Family Family > extended family
Because of Winn-Dixie
10-year-old Opal and her preacher father move to a small Florida town. Opal finds a dog (Winn-Dixie), gradually eases her loneliness, and learns to accept some losses.
Bells of Christmas, The
This long picture book may be read slowly, although it is not broken into chapters. It is a reminiscence of an African-American family's celebration of Christmas in the 1890s and is set in the farmlands of Ohio.
Author: Hamilton, Virginia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Bread and Roses, Too.
This is a fictionalized history of the 1912 Lawrence, Massachusetts, factory strike. The main characters are two children, a girl whose family is active in the strike, and a homeless boy. Aspects of the strike itself and of outsiders' attempts to help the
Author: Paterson, Katherine |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Breadwinner, The
This coming-of-age story, told from the point of view of a young Afghan girl left to fend for her family in the times of repressive Taliban influence is both moving and suspenseful.
Author: Ellis, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Breadwinner, The
This coming-of-age story, told from the point of view of a young Afghan girl left to fend for her family in the times of repressive Taliban influence is both moving and suspenseful.
Author: Ellis, Deborah |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea
This well illustrated book of poetry uses the metaphor of nurturing tea for the extended family.
Author: Thomas, Joyce Carol |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
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Chanda's Secrets
Sixteen-year-old Chanda, who lives in a fictional sub-Saharan
country that is feeling the impact of HIV/AIDS psychologically(fears, lies, and sundered relationships)and socially (ostracism of tainted people, necessity of hiding), takes a courageous stand
Author: Stratton, Allan |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Charlotte
When 10-year-old Charlotte's father forbids her to associate with her cousins because her uncle was a royalist in the American Revolution, she disobeys with lifelong consequences. The book includes an Afterword about Charlotte's later life.
Author: Lunn, Janet |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Dear One, The
15-year-old, pregnant Rebecca arrives at her mother's college friend's house to await the birth of her baby. She and others in the house learn to embrace differences and develop friendships.
Author: Woodson, Jacqueline |
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Ellen Foster
11-year-old Ellen tells her own story in this "Oprah Book about a foster childhood." She is an amazingly resilient child and an amazingly perceptive observer of others.
Family Farm
Two children learn that their family is in danger of losing its farm. They devise a plan for saving it.
Francie
This engaging novel shows a slice of life in small-town Alabama in the 1940s, as told from the perspective of 13-year-old Francie. Francie, her mother, and her brother anxiously await a chance to join her father in Chicago. In the meantime, Francie comes
Gifts from the Sea
The lives of a lighthousekeeper and his daughter are changed by the discovery of a baby washed ashore after a shipwreck on the coast of Maine in the 1850's.
Author: Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie |
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Heroes
Donnie, a Japanese American boy, finally escapes the role of "bad guy" in war games with his peers with the help of his father and uncle.
Hundred Penny Box, A
A young boy loves his Great Aunt Dew, her stories, and her box of one hundred pennies, one for each of her birthdays. But Michael's mother is impatient with them both and wants to throw the box out.
In Nueva York
This collection of short, interlocking stories depicts life in one of New York City's Puerto Rican communities.
Author: Mohr, Nicholasa |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
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Irene Jennie and the Christmas Masquerade
Irene Jennie is missing her parents as Christmas Day approaches in the slave quarters. The wild parade known as the Johnkankus diverts her loneliness and brings her a surprise.
Author: Smalls, Irene |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Knoxville, Tennessee
This brief and beautifully illustrated poem celebrates a young child's summer in Knoxville, TN.
Author: Giovanni, Nikki |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
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Like Sisters on the Homefront
When 14-year-old Gayle gets into "trouble," she and her baby Jose leave New York City to live with family in rural Georgia. At first bored with and distressed about her situation, Gayle eventually makes friends with her cousin Cookie. Through "tellings" b
Author: Williams-Garcia, Rita |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
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Luba, the Angel of Bergen-Belsen
This is the story of Luba Tryszynska, a prisoner at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp who hid 52 abandoned Jewish children until the camp was liberated. Front and back matter establish the historical context with a map and a bibliography. An epilogue tel
Author: McCann, Michelle R. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Memory Coat, The
In order to flee persecution as Jews in Russia, Rachel and her cousin Griska emigrate with their extended family to America where they encounter difficulty at Ellis Island. The author provides additional information on immigration from Russia in the endm
Author: Woodruff, Elvira |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Missing May
A twelve-year-old girl named Summer and her uncle are dealing with the death of Aunt May (his wife). They decide, with the help of a strange boy from Summer's school, to try to contact May's spirit, and in the process learn how to let go.
