Family Constellations

Bunting, E.  Fly Away Home. Illus. by R. Himler. Clarion, 1991.  (grades

2-3).  This is the story of a young homeless boy and his father who live in the airport.  They have created a family unit with the other homeless people in the airport.

Hesse, K. Out of the Dust. Scholastic Inc. 1997. (grades 6-7)  A terrible accident has transformed Billie Jo's life, scarring her inside and out.  Her mother is gone causing her to have to deal with death and a changing family unit since it is now only she and her father.  The author uses free-verse poetry to show how very much the human spirit can overcome.

McDaniel, L. The Girl Death Left Behind. Bantam Books, 1998. (grades 5-6).

How does a young girl survive after she is the only one of her family left after a car accident claims the lives of her entire family?  Her future holds a move  

to another state and learning to start a new life with her aunt.

Myers,W., Somewhere in the Darkness, Scholastic, Inc. 1992. (grades 4-5)  Broken families are hard to fix.  It is hard being a fourteen year old living with your grandmother.  What happens when someone shows up and says they are your father?

Stanford, D., I Know the World's Worse Secret, Illus. by G. Evans. Multnomah

Press, 1987. (grades 3-4)  Where does a child turn when they have an

alcoholic parent?  What happens when that parent is a mother?  This book

tries to answer some of these questions and help a child see that they are

at fault for this situation.