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Huntley Fitzpatrick
High School

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Vanessa Diffenbaugh
High School

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Vanessa Diffenbaugh
High School

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8-12 years old.
10 year old Flora thinks her mother cares about her shepherdess lamp more than her.  She doesn't approve of Flora's reading choices, and also doesn't approve of the squirrel Flora has befriended.  At one point when Flora announces her intention to move out, her mother says "Go ahead.  Life would certainly be easier without you."  At the end Flora finally sees that her mother truly does care about her and their relationship is restored.

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The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer

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The Secret Hum of a Daisy by Tracy Holczer

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Middle grades
Twelve-year-old Grace and her mother have always been their own family, traveling from place to place like gypsies. But Grace wants to finally have a home all their own. Just when she thinks she's found it her mother says it's time to move again. Grace summons the courage to tell her mother how she really feels and will always regret that her last words to her were angry ones.

After her mother's sudden death, Grace is forced to live with a grandmother she's never met. She can't imagine her mother would want her to stay with this stranger. Then Grace finds clues in a mysterious treasure hunt, just like the ones her mother used to send her on. Maybe it is her mother, showing her the way to her true home.

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Each button on Laura’s memory string represents a piece of her family history. The buttons Laura cherishes the most belonged to her mother—a button from her prom dress, a white one off her wedding dress, and a single small button from the nightgown she was wearing on the day she died. When the string breaks, Laura’s new stepmother, Jane, is there to comfort Laura and search for a missing button, just as Laura’s mother would have done. But it’s not the same—Jane isn’t Mom. In Eve Bunting’s moving story, beautifully illustrated by Ted Rand, Laura discovers that a memory string is not just for remembering the past: it’s also for recording new memories.

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Examines the complicated relationship

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The Bean Trees by B. Kingsolver (9th grade to adult)

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The Bean Trees by B. Kingsolver (9th grade to adult)

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Looks at the question, "What makes a mother?" Looks at adoption also.

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You couldn′t really tell about Mama′s brain just from looking at her, but it was obvious as soon as she spoke. She had a high voice, like a little girl′s, and she only knew 23 words. I know this for a fact, because we kept a list of the things Mama said tacked to the inside of the kitchen cabinet. Most of the words were common ones, like good and more and hot, but there was one word only my mother said: soof.

Although she lives an unconventional lifestyle with her mentally disabled mother and their doting neighbor, Bernadette, Heidi has a lucky streak that has a way of pointing her in the right direction. When a mysterious word in her mother′s vocabulary begins to haunt her, Heidi′s thirst for the truth leads her on a cross-country journey in search of the secrets of her past.

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The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood 

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The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood 

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Josephine Hurst has her family under control: two beautiful daughters, a brilliantly intelligent son, a tech-guru of a husband and a historical landmark home. But living in this matriarch's determinedly cheerful, yet subtly controlling domain hasn't been easy for her family. When her oldest daughter, Rose, runs off with a mysterious boyfriend, Josephine tightens her grip, gradually turning her flawless home into a darker sort of prison.
Alex Award Winner - HS/Adult

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Charlie makes lots of wishes - what else can a girl do when she has to go to live with an aunt she doesn't know because her mom still can't "get her feet on the ground"?
Grade 3+

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Gertie's Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley

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Gertie's Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley

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Gertie will stop at nothing to try to reconnect with the estranged mother who lives in town, but has begun a new life - one that does not include Gertie. Humor keeps this light, but uncovers truths about what it means to grow up without the mom you desperately want.
Grades 3+

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Missing Pieces of Me by Jean Van Leeuwen

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Missing Pieces of Me by Jean Van Leeuwen

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Weezie can never seem to do anything to please her mama. To make matters worse, she has never know anything about her father because her mom refuses to tell her. Weezie finally embarks on a quest to find the missing piece. Appropriate for grades 4+.

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One for the Murphys by Linda Mullaly Hunt

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One for the Murphys by Linda Mullaly Hunt

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After a horrible incident, Carley must leave her mother to live with a foster family. She is torn by the love and loyalty she still has for her mom, despite her failings, as she struggles to accept the love she feels from the foster family. Appropriate for grades 4+

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The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter

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The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter

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There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake
9-12
Shelby's mom has always been overprotective but a car accident starts a chain of violent events that reveal her life and her mother may not be her own.

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Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
9-12
Already struggling with issues in her own life, Francesa must face the effects of her mother's clinical depression on the family.

