All Kinds of Families
In Books for Middle Schoolers
Families come in many different shapes and sizes. Here are a few...
Fiction
| Author | Title |
| Blume, Judy | Tiger Eyes |
| Davey works through her pain over her father's murder while her family stays with relatives in New Mexico. | |
| Byars, Betsy | The Summer of the Swans |
| When her retarded brother gets lost, a teenage girl gains new insight into herself and her family. | |
| Choi, Sook Nyul | The Year of Impossible Goodbyes |
| With her mother and little brother, ten-year-old Sookan flees North Korea during the occupation of the 1940s. | |
| Clarke, Judith | The Heroic Life of Al Capsella |
| Fourteen-year-old Al Capsella, desperately trying to be normal, is constantly embarrassed by his unconventional parents. | |
| Creech, Sharon | Chasing Redbird |
| Thirteen-year-old Zinnia Taylor discovers secrets and self truths while clearing a path on her family's farm. | |
| Curtis, Christopher | The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 |
| An African-American family from Michigan is drastically changed after visiting Grandma in 1963 Alabama. | |
| English, Karen | Francie |
| In 1940s Alabama twelve-year-old Francie and her mother work hard to survive while waiting to move north. | |
| Hesse, Karen | The Music of Dolphins |
| After an adolescent girl raised by dolphins is rescued from the sea, researchers try to "humanize" her. | |
| Holt, Kimberly | My Louisiana Sky |
| Tiger Ann struggles with feelings about her grandmother, her mentally slow parents, and her friend Jesse. | |
| Horvath, Polly | The Trolls |
| Eccentric Aunt Sally adds piece by piece to a very suspect family history while she cares for the Anderson children. | |
| Koss, Amy | The Ashwater Experiment |
| How will seventh-grader Hillary deal with her nomadic parents' decision to housesit for a full year in one place? | |
| Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds | Reluctantly Alice |
| Alice weathers the ups and downs of seventh grade while advising her father and brother on their love lives. | |
| Nelson, Theresa | Earthshine |
| Slim watches over her father, a disarmingly charismatic man, as his struggle with AIDS reaches its climax. | |
| Rocklin, Joanne | Strudel Stories |
| Seven generations of a Jewish family tell their stories as they make apple strudel in kitchens, separated by years and oceans. | |
| Sleator, William | Oddballs: Stories |
| Stories based on the author's youth are peopled with an unusual assortment of family and friends. | |
| Staples, Suzanne | Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind |
| An 11-year-old in present-day Pakistan is pledged in marriage to an older man. Will she accept the decision? | |
| Voigt, Cynthia | A Solitary Blue |
| Jeff's mother's reentry into his life widens the gap between Jeff and his father. | |
| Woodson, Jacqueline | I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This |
| When Marie befriends Lena, she discovers that Lena's father is doing terrible things to her. | |
Non-Fiction
| Call Number | Author | Title |
| 920 C58g | Cleary, Beverly | A Girl from Yamhill: A Memoir |
| Cleary writes of her childhood in Oregon, through high school and young adulthood, highlighting her family life and her growing interest in reading. | ||
| 596 N811 | North, Sterling | Rascal, a Memoir of a Better Era |
| North describes his life in a small town at the end of World War I--especially his adventures with his pet raccoon Rascal. | ||
| 920 G379 | Gilbreth, Frank B. Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey | Cheaper By the Dozen |
| What would it be like to have eleven brothers and sisters? The Gilbreths know, and share the tale. | ||
| 920 N143w | Warren, Andrea | Orphan Train Rider: One Boy's True Story |
| From 1854-1929 over 200,000 abandoned children were placed in homes in the Midwest. Here is one boy's story. | ||
Want to get your hands on one of these books? Check the Berkeley Public Library catalog to see where you can get a copy!
