There are several titles which deal with troubled relationships between teens and parents and other significant adults and their yearning for understanding which students might read and compare to Sean's relationship with his father in Liar, Liar.

In After the Rain, by Norma Fox Mazer, fifteen-year-old Rachel gets to know her dying grandfather better than ever before and finds the experience bittersweet. Give Dad My Best, by James Lincoln Collier, tells the story of fourteenyear-old Jack who gets a job at the town boat club to help out because his father, a trombone player, gets little work in the middoe of the 1930s Depression. Jack is tempted to steal when he realizes his dad can't really be depended upon to take care of the family.

Queenie, in Queenie Peavy by Robert Burch, is a strong female character longing for the day when her father will return...