Campbell Hall

Diversity Resources

J Cle 10/95

Cleary, Beverly. Ramona and her father. New York: Morrow, [1977].

The family routine is upset during Ramona's year in second grade when her father unexpectedly loses his job.

J Ell

Ellis, Sarah. A family project. 1st U.S. ed. New York: McElderry Books, [1988,

1986].

Excited by the unexpected prospect of a baby, eleven-year-old Jessica and her family eagerly prepare for the changes the new arrival will bring to their lives.

J McN

McNair, Joseph. Commander Coatrack returns. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, [1989].

When thirteen-year-old Lisa's retarded five-year-old brother starts becoming more independent and growing away from her, and she finds herself disagreeing with an ultra-feminist friend, she begins a game of make-believe with a new boy at school which initially defends them both from life's hurts, but ultimately prevents them from dealing with real life.

J Pev

Pevsner, Stella. How could you do it, Diane? New York: Clarion Books, [1989].

As Bethany struggles to find the reasons why her sister committed suicide, her parents try to repress the incident.

J Col

Cole, Brock. Celine. 1st ed. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, [1989].

F Hal

Hall, Barbara. Dixie storms. 1st ed. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,

[1990].

Fourteen-year-old Dutch Peyton learns about growing up as her family struggles with a crippling drought and a painful past.

F Car

Carter, Alden R. Up country. New York: Putnam, [1989].

When his mother's drinking problem causes him to spend several months with country relatives in upstate Wisconsin, sixteen-year-old Carl begins to build a new life for himself, only to see it threatened by a serious mistake from his painful past.

F Nau

Naughton, Jim. My brother stealing second. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row,

[1989].

After his older brother is killed in a car accident, sixteen-year-old Bobby tries to come to terms with some disturbing truths about his family and political corruption in their town as well as deal with his profound grief and the beginnings of first love.

F Mat 6/90/Mathis

Mathis, Sharon Bell. Listen for the fig tree. [1st ed.]. New York: Viking Press,

[1974].

A sixteen-year old black girl's first celebration of Kwanza gives her a sense of the past and strength to deal with her troubled mother and her own blindness.

J Lit c.2

Little, Jean. Mama's going to buy you a mockingbird. [New York]: Viking Kestrel,

[1984].

Young Jeremy and Sarah learn to cope with their grief and drastically changed lifestyle during their father's battle with cancer, which forces their mother to sell their house and return to school full time.

J Kat

Katz, Welwyn Wilton. False face. 1st U.S. ed. New York: M.K. McElderry Books,

[1988, 1987].

Thirteen-year-old Laney, troubled by the animosity between her divorced parents, and fourteen-year-old Tom, determined to preserve his Indian identity, form an uneasy alliance after finding rare Indian false face masks and realizing their terrifying power.

F Voi

Voigt, Cynthia. Seventeen against the dealer. 1st ed. New York: Atheneum,

[1989].

Dicey struggles to make a go of a boatbuilding business while facing family concerns, romantic problems, and the uncertainties of a drifter who offers to help her in her work.

362.28 Gil

Gilbert, Sara D. Get help : solving the problems in your life. New York: Morrow

Junior Books, [1989].

Suggests how to recognize and admit the need for help with various problems in life and how to locate help in such areas as mental health, substance addiction, family problems, legal matters, money, education, and physical health.

J Sac 12/89/Sachs

Sachs, Marilyn. The bears' house. Rev. ed. New York: Dutton, [1987, 1971].

Although she sucks her thumb, smells bad, and loses herself in the make-believe world of the three bears' dollhouse, ten-year-old Fran knows how to take care of her baby sister better than anybody else.

F Pfe

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. The year without Michael. Toronto: Bantam Books, [1987].

The remaining members of the Chapman family try to cope with the disappearance of fourteen-year-old Michael.

J Blu

Blume, Judy. Just as long as we're together. New York: Orchard Books, [1987].

Stephanie's relationship with her best friend, Rachel, changes during her first year in junior high as she tries to conceal a family problem and meets a new girl from California.

J Bol

Bolton, Carole. The good-bye year. 1st ed. New York: Dutton, [1982].

In the post-Depression year of 1939, thirteen-year-old Rosemary learns to accept many changes in her life including her father's employment away from home and a subsequent move to Baltimore when he returns.

J Bya

Byars, Betsy Cromer. The not-just-anybody family. New York: Delacorte Press,

[1986].

With a young brother in the hospital, a grandfather in jail, and their mother traveling with a rodeo, Maggie and Vern try to settle family problems.

J Mah

Mahy, Margaret. The other side of silence. New York: Viking, [1995].

As a member of a gifted, idiosyncratic, and argumentative family, twelve-year-old Hero chooses mutism until she reconciles the true with the real in her life.

J Tat

Tate, Eleanora E. Just an overnight guest. New York: Dial Press, [1980].