Momma, Where Are You From?
When a young girl asks her mother where she comes from, she receives a loving description of her hard-working childhood in the segregated South told in rich, rhythmic language with lush illustrations.
Author: Bradby, Marie |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Number the Stars
In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis. It is about the power of the Danish Resistance, heroes of a nation, the power of human decency over th
Author: Lowry, Lois |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
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Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, The
Margaret Rose Kane, 12 years old, escapes oppressive summer camp with the help of her great-uncles and then helps them rescue from urban renewal the sculptural "towers" that they have been creating for 45 years.
Author: Konigsburg, E. L. |
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Pride of Baghdad
This graphic novel of a family of lions liberated from the Baghdad zoo by U.S. bombing raids provides a symbolic understanding of the war from the dangers they encounter.
Author: Vaughan, Brian K. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Real Time
A gripping story told in real time (hence the title)from the viewpoints of several characters involved in the bombing of an Israeli bus.
Author: Kass, Pnina Moed |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Relatively Speaking
Centered around a family reunion, a boy speaks about his older brother, his parents, grandparents, and extended family in short, easily accessible free verse.
Ruby's Wish
The author tells the story of her Chinese grandmother, Ruby, who yearned for learning and the opportunity to attend the university, which was against custom.
Author: Bridges, Shirin Yim |
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Same Stuff as Stars, The
Angel and her little brother Bernie are dropped off at their great-grandma's house. Dad is in jail, and mom is an alcoholic and selfishly unable to be a mother. Together, the new family learns to live together in the crumbling Vermont farmhouse.
Author: Paterson, Katherine |
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Seek
For a senior class autobiography assignment, Robbie creates "a sound portrait" in a radio script format, which includes his extended family and his search for his long-absent father. One reviewer thought that the text is too disjointed and confusing for
Silent Thunder: A Civil War Story
The book is set on a Virginia plantation in 1862. Eleven-year-old Summer and her older brother Rosco live with their mother on the Parnell Plantation as talk of President Lincoln's coming proclamation to free slaves reaches the community. Each of the mai
Author: Pinkney, Andrea Davis |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Sweet Music in Harlem
Inspired by a real photograph of jazz musicians taken in 1958, the fictional story recounts young C. J.'s search through Harlem for his uncle's hat, a hat his uncle wants to wear in a photograph. Included is the historical photograph with the identities
Author: Taylor, Debbie |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
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Tree Girl
Based on true experiences that were shared with the author, Gabriela, a Guatemalan girl who loves to climb trees, escapes a massacre, eventually reaching a refugee camp where she is reunited with her little sister, both of whom must overcome the trauma an
Uncle Jed's Barbershop
A woman tells the story of her Uncle Jed, an African-American barber who traveled a regular route, saving his money for his own shop. When she became sick, he gave up his money for her operation, and when the Depression came, he lost everything again. F
Author: Mitchell, Margaree K. |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Waiting for the Evening Star
This beautifully illustrated book is about Berty, a small boy who lives a happy life in a Vermont farming community. Berty's life changes when his older brother, Luke, decides to leave the family farm to become a soldier in WWI.
Author: Wells, Rosemary |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
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Whale Journey
This book describes the migration journey of grey whales. Birthing and care of whale babies are also described. The illustrations are breathtaking.
Author: French, Vivian |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
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Wreck of the Zanzibar, The
When Laura Perryman dies, her great-nephew Michael gets her diary. The diary reveals remarkable stories about a time when people lived off the bounty (and at the mercy) of the ocean. This story "of a family bound by respect for nature seamlessly blends
Author: Morpurgo, Michael |
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