Cooper, Anderson and Gloria Vanderbilt.The Rainbow Comes and Goes.Harper, 2016.

Anderson Cooper was busy with his career as a journalist when his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, suffered her first serious illness at the age of ninety-one. After that experience, he decided to spend more quality time with her. This book follows a year-long conversation between mother and son discussing family history, personal tragedies and triumphs.

Heti, Sheila, Heidi Julavits and Leanne Shapton.Women in Clothes.Blue Rider Press, 2014.

A conversation among hundreds of women of all nationalities— famous, anonymous, religious, secular, married, single, young, old—on the subject of clothing, and how the garments we put on every day define and shape our lives.

Knisley, Lucy.Displacement: A Travelogue.Fantagraphics Books, 2015.

Displacementis Lucy Knisley’s graphic memoir of her experiences traveling with her aging grandparents on a cruise. Knisley explores her frustrations and fears while taking care of her grandparents and coming to terms with their mortality. The graphic novel looks at her family history, using her grandfather’s WWII memoir as a guide.

Lightman, Alan.Screening Room: A Memoir of the South.Pantheon Books, 2015.

Alan Lightman's grandfather, M.A. Lightman, was the family's undisputed patriarch. It was his movie theater empire that catapulted the Lightmans, a Hungarian Jewish immigrant family, to prominence in the South; his triumphs both galvanized and paralyzed his descendants. In this evocative personal history, the author chronicles his return to Memphis and the stifling home he was so eager to flee forty years earlier. As aging uncles and aunts retell old stories, Alan finds himself reconsidering long-held beliefs about his larger-than-life grandfather and his quiet, inscrutable father.

Shapiro, Bill and Naomi Wax.What We Keep: 150 People Share the One Object that Brings Them Joy, Magic, and Meaning.Running Press Adult, 2018.

Best-selling author and former editor-in-chief of LIFE magazine, Bill Shapiro shares the stories of 150 objects that are each deeply personal to their owners. The interviews range from renowned authors to everyday individuals. The stories are paired with photographs of the object and the interviewee.

Bender, Aimee.The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.Doubleday Books, 2010.

On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the slice. To her horror, she finds that her cheerful mother tastes of despair. Soon, she’s privy to the secret knowledge that most families keep hidden: her father’s detachment, her mother’s transgression, her brother’s increasing retreat from the world. But there are some family secrets that even her cursed taste buds can’t discern.

Simses, Mary.The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Café.Little, Brown and Company, 2013.

Manhattanite Ellen Branford travels to her grandmother’s hometown in Beacon, Maine the week after her death. Ellen’s close relationship with her grandmother leads her to agree to fulfill her last request—to deliver a letter to her grandmother’s first love. Though at first not a fan of the small, New England town, Ellen learns about her grandmother’s past and rediscovers herself in the process.

Anderson, Jessica.Tirra Lirra By the River. Melville House, 2015. (Originally published in 1978.)

Nora Porteous, a witty, ambitious woman from Brisbane, returns to her childhood home at age seventy. Her life has taken her from a failed marriage in Sydney to freedom in London; she forged a modest career as a seamstress and lived with two dear friends through the happiest years of her adult life. At home, the neighborhood children she remembers have grown into compassionate adults. They help to nurse her back from pneumonia, and slowly let her in on the dark secrets of the neighborhood in the years that have lapsed.

Backman, Fredrik.My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry.Atria Books, 2015.

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal. When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins.

Ware, Lesley.How to Be a Fashion Designer.DK Publishing, 2018.

This book teaches how to design clothes and covers tools, color palettes, basic sewing techniques and pattern making. Children can design outfits from scratch and put together outfits from items they already own.

Fleming, Candace and Gerard Dubois.The Amazing Collection of Joey Cornell.Schwartz & Wade Books, 2018.

Joey Cornell always loved to collect items. When his father passed away, young Joey created an art exhibit out of his collected objects to cheer his family up with something magical. Joseph Cornell never stopped making art from his collections of objects and became a renowned Surrealist sculptor.

Amato, Danielle Mages.The Hidden Memory of Objects.Balzer + Bray, 2017.

Megan Brown discovers she has a gift to see memories attached to objects that once belonged to her brother. She hopes this ability will help her figure out why he died. She doesn’t believe it could be a drug overdose or potential suicide. Megan partners with her brother’s friend, Nathan, to track down the truth while reclaiming her own identity.

Brahmachari, Sita.Mira in the Present Tense. Albert Whitman & Company, 2013.

Twelve-year-old Mira comes from a chaotic, artistic, and outspoken family in which it's not always easy to be heard. As her beloved Nana Josie's health declines, Mira begins to discover the secrets of those around her and also starts to keep some of her own. She is drawn to mysterious Jide, a boy who is clearly hiding a troubled past. As Mira is experiencing grief for the first time, she is also discovering the wondrous and often mystical world around her.

Fox, Mem.Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge.Kane/Miller Book Publishers, 1985.

A small boy tries to discover the meaning of memory so he can restore that of an elderly friend.

Krishnaswami, Uma.Remembering Grandpa.Boyds Mills Press, 2007

Daysha's grandma has come down with a bad case of sadness over the loss of Grandpa, but sad isn't how Daysha remembers him. Grandpa has been gone for more than a year. Daysha sets out to cheer up Grandma by collecting things that can bring happy memories: a button that fell off Grandpa's coat, flowers from the field where she and Grandpa chased butterflies, Grandpa's old guitar. She places all of the objects near the back porch of Grandma's house. As Daysha had hoped, they bring back happy memories. Grandma agrees that this is the best way to remember Grandpa.

Quan, Betty.Grandmother’s Visit.Toronto, Ontario: Groundwood Books, 2018.

Grace’s grandmother lives with her family. Her grandmother teaches her new things and tells her stories about growing up in China. Then one day her grandmother is no longer there. This picture book shares how to cope with the loss of a loved one.

This resource was created, in part, with the generous support of the Open Society Foundation and Latino Public Broadcasting.