Crossan, Sarah. Moonrise. Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2017.

Seventeen-year-old Joe hasn’t seen his brother in ten years. Ed didn’t walk out on the family, not exactly. It’s something more brutal. Ed’s locked up—on death row. Now his execution date has been set, and the clock is ticking. Joe is determined to spend those last weeks with his brother, no matter what other people think ... and no matter whether Ed committed the crime. But did he? And does it matter, in the end?

Dean, Carolee. Take Me There. Simon Pulse, 2010.

Seventeen-year-old Dylan Dawson, on the run from breaking parole, tries to figure out how his life has gone awry. He is determined to see his father before he is executed for killing a police officer 11 years earlier

Gilbert, Kelly Loy. Conviction. Disney-Hyperion, 2015.

When his evangelical radio show host father is arrested for the murder of a police officer and faced with the death penalty, a sixteen-year-old boy must confront his own truths and convictions.

Wung-Sung, Jesper. The Last Execution. Translated by Lindy Falk van Rooyen. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2016.

This novel, based on the true story of the last execution in Denmark, is set in 1853 during the last hours before a fifteen-year-old peasant is sentenced to die for his conviction on charges of arson and murder. As the clock ticks down, the townsfolk ask themselves: does he have the right to live? Wung-Sung raises the age-old question surrounding the death penalty: who determines who has the right to live or die?