This list is by no means exhaustive, and represents a selection of some of the best titles featuring socio-economic indicators and diversity. Professional materials are not included. For more ideas and suggestions ask a librarian.
PICTURE BOOKS
THE BABE & I
By David A. Adler
While helping his family make ends meet during the Depression by selling newspapers, a boy meets Babe Ruth.
A BIKE LIKE SERGIO’S
By Maribeth Boelts
Ruben feels like he is the only kid without a bike. His friend Sergio reminds him that his birthday is coming, but Ruben knows that the kinds of birthday gifts he and Sergio receive are not the same. After all, when Ruben’s mom sends him to Sonny’s corner store for groceries, sometimes she doesn’t have enough money for everything on the list. So when Ruben sees a dollar bill fall out of someone’s purse, he picks it up and puts it in his pocket. But when he gets home, he discovers it’s not one dollar or even five or ten—it’s a hundred-dollar bill, more than enough for a new bike just like Sergio’s! But what about the crossed-off groceries? And what about the woman who lost her money?
THOSE SHOES
By Maribeth Boelts
Jeremy, who longs to have the black high tops that everyone at school seems to have but his grandmother cannot afford, is excited when he sees them for sale in a thrift shop and decides to buy them even though they are the wrong size.
WALK WITH ME
By Jairo Buitrago
A young girl, whose father is absent, asks an imaginary lion to accompany her during her daily activities.
FLY AWAY HOME
By Eve Bunting
A homeless boy who lives in an airport with his father, moving from terminal to terminal and trying not to be noticed, has given hope when he sees a trapped bird find its freedom.
CARMELA FULL OF WISHES
By Matt De La Peña
Carmela, finally old enough to run errands with her brother, tries to think of the perfect wish, while his wish seems to be that she stayed home.
UNCLE WILLIE AND THE SOUP KITCHEN
By DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan
A boy spends the day with Uncle Willie in the soup kitchen where he works preparing and serving food for the hungry.
TIGHT TIMES
By Barbara Shook Hazen
A young boy isn’t sure why a thing called “tight times” means not getting a dog.
SILVER PACKAGES: AN APPALACHIAN CHRISTMAS STORY
By Cynthia Rylant
Every year at Christmas a wealthy man rides a train through Appalachia and throws gifts to the poor children, in order to repay the debt he owes the people who live there.
MAMA, I’LL GIVE YOU THE WORLD
By Roni Schotter
At Walter’s World of Beauty, Luisa’s secret plans are underway to create a very special birthday celebration for her hard-working, single mother who is employed there as a stylist.
DON’T SAY AIN’T
By Irene Smalls
In 1957, a young girl is torn between life in the neighborhood where she grew up and fitting in at the school she now attends.
STELLA’S STARLINER
By Rosemary Wells
Stella, a little fox, loves living in a tiny silver Starliner trailer with her mother and father and she has everything she needs, but the taunting words of a group of mean weasels hurt her feelings until her Starliner is moved to a new place and she makes some new friends.
EACH KINDNESS
By Jacqueline Woodson
When Ms. Albert teaches a lesson on kindness, Chloe realizes that she and her friends have been wrong in making fun of new student Maya’s shabby clothes and refusing to play with her.
THE DAY YOU BEGIN
By Jacqueline Woodson
Other students laugh when Rigoberto, an immigrant from Venezuela, introduces himself but later, he meets Angelina and discovers that he is not the only one who feels like an outsider.
FICTION
SAMANTHA LEARNS A LESSON: A SCHOOL STORY Learns a Lesson: A School Story.
By Susan Adler
Samantha is determined to help nine-year-old Nellie, attending school for the first time, with her school work. In the process she learns a great deal about what it is like to be a poor child and to work in a factory.
THE JACKET
By Andrew Clements
Phil comes to an awareness of his own racial prejudice after
he sees Daniel, an African-American boy, wearing his brother’s one-of-a- kind jacket and leaps to the conclusion that Daniel has stolen the coat.
THE JANITOR’S BOY
By Andrew Clements
Fifth Grader, Jack, finds himself the target of ridicule at school when it becomes known that his father is one of the school janitors.
WHILE NO ONE WAS WATCHING
By Jane Leslie Conly
When two brothers steal a rabbit from a back yard in the rich part of town, the incident brings about their collision with other children from a background very different from their own.
THE HUNDRED DRESSES
By Eleanor Estes
In winning a medal she is no longer there to receive, a tight-lipped little Polish girl teaches her classmates an important lesson.
FARAWAY SUMMER
By Johanna Hurwitz
In the summer of 1910, Dossi, a poor Russian immigrant from the tenements of New York, spends two weeks with the Meade family on their Vermont farm, and all their lives are enriched by the experience.
JUNIE B. JONES IS A PARTY ANIMAL
By Barbara Park
Lucille invites Junie B. and her friend Grace to sleep over at her very rich Nanna’s house, where everything is beautiful, expensive, and breakable.
ESPERANZA RISING
By Ryan Pam Muñoz
Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to work in the labor camps of Southern California, There they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.
HOMELESSNESS
MR. BOW TIE
By Karen Barbour
Two children and their parents befriend a homeless man living on the street and help him find his family.
FLY AWAY HOME
By Eve Bunting
A homeless boy who lives in an airport with his father, moving from terminal to terminal and trying not to be noticed, is given hope when he sees a trapped bird find its freedom.
THE PLANET OF JUNIOR BROWN
By Virginia Hamilton
Already a leader in New York’s underground world of homeless children, Buddy Clark takes on the responsibility of protecting the overweight, emotionally disturbed friend with whom he has been playing hooky from eighth grade all semester.
SLAKE’S LIMBO
By Felice Holman
Thirteen-year-old orphan, Aremis Slake, hounded by his fears and misfortunes, flees into New York City’s subway tunnels, never again—he believes—to emerge.
HOME IS WHERE WE LIVE: LIFE IN A SHELTER THROUGH A YOUNG GIRL’S EYES
By Kimiko
Photographs with brief text chronicle a seven-month stay at a homeless shelter where a ten-year-old girl felt scared at first but, later, felt safe.
MUTT DOG
By Stephen Michael King
A lonely dog finally finds a home after she makes friends with a woman who works at a homeless shelter.
SOMEPLACE TO GO
By Maria Testa
Davey describes how he spends his time after school trying to keep safe and warm until he can meet his mother and older brother when the shelter opens at eight o’clock.
CHANGING PLACES: A KID’S VIEW OF SHELTER LIVING
By Judy Wallace
Illustrations accompany the words of eight different homeless children describing their personal experience of homelessness and life in a shelter.