Brianna Cooper

Professor Fontanella-Nothom

Diverse Literature

13 November, 2017

Diverse Families

Carlson, N. S. (1990). The family under the bridge. New York: Scholastic Inc.

The Family Under the Bridge by: Natalie Savage Carlson

This fiction book is a Newbery Honor Award and is about a homeless man that lives

under a bridge in Paris. Everything he owed was able to be pushed around in his old cart. He

loved his life and he thought others were better off without him. The children loved him though

and did not seem they were better off without him. It did not take Armand, the homeless man,

long to realize he was not alone and that he had a family. Not only did he have a family, he had

people that he loved. He realized he needed to get a steady job to help these kids out. He ends up

having his family, he is a working man, with dress shoes, and a last name. I chose this book to

represent a diverse family, because family does not have to mean blood related. Family can mean

anyone who is always there for you and helps you better yourself. The kids bettered Armand and

Armand helped the children.This would be a great book to share to help recognize that even

though this family was not blood related they were just as much family as anyone else. This

would hopefully open their minds to that idea of family as well as realize that people that are

homeless still feel emotion and want love, not to make fun of them for their hard time in life.

There are also many homeless students in the public schools and showing them they can have a

fulfilled life is important and that there is nothing wrong with them.
Harrington, C., & P. (2016). My two homes. Minneapolis, MN: ABDO Digital.

My Two Homes by: Claudia Harrington

This childrens picture book is about a girl named Skye whose parents are divorced. With

her parents being divorced she happily has two homes and two rooms. Her classmate Lenny

followed her home one day for a class project. Lenny project is to is photograph Skye's life since

she is student of the week. After school he goes home with her and they first go to her dad's

house where they do homework, play baseball, and have dinner. It goes into details of how she

learned her baseball skills from each adult, and how they both cook, but her dad is the best at it.

Then they go to Skye's mom and stepdad's house where Skye shows him her other room. Skye

comes from a broken family, but she is very happy and proud to show off both of her families.

This book is diverse because there are many families like this and it explains divorce in a happy

cute way. Both of her parents stayed committed to her and provide all the necessities she needs

to be a happy, normal child. Even though she has two homes, she makes the best of it and Lenny

can see how much love the entire family has for each other and ends up not wanting to go home

from how much fun he had experiencing her places.

Henkes, K. (2013). The year of Billy Miller. Solon, OH: Findaway World.

The Year of Billy Miller by: Kevin Henkes

This book falls under the genre of novels, or family drama. In this novel a boy named

Billy learns to handle second grade with his stay-at-home dad, his busy working mom and his

annoying little sister. This already states diversity in the family dynamics because its usually

flipped. The dad is known to be the busy working figure and the mom is usually displayed as

staying home and doing the cleaning and cooking. The family goes through a few complications
throughout the novel and find ways to help Billy make it through the year successfully. Billy

deals with rude student that he works hard to stick up for himself as well as not insult his teacher.

This novel deals with many different issues that are relatable and to make the story even more

diverse one of Billys classmate has two moms that gets perfectly placed into the book. This

book would be great for the elementary level to show them that Billy Miller ended up having an

amazing successful year even after all of his challenges. It provides comfort to those who have a

stay at home father or has a mother that works exceptionally hard. The story is a comedy and

hooks them right in because of how relatable it can be.

Hoberman, M. A. (2009). All kinds of families! New York: Little, Brown and Company

All Kinds of Families! By: Mary Ann Hoberman

This childrens literature book explains how diverse families can be. A family can be

anything for example, even knives, forks, and spoons are a family. The book was written in a

upbeat tone and positively states how many different things or people can be in a family. The

pictures are creative and colorful and the texts are fun and curvy at times. When they give

examples of different families the illustrations show mixed race families, families with one

parent, families with pets, families with old people, etc. Families, families, all kinds of families.

Families are people and animals, too but all sorts of other things fit into families. Look all around

and youll see that they do! This quote from the book describes the entire story and explains

that if you open your eyes, there is no such thing as only one type of family. If I had read this as

a book, I would not have thought anything about the diverse families that were being displayed,

but instead would have loved the tone, pictures, and everything about the overall storyline. The

Authors did an amazing job representing that not all families are the same, and that all are
different in their own way. This book would allow students to see diversity early on and realize

that a family is a family no matter what.

Hollyer, B. (2003). The kingfisher book of family poems. New York: Kingfisher a Houghton

Mifflin Company imprint

The Kingfisher Book of Family Poems by: Belinda Hollyer

This book filled with over 150 poems written by different people, is about all kinds of

families. This book involves different personalities of moms, dads that have to fix everything, all

forms of siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles and all others you could imagine. The poems are about

individuals, with themes such as belonging, togetherness, memories, arguments, loss, and love. I

added this book, because of the fact that its all different kinds of stories written in a poem format.

Any person should be able to identify with one or more of these poems. Some poems are serious,

some are funny, some are lovable, all 150 poems should allow you to feel some sort of emotion

throughout reading it. This would be a great book to share when discussing diverse families as

well as when learning about poems. Poems can be hard to write or read, but the way this book set

it up with only dealing about families helps students understand the overall topic and allows

them to focus in directly on what the poem is discussing. I think this would have been a great

read as an elementary student to better understand poems, there is not as many words normally

on a page so they are short quick reads, and it discusses all kinds of families so its relatable.

