Socio-Economic Diversity Resource List

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.

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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.