge reading this series.
Zachary Goldman, Private Investigator, is flawed with a capital F. Shattered by the tragedies of his own life, he will somehow still manage to pick himself up and dig just a little bit deeper than anyone else to find the vital clues.
Maybe being broken makes it easier for others who have faced tragedy to trust him. Walk with Zachary as he solves cases that will stretch his abilities to the limit.
Even with his own life in shambles, Zachary Goldman is still the one you want on the case.
Investigate this P.I. mystery now!
Or make it a bundle:
Doctored Death
Something just doesn’t add up.
Assistant Medical Examiner Kenzie Kirsch thinks that the deaths from Champlain House are linked by more than place. If she is right in her theory, the nursing homes, emergency rooms and the morgue are all going to be overwhelmed.
Only she can’t get anyone to listen to her. The suggestion of a public health hazard may cause widespread panic, and it is a really bad time politically to be spreading gossip about an unknown contagion.
The CDC needs proof.
And Kenzie Kirsch needs to be silenced.
One way or another.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It’s kind of scary because it’s not hard to believe what happened in the book, could happen in the real world.
If you are a reader of the Zachary Goldman Mysteries series, you have already met Kenzie Kirsch. This series is a spinoff from Zachary Goldman Mysteries, giving Kenzie a front-and-center position in solving medical mysteries.
Looking for a strong female lead in an engaging medical mystery? Award-winning and USA Today Bestselling Author P.D. Workman brings you an up-and-coming Medical Examiner’s Assistant who is right up your alley.
Join Dr. Kenzie Kirsch as she uncovers mysteries, conspiracies, and thrills!
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And more books
ADDitude suggests that these classic characters might be ADHD:
- Tom Sawyer
- Amelia Bedelia
- Sherlock Holmes
- The Cat in the Hat
- Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes)
- Willy Wonka
- Violet Baudelaire
- Mr. Toad
- Luna Lovegood
- The White Rabbit
Here is a good list on Goodreads with a good number of books with positive representation of ADHD characters:
Interesting that almost all of the ADHD books mentioned above and below are children’s/young adult books. Where is all of the adult representation?
And a few more that I wanted to mention:
Percy Jackson
Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is on the most dangerous quest of his life.
With the help of a satyr and a daughter of Athena, Percy must journey across the United States to catch a thief who has stolen the original weapon of mass destruction — Zeus’ master bolt.
Along the way, he must face a host of mythological enemies determined to stop him. Most of all, he must come to terms with a father he has never known, and an Oracle that has warned him of betrayal by a friend.
Red, White & Royal Blue
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There’s only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.
Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through? Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn’t always diplomatic.
Fresh
[Movie trailer narrator voice]: In a world, where humanity has crumbled—wait, no, wrong story. Sorry! Let’s try that again.
[YA movie trailer narrator voice:] Some students enter their freshman year of college knowing exactly what they want to do with their lives. Elliot McHugh isn’t one of those people. But picking a major is the last thing on Elliot’s mind when she’s too busy experiencing all that college has to offer—from dancing all night at off-campus parties to testing her RA Rose’s patience to making new friends to having the best sex one can have on a twin-size dorm-room bed.
But she may not be ready for the fallout when reality hits. When the sex she’s having isn’t that great. When finals creep up and smack her right in the face. Or when her roommate’s boyfriend turns out to be the biggest a-hole.
Elliot may make epic mistakes, but if she’s honest with herself (and with you, dear reader), she may just find the person she wants to be. And maybe even fall in love in the process . . . Well, maybe. We’re not promising anything. We can’t give everything away ahead of time.
Focused
Clea can’t control her thoughts. She knows she has to do her homework . . . but she gets distracted. She knows she can’t just say whatever thought comes into her head . . . but sometimes she can’t help herself. She know she needs to focus . . . but how can she do that when the people around her are always chewing gum loudly or making other annoying noises?
It’s starting to be a problem-not just in school, but when Clea’s playing chess or just hanging out with her best friend. Other kids are starting to notice. When Clea fails one too many tests, her parents take her to be tested, and she finds out that she has ADHD, which means her attention is all over the place instead of where it needs to be.
Clea knows life can’t continue the way it’s been going. She’s just not sure how you can fix a pro
Motorcycles, Sushi & One Strange Book
Jesse Hatcher is used to keeping everything together—from trying to manage her thoughts amidst her ADHD to helping her mom through bipolar “phases” and keeping the reality of the highs and lows—and their living situation—a secret.
But when her supposedly dead father, Lou, appears and her mother becomes suicidal, her taped-together life comes undone.
Soon Jesse is placed in Lou’s temporary custody, where she has everything but control. As she works her Dad-mandated job learning to make sushi with a chef intent on torturing her, she concocts a plan to get back to her real home.
But then a cute boy named Rocky and the thrill of riding his motorcycle complicate things, and the book she found seems to have all the answers she doesn’t want to hear. Torn between what her mom wants and a life she might actually enjoy, Jesse is forced to make a crazy decision.
Six of Crows
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price―and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. . . .
A convict with a thirst for revenge.
A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager.
A runaway with a privileged past.
A spy known as the Wraith.
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.
Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction―if they don’t kill each other first.
