Family
Family > mothers
At the End of Words: A Daughter's Memoir
What happens "at the end of words"? The author faced this difficult question as a teenager. Through alternating narration and poetry, she shares her anger, sorrow, confusion, and healing after her mother's death from breast cancer.
Barack Obama, Son of Promise, Child of Hope
Framed by the story of an African American mother and her son, who keeps interjecting questions and comments, the narrative tells the story of Barack Obama around the theme of hope and the importance of education. Both the words of Nikki Grimes and the ar
| Author: Grimes, Nikki |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
By Dawn's Early Light
The book follows the activities of two children cared for by their grandmother and the activities of their mother who works the night shift at a factory. The story illustrates how a family still finds time to be together.
E. E. Cummings
This extensive biography of the American poet and artist, E. E. Cummings, also conveys the history of the times, especially of artistic movements. Drawings, archival photographs, and segments of poems expand the biographical information.
| Author: Reef, Catherine |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Eleanor, Quiet No More
The author tells the story of Eleanor Roosevelt's life simply, each phase emphasizing a quote of hers. In addition to lovely, soft illustrations, the author includes a timeline, selected bibliograph, and web sites.
| Author: Rappaport, Doreen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Eleanor, Quiet No More
The author tells the story of Eleanor Roosevelt's life simply, each phase emphasizing a quote of hers. In addition to lovely, soft illustrations, the author includes a timeline, selected bibliograph, and web sites.
| Author: Rappaport, Doreen |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
In Our Mothers' House
Marmee and Meema, two wonderfully innovative, creative mothers, provide a loving home for adopted children and are the glue for a community-oriented neighborhood, except for one family who snubs them for being different.
| Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
In Our Mothers' House
Marmee and Meema, two wonderfully innovative, creative mothers, provide a loving home for adopted children and are the glue for a community-oriented neighborhood, except for one family who snubs them for being different.
| Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
My Mama Had a Dancing Heart
In simple poetic language, a ballet dancer recalls how she and her mother welcomed the seasons by dancing outdoors and being together.
| Author: Gray, Libba Moore |
|
Pink and Say
This long picture book tells the story of Pinkus Aylee, an African-American soldier in the Civil War, and of his mother, Moe Bay and of his friendship with a young White boy. A moving book that may be more appropriate for adults than for children, it cel
| Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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| Author: fletcher, susan |
HSE Descriptors:
literature and arts | literature and arts | literature and arts | literature and arts | literature and arts
|
Time to Love, A
Beautifully illustrated and ably introduced by sons of the author, this book retells six Bible stories from different perspectives, all revealing aspects of love--father/son, friends, brothers, lovers, and daughters-in-law. Teachers can promote religious
| Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Family > mothers > mother-child relationships
145th Street: Short Stories
Engaging short stories written in Myers' natural writing styles that contain serious side plots and portray some of the people who live on one block of 145th Street in Harlem. Characters are portrayed honestly and jump off the page to keep the reader enga
| Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing
|
Angel to Angel
The author-poet celebrates mothers in this collection of poems illustrated by archival photographs of African American families.
| Author: Myers, Walter Dean |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Bee & Jacky
A brother and sister suffer the effects of their father's Vietnam trauma and their mother's ineffectualness by resuming a physical relationship. This moving, psychologically honest book is difficult to read because the real or imagined incest is portraye
Before I Was Your Mother
A mother tells her daughter stories about herself before she became a mother who does many things.
Big Mama Makes the World
A simple text and colorful illustrations retell the creation story with a mother as the creator. Some readers might be offended by the non-traditional creation story. Others could find the illustrations childish.
Bucking the Sarge
Teenage Luther, who is exploited by his slumlord mother, keeps his equilbrium through many humorous misadventures before finding his own way.
| Author: Curtis, Christopher Paul |
|
Bud, Not Buddy
It's 1936, Flint, Michigan, and 10-year-old Bud (not Buddy) has run away from foster care to search for his father. (Newbery winner)
| Author: Curtis, Christopher Paul |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Carver
Personal and professional details of the life of George Washington Carver are told in poems from the perspectives of many people.
| Author: Nelson, Marilyn |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
|
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
|
Charlie Chaplin
This interesting biography of Charlie Chaplin discusses his life and work from his impoverished boyhood in London through his Hollywood film career to exile in Europe, ending with knighthood in England. The author expands the use of the book with a bibli
| Author: Turk, Ruth |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Coming On Home Soon
A kitten comforts a young African American girl as she and her grandmother wait for the mother's return from working in Chicago during World War II.
| Author: Woodson, Jaqueline |
|
Eleanor
This biography of Eleanor Roosevelt's early life conveys the emotionally impoverished childhood amid wealth and power. The book captures the indomitable spirit of the woman who would become the greatest and most beloved First Lady and a leader in her own
| Author: Cooney, Barbara |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
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 |
|
Glass Castle, The: A Memoir
Jeannette Walls' memoir of her dysfunctional but vibrant family and the resilience and loyalty they exhibited.
