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.
Browse by Grade Level:
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Three Names of Me
Mary Cummings
A girl adopted from China explains that her three names--one her birth mother whispered in her ear, one the babysitters at her orphanage called her, and one her American parents gave her--are each an important part of who she is. Includes scrapbooking ideas for other girls adopted from China.
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Three Pennies
Melanie Crowder
In San Francisco, eleven-year-old Marin desperately searches for her birthmother knowing time is running out before she is adopted, and discovers for the first time in her life what it feels like to be truly wanted by someone.
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Tiger's Fall
Molly Bang
After eleven-year-old Lupe is partially paralyzed in an accident in her Mexican village, other handicapped people help her realize that her life can still have purpose.
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Touch Blue
Cynthia Lord
When the state of Maine threatens to shut down their island's one-room schoolhouse because of dwindling enrollment, eleven-year-old Tess, a strong believer in luck, and her family take in a trumpet-playing foster child, to increase the school's population.
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Trevor's Story: Growing Up Biracial
Bethany Kandel
Ten-year-old Trevor Sage-El describes his life at home and at school, his feelings about being the son of a white mother and a black father, and what he likes and does not like about being biracial.
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True Believer
Virginia Euwer Wolff
Living in the inner city amidst guns and poverty, fifteen-year-old LaVaughn learns from old and new friends, and inspiring mentors, that life is what you make it--an occasion to rise to.
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Truth and Salsa
Linda Lowery
A spirited young girl must travel far from home to finally find herself. Mexico is a long way from Kalamazoo-and not just in terms of miles. Almost-thirteen-year-old Hayley Flynn is spending six months with her eccentric grandmother in the rural mountain town of San Miguel. Her father recently deserted the family and Hayley's mom needs time to, as she puts it, "work things through." Down in Mexico, everyone calls Hayley by her new, more glamorous chosen name, Margarita, and life is surprisingly exciting-exotic birds, beautiful butterflies, holidays, colorful fiestas, and new friends like Lili. Hayley and Lili even win parts as extras in a Hollywood movie being filmed in the town. But there are also difficult lessons to be learned. Poverty and unemployment send Lili's father and other men from the village to Michigan to work as migrant workers so they can send money back home to their anxious families. Meanwhile Hayley is on the lookout for la fantasma (the ghost) that is said to haunt her grandma's house. With Lili's help she solves the mystery-and prepares for a new life with her mom back in the States.
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Unbelievably Boring Bart
James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski
Invisible creatures are attacking the school and 12-year-old Bartholomew Bean is the only one who can stop them! Okay, so maybe Bart is only a hero in the video game app he created. But if he reveals his identity as the genius behind the game, he'll become the most popular kid in school! Or he could secretly use the game to get back at his bullies. Press Button A- Reveal. Press Button B- Revenge. Which would you choose?
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Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen
DyAnn DiSalvo-Ryan
A boy spends the day with Uncle Willie in the soup kitchen where he works preparing and serving food for the hungry.
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Unleashed
Sigmund Brouwer
Jace has taken up boxing on the wrong side of the tracks as he prepares to seek vengeance on his abusive father with two other teen vigilantes.
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Valentine to a Flying Mouse
Laura Hawkins
During preparations for the fourth grade Valentine party, Tammy meets the wheelchair-bound owner of the local bookstore who helps her learn to cope with her parents' separation and to believe in herself.
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Water Balloon
Audrey Vernick
A warm debut novel about friendship and first love, from a popular picture-book author. Marley's life is as precarious as an overfull water balloonone false move and everything will burst. Her best friends are pulling away from her, and her parents, newly separated, have decided she should spend the summer with her dad in his new house, with a job she didn't ask for and certainly doesn't want. On the upside is a cute boy who loves dogs as much as Marley does ... but young love has lots of opportunity for humiliation and misinterpreted signals. Luckily Marley is a girl who trusts her instincts and knows the truth when she sees it, making her an immensely appealing character and her story funny, heartfelt, and emotionally true.
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Waterbound
Jane Stemp
In a futuristic society sixteen-year-old Gem discovers that a group of handicapped people who call themselves the Waterbound live hidden beneath the City.
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Wave Good-Bye
Francess Lantz
Rae hasn't been her usual self lately, and no one at camp seems to know why. Her crabby attitude is starting to affect everyone, including her best friend, Luna. When Luna catches Rae precariously riding the piers, she decides to confront her friend head-on. Finally Rae admits the truth: her parents have decided to separate, and even worse -- her father's company is relocating him to Chicago. Now Rae feels torn between staying in southern California with her overbearing mother and moving with her father to an unfamiliar city. Though leaving would ease the tension between Rae and her mom, it would mean the end of Rae's surfing, too. Will Luna be able to convince Rae to stick around or will she lose her best friend forever?
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We Are Family
Patricia Hegarty
Explore the differences and similarities of eight families in this gentle, rhyming picture book.
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We Don't Look Like Our Mom and Dad
Harriet Langsam Sobol
A photo-essay on the life of the Levin family, an American couple and their two Korean-born adopted sons, ten-year-old Eric and eleven-year-old Joshua.
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We the Children
Andrew Clements
Sixth-grader Ben Pratt's life is full of changes that he does not like--his parents' separation and the plan to demolish his seaside school to build an amusement park--but when the school janitor gives him a tarnished coin with some old engravings and then dies, Ben is drawn into an effort to keep the school from being destroyed.
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What Can I Do?: A Book for Children of Divorce
Danielle Lowry
A young girl tries everything she can think of to keep her parents from getting a divorce, but with the help of her school counselor, she comes to realize that the divorce is not her fault.
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What Do I Say About That?
Julia Cook
This book takes a unique look at the internal struggles with which a child of an incarcerated parent is faced.
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What is Jail, Mommy?
Jackie A. Stanglin
A mother explains to her young daughter why the girl's father is in prison and what his life is like as an inmate.
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What is Sign Language?
Deborah Kent
Explains the history of American Sign Language (ASL) and shares the story of Beanca, a girl who was born deaf and uses ASL to communicate.
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What Jaime Saw
Carolyn Coman
Having fled to a family friend's hillside trailer after his mother's boyfriend tried to throw his baby sister against a wall, nine-year-old Jamie finds himself living an existence full of uncertainty and fear.
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What Momma Left Me
Renée Watson
After the death of their mother, thirteen-year-old Serenity Evans and her younger brother go to live with their grandparents, who try to keep them safe from bad influences and help them come to terms with what has happened to their family. Includes recipe for red velvet cake.
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What Will Happen to Me?
Howard Zehr and Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz
Pairs portraits of children whose parents are incarcerated with the reflections of grandparents who are caring for them and includes resources for caregivers and advice on dealing with the unique emotions of these children.
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When Andy's Father Went to Prison
Martha Whitmore Hickman
When Andy's father is sent to prison for robbery and the family moves to be near him, Andy is afraid of what the kids at his new school will think.