Family

Leo Tolstoy famously begins the novel Anna Karenina with the sentence: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." In this thematic collection, we have gathered noteworthy texts that navigate the joyous and sorrowful emotional terrain of the family unit.

Publication year 1908

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Relationships: Family, Relationships: Friendship

Tags Classic Fiction, Historical Fiction, Coming of Age / Bildungsroman

Anne of Green Gables is a world-renowned classic children’s novel first published in 1908 by Canadian author L. M. Montgomery. Set in the latter part of the 19th century in fictional Avonlea, a small town on Prince Edward Island, Canada, the story follows the accidental arrival of a precocious 11-year-old orphan girl, Anne Shirley, at Green Gables, the family homestead of middle-aged siblings Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. Many mishaps, adventures, and ultimate successes follow Anne... Read Anne Of Green Gables Summary


Publication year 1985

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Identity: Femininity, Life/Time: Coming of Age, Relationships: Family, Relationships: Mothers, Society: Colonialism

Tags Classic Fiction, Coming of Age / Bildungsroman, Education, Education, History: World, Historical Fiction

Annie John, published in 1985, is the second book by the Antiguan American author Jamaica Kincaid (née Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson). Annie John is a coming-of-age novel that follows the life of a young girl from age 10 to 17, until she leaves her home in Antigua, bound for nursing school in England. In the novel, Annie describes her most important relationships, and the bond with her mother is chief among them. Life is heaven... Read Annie John Summary


Publication year 2001

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Emotions/Behavior: Love, Relationships: Family, Society: Class

Tags Romance, Historical Fiction, Regency Era


Publication year 1998

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Relationships: Family, Identity: Indigenous, Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Identity: Femininity, Identity: Gender, Identity: Mental Health, Identity: Race, Life/Time: The Past, Society: Colonialism, Society: Politics & Government, Values/Ideas: Beauty, Values/Ideas: Equality

Tags Fantasy, Magical Realism, Historical Fiction

Antelope Woman is a novel by Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) author Louise Erdrich. First published in 1998 as The Antelope Wife, Erdrich revised and updated the text in 2012 and re-issued it, adding new content, storylines, and chapters. Like much of Erdrich’s other work, the novel is a multi-generational story of both Indigenous and white families set in and around traditional Ojibwe lands in North Dakota and Minnesota. Erdrich is known for her use of magical realism... Read Antelope Woman Summary


Publication year 1995

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Themes Relationships: Family

Tags Psychology, Mental Illness, Science / Nature, Psychology, Health / Medicine, Biography

An Unquiet Mind, written by Kay Redfield Jamison and first published in 1995, is a memoir about a clinical psychologist’s experience living with manic-depressive illness. The book details her life, from her early experiences as a child, through the beginning of her mood swings, her diagnosis of manic-depressive illness, her struggles with the disease, and her eventual management of and control over it, following years of therapy and medication. Aside from having experienced it, Jamison... Read An Unquiet Mind Summary


Publication year 1991

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Values/Ideas: Good & Evil, Relationships: Family, Society: Immigration, Identity: Race, Life/Time: Coming of Age, Society: Community

Tags Realistic Fiction, Children's Literature, Education, Education, Arts / Culture

Tony Johnston’s Any Small Goodness: A Novel of the Barrio is a young adult novel originally published in 2001 by Scholastic, Inc. As a meditation on the value of friendship, family, and community, the novel centers the Mexican American Rodriguez family as they adapt to life in a lower-income Los Angeles barrio (Spanish for “neighborhood”). In school, their son Arturo bonds with other Mexican American students, joining them as they reclaim their Mexican roots. Ever... Read Any Small Goodness Summary


Publication year 2009

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Relationships: Family, Life/Time: Coming of Age

Tags Realistic Fiction, Coming of Age / Bildungsroman, Disability, Children's Literature, Modern Classic Fiction

Nora Raleigh Baskin won the Schneider Family Book Award for the young adult novel Anything But Typical, published in 2009. Anything But Typical tells the first-person fictional story of a 12-year-old boy diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Jason Blake struggles with adolescence in the same ways most 12-year-old boys do, but his disorder makes it more difficult for him to verbally express his experience. Instead, he turns to writing to share his inner world... Read Anything But Typical Summary


Publication year 2017

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Relationships: Siblings, Relationships: Family, Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Emotions/Behavior: Guilt, Society: Community, Emotions/Behavior: Shame & Pride, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Emotions/Behavior: Forgiveness, Emotions/Behavior: Fear, Emotions/Behavior: Hope

Tags Relationships, American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction

Anything Is Possible is a 2017 novel by Elizabeth Strout in which each chapter features a character who is separate from but interconnects with the book’s other characters. Each chapter thus serves as both an autonomous short story and a piece of a larger, cohesive narrative and echoes or parallels other chapters.Strout, whose 2008 novel Olive Kitteridge won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, received the prestigious Story Prize for Anything Is Possible. The novel follows... Read Anything Is Possible Summary