When a disruptive and neglected four-year-old moves in with her family, nine-year-old Margie Carson has great difficulty adjusting.

J Shr

Shreve, Susan Richards. Family secrets : five very important stories. New York:

Knopf : distributed by Random House, [1979].

Eight-year-old Sammy tries to come to terms with several dificult situations including the death of his dog, the divorce of his aunt and uncle, the suicide of his best friend's brother, coping with his terminally ill grandmother, and cheating on a school test.

J Hah

Hahn, Mary Downing. Daphne's book. New York: Clarion Books, [1983].

As author Jessica and artist Daphne collaborate on a picture book for a seventh-grade English class contest, Jessica becomes aware of conditions in Daphne's home life that seem to threaten her health and safety.

F Sto

Stone, Bruce. Half Nelson, full Nelson. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, [1985].

When his parents separate, Nelson and his friend Heidi concoct a plan to kidnap Nelson's little sister and bring his family back together.

J Col

Colman, Hila. What's the matter with the Dobsons? New York: Crown Publishers,

[1980].

The Dobson family seems to be coming apart as anger becomes the prevailing emotion between father and daughter and husband and wife.

J Ham

Hamilton, Virginia. Sweet whispers, Brother Rush. New York, N.Y: Philomel Books,

[1982].

Fourteen-year-old Tree, resentful of her working mother who leaves her in charge of a retarded brother, encounters the ghost of her dead uncle and comes to a deeper understanding of her family's problems.

J Rea

Reading, J. P. The summer of Sassy Jo. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, [1989].

Almost fourteen, Sara Jo tries to cope with her conflicting emotions when she goes to spend the summer with her mother, a reformed alcoholic who abandoned her when she was little.

F Hoo

Hooks, William H. A flight of dazzle angels. 1st ed. New York: Macmillan,

[1988].

In a small southern town in 1908, fifteen-year-old Annie Earle, though afflicted with a club foot and surrounded by a sick mother and brother, gains a new insight into herself and the possibilities of her life through her relationship with a young black woman and a new young man in town with whom she falls in love.

J McC

McCord, Jean. Turkeylegs Thompson. 1st ed. New York: Atheneum, [1979].

Betty Ann's childhood ends abruptly when her father abandons the family and her mother goes to work, leaving her responsible for her younger brother and sister.

F Gra

Grant, Cynthia D. Phoenix rising, or, How to survive your life. 1st ed. New

York: Atheneum, [1989].

Helen's death at eighteen from cancer shatters the lives of her parents and siblings, especially younger sister Jessie who tries to cope with her feelings of pain and confusion by reading pages from Helen's diary.

F Con

Conrad, Pam. Taking the ferry home. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, [1988].

Two sixteen-year-old girls from different social classes spend the summer together on a resort island and experience a test of their friendship when family loyalties, romance, and drug dependence interfere.

F Sin

Singer, Marilyn. Several kinds of silence. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row,

[1988].

Faced with her beloved grandmother's illness and her own attraction to a boy her parents would disapprove of, Franny tries to shut off her feelings completely.

J Cle

Cleaver, Vera. Belle Pruitt. 1st ed. New York: Lippincott, [1988].

When her adored baby brother suddenly dies of pneumonia, eleven-year-old Belle is left to cope with the devastating effects on her family.

F Mur

Murray, Marguerite. Like seabirds flying home. 1st ed. New York: Atheneum,

[1988].

Fifteen-year-old Shelley's dying father brings their small family to the Nova Scotia fishing village of his origin, where she falls in love and finds it increasingly difficult to deal with her rebellious, irresponsible mother.

F Hal

Hall, Lynn. The solitary. 1st ed. New York, N.Y: Scribner, [1986].

With her mother in prison for killing her father, seventeen-year-old Jane seeks to escape her past and find self-reliance breeding rabbits on their Arkansas homestead.

F Bro

Brooks, Bruce. No kidding. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, [1989].

In his twenty-first century society, fourteen-year-old Sam is allowed to decide the fate of his family after his mother is released from an alcohol rehabilitation center.

F Adl

Adler, C. S. With Westie and the Tin Man. New York: Macmillan, [1985].

Fifteen-year-old Greg has to face his mother's alcoholism and his own history of shoplifting and dishonesty before he can begin adjusting to their new life.

F Bun

Bunting, Eve. Will you be my posslq? 1st ed. San Diego: Harcourt Brace

Jovanovich, [1987].

Jamie, a recovered cancer patient and UCLA coed, shares her apartment with a male student, but their platonic relationship is complicated by her family problems.

F Con

Conrad, Pam. Holding me here. 1st ed. New York, N.Y: Harper & Row, [1986].

Fourteen-year-old Robin tries to patch up the broken home of a battered wife and in the process discovers how deeply she's been hurt by the divorce of her own parents.

