Reading helps shape how a child views the world. When kids read books with realistic, positive, older characters and inspiring intergenerational relationships, they’re more likely to see older adults and aging in a favorable light. With this in mind, our recommended reads have something for everyone, from babies to early readers to teens. Our library often features older characters who vary widely in culture and personality. We see them as role models for younger protagonists, introducing new experiences, sharing a sense of history and guiding them through the complications of life with honesty and a sense of humor.
Seedfolks Posted in: Ages 8 to 12Neighbors in a run-down, multiethnic area of Cleveland gradually transform a junk-filled vacant lot into a community garden. Thirteen fictional characters—linked by the garden and the neighborhood—tell their stories with voices spanning a variety of backgrounds, personalities and poignant personal situations. The youngest character is 9, the oldest is over 90, and there are plenty of appealing children, teens and adults in between. Read more…
The Old Woman and the Wave Posted in: Ages 3 to 7An old woman has lived all her life in a cottage with a huge wave curled over it. Her roof is covered with a cluster of umbrellas to stop the drips. The wave actually loves the old woman, but she only bellows at it, scolding it for clumsiness when it splatters her or tosses fish to her. A passing traveler suggests that the wave could carry someone a long distance, but the old woman ignores this until her dog swims to the top of the wave. When she rows her little boat up to rescue the dog, she realizes how foolish she has been and learns to ride the wave instead of resenting it. Read more…
The Story of the Milky Way: A Cherokee Tale Posted in: Ages 3 to 7In this retelling of a Cherokee creation story, an old couple discovers that someone has stolen cornmeal from the storage basket behind their house. Cornmeal keeps the people from starving during the winter, so this is not a trivial loss. The next night, their young grandson spies to catch the thief and is astonished to see a huge, eerily glowing dog push aside the lid with its nose, eat more cornmeal and dash away. Read more…
Sea Swan Posted in: Ages 3 to 7Elzibah Swan is a very proper widow who has lived in the same Boston house all her life, with a cook and a chauffeur. She has a well-established routine: library, book club, garden club, symphony. Then, shortly after a visit from her Chicago grandchildren, she discovers a spirit of independence on her 75th birthday. Read more…
The Old Woman Who Named Things Posted in: Ages 3 to 7Now that all her friends have died, an old woman likes to name only those things that she knows will outlive her, such as her house, her car and her big red chair. However, she doesn’t name the stray dog that she feeds at her gate every day, until he doesn’t show up, and she realizes how much she misses him. She goes to find him, names him and brings him home for keeps. Read more…
The Chicken Salad Club Posted in: Ages 3 to 7Third-grader Nathaniel has a great-grandfather, Greatpaw, who is a century old. Greatpaw enjoys making chicken salad sandwiches and telling exciting stories about his past, which Nathaniel loves to hear. When Greatpaw becomes discouraged because he can’t find other storytellers his age with whom to swap stories, Nathaniel helps him find one—a 99-year-old woman named Sadie with an equally adventurous past—and the pair entertain not only each other but also Nathaniel and the rest of the neighborhood children. Read more…
Steal Away Posted in: Ages 8 to 12This historical novel depicts a lifelong friendship between two 13-year-old girls who meet in 1855. Susannah is a white orphan uprooted from Vermont to her coldhearted uncle’s Virginia farm; Bethlehem is a slave there. Each miserable for her own reasons, they escape together and flee north. Their perilous journey is described in flashbacks as they take turns narrating it 41 years later in Toronto, where Bethlehem is dying of tuberculosis. Susannah has come from New York at her old friend’s request, and she has brought her granddaughter, Mary. Read more…
A Long Way from Chicago: A Novel in Stories Posted in: Ages 8 to 12In this historical novel of the Great Depression, Joe recalls how he and his sister, Mary Alice, traveled from Chicago to spend a week with their widowed grandmother in rural Illinois every August from 1929 (when Joey was 9 and Mary Alice was 7) through 1935. Grandma Dowdel is one tough cookie. She’s not intimidated by anyone or anything, from the local teen hoodlums to the sheriff or the rich banker and his high-society wife. “Tough as an old boot, or so we thought,” says Joey. A large, energetic woman with her hair in a bun at the back of her head, Grandma does her own baking, cans her own tomatoes and makes her own soap. She can grab a snake and break its neck with one quick snap. Read more…
Because of Winn-Dixie Posted in: Ages 8 to 12A lonely, 10-year-old girl named Opal moves to a trailer park in a small Florida town with her father, an introverted preacher. Opal keeps hoping that her mother, who left years ago, will return. When Opal finds a stray dog in a grocery store, she rescues him and names him Winn-Dixie after the store. It is partly through the dog’s comical exploits that she meets a curious assortment of characters, including two eccentric old ladies. Read more…
