Banana Splits Club
Resources
Recommended Books
Split In Two: Keeping it Together When Your Parents Live Apart
by Karen Buscemi
Target audience: kids ages 12 -18. This book contains tips written by kids who have divorced parents and move between both houses. I would have loved a guide like this! It’s a light-hearted book that deals with solutions to a not-so-ideal situation. I especially enjoyed this book because it’s in comic form — I’m very visual, and loved looking at the stylistic choices the author made using this form!
The Alchemist
By Paulo Coelho
This novel follows a young shepherd boy named Santiago who has a dream and suspects he is a prophet. The major theme of this book is to follow your dreams and your heart. I suggest this book because fictional adventures can be very helpful emotionally when your parents are getting a divorce! The valuable message of the book is that in the end, your life is yours.
Turtles All the Way Down
By John Green
The theme of this book is mental illness: the main character, Aza, is diagnosed with OCD, and the readers spend the majority of the book in her mind as she deals with ‘thought spirals’ or anxiety. Although on the surface this has nothing to do with divorce, mental health is a topic that often comes up in our group discussions, and this book treats the subject very openly and honestly. Another aspect of this book I enjoyed was the theme of friendship! As I have learned through my experience with divorce, surrounding yourself with amazing friends who you can talk to about anything is especially helpful.
An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes
By Randy Ribay
A major theme of this book is also friendship! The book is about four high school students who embark on a road trip together — something my sister and I used to fantasize about. One of the characters, Archie, also has divorced parents, so it’s especially nice to read about his thoughts and feelings and feel represented.
Recommended Videos
I really enjoyed this TED talk by Professor Tamara D. Afifi. She discusses the impact divorce has on kids and how communication in families is important whether or not the parents are divorced. At the end of the video, Professor Afifi talks about what parents can do to minimize miscommunication and help kids with anxiety.
Educator Rod Phillips wrote this short animated video about the history of divorce.
Psychologist Yuko Munakata argues that parenting is just one of the many factors that shape who children ultimately become.