F Dan

Dana, Barbara. Necessary parties : a novel. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, [1986].

Stunned when his parents' intention to get a divorce begins to tear his family apart, fifteen-year-old Chris enlists the help of an idealistic lawyer to stop them in court.

F Hol

Holland, Isabelle. Heads you win, tails I lose : a novel. [1st ed.].

Philadelphia: Lippincott, [1973].

A young girl embarks unknowingly on a dangerous regime to lose weight while her parents are absorbed in marital difficulties.

F Mah

Mahy, Margaret. The tricksters. 1st American ed. New York: M.K. McElderry Books,

[1986].

While gathered together for the Christmas holiday, a large New Zealand family and their various guests and hangers-on find their lives suddenly invaded by three fascinating but rather sinister brothers and by New Year nothing is the same again.

F Voi

Voigt, Cynthia. Tree by leaf. 1st ed. New York: Atheneum, [1988].

Note: A father's return home following World War I creates problems for his

family, especially for twelve-year-old Clothilde, who struggles to accept

his horrible disfigurement and opposes her mother's plan to sell Clothilde's

land, a peninsula off the coast of Maine, to help pay the family's expenses.

F Cor

Cormier, Robert. Tunes for bears to dance to. New York: Delacorte, [1992].

Note: Eleven-year-old Henry escapes his family's problems by watching the

woodcarving of Mr. Levine, an elderly Holocaust survivor, but when Henry is

manipulated into betraying his friend he comes to know true evil.

F Whi

White, Ruth. Weeping willow. 1st ed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,

[1992].

Note: Despite all the problems she faces at home, Tiny Lambert's experiences at

Black Gap High School help her begin to feel good about herself --until the

day that she is raped by her stepfather.

J Alc

Alcock, Vivien. A kind of thief. New York, N.Y: Delacorte Press, [1992].

Note: When her father is suddenly arrested and put into prison, thirteen-year

-old Elinor finds that she has to face many unpleasant truths about him and

their way of life.

F Pfe

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. Family of strangers. New York: Bantam Books, [1992].

Note: Through letters and essays, emotionally disturbed sixteen-year-old Abby

chronicles her growing desperation in a family consisting of parents who

seem devoid of love, one older sister bent on self-destruction, and another

older sister who has always seemed perfect.

F Bro

Brooks, Martha. Two moons in August : a novel. 1st ed. Boston: Little, Brown,

[1992].

Note: Kieran, a new boy visiting her small town for the summer, helps Sidonie

and her family come together again following the death of Sidonie's mother.

J Adl

Adler, C. S. Tuna fish Thanksgiving. New York: Clarion Books, [,1992].

Note: Thirteen-year-old Gilda's parents are getting a divorce, and she seems to

be the only one interested in keeping the family together and looking out

for her younger brother and sister.

F Hen

Henry, Maeve. A gift for a gift : a ghost story. New York, N.Y: Delacorte Press,

[1992].

Note: Fran, a British teenager from a troubled home, meets a mysterious man who

holds the power to fulfill all of her wishes.

J Avi

Avi. Blue heron. 1st ed. New York: Bradbury Press, [1992].

Note: While spending the month of August on the Massachusetts shore with her

father, stepmother, and their new baby, almost thirteen-year-old Maggie

finds beauty in and draws strength from a great blue heron, even as the

family around her unravels.

F Pul

Pullman, Philip. The broken bridge : a novel. New York: Knopf, [1992].

Note: Over the course of a long summer in Wales, sixteen-year-old Ginny, the

mixed-race, artist daughter of an English father and a Haitian mother,

learns that she has a half-brother from her father's earlier marriage, and

that her own mother may still be alive.

J Sac

Sachs, Marilyn. What my sister remembered. 1st ed. New York: Dutton Children's

Books, [1992].

Note: While visiting her younger sister Mollie, Beth confronts painful memories

of the sudden death of her parents and the subsequent adoption of the

sisters by different families.

J Pen

Pendergraft, Patricia. The legend of Daisy Flower Dew. New York: Philomel Books,

[1990].

Note: Misunderstood and unwanted by her pretty mother and stepfather, thirteen

-year-old Daisy Flowerdew finds solace in two magical paper dolls.

F Pfe

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. Twice taken. New York: Delacorte Press, [1994].

Note: A support group of teenagers coping with family problems helps Amy to

adjust after she's ordered to live with her mother following the discovery

that her divorced father abducted her years ago.

J Adl

Adler, C. S. If you need me. 1st ed. New York: Macmillan Pub. Co, [1988].

Note: Having grown to accept and love her stepmother Dora, thirteen-year-old Lyn

is increasingly worried as tension grows between Dora and her father and he

begins to be attracted to her friend Brian's mother instead, shattering her

trust in him.

J Sal

Sallis, Susan. A time for everything. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, [1979].

