3-5 Books | University of Central Florida

This collection contains materials from the DIVerse Families bibliography organized by Grades 3-5.

DIVerse Families is a comprehensive bibliography that demonstrates the growing diversity of families in the United States. This type of bibliography provides teachers, librarians, counselors, adoption agencies, children/young adults, and especially parents and grandparents needing to empower their children with materials that reflect their families.

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The Lovely Shoes

Susan Shreve

In 1950s Ohio, ninth-grader Franny feels isolated and self-conscious at high school because of her deformed leg and feet, but her irrepressibly high-spirited mother is determined to find shoes for Franny to wear at the school dances.
The Lunch Thief

Anne C. Bromley

Rafael is angry that a new student is stealing lunches, but he takes time to learn what the real problem is before acting.
The Magic Mirror: Concerning a Lonely Princess, a Foundling Girl, a Scheming King and a Pickpocket Squirrel

Susan Hill Long

From the time she was a crippled baby, left in a church, Maggie's life has never been easy but when she glimpses her destiny in a magic mirror, she goes off on a quest to find her father and, along the way, finds happiness, as well.
The Mailbox

Audrey Shafer

When twelve-year-old Gabe tries to hide his uncle's death from the local authorities, he is not prepared for what happens when this secret is discovered.
The Maze

Will Hobbs

Rick, a fourteen-year-old foster child, escapes from a juvenile detention facility near Las Vegas and travels to Canyonlands National Park in Utah where he meets a bird biologist working on a project to reintroduce condors to the wild.
The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James

Ashley Herring Blake

When Sunny St. James receives a new heart, she decides to set off on a New Life Plan: 1) do awesome amazing things she could never do before; 2) find a new best friend; and 3) kiss a boy for the first time. Her New Life Plan seems to be racing forward, but when she meets her new best friend Quinn, Sunny questions whether she really wants to kiss a boy at all. With the reemergence of her mother, Sunny begins a journey to becoming the new Sunny St. James
The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher

Dana Alison Levy

Relates the adventures of a family with two fathers, four adopted boys, and a variety of pets as they make their way through a school year, Kindergarten through sixth grade, and deal with a grumpy new neighbor.
The Missing Manatee

Cynthia DeFelice

All Skeet Waters wants is to catch a big, beautiful tarpon on his fly rod - and to keep everything else in his life in Florida the way it's always been. But on his spring break from school, Skeet overhears his mother telling his father to move out permanently. Then, while riding in his boat to escape his parents' troubles, he discovers a manatee that's been shot in the head. Skeet puts aside his search for the manatee and its killer when Dirty Dan the Tarpon Man offers to take him out to catch his first tarpon on a fly. Because of Dan, Skeet begins to unravel the mysteries surrounding the manatee's apparent murder and his parents' dissolving marriage. Skeet discovers that life is a lot like tarpon fishing, in which you can't look just at the surface of the water - you have to look through it, at what lies beneath.
The Mitten String

Jennifer Rosner

Ruthie Tober's family is known for the beautiful, warm mittens they knit so when she and her mother meet a deaf woman and her baby and give them shelter, Ruthie decides to design very special mittens for them.
The Naming of Tishkin Silk

Glenda Millard

The first book in the Kingdom of Silk series. Griffin has a secret in his heart that nobody else knows - until he meets Layla., a princess with a daisy-chain crown.
The Nerdiest, Wimpiest, Dorkiest I Funny Ever (I Funny #6)

James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein

Comedian Jamie Grimm can't help feeling like he's reached the top--he has his own smash hit TV show and he's won a national funny-kid competition. But now he's taking his fame and fortune to international levels by competing in the upcoming world kid comic contest! Will Jamie prove that he's the funniest kid on earth--or does he stand (or sit!) to lose his crown?
The Night Dad Went to Jail: What to Expect When Someone You Love Goes to Jail

Melissa Higgins

When someone you love goes to jail, you might feel lost, scared, and even mad. What do you do? No matter who your loved one is, this story can help you through the tough times.
The Night Diary

Veera Hiranandani

It's 1947, and India, newly independent of British rule, has been separated into two countries: Pakistan and India. The divide has created much tension between Hindus and Muslims, and hundreds of thousands are killed crossing borders. Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha doesn't know where she belongs, or what her country is anymore. When Papa decides it's too dangerous to stay in what is now Pakistan, Nisha and her family become refugees and embark first by train but later on foot to reach her new home. The journey is long, difficult, and dangerous, and after losing her mother as a baby, Nisha can't imagine losing her homeland, too. But even if her country has been ripped apart, Nisha still believes in the possibility of putting herself back together.
The Notations of Cooper Cameron