Publication year 2005

Genre Short Story, Fiction

Themes Relationships: Family, Self Discovery, Relationships: Mothers, Relationships: Daughters & Sons, Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Emotions/Behavior: Grief

Tags Education, Education, Classic Fiction


Publication year 2020

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Natural World: Food, Relationships: Friendship, Relationships: Family, Identity: Race, Life/Time: Coming of Age

Tags Realistic Fiction, Food, Children's Literature, Jewish Literature, Modern Classic Fiction


Publication year 2018

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Relationships: Family

Tags Modern Classic Fiction, Indian Literature

Fatima Farheen Mirza’s A Place for Us debuted in 2018. The novel, an instant New York Times best seller, was lauded as one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, NPR, and more. It’s notable for its extensive use of flashbacks and shifting perspective, which moves between third and first person.Plot SummaryThe novel begins when Amar, a young man estranged from his traditional Indian Muslim family, comes home for his sister... Read A Place for Us Summary


Publication year 2021

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Relationships: Siblings, Relationships: Family, Society: Community

Tags Historical Fiction, WWII / World War II, Children's Literature, Military / War, History: World


Publication year 2001

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Themes Emotions/Behavior: Shame & Pride, Relationships: Family

Tags Coming of Age / Bildungsroman, Incarceration, Education, Race / Racism, Education, Social Justice, Biography

Jimmy Santiago Baca, born in 1952, is an American poet and author of A Place to Stand. Poems by Baca include “Immigrants in Our Own Land” (1979) and “Who Understands Me but Me” (1979). This memoir begins with Baca’s early years at home with his drunken, abusive father and his unhappy mother. Baca loves his father, who is continually in and out of jail, but Baca’s mother abandons her three children to marry a man... Read A Place to Stand Summary


Publication year 1953

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Identity: Gender, Relationships: Family, Values/Ideas: Power & Greed

Tags Mystery / Crime Fiction, Horror / Thriller / Suspense Fiction, British Literature, Classic Fiction

A Pocket Full of Rye is a 1953 detective novel by Agatha Christie featuring the recurring character of the elderly and discerning spinster Miss Marple. Christie wrote dozens of detective novels and short stories during her lifetime, and her play The Mousetrap ran continuously from 1952 until the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, setting a record for the longest running play in the world.Miss Marple is featured in multiple volumes of short stories and... Read A Pocket Full of Rye Summary


Publication year 2015

Genre Short Story, Fiction

Themes Relationships: Family, Life/Time: Aging, Identity: Sexuality, Society: Class, Emotions/Behavior: Love

Tags African Literature, Education, Education, African American Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, LGBTQ


Publication year 2020

Genre Memoir in Verse, Nonfiction

Themes Relationships: Family, Life/Time: Coming of Age, Society: Colonialism, Society: Community, Identity: Indigenous

Tags Race / Racism, Social Justice, LGBTQ, Biography


Publication year 2021

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Emotions/Behavior: Love, Relationships: Family

Tags Mystery / Crime Fiction, Relationships, Trauma / Abuse / Violence, Horror / Thriller / Suspense Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction


Publication year 2024

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Emotions/Behavior: Determination / Perseverance, Emotions/Behavior: Forgiveness, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Life/Time: Coming of Age, Natural World: Animals, Natural World: Place, Relationships: Family, Relationships: Siblings, Values/Ideas: Good & Evil, Values/Ideas: Loyalty & Betrayal, Values/Ideas: Power & Greed, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies

Tags Fantasy, Romance, Humor


Publication year 1919

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Emotions/Behavior: Love, Relationships: Family, Relationships: Fathers, Values/Ideas: Beauty, Life/Time: Childhood & Youth, Emotions/Behavior: Nostalgia

Tags Lyric Poem, Parenting, Mythology

“A Prayer for my Daughter” by William Butler (W.B.) Yeats was originally published in his collection Michael Robartes and the Dancer in 1921. This book also includes one of Yeats’s most famous poems—“The Second Coming”—and was Yeats’s eighth collection of lyrical poems. “A Prayer for my daughter” was written in 1919, a year that marked the beginning of the Irish War of Independence. The war lasted until 1921 and heavily influenced Yeats. The poem’s location... Read A Prayer for My Daughter Summary


Publication year 1961

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Life/Time: Coming of Age, Relationships: Family, Values/Ideas: Religion & Spirituality

Tags Historical Fiction, Coming of Age / Bildungsroman, Military / War, History: U.S., Religion / Spirituality, Relationships, American Revolution, Education, Education, History: World, Classic Fiction

April Morning is a historical fiction work by Howard Fast, a prolific author whose writings spanned the bulk of the 20th century. Published in 1961, midway through Fast’s career, the novel is one of many he wrote on the Revolutionary War and the birth of America. Originally intended for a general audience, it came to be regarded as a young adult novel as many middle and high school English programs included it in their curriculum... Read April Morning Summary