Note: A young girl grows up amid many family problems in a small English village

during World War II.

J Wab

Waber, Bernard. Goodbye, funny dumpy-lumpy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, [1977].

Note: Five vignettes reveal how a mother, father, and their three children

negotiate common family problems.

J Gro

Grove, Vicki. Junglerama. New York: Putnam, [1989].

Note: Three small town boys with serious family problems find escape one summer

by turning an old trailer into a traveling exhibition of animals.

J Han

Hanlon, Emily. The swing. Scarsdale, N.Y: Bradbury Press, [1979].

Note: An 11-year-old deaf girl and a 13-year-old boy with family problems seek

refuge at a swing which has come to have a special meaning for each of them.

J Hun

Hunt, Irene. William : a novel. New York: Scribner, [1977].

Note: Three orphaned black children get together with a teenage white girl to

form a new and loving family group.

J Kar

Karl, Jean. Beloved Benjamin is waiting. 1st ed. New York: Dutton, [1978].

Note: Hounded by a gang of kids after her mother's disappearance leaves her on

her own, Lucinda hides in the abandoned caretaker's house in the local

cemetery where she makes contact with intelligent beings from another

galaxy.

Video J Swe

Hamilton, Virginia. Sweet whispers, Brother Rush. Westminster, Md: Random House

Video, [1986].

Note: Fourteen-year-old Tree, resentful because her working mother leaves her in

charge of a retarded brother, encounters the ghost of her dead uncle. Their

exchange leaves her with a deeper understanding of her family's problems.

F How

Howe, James, 1946. The watcher. 1st ed. New York: Atheneum Books for Young

Readers, [1997].

Note: As she sits watching a seemingly perfect family and a handsome lifeguard

on the beach, a lonely, troubled girl projects herself into the fantasy

lives she has created for them.

J Yep

Yep, Laurence. The cook's family. New York: Putnam, [1998].

Note: As her parents' arguments become more frequent, Robin looks forward to the

visits that she and her grandmother make to Chinatown, where they pretend to

be an elderly cook's family, giving Robin new insights into her Chinese

heritage.

J Fer

Ferris, Jean. Signs of life. 1st ed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,

[1995].

Note: Unable to grieve after the death of her twin sister, seventeen-year-old

Hannah accompanies her parents to Lascaux, France, where she visits the

caves and discovers an astonishing connection between herself and her

prehistoric ancestors.

J Lug

Luger, Harriett Mandelay. Bye, bye, Bali Kai. 1st ed. San Diego, Calif: Harcourt

Brace & Co, [1996].

Note: As her once-comfortable world becomes more and more frightening, eleven

-year-old Suzie is almost as worried about losing her best friend as she is

about her family being evicted from their apartment.

F Bro

Brooks, Bruce. Vanishing. 1st ed. New York: Laura Geringer Book, [1999].

Note: Eleven-year-old Alice is unwilling to return to live with her alcoholic

mother and her stern stepfather, so she refuses to eat to the point of

slowly starving herself, in order to remain in the hospital.

Bk Tape F Moo

Moore, Martha and Moore, Christina. Angels on the roof. Prince Frederick, MD:

Recorded Books, [p1998].

Note: During a trip to her childhood home in Texas, a mother tries to prevent

her teenage daughter from finding out the truth about her father.

305.235 McC

McCoy, Kathy and Wibbelsman, Charles. Life happens : a teenager's guide to

friends, failure, sexuality, love, rejection, addiction, peer pressure,

families, loss, depression, change, and other challenges of living. 1st ed.

New York, NY: Berkley Pub. Group, [1996].

Note: Offers advice on how to cope with such feelings as sadness, anger, and

anxiety related to various problems faced by many teenagers.

F Rin

Rinaldi, Ann. The last silk dress. New York, N.Y: Bantam Books, [1990, 1988].

Note: During the Civil War, Susan finds a way to help the Confederate Army and

uncovers a series of mysterious family secrets.

F Cro

Cross, Gillian. Tightrope. 1st American ed. New York: Holiday House, [1999].

Note: When she begins receiving bizarre threatening messages from someone who

seems to know her every move, teenage Ashley, after seeking help from the

neighborhood tough guy, comes to realize that she alone can end the

stalker's reign of terror.

J Lis

Lisle, Janet Taylor. The art of keeping cool. 1st ed. New York: Atheneum Books

for Young Readers, [2000].

Note: In 1942, Robert and his cousin Elliot uncover long-hidden family secrets

while staying in their grandparents' Rhode Island town, where they also

become involved with a German artist who is suspected of being a spy.

F Woo

Woodson, Jacqueline. Miracle's boys. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, [2000].

Note: Twelve-year-old Lafayette's close relationship with his older brother

Charlie changes after Charlie is released from a detention home and blames

Lafayette for the death of their mother.