Re: [LM_NET] HIT: Elem Fiction Books on Abandonment

[Christine Rayl <cjrayl@YAHOO.COM>]

Another great one to add to the list (sorry I did not see your original posting) 
for upper elementary/middle school is

Hugging the Rock by Susan Taylor Brown
ALA Notable book
About a young girl's whose mother leaves her and her father. Very moving and is set 
as a verse novel. My fifth grade girls loved the story although I did have to talk 
about mental illness to a few of them, which the mother suffered from.



--- On Sat, 7/12/08, Janet <janet630@OPTONLINE.NET> wrote:

> From: Janet <janet630@OPTONLINE.NET>
> Subject: [LM_NET] HIT:  Elem Fiction Books on Abandonment
> To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> Date: Saturday, July 12, 2008, 3:01 PM
> Thanks for all for the great input on this difficult topic!
> 
> Janet Moser
> 
> SLMS
> 
> Sousa Elementary         
> 
> Port Washington, NY
> 
> Long Beach Public Library
> 
> Long Beach, NY
> 
>  
> 
> It may be "too much" for younger elem students,
> but Kate Dicamillo's Because
> of Winn-Dixie works through the issue in a
> heart-wrenchingly beautiful way.
> With repsect to both parents.
> 
>  
> 
> Here is a short list of books on abandonment or parental
> absence for younger
> children, older children and teens:
> 
>  
> 
> Roger takes charge! By Susanna Gretz 1987 
> 
> A door near here by Heather Quarles 1998 
> 
> Kidnap kids by Todd Strasser 1998 
> 
> Don't get lost! By Pat Hutchins 2004
> 
> Dizzy by Cathy Cassidy 2004 
> 
> Shark bait by Graham Salisbury 1997 
> 
> Down came a blackbird by Nicholas Wilde 1991 
> 
> Joey Pigza swallowed the key by Jack Gantos 1998 
> 
> Heron cove by Ruth Wallace-Brodeur 2003
> 
>  
> 
> Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt SP? 
> 
>  Is about a young girl with several brothers and sisters
> who Mother abandons
> them outside a grocery store. The mother goes in to get
> food for the family
> that is trying to reach their grandmother and she leaves
> the kids in the car
> and never comes back.  I remember loving it as a young
> girl.
> 
>  
> 
> Maybe The Crazy Man by Pamela Porter or 
> 
> Hugging the Rock by Susan Taylor Brown would work.
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> upper elem:
> 
>  
> 
> Heck, superhero / Martine Leavitt
> 
>  
> 
> Abandoned by his mentally ill mother, thirteen-year-old
> Heck tries to
> survive on his own as his mind bounces between the
> superhero character he
> imagines himself to be and the harsh reality of his life.
> 
>  
> 
> The true colors of Caitlynne Jackson / Carol Lynch Williams
> 
>  
> 
> Twelve-year-old Caity and her younger sister Cara must fend
> for themselves
> when their abusive mother storms out of the house with a
> suitcase and does
> not come back.
> 
>  
> 
> Charlie's story / Maeve Friel.
> 
>  
> 
> After being abandoned by her mother at the age of four,
> living for ten years
> with her somewhat distracted father in Ireland, and being
> mercilessly
> bullied by her cruel classmates, Charlie Collins almost
> gives up on life.
> 
>  
> 
> lower elem:
> 
>  
> 
> Somebody somewhere knows my name / by Linda Lowery ;
> illustrated by John
> Eric Karpinski
> 
>  
> 
> Grace describes what happens when she and her little
> brother are abandoned
> by their mother and stay at an emergency shelter for
> children.
> 
> The Way a Door Closes by Anita Hope Smith It's a book
> in poems. The boy is a
> part of a close-knot family until one day, without
> explanation, his father
> just leaves.
> 
>  
> 
> The Pinballs by Byars
> 
> Dear Mr. Henshaw by Cleary 
> 
>  
> 
> Here are a few I found myself:
> 
> Some Frog! by Eve Bunting.  (Grade 2-4) -In a sensitive and
> honest story,
> Bunting captures the heartache of a child whose parent
> doesn't follow
> through on a promised excursion. Billy lives with his
> mother and
> grandparents, but his father has arranged to take him to
> catch a frog for
> his class' frog-jumping competition. When his father
> fails to show up and
> the expedition is threatened, his understanding mom and
> grandparents step in
> and help the boy learn that his life is really "very
> good the way it is,"
> although his dad's presence would have enhanced the
> occasion.
> 
>  
> 
>  I Wish I Had My Father by Norma Simon.  Father's Day
> is tough for a boy
> whose father left him years ago and never communicates with
> him. 
> 
>  
> 
> 
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