Even if you have brothers or sisters, you may not have realized it’s National Siblings Day! Now that you know, we’re guessing you’ll want to observe this celebration of familial bonds by reading some of these novels featuring sibling relationships in all their complex glory.
Okay, even though you love your sibs, sometimes you still want to kill them. That’s where the siblings in this dysfunctional family start. Leo, fresh out of rehab, gets into an accident that threatens to drain his siblings’ long-awaited inheritance, setting off a chain reaction of old hurts, resentments, and expectations. But might this wake-up call be what they need to rediscover the power of family?
Like we weren’t going to include this one? The book that sparked a thousand debates over whether Laurie should have picked Jo or Amy (Jo, it’s always Jo) is a perfect look at sisterhood. Even when they drive you crazy, you love your sisters like no one else.
The wonderful story of the March sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy and their wonderful Marmee and their joys and mishaps they face as young women and as a family. Based on Louise May Alcott's childhood, this lively portrait of nineteenth-century family life possesses a lasting vitality that has endeared it to generations of readers.
Jodi Picoult has always shown a knack for ripped-from-the-headlines plots, but this was really her breakout. Anna was born to be a “savior sister” to her older sister Kate, suffering from leukemia and in need of multiple transplants. Anna’s agreed to every request, but now, at 13, she faces her most serious surgery and dares to imagine living just for herself at last. How far would you go for your own sibling . . . and how many times?
In this emotionally riveting story, Jodi Picoult tackles the controversial subject of what it means to be a good parent and a good sister with keen insight and grace. MY SISTER’S KEEPER portrays a family is torn apart by conflicting needs between two daughters.
Listen to clip of the audiobook:
There’s brotherly love and then there’s . . . what happens between Cathy and Chris Dollanganger while they’re locked in the attic by their cruel mother and grandmother. For National Siblings Day, just be grateful that your own family isn’t as crazy as the ones in V. C. Andrews’s novels—and remember not to eat the powdered donuts.
They were a perfect family, golden and carefree—until a heartbreaking tragedy shattered their happiness. Now, for the sake of an inheritance that will ensure their future, the children must be hidden away out of sight, as if they never existed. Kept on the top floor of their grandmother’s vast mansion, their loving mother assures them it will be just for a little while. But as brutal days swell into agonizing months and years, Cathy, Chris, and twins Cory and Carrie realize their survival is at the mercy of their cruel and superstitious grandmother…and this cramped and helpless world may be the only one they ever know.
Jane Smiley’s retelling of King Lear won the Pulitzer Prize, and for good reason—her exploration of how our family relationships can both restrain us and uplift us stands beautifully on its own. (We also love that in this version, Ginny/Goneril gets to narrate her side of the story.)
An ambitious reimagining of Shakespeare’s King Lear cast upon a typical American community in the late twentieth century, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel takes on themes of truth, justice, love, and pride, and reveals the beautiful yet treacherous topography of humanity.
This National Book Award winner has so much to unpack, it could fit on any number of lists—but for National Siblings Day you could do worse than study the relationship between Jojo and his little sister Kayla. His care and concern for her on their ill-fated road trip will make you cry—or call your sib.
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When Claire Waverly’s estranged sister Sydney comes back to town, it sets sleepy Bascom, North Carolina abuzz. But the bond between these two women is truly powerful, and with the help of some family magic, they may get everything they ever wanted.
Generations of women in the Waverley family have been responsible for an enchanted garden behind their North Carolina home. It's now Claire’s turn to tend to the magical fruits and flowers that enhance the lives of all around her. But upon the return of her sister, Sydney, with a young daughter in tow, Claire must reevaluate her powers and what she wants from her life.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art turns out to be the perfect refuge for 12-year-old Claudia Kincaid and her younger brother, Jamie, when she decides to run away from her Connecticut home. Wandering the collection, bathing in the fountain, and sleeping in historically significant beds, Claudia and Jamie make us want to run away to the museum ourselves. A book nerd’s delight.
Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away...so she decided not to run FROM somewhere, but TO somewhere. And so, after some careful planning, she and her younger brother, Jamie, escaped -- right into a mystery that made headlines! Suggested by Ruby Deane
There’s much to love in this quiet, deceptively simple novel (a National Book Award finalist), but especially the portrait of two elderly brothers whose family bond reaches new depths when a pregnant teenage girl turns up on their doorstep.
Set near Denver, this National Book Award winner is utterly true to the rhythms and patterns of life in the High Plains. From the unsettled lives of four generations emerges a vision of the town and landscape that bind them together—their fates somehow overcoming the powerful circumstances of place and station.
