Perseverance and the American Dream

Student Reference Material

If you enjoy reading about characters who face seemingly insurmountable obstacles but somehow survive, the following list will appeal to you:

• Bauer, Marion Dane. ON MY HONOR. Houghton Mifflin, 1986. The suffering and guilt a youngster must face after the death of his best friend.
• Brooks, Bruce. THE MOVES MAKE THE MAN. Harper & Row, 1984. Black teenage boy who is striving to succeed in basketball and sorting out his emotions as well.
• Byars, Betsy. CRACKER JACKSON. Viking, 1985. A young boy struggles with how to protect his babysitter from an abusive husband.
• Byars, Betsy. THE PINBALLS. Harper & Row, 1977. Three foster children surviving in their fragile world.
• Cleary, Beverly. DEAR MR. HENSHAW. Morrow, 1983. Young Leigh uses his correspondence with a famous author to explore his broken family and social issues.
• Cleary, Beverly. STRIDER. Morrow, 1991. Sequel to the above. Cleaver, Vera and Bill. WHERE THE LILIES BLOOM. Lippincott, 1969. 14-year-old Mary Call takes responsibility for her orphaned Appalachian family and strives to keep them together.
• Cohen, Barbara. THANK YOU, JACKIE ROBINSON. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1974. Story of friendship and inspiration woven around the world-famous baseball player.
• Creech, Sharon. WALK TWO MOONS. HarperCollins, 1994. A young teen travels with her grandparents in an attempt to unravel the questions she has about her past.
• Crutcher, Chris. STOTAN! Greenwillow, 1986. Through the guidance of an incredibly tough coach, a highschool swim team discovers the true meaning of "Stotan."
• Cunningham, Julia. DROP DEAD. Pantheon, 1965. Realistic story of a young boy's struggles with dyslexia and trying to keep it hidden.
• Fox, Paula. MONKEY ISLAND. Orchard, 1991. Poignant story of homelessness and friendship when Clay Garrity runs away from his social worker in New York City.
• Fox, Paula. ONE-EYED CAT. Bradbury, 1984. Ned must face and resolve the problems he caused when he shot into the air with a gun he was restricted from using.
• George, Jean Craighead. JULIE OF THE WOLVES. Harper & Row, 1972. Classic tale of an Eskimo female's survival in the Alaskan tundra.
• George, Jean Craighead. JULIE. HarperCollins, 1994. Sequel to the above title.
• George, Jean Craighead. ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. Dutton, 1990. Long-awaited sequel to the above title.
• George, Jean Craighead. MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. Dutton, 1959. Classic story of a young runaway's survival in the Blueridge Mountains.
• Gilson, Jamie. HELLO, MY NAME IS SCRAMBLED EGGS. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1983. Vietnamese refugee Tuan's experiences as he stays with an American family until his home is available.
• Hickman, Janet. Jericho. GREENWILLOW, 1994. Angela's resentment and repulsion are explored as she and her family take care of her disoriented, aging great-grandmother.
• Hill, Kirkpatrick. TOUGHBOY AND SISTER. McElderry, 1990. Native American siblings are on their own in Canada's Yukon territory after their widowed father dies.
• Hobbs, Will. BEARDANCE. Atheneum, 1993. Sequel to next title in which Cloyd risks his life to save two bear cubs.
• Hobbs, Will. BEARSTONE. Atheneum, 1989. Exciting story of a Ute Indian teen who is sent from his group home to live with an old rancher for the summer.
• Laird, Elizabeth. KISS THE DUST. Dutton, 1992. Kara and her family must flee their comfortable home in Iraq when they become involved in the Kurdish resistance movement.
• Myers, Walter Dean. SCORPIONS. Harper & Row, 1988. One brother must head up the Harlem gang when his older brother is sent to prison in this survival story of peer pressure in the ghetto.
• Naidoo, Beverley. JOURNEY TO JO'BURG. Lippincott, 1986. An African teenager confronts the horror of apartheid when she leaves her small village to go to Johannesburg, South Africa.
• Nichol, Barbara. BEETHOVEN LIVES UPSTAIRS. Orchard, 1993. The eccentric musician's life as seen by the young man whose mother rents him an upstairs apartment. (Cassette, CD also available)
• O'Dell, Scott. ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS. Houghton Mifflin, 1960. Survival after a young girl is stranded on an island in the Northwest.
• Paulsen, Gary. BRIAN'S WINTER. Delacorte, 1996. The "what if" version of Hatchet, written because many students wrote and wanted a different ending.
• Paulsen, Gary. HATCHET. Bradbury, 1987. Brian is forced to survive after a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness.
• Paulsen, Gary. THE RIVER. Delacorte, 1991. Sequel to the above title.
• Pinkney, Andrea Davis. HOLD FAST TO DREAMS. Morrow, 1995. The Willis family's struggles with racial prejudice when their father is transferred to another job.
• Ringgold, Faith. DINNER AT AUNT CONNIE'S HOUSE. Hyperion, 1993. During a dinner party, Aunt Connie, a great artist, introduces her family to 12 famous African American women through the speaking portraits she has created. Based on the artist's story quilt The Dinner Quilt.
• Sperry, Armstrong. CALL IT COURAGE. Macmillan, 1968. The ultimate survival story, set in the South Seas.
• Staples, Suzanne Fisher. HAVELI. Knopf, 1993. Sequel to the following title.
• Staples, Suzanne Fisher. SHABANU: DAUGHTER OF THE WIND. Knopf, 1989. Riveting tale of a modern Pakistani girl whose family of nomadic camel herders arrange her marriage to an older man.
• Temple, Frances. GRAB HANDS AND RUN. Orchard, 1993. The northward journey of a family from El Salvador who are fleeing government soldiers after their father disappears.
• Temple, Frances. TONIGHT, BY SEA. Orchard, 1995. A young Haitian girl and a group of refugees desperately trying to escape to the United States.
• Voigt, Cynthia. DICEY'S SONG. Atheneum, 1983. Dicey and her siblings face their mother's mental illness in this second book of the Tillerman family's survival. (series of six)
• Voigt, Cynthia. HOMECOMING. Atheneum, 1981. Dicey must take her siblings to find their grandmother when they are all abandoned by their mother. (1st book in the series)
• Woodson, Jacqueline. I HADN'T MEANT TO TELL YOU THIS. Delacorte, 1994. Sexual abuse in a racially segregated American town.
• Yep, Laurence. DRAGON'S GATE. HarperCollins, 1993. A young boy joins his fellow Chinese laborers building the transcontinental railroad in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
• ANGELA'S ASHES: A Secondary Unit