This collection contains materials on the topic of incarceration from the DIVerse Families bibliography. Incarceration stories discuss family members who have been imprisoned due to criminal acts. They can be confined in prison, jail, or juvenile detention. These stories often highlight the impact that incarcerated parents and/or children can have on the family.
Family relationships grow through the connections we create with the people in our lives. Your family can be made of blood or non-blood relatives, friends, or pets, or a combination of these. Diverse families and their relationships are slowly becoming the new norm and will only continue to grow as the world progresses.
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After Tupac & D Foster
Jacqueline Woodson
In the New York City borough of Queens in 1996, three girls bond over their shared love of Tupac Shakur's music, as together they try to make sense of the unpredictable world in which they live.
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Amber was Brave, Essie was Smart
Vera B. Williams
A series of poems tells how two sisters help each other deal with life while their mother is working and their father has been sent to jail.
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An Ember in the Ashes
Sabaa Tahir
Laia is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire's greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution.
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An Inmate's Daughter
Jan Walker
Jenna's mother forbids her to tell her friends that her dad is in prison. Prison reflects on wives and children. Keeping the fact of prison secret becomes more difficult when the newspaper runs a story about Jenna's "Good Samaritan" rescue at the McNeil Island Corrections Center. She just wants to fit in. As Jenna writes in her journal, children of prisoners are doing time too.
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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Benjamin Alire Senz
Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before.
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A Visit to the Big House
Oliver Butterworth
When Willy, Rose, and their mother go to visit Daddy in prison, they are quite anxious. But once Daddy appears and they can talk and ask questions.
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Bait
Alex Sanchez
Diego keeps getting into trouble because of his explosive temper until he finally finds a probation officer who helps him get to the root of his anger so that he can stop running from his past.
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Breaking Out
Barthe DeClements
As thirteen-year-old Jerry enters junior high school, he continues to adjust to the fact that his father is in prison for theft. Sequel to "Five Finger Discount" and "Monkey See Monkey Do."
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Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London
Andrea Warren
Warren takes you on a journey into the workhouses, slums, factories, and schools of Victorian England, and into the world of Dickens. She shows how he used his pen to do battle on behalf of the poor, becoming one of the great reformers of his or any age.
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Coping When a Parent is in Jail
John J. La Valle
This book discusses problems that are common to children who have incarcerated parents.
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Dad's in Prison
Sandra Cain and Margaret Speed
Tells the story of two brothers whose father is sent to prison. Narrated by the elder brother, the book describes the boys' experiences and emotions during and after their father's arrest and throughout their first visit to see him in prison.
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Dear Yvette (Throwback Diaries)
Ni-Ni Simone
After a street fights ends with a jail sentence, Yvette is forced to live far from anything and anyone she's ever known, but starting her life over again may show her what it means to have a real family.
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Do Not Pass Go
Kirkpatrick Hill
When Deet's father is jailed for using drugs, Deet learns that prison is not what he expected, nor are other people necessarily the way he thought they were.
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Far Apart, Close in Heart
Becky Birtha
Children from all walks of life experience various emotions when their parent is in jail or prison, but they learn there are ways to communicate their feelings that will help improve their situation and remind them they are not alone.
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Finlater
Shawn Stewart Ruff
In this Lambda Literary Award-winning debut, the course of growing up in just-this-side-of-segregation 1970s Cincinnati, Ohio, seems predictable if uninspiring for Cliffy Douglas. That is, until the deadbeat father of this gifted 13-year-old black kid from the Finlater Gardens Projects appears out of nowhere. The real fun and trouble begin when Noah, a Jewish boy he meets in junior high school, takes him on a joyride to first lust and love.
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Five-Finger Discount
Barthe DeClements
Ten-year-old Jerry's attempts to adjust to his new school and make new friends are complicated by his determination to keep secret the fact that his father is serving time in the local prison for being a thief.
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Four-Four-Two
Dean Hughes
From the author of Soldier Boys and Search and Destroy comes a thought-provoking, action-packed story based on the little-known history of the Japanese Americans who fought with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II. Yuki Nakahara is an American. But it's the start of World War II, and America doesn't see it that way. Like many other Japanese Americans, Yuki and his family have been forced into an internment camp in the Utah desert. But Yuki isn't willing to sit back and accept this injustice-it's his country too, and he's going to prove it by enlisting in the army to fight for the Allies. When Yuki and his friend Shig ship out, they aren't prepared for the experiences they'll encounter as members of the "Four-Four-Two," a segregated regiment made up entirely of Japanese-American soldiers. Before Yuki returns home-if he returns home-he'll come face to face with persistent prejudices, grueling combat he never imagined, and friendships deeper than he knew possible.
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Gaijin: American Prisoner of War
Matt Faulkner
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, a thirteen-year-old California boy who is half Japanese is sent to an internment camp. Story based on the history of the author's great-aunt.
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Jakeman
Deborah Ellis
Jake and his older sister, Shoshonna, along with a busload of kids, visit their mother in prison regularly. But this time the journey turns into a series of misadventures, and the kids find themselves on their own, hatching a plan to find the Governor and plead with him to pardon their moms.
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Kofi's Mom
Richard W. Dyches
Kofi's Mom is a story about Kofi whose mother is sent to prison. It explores his feelings of loss and confusion. Through friends at school, Kofi begins to talk about his mom and to look forward to her return.
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Mama Loves Me from Away
Pat Brisson
When a mother and daughter are separated by the mother's incarceration, they find a special way to keep their loving relationship alive.
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Mexican Whiteboy
Matt de la Pena
Sixteen-year-old Danny searches for his identity amidst the confusion of being half-Mexican and half-white while spending a summer with his cousin and new friends on the baseball fields and back alleys of San Diego County, California.
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Monkey See, Monkey Do
Barthe DeClements
Jerry's adored father seems unable to stay out of jail, causing the sixth grader anguish at home and in school.
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My Daddy is in Jail
Janet Bender
My Daddy is in Jail is a long overdue resource for helping children cope with the incarceration of a loved one. It includes a read-aloud story discussion guide caregiver suggestions and optional small group counseling activities. With this book helping professionals and other caring adults will find themselves better equipped to provide information and support to these vulnerable children and their families.
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My Daddy's in Jail
Anthony Curcio
There are nearly three million adults in the U.S. alone that are in prison or jail. Many of these being parents that leave behind unanswered questions with their children: What is jail? Why did this happen? Is it my fault? Is my daddy (or mommy) bad? Do they love me? My Daddy's in Jail is a story of two bears who have a father in prison. The book is narrated by a very odd cockroach.