Stories about Sons, Fathers, and Grandfathers

My reading has once again slowed...but right now I'm on the look out for possible short stories to use with my students. Luckily short story anthologies are pretty quick reads. 

The first anthology I found on the library shelf was The Most Important Thing: Stories About Sons, Fathers, and Grandfathers by Avi. While I am neither a father or son, many of my students are and I was hopfeul that one of these stories might be good for my seventh graders.

This anthology included such a wide range of stories..all about good dads, bad dads, absent dads, and even new dads. Honestly, my favorite story was one about a young man whose father had passed a way a few years earlier. His mother had begun dating men and approaches her son about marrying someone new. The boy is fine with this idea--on one condition. That he gets to treat the open position of being his dad like a job. He asks for an application, recommendations, and even interviews the candidate before trying to decide whether he will be a good enough dad for himself. It's such a fun playful story!

I love that it has all different stories about different types of parents, good and bad! Because not all teens have the same experience with loving, good parents in their home. There is a wide variety of representation in this anthology. 

One of the novels that I read with my seventh graders every year also connects well with this topic of father-son relationships. The novel is The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. My students always love the book and I highly recommend it to lovers of historical fiction and middle grade.

Set in the late 1960s, the novel mostly centers around Holling Hoodhood, a twelve-year-old boy, and his relationship with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, who he thinks hates his guts. However, his relationship with his father, a strict businessman is also key to the novel and Holling's character development. 

Holling's father, an architect, wants him to inherit his business someday and as Holling learns more and more about himself he realizes that he doesn't want to become "just the Son Who Is Going to Inherit Hoodhood and Associates." And in the end, he confronts his father with his new found sense of self.

It's one of those great books that has humor, empathy, sadness, joy, cultural awareness, etc. I just love it and my students enjoy it just as much as I do. 

These are all great stories for young men who are dealing with varying relationships with their own fathers and grandfathers. I recommend these for all realistic fiction lovers to enjoy. You can purchase a copy of the anthology here and a copy of The Wednesday Wars here.