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Health & Fitness

Gifting For the Holidays: Books for Children of All Ages About Divorce and Separation

Looking For Books to Give Your Children at Christmas?

For PreSchool - 2nd Grade

“Mom & Dad Glue” by Kes Gray - A child searches for glue to mend his parents' marriage. The owner of the glue shop helps him learn that although his parents marriage may be broken, they will always love him and that he must learn to love each of them even when they no longer live together. 

“New Room for William” by Sally Grindley - When William and his mother move, he is unhappy about having a new room, but he changes his mind after he gets dinosaur wallpaper and makes a new friend. 

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“Oliver at the Window” – by Ellizabeth Shreeve – When Oliver's parents move into separate houses, he spends a lot of time looking out of windows with his pet lion as he adjusts to a new preschool and to living in two places. 

“Arthur and the 1,001 Dads” by Marc Brown - Arthur and his friends try to find a substitute to attend the Father's Day picnic with Buster, whose father is not around much since his parents' divorce.

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“Fred Stays With Me”by Nancy Coffelt - A child describes how she lives sometimes  with her mother and sometimes with her father, but her dog is her constant companion.   

Grades 3-5   

“Lexie” by Audrey Couloumbis - When ten-year-old Lexie goes with her father to the beach for a week, she is surprised to find that he has invited his girlfriend and her two sons to join them.  

“Max's Logbook” by Marissa Moss - Max's log book of observations, drawings, experiments, and inventions reveals the rich world of his imagination and his feelings about his parents' divorce. 

“Kaline Klattermaser's Tree House” by Haven Kimmel - Third-grader Kaline  Klattermaster's father has gone somewhere and his mother cannot seem to keep everything straight the way he did, but the two brothers and one hundred dogs that live in his imaginary treehouse--and his strange neighbor Mr. Osiris Putnaminski--help him cope with his father's absence, his mother's  forgetfulness, and the bullies that torment him in school.   

“Dear Mr. Henshaw” by Beverly Cleary - In his letters to his favorite author, ten-year-old Leigh reveals his problems in coping with his parents' divorce, being the new boy in school, and generally finding his own place in the world. 

 “How I, Nicky Flynn, Finally Get a Life (and a dog): a Novel” by Moving to inner-city Boston after his parents' divorce, eleven-year-old Nicky struggles to  cope with the changes in his life, including acquiring a former guide dog that leads to a mystery for Nicky to solve. 

“How Tia Lola Came to (Visit) Stay” - Although ten-year-old Miguel is at first embarrassed by his colorful aunt, Tia Lola, when she comes to Vermont from the Dominican Republic to stay with his mother, his sister, and him after his parents' divorce, he learns to love her. 

“Candyfloss “ by Jacqueline Wilson - When her mother plans to move to Australia with her new husband and baby, Floss must decide whether her loyalties lie with her  mother or her father, while at the same time, her best friend begins to make fun of her and reject her. 

“Buttermilk Hill” by Ruth White - When Lindy's parents divorce and gradually begin to make new lives for themselves she finds all the changes difficult, but in  time she starts to find her own way. 

“Eggs Over Evie” by Alison Jackson -Evie feels unsettled and sad after her parents divorce, her father remarries and takes the family dog, and his new wife becomes pregnant, but a cooking class and helping the elderly lady next door with her cat give Evie a way to cope with the changes in her life.Includes recipes   

Grade 6-Young Adult 

 “42 Miles” by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer - As her thirteenth birthday approaches, JoEllen  decides to bring together her two separate lives--one as Joey, who enjoys  weekends with her father and other relatives on a farm, and another as Ellen,  who lives with her mother in a Cincinnati apartment near her school and friends.

 “Bigger Than a Bread Box” by Laurel Snyder - Devastated when her parents separate, twelve-year-old Rebecca must move with her mother from Baltimore to Gran's house in Atlanta, where Rebecca discovers an old breadbox with the power to grant any wish--so long as the wished-for thing fits in the breadbox. 

“Best of the Best” by Tim Green - Determined to play in the Little League World Series, twelve-year-old Josh struggles to concentrate on his game and be the team's leader while also trying to cope with his parents' impending divorce. 

 “The Day My Mother Left” by James Prosek - When his mother leaves to live with another man, nine-year-old Jeremy faces his own pain and loss, his father's depression and sister's distance, the pity of friends and strangers, and his father's remarriage two years later, finding solace in fishing and his artwork. 

“Stand Tall” by Joan Bauer - Tree, a six-foot-three-inch twelve-year-old, copes with his parents' recent divorce and his failure as an athlete by helping his grandfather, a Vietnam vet and recent amputee, and Sophie, a new girl at school.

 “Stranded in Boringsville” by Catherine Bateson - Following her parents separation, twelve-year-old Rain moves with her mother to the country, where she befriends the unpopular boy who lives next door and also seeks a way to cope with her feelings toward her father and his new girlfriend.

 

 

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