Glass Castle, The: A Memoir
Jeannette Walls' memoir of her dysfunctional but vibrant family and the resilience and loyalty they exhibited.
I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This
A moving story of the friendship between two motherless 12-year-old girls--one black and one white--presents issues of racial prejudice, poverty, and child abuse.
| Author: Woodson, Jacqueline |
|
I Have an Olive Tree
Colorful, stylized illustrations depict a girl and her mother as they travel back to Greece to see the olive tree her granfather left her when he died, a gift that grows in value as the story progresses.
| Author: Bunting, Eve |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
In Our Mothers' House
Marmee and Meema, two wonderfully innovative, creative mothers, provide a loving home for adopted children and are the glue for a community-oriented neighborhood, except for one family who snubs them for being different.
| Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
In Our Mothers' House
Marmee and Meema, two wonderfully innovative, creative mothers, provide a loving home for adopted children and are the glue for a community-oriented neighborhood, except for one family who snubs them for being different.
| Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Indigo and Moonlight Gold
A little girl looks at the stars and dreams.
Langston Hughes
This well written and engaging biography is accompanied by many of Hughes's poems, some of his other writing, and intriguing illustrations. Especially interesting for Ohio readers is the focus on his life in Cleveland and the influence of Karamu House.
| Author: Meltzer, Milton |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Love You, Soldier
This touching story about the effects of WW II on one family is told through the eyes of seven-year-old Katie. (NOTE: This is a short chapter book that will be very easy for students to read.)
| Author: Hest, Amy |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
My Freedom Trip: A Child's Escape from North Korea
This story describes the flight of a young girl from North to South Korea just before the outbreak of the Korean War. The story is told simply with superb illustrations.
| Author: Park, Frances and Park, Ginger |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
My Mama Had a Dancing Heart
In simple poetic language, a ballet dancer recalls how she and her mother welcomed the seasons by dancing outdoors and being together.
| Author: Gray, Libba Moore |
|
Ray Charles
In a beautiful reprint of a 1973 book, the author tells the story of the legendary blind musician Ray Charles. An Afterword updates the earlier version.
| Author: Mathis, Sharon |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Sarney
A sequel to Nightjohn, the book follows the life of Sarny, the slave girl that Nightjohn taught to read, as she travels to New Orleans in the aftermath of the Civil War to find her children who had been sold into slavery.
| Author: Paulsen, Gary |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Secret Life of Bees, The
Fourteen-year-old Lily and Rosaleen, the black servant who has look after her since her mother died 10 years earlier, run from Lily's abusive father and the brutality and racism of the police. Against the historical events of 1964 in South Carolina, they
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
Sees Behind Trees
A blind Native American boy learns to "see behind trees", guided by his mother, to use his other senses. He uses his gift to help an old warrior find a land of mystery and beauty that he'd discovered years ago, and could not find again himself.
| Author: Dorris, Michael |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | social studies
|
Si, Se Puede (Yes, We Can!)
Text in both English and Spanish on each page tells the story of a mother who becomes active in union organization. This story is based on the 2000 janitors' strike in Los Angeles. An essay by Luis J. Rodriguez describes a real-life activist whose goals a
| Author: Cohn, Diana |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Sold
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a village in Nepal. Her stepfather sells her into sexual slavery and her life of prostitution begins in a large city in India. The book is written in short paragraphs, sentences, and phrases
| Author: McCormick, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Step Toward Heaven, A
When Young Ju emigrates with her immediate family to America from Korea, she misses her grandparents. As she grows older, she finds a refuge from her father's physical abuse in school achievement. The author mimics the style of narration with the age of
Stitches: A Memoir
An autobiographical graphic novel that profoundly describes the author's disturbing and often horrific childhood. This is a riveting and groundbreaking work by children's book illustrator David Small.
