Librarians' Picks

Selected Reading Unearthed from the Youth Collection
Ann Arbor District Library

Table of Contents

1. Picture Books for Preschoolers
2. Fiction for Elementary Readers
3. Fiction for Middle School Readers

• Jump to the links at the bottom of this page
• Note: "*" following a title indicates that book has a sequel or is part of a series.

Brown, Marc. Arthur's Family Vacation.* Little, Brown, 1993.

Arthur is unhappy about vacationing with his family, but his ideas save the day when everyone ends up stuck in a motel room due to rain.

Brown, Margaret Wise. Little Fur Family.Harper, 1946.

The little fur child investigates other creatures of the wild wood.

Cowen-Fletcher, Jane. Mama Zooms.Scholastic, 1993.

A boy's wonderful mama takes him zooming everywhere in her wheelchair.

Flournoy, Valerie. The Patchwork Quilt.Dial, 1985.

Using scraps from the family's old clothing, Tanya helps her grandmother and mother make a quilt which tells the story of her mother's life.

Friedman, Ina R. How My Parents Learned to Eat.Houghton Mifflin, 1984.

An American sailor courts a Japanese girl and each tries, in secret, to learn the other's way of eating.

Howard, Elizabeth Fitzgerald. Aunt Flossie's Hats (and Crab Cakes Later).Clarion, 1990.

Sara and Susan visit their favorite relative, Aunt Flossie, for tea, cookies, crab cakes, and stories.

Hughes, Shirley. The Big Alfie and Annie Rose Storybook.* Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1989.

Nursery school student Alfie and his sister Annie Rose share many experiences.

Kasza, Keiko. A Mother for Choco.Putnam, 1992.

A lonely little bird named Choco goes in search of a mother.

Keller, Holly. Maxine in the Middle.Greenwillow, 1989.

Tired of being the middle child, Maxine decides to leave home.

Pellegrini, Nina. Families are Different.Holiday House, 1991.

An adopted Korean girl discovers that many types of families are represented in her classroom.

Russo, Marisabina. Trade-In Mother.Greenwillow, 1993.

Max discusses with his mother reasons why he'd like to trade her in, but admits there is one very good reason to keep her.

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Fiction for Elementary Readers

Blos, Joan W. Brooklyn Doesn't Rhyme.Scribner's, 1994.

Edwina Rose Sachs records events in the lives of her Polish immigrant family.

Burgess, Barbara Hood. Oren Bell.* Delacorte, 1991.

In Detroit, Oren and his twin sister Latonya come to terms with a condemned house which they believe is responsible for their troubles.

Byars, Betsy. The Not-Just-Anybody Family.* Delacorte, 1986.

With other family members away, Maggie and Vern try to settle family problems.

Cooper, Susan. The Boggart.Maxwell Macmillan, 1993.

A small gnome is inadvertently brought from England to America and finds it not to his liking.

Haas, Jesse. Uncle Daney's Way.Greenwillow, 1994.

His handicapped uncle shows Cole how to make enough money to keep Daney's old horse.

Heide, Florence Parry. Sami and the Time of the Troubles.Clarion, 1992.

Sami and his family experience civil war in Lebanon.

Namioka, Lensey. Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear.* Joy Street, 1992.

Having recently moved from China to America, Yingtao is faced with having to give a violin concert when he would rather be playing baseball.

Taylor, Mildred. Song of the Trees.* Dial, 1993.

An African-American family tries desperately to save a forest of trees on their land from destruction by an unscrupulous white man.

Taylor, Sydney. All-of-a-Kind Family.* Follett, 1951.

Five Jewish girls grow up in New York City.

Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little House in the Big Woods.* Harper & row, 1935.

Laura and her family live in the Wisconsin wilderness in the mid-1800s.

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Fiction for Middle School Readers

Cresswell, Helen. Ordinary Jack.* Macmillan, 1977.

Jack Bagthorpe is the dull member of his family until he and his uncle come up with a plan to change all that.

Durrell, Gerald. My Family and Other Animals.* Viking, 1968.

Tired of English weather, the Durrell family moves to Greece, where young Gerry's animal collections are only a small part of the unusual household.

Hamilton, Virginia. Justice and Her Brothers.* Greenwillow, 1978.

An eleven-year-old and her two brothers discover they have supersensory powers and struggle to learn to use them.

Lowry, Lois. The Giver.Houghton Mifflin, 1993.

In a future world where people are assigned to particular families and jobs, a boy learns that his assigned life-task will separate him from everyone else.

Meyer, Carolyn. Rio Grande Stories.Harcourt Brace, 1994.

Seventh graders collect stories about their families and traditions for a local history project.

Paterson, Katherine. The Great Gilly Hopkins.Crowell, 1978.

An angry and rebellious foster child finds herself in a new situation where her usual tactics don't work.

Sleator, William. Oddballs: Stories.Dutton, 1993.

Loosely based on the author's youth, these stories introduce a number of peculiar family members and acquaintances.

Taylor, Mildred. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.* Dial, 1976.

Cassie Logan and her family face prejudice and discrimination in the deep South during the 1930s.

Voigt, Cynthia. Homecoming.* Atheneum, 1981.

Four children are abandoned by their mother and walk several hundred miles to the grandmother who does not know they exist.

Waugh, Sylvia. The Mennyms.* Greenwillow, 1994.

The Mennyms fear their great family secret is about to be discovered: they are not human beings, but are instead life-sized, living rag dolls.

Arrangement and original material copyright © 1996 the Ann Arbor District Library. This list may be copied and distributed without requesting permission, so long as this notice remains attached and appropriate credit is given.