Peete, H. R., & Peete R.E. (2010). My brother charlie. New York: Scholastic Press

My Brother Charlie by: Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete
 This non-fiction book is about two twins one a girl and one a boy. The boy, named

Charlie, has autism and the story is told from the twin sisters point of view. This heartwarming

story is about how proud she is of her brother. It spends majority of the story sharing how

amazing he is and what he is good at. She discusses shortly about when the family found out

about Charlie having autism and how things made more since. She shares that sometimes he

would get quiet and words seemed to be locked inside him, distancing him. Even with this being

said, she knows how amazing her brother is, and wants everyone to know. She knows he loves

her, even when his words are locked away. This story not only has twin siblings and a child with

autism, but the story is told from an African American family making it even a more diverse

piece. If I would have read this story as an elementary student, I would have loved it. The joy the

book brought and the love she shared for her brother was something anyone would want to read

about. Students would realize that others like Charlies are important and interesting without

even recognizing what they have learned based on how the story was told.

Polacco, P. (2013). The keeping quilt. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

The Keeping Quilt by: Patricia Polacco

This fiction story is about a family who moved from Russia to the United States. When

things they loved from Russia started not to fit, or was not able to be used anymore they came up

with an idea to make it into a quilt. This quilt was passed down from generation to generation to

share as a wedding hula, new lives, to mourn loved ones, to celebrate birthdays, and to use as

toys or to keep the family warm. This book also described another tradition such as in the

families wedding bouquet and what would be in there as a promise to them. Another great thing

this story shared was how times changed, but traditions stayed the same. This story would relate
to any families with tradition, would relate to Jewish families, and would relate to any family

that originated from another country and moved homes for a different life. The story told us a

great deal about family and traditions while being informative, loving, happy, and inspiring.

Reading this at the elementary level would allow students to think about their family and their

traditions, especially students who related to the text. Even if it did not, it could remind you of

something you cherish and never want to get rid of, your family members, or traditions you

might want to start. Patricia. Polacco is an amazing author and providing students to read any of

her books would be worthwhile.

Richardson, J., & Parnell, P. (2015). New York: Little Simon an imprint of Simon & Schuster

Childrens Publishing Division

Tango Makes Three by: Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

This childrens literature is a true story about two penguins that fell in love. They were

both boys and wanted a baby. The two penguins did everything together and everything else

other couples do. Suddenly all of the other couples started having eggs that hatched into their

babies, except the two boy penguins. The zoo keeper took notice, and gave them an egg that

needed to be cared for. They knew exactly what to do and when the egg hatched they had a little

baby girl penguin, who was lucky to have two amazing dads. This story is diverse in which it

discusses LGBTQs in an appropriate, heartwarming way. The penguins did everything else the

other penguins did even though their family was not the same as the others, but they were still

family. Reading this to the elementary level, I question if students would have anything negative

to say because of how perfectly written the book is, and its a true story making the students

most likely be even more intrigued on how the penguins were currently. It would allow for a
great conversation if LGBTQ was to get brought up and how it is okay to feel how you feel even

animals cannot help it. The true story is powerful and would brighten anyones day who read it.

Snicket, L., & Helquist, B. (2007). The bad beginning: a series of unfortunate events. New York:

HarperCollins.

The Bad Beginning: Series of Unfortunate Events by: Lemony Snicket

This mystery book is the first of a series. The Baudelaire children lose their parents in a

fire and become orphans. The book as well as the book series are about three children who are

forced to find a new home and run into multiple different challenges. The first book they move

into a home where their distant relative named Count Olaf treats them like his maids. They have

never met or heard of him but have no choice but to move in and obey his commands. The

children know something is wrong and that Count Olaf is up to no good but are unsure of what

his plan is. They find out he wants to marry Violet to take all of their parents fortune. They go

through a suspenseful time to discover a way to get out of the marriage while also saving their

baby sister. The ending leaves them on another journey to find hopefully a much better home. I

chose this because I felt a lot of children to go through many different homes and this gives them

a connection to what the Baudelaire children might be feeling. This series is suspenseful and

eventually after all of the books shows them living in a perfect home. The siblings are orphans,

but have never been closer. They would do anything for each other which displays a huge

message for siblings as well as friends and how they should treat each other.

Williams-Garcia, R. (2012). One crazy summer. New York: Amistad of HarperCollins

Publishers
One Crazy Summer by: Rita Williams-Garcia

This historical fiction book caught my eye when searching for diverse family books for

the elementary level. This book has won eleven awards and honors because of how

heartbreaking, funny, relatable, and rememberable this book is. The story takes place in 1968

where three sisters go on a journey to Oakland, California in search of finding their mother who

had abandoned them. The oldest has always taken the mother figure of the three sisters and

works hard to have everyone behave properly, especially on this trip. This book shares a

powerful message about sisterhood, and trying to understand their mother and her reasonings.

This could relate to not only African Americans, but to sisters, kids who had a parent abandon

them as well as someone who took the adult role early on in life for certain reasons. I found this

book to be incredibly powerful and if I would have read this in elementary school I believe that it

would have stuck with me to this day. I also would have wanted to share this book with others

and open their minds to this story to allow them to feel the feelings throughout the book and to

get a different perspective on different topics.