Unusual parents

• And Peakie Lived Happily Ever After by Lavinia Russ
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery's (older adoptive parents)
• Arthur, For the Very First Time by Patricia MacLachlan is an example of a good, unusual parent. Moira's "parent", Moreover is definitely odd. For that matter so are Arthur's aunt and uncle who are watching him for the summer.
• The Bears' House by Marilyn Sachs
• Blabber Mouth by Morris Gleitzman
• Bloomability by Sharon Creech
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. by Roald Dahl
• The Children of Charlecote by Brian Fairfax-Lucy: (an apparently privileged family of children are in fact emotionally and sometimes physically neglected by parents who are obsessed with preserving their ancestral home)
• Danny, The Champion of the World by Roald Dahl.
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens:(boy ill-treated by awful stepfather; eventually finds sanctuary with eccentric aunt)
• Dicey by Cynthia Voigt
• A Door Near Here by Heather Quarles. It won last years Delacort prize. The mom's a drunk, the oldest daughter struggles to keep the family going with the help of her siblings. Dad's got his new family.
• George's Marvelous Medicine, by Roald Dahl,
• Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton Porter: (embittered rejecting mother)
• The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, not your average parents by any stretch!
• Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian: (emotionally disturbed, abusive mother)
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: (Pip brought up by much older sister and brother-in-law, to say nothing of the most peculiar relationship between Estella and Miss Haversham)
• The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson (foster family)
• Gumble's Yard by John Rowe Townsend: (children must cope mostly without the help of their feckless parents)
• Heidi by Johanna Spyri: (child brought up by reclusive grandfather)
• Journey by First-Class Camel/ Journey to an 800 Number by E.L. Konigsburg
• Juniper by Gene Kemp: (father is a criminal on the run; mother is seriously depressed and being essentially looked after by her daughter).
• A Kind of Thief by Vivien Alcock: (father is a white-collar criminal; stepmother is an immature young woman who can't cope with her responsibilities and disappears)
• Libby on Wednesday by Ziplha Keatley Snyder. Libby's mom moved to New York City when Libby was three years old to pursue her actress career. (Libby is 11 now.) It is not that she does not love the family. She had to leave because the "call" to pursue the career was so strong. She still comes home (near San Francisco) between jobs and makes important decisions for the family.
• Lyddie by Katherine Paterson(absent father, mentally ill mother, oldest girl trying to fill the gap),
• Matilda, by Roald Dahl.
• Me and Fat Glenda? It is about a girl with hippie parents. The mother, Inez, wears black leotards, eats only raw food, and paints the master bedroom black. The father, Drew, is a university professor who drives a garbage truck and collects junk.
• Memoirs of a Bookbat by Kathryn Lasky.
• Misery Guts by Morris Gleitzman
• MY LOUISIANA SKY, by Kimberley W. Holt, features a girl whose parents are both mentally challenged, while she herself is not. It is a well written and compelling story.
• The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (older brothers trying to act as parents)
• The Pillars of the House by Charlotte Yonge: (older siblings act as surrogate parents)
• The President's Daughter by Ruth Emerson White (mother as US president)
• Puppy Fat by Morris Gleitzman
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farmby Kate Douglas Wiggin: (child mainly brought up by aunts, though her mother is alive)
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett: (Colin's father is permanently absent, and leaves him with servants; Mary's parents are dead, and had obviously never been very interested in her)
• Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher (absent father/single mother with boyfriend, absent mother/abusive father)
• Sticky Beak by Morris Gleitzman
• Tex by S.E. Hinton
• The Trolls by Polly Horvath (published in March 1999, Farrar). The story is about a family (mom, dad, 3 kids) that is more or less functional. The parents go on vacation and an aunt comes to stay with the kids, telling them stories about their father as a child. The stories she tells are not particularly sweet or nostalgic, and some of them involve family rifts that have never been healed. The overall narrative lands someplace between dysfunctionalfamily and humorous normalcy, which is an intriguing place to land.
• Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (aunt filling in as parent after mother's death--father still alive but not caring daily for girl)
• UP COUNTRY, by Alden Carter, was his single-parent mother unusual because of her drinking and bringing home "fancy men?"
• Weetzie Bat by Francesca Block (both generations)
• Worry Worts by Morris Gleitzman
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle (scientist parents--Meg definitely feels they are "different" from other parents)