| Author: Small, David |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading | language arts - writing
|
True Believer
This is not exactly a sequel to Make Lemonade, but the style is similar and many of the characters are the same-- LaVaughn, her mother, Jolly and her children [they have a minor role in this book]. LaVaughn is 15, lives in the inner city, and str
| Author: Wolff, Virginia Euwer |
|
Under the Sun
After his father sends him and his mother to relatives outside Sarajevo to escape the perils of the war in the former Yugoslavia, 13-year-old Ehmet must find the way through land mines, burned villages, and hostile bands of armed men to his grandparents i
| Author: Dorros, Arthur |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Welcome to the World
This poetry book also includes stunning photos from all over the world, from a Seminole poem written in the U.S. to poetry from Southeast Asia. It ends with two pages of information on birthing traditions.
| Author: Siegen-Smith, Nikki (compiled by) |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
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
|
Who Came Down That Road?
A mother answers her son's question, "Who came down that road, Mama?" by going back through time to the creation of the world.
| Author: Lyon, George Ella |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | science
|
Young Man and the Sea, The
In an attempt to push his father out of the alcohol-fueled funk he's been in since his wife died, 12-year-old Skiff Beaman repairs the family fishing boat and meets a 900-lb. tuna 30 miles at sea.
| Author: Philbrick, Rodman |
|
Young Man and the Sea, The
In an attempt to push his father out of the alcohol-fueled funk he's been in since his wife died, 12-year-old Skiff Beaman repairs the family fishing boat and meets a 900-lb. tuna 30 miles at sea.
| Author: Philbrick, Rodman |
|
Ziba Came on a Boat
This story is based on a real incident. Ziba and her mother run from their country because of fighting. They are on an overloaded boat coming to freedom. Ziba spends the time thinking of what she left behind, why she left her home and what the future wo
| Author: Lofthouse, Liz |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies | language arts - reading
|
Family > mothers > motherly love
Freedom's Fruit
Mama Marina, a conjure woman in the Low Country of the Carolinas in the time of slavery, uses a magic spell to free her daughter and the man she loves. The book includes an Author's Note that compares the American folktale with the Greek myth of Persepho
In Our Mothers' House
Marmee and Meema, two wonderfully innovative, creative mothers, provide a loving home for adopted children and are the glue for a community-oriented neighborhood, except for one family who snubs them for being different.
| Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
In Our Mothers' House
Marmee and Meema, two wonderfully innovative, creative mothers, provide a loving home for adopted children and are the glue for a community-oriented neighborhood, except for one family who snubs them for being different.
| Author: Polacco, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Persephone and the Pomegranate
The Persephone myth explains the seasons. The daughter is kidnapped by the ruler of the underworld, Pluto, who makes her his queen. But Persephone's mother, Demeter, grieving, refuses to let Spring return until she is again with her daughter. In the en
| Author: Waldherr, Kris |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Tucker Pfeffercorn
This retelling of Rumpelstiltskin is set in small town Southern USA. The dialogue and dialect are delightful, and the illustrations by one of America's finest artists also contribute to telling the tale.
Family > mothers > stepmothers
Sarah, Plain and Tall
A mail-order bride comes from Maine to the midwest; the children (who have lost their mother) desperately hope she'll stay.
| Author: MacLachlan, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
social studies
|
Skylark
This is the sequel to the award-winning Sarah, Plain and Tall. When a drought forces Sarah and the children to leave the farm, leaving Jacob behind, everyone wonders if they will ever be a family again.
| Author: MacLachlan, Patricia |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
To Go Singing Through the World
The childhood of one of Chile's most famous poets is told through a juxtaposition of the author's narrative and Neruda's own words. This beautifully illustrated biography includes excerpts of poems, maps, a time line, and a concise full-life biography.
| Author: Ray, Deborah Kogan |
HSE Descriptors:
language arts - reading
|
Family > mothers > teenage parents
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 |
|
First Part Last, The
[revised from dust jacket] Bobby is a classic urban teenaged boy-- impulsive, eager, restless. On his 16th birthday, he learns that his girlfriend Nia is pregnant. Their lives change dramatically, both during the pregnancy and after baby Feather is born.
Make Lemonade
When fourteen-year-old LaVaughn takes a job baby-sitting for seventeen-year-old Jolly's two children, neither girl realizes how much she'll learn from the other. Despite no job, a lousy apartment, and a bleak future, Jolly, with the help of LaVaughn and
| Author: Wolff, Virginia Euwer |
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