Granny Torrelli Makes Soup Posted in: Ages 8 to 12For all of her 12 years, Rosie has been best friends with Bailey, the blind boy next door. Bailey often comes over when Rosie’s Granny Torrelli comes to stay while her parents go out. They usually cook together—soup one night, pasta another. Read more…
Pictures of Hollis Woods Posted in: Ages 8 to 12Hollis Woods is an 11-year-old orphan who loves to draw. She yearns for a real family but has run away from several barren foster homes. Hollis finds a new foster home living with Josie, a retired art teacher who carves statues from tree branches in her Long Island backyard. Alternating chapters move forward and backward from when Hollis meets Josie. Hollis says she wrecked everything with her preceding foster family, the Regans, the summer before. She clearly liked them, so the suspense builds as readers wonder what went wrong. Read more…
Black Taxi Posted in: TeensThis lighthearted, fast-paced mystery, set in a small town in Australia, features a teen heroine named Rosie and several interesting characters in their 80s. Rosie describes her granddad, Paddy, as “a nice crook [who] wouldn’t hurt a mouse.” When Paddy is caught with hot property and sent to jail for six months, he gives Rosie temporary custody of his Mercedes and his cell phone, but both come with strings attached. Rosie agrees to chauffeur her granddad’s many friends around town, which turns out to be more demanding than she expected. She also receives increasingly sinister calls about a stolen diamond ring that Paddy knows nothing about. Read more…
Being with Henry Posted in: TeensSixteen-year-old Laker has grown up with his emotionally fragile mother, Audrey, whose new husband gives her a hard time. When Laker loses his temper and knocks his stepfather to the floor, Audrey throws Laker out. He catches the first bus out of town and lives on the street until an 83-year-old widower named Henry offers him room and board in exchange for yard work. Read more…
God Is in the Pancakes Posted in: TeensThis sensitive book addresses several characters’ search for meaning under painful circumstances. Fifteen-year-old Grace, her mom and her older sister have struggled since Grace’s dad deserted them for another woman. Both sisters stumble through challenging transitions within the high school dating scene. Grace also seeks meaning on a larger scale, trying to assess whether she really believes in God and how to make complicated, irrevocable decisions about what’s right and wrong. Read more…
Hero Posted in: TeensFifteen-year-old Sean lives with his abusive, alcoholic mother; his father walked out years ago. When Sean is suspended from school for fighting, he is sentenced to three weeks of community service on a local ranch. There he meets Dave Hassler, a white-haired, decorated army veteran from World War II who has taken in other community-service kids before. He’s a sort of rough-hewn social worker as well as rancher. Read more…
True Confessions of a Heartless Girl Posted in: TeensSet in a tiny lakeside town on the Canadian prairie, this is the story of a diverse, intertwined cast of characters, struggling to overcome personal loss. Runaway Noreen, hardened at 17 by a rough childhood with an alcoholic mother and an abusive stepfather, feels no love for anyone or anything. She also has a knack for stumbling blindly from one disastrous mistake to another: she gets pregnant, steals, heedlessly injures a dog and accidentally starts a fire. Read more…
Notes from the Midnight Driver Posted in: TeensAngry about his parents’ impending divorce, 16-year-old Alex gets drunk and smashes his mother’s car. He is sentenced to 100 hours of community service, visiting a cantankerous old man named Sol—a Jewish immigrant from Poland—at a local nursing home. Read more…
Chasing the Jaguar Posted in: TeensHere’s a new twist on the stereotype of old lady as evil witch. Tía (Aunt) Tellin, a fragile-looking, gray-haired old lady, walks right past the gangs and the homeless people hanging out in the park near her Los Angeles home, and she’s not afraid of anyone. She is descended from a long line of Mayan curanderas (traditional shamanic medicine women) and uses her psychic powers to help the police solve crimes. She is also the mentor and trainer of her great-great-niece, Martika Gálvez, the 15-year-old protagonist, who has just realized that she inherited the same abilities and must learn to use them wisely. A generous smattering of Spanish dialogue is either clear from the context or explained in a glossary in the back. Read more…
Zazoo Posted in: TeensThis lyrical book, set in rural France, weaves together three love stories: one between two modern French teens, and two involving men over age 60 devastated by the same catastrophe during World War II. Zazoo, the 13-year-old protagonist, learns a great deal about life, death, war, love and reconciliation. She also learns that the same person can be both good and bad, kind and cruel. Read more…
Rules of the Road Posted in: Teens“Somewhere long ago in this country it was determined that after 65 a person’s brain is no longer capable of making business decisions. I think that is rot. I have more business ability at 73 than I had at 63, and I resent the implication that I am over the hill and can no longer oversee the company my husband and I built from scratch.” So says Mrs. Gladstone, the intimidating, white-haired Texas widow who owns Gladstone’s Shoes—a company built on quality and service, with 176 stores in 37 states. Now her son, Elden, who cares nothing for quality, just wants to make a quick buck by selling out to a large conglomerate. Unfortunately, most of the stockholders agree with him. Read more…