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Apple and Rain - Sarah Crossan
Suitable for Middle School

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The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

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The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

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Great for grades 5-8. This morning a 6th grader described the mum as a Disney villain!

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Paige wants to start living again after her boyfriend drowns but how will she handle her parents' dating again since their divorce? YA audiences will enjoy the best friends, family & romance.

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The Secret of a Heart Note by Stacey Lee

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The Secret of a Heart Note by Stacey Lee

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Mimosa & her mom are the only 2 women who can create love potions & boy do they have the perfect noses to smell out the right feelings but Mim wants school & a normal life, but Mom won't allow it. YA audience

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Sydney is cast adrift, searching for her place in the family and the world with a golden boy older brother she can't outshine. Ya readers will love the themes of family, self-discovery & change.

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How will Hope reconcile the mom she knew with the mom her sister Lizzy knows? YA novel in verse

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All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry

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All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry

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Judith is abducted & when she returns the small mindedness of this community  is her mother hates her, her brother calls her Worm, the town thinks she is a whore. Historical fiction for teens looking at truth, family & fear of neighbors.

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All the Truth That's in Me has 12,003 ratings and 2,408 reviews. Julie said: As always, tacky though it may seem to rate and review my own book, how can ...

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This memoir explores the relationship between Jeanette Walls and her mother whose selfish tendencies and mental illness place her family in situations such as homelessness. The daughter is forced to become the woman of the house caring for all, including her mother. This is a great read for high school students.

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Addie lives with her mom in a trailer park with her mom, who is bipolar. She is looking for some sort of normal life, but there is only uncertainty. Peripheral characters are great. Deals with tough issues. The recommended age is grades 5-7, but could be good all the way up to 9th.

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In  this memoir set in Canada, Johnson shares her caretaking experiences with her cantankerous mother.  Funny & touching.
For adult readers.

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By Laurie Halse Anderson

An 18-year-old struggles with anorexia, the death of her best friend and an estranged relationship with her physician mother.

Age level: YA

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By Tita Williams-Garcia

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By Amy Tan

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The Joy Luck Club has 539,966 ratings and 7,138 reviews. Brina said: During high school, when I did not have the life experience to fully appreciate her ...

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Tell Me Something Real by Calla Devlin

Vanessa and her three sisters are all dealing, in their different ways, with their mother's leukemia when a new piece of information further complicates their relationship with her.

Age level: young adult

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Book description

To the outside world, Robin is a girl that has it all. Why then does she find herself slumped in front of the TV, night after night, watching reruns of her famous mom's show? It doesn't make sense to anyone, least of all Robin. Looking for answers, Robin travels to Port Minton, Nova Scotia, her mom's home town, finally finding answers to some long hidden family secrets.

Age level:  teen fiction

Genre:

Canadian fiction, first person narratives, coming-of-age stories

Subject Headings:

Family secrets, self-esteem in teenage girls

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Why are we reduced to our teenage selves almost every time we're with our mother? Loved this memoir for adult readers. "Snatching clothes from the dryer before they wrinkle: a technique my mother has elevated to an art form."

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Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers

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Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers

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The relationship between Claire and her mom as told through notes to each other. Upper middle and high school.

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Charlie's estranged and volatile relationship with her mother is one of many reasons why she ends up on the streets, alone, and feeling as though self harm is her only remaining options. High School Students (fans of Ellen Hopkins books).

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Maddie struggles with a mother who is willing to do anything protect her from both the real, and perceived, dangers waiting for Maddie outside her hermetically sealed bedroom. Best for HS students, I think.

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Mom is a victim of mental and physical abuse by her son. The story's protagonist struggles to understand her mother's denial of the situation. Beautifully wrought. For 8th grade +

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family - general (see also headings under social themes)

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historical - united states - 20th century

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people & places - united states - hispanic & latino

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young adult fiction / family / general (see also headings under social themes)

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young adult fiction / historical / united states / 20th century

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young adult fiction / people & places / united states / hispanic & latino

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young adult fiction/family - general (see also headings under social themes)

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young adult fiction/historical - united states - 20th century

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While violence runs rampant throughout New York, a teenage girl faces danger within her own home in Meg Medina's riveting coming-of-age novel.Nora Lopez is seventeen during the infamous New York summer of 1977, when the city is besieged by arson, a massive blackout, and a serial killer named Son ...