Jane O'Reilly

At the family cabin by the lake where his grandfather died two years ago, eleven-year-old Cooper Cameron spends the summer trying to rid himself of the rituals that allow him to cope with his grief and fear.
The One Where the Kid Nearly Jumps to His Death and Lands in California

Mary Hershey

Alastair, a thirteen-year-old who calls himself "Stump" because of his amputated leg, must face a summer at his wealthy but estranged father's beach house in Los Angeles, where he meets his stepmother, falls in love with a teenaged soap opera star, and decides to train for a race with a former Olympic swim coach.
The Other Half of My Heart

Sundee Tucker Frazier

Twin daughters of interracial parents, eleven-year-olds Keira and Minna have very different skin tones and personalities, but it is not until their African American grandmother enters them in the Miss Black Pearl Pre-Teen competition in North Carolina that red-haired and pale-skinned Minna realizes what life in their small town in the Pacific Northwest has been like for her more outgoing, darker-skinned sister.
The People of Twelve Thousand Winters

Trinka Hakes Noble

Ten-year-old Walking Turtle, of the Lenni-Lenape tribe, is close to his younger cousin, Little Talk, who has difficulty walking and worries about what will become of him when the time comes for Walking Turtle to leave his childhood friends to begin training at warrior school.
The Popularity Papers Book 2: The Long-Distance Dispatch between Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang

Amy Ignatow

After spending a year studying popularity, Julie and Lydia are finally ready to put their hard-earned lessons to use in junior high. But before they can conquer the world together, Lydia's mom gets a job in London.
The Popularity Papers Book 3: Words of (Questionable) Wisdom from Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang

Amy Ignatow

Twelve-year-old best friends Julie and Lydia are reunited after six months apart, but the news that their friend Sukie's mother has died after a long illness causes them to reevaluate their goals and focus on being supportive of the friends they already have.
The Popularity Papers Book 4: The Rocky Road Trip of Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang

Amy Ignatow

It's summertime, and Julie and Lydia are going on a road trip! After all the ups and downs of their first year in junior high, they're looking forward to seeing the sights and getting some new perspective on their quest for popularity.
The Popularity Papers Book 5: The Awesomely Awful Melodies of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang

Amy Ignatow

Fresh from their epic summer road trip, Lydia and Julie are back and ready to take seventh grade by storm. Well, at least Lydia is. She wants to start a band and reinvent herself as a rock star. After making Lydia promise that this is absolutely not another disaster-waiting-to-happen scheme for popularity, Julie agrees. Add Roland (expert at the guitar-like hardingfele) and Jane (expert at drama)...and the Macramé Owls are born! Unfortunately, none of them are expert musicians. Despite their lack of skills, Lydia and Julie find themselves riding a wave of notoriety. The girls may have accidentally stumbled upon the secret to popularity in their new rock 'n' roll personas. But there's still the problem of actually playing their instruments.
The Popularity Papers Book 6: Love and Other Fiascos with Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang

Amy Ignatow

When Julie and Roland become an official couple, Lydia and Julie try to find romantic guidance, while Lydia's mother announces her plans to marry Lydia's soccer coach, Eric.
The Popularity Papers Book 7: The Less-Than-Hidden Secrets and Final Revelations of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang

Amy Ignatow

Lydia and Julie have been through many adventures as they navigated junior high and the search for popularity, but as they near the end of seventh grade, life seems to be settling into a familiar rhythm. And then ... disaster strikes! Literally. The peaceful world of Hamlin Junior High is rocked when the students learn that they're going to have to play host to new students whose junior high school burned down. The outside threat bands the Hamlin kids together against a common enemy--for a while. When someone gets their hands on Lydia and Julie's notebook and starts papering the school with some of the girls' most private thoughts, no one from either school wants anything to do with them. With the big, combined-school dance looming, how can the girls stop the war and redeem their rotten reputations?
The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt & Julie Graham-Chang

Amy Ignatow

Two best friends embark on a project to study the behavior and taste of the popular girls at their elementary school so that by the time they get to middle school they too will be in the right crowd. Novel appears in the form of a scrapbook.
The Proposal (Christy Series #5)

C. Archer and Catherine Marshall

Blinded in a riding accident, Christy has self-doubts about resuming her career and accepting the town minister's marriage proposal.