Underrepresented Family Types in Children and Adolescent Literature

Throughout children and adolescent literature there is a general view of how a family should look like. For example most books have a mother, father, sister, brother, or a number of siblings. Some families do look like this in our society, but many do not. It is very important for students to read books they are able to relate to. Seeing someone who not only looks like them, but also lives the same live style can be very comforting to a student. This is why I have chosen this for my topic. When I was growing up there were not many books that I could relate to in my classroom. I did have the typical family of four (mother, father, brother, and sister), but the people in the books were never my skin color. Looking back on those moments in the classroom, I find it essential to try to include various types of family under diverse literature and place these books in the classroom.

The books I have chosen are, Black is Brown is Tan, by Arnold Adoff, Allison, by Allen Say, Who is in a Family?, by Robert Skutch, All Families Are Different, by Sol Gordon, Ph.D., and Waiting for Normal, by Leslie Connor. These books all address a different family type or a combination of several types such as gay and lesbian, adoption in families, biracial families, and single parent household. The books are for elementary and early middle school students. The article I have chosen by, Kay Chick, specifically focuses on gay and lesbian children’s literature, but it helps support the need for underrepresented family types as a whole to grow in numbers throughout the world of literature.