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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Amber Brown is Feeling Blue
Paula Danziger
Nine-year-old Amber Brown faces further complications because of her parents' divorce when her father plans to move back from Paris and she must decide which parent she will be with on Thanksgiving.
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Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit
Paula Danziger
Amber Brown is in deep trouble. Lately, no matter what she does, it isn't enough. She straightens up her room, sort of. She does her homework, well most of it. And she agrees to meet Max, her mother's new boyfriend, but she doesn't agree to like him. Now her mother is angry, her teacher wants all of her homework, and Max keeps trying to make her laugh. What's Amber to do? All she wants is a little extra credit. She really tries ... But how will she succeed?
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Amber was Brave, Essie was Smart
Vera B. Williams
A series of poems tells how two sisters help each other deal with life while their mother is working and their father has been sent to jail.
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Amy Asks a Question...Grandma - What's a Lesbian?
Jeanne Arnold
Grandma Bonnie, who has been in a lesbian relationship for more than twenty years, explains to Amy about gay pride and being a lesbian.
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A Name on the Quilt
Jeannine Atkins
A family reminisces while gathered together to make a panel for the AIDS Memorial Quilt in memory of a beloved uncle.
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An Ellis Island Christmas
Maxinne Rhea Leighton
Papa has already left Poland, and Krysia longs to see him again. "First we must cross the ocean to get to Ellis Island in America," says Mama. "That's where Papa is waiting for us." Saying goodbye to her home is hard, and the ocean voyage is long and stormy, but finally, on Christmas Eve, Krysia sees the Statue of Liberty! Dennis Nolan's richly rendered illustrations powerfully evoke the uncertainty, wonder, and hope of this young immigrant's experience. An Ellis Island Christmas is a holiday story to treasure, year after year.
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Angryman
Gro Dahle
There's someone in the living room. It's Dad. It is Angryman. Boj's father can be very angry and violent. Boj calls this side of his father's personality "Angryman." When Angryman comes no one is safe. Until something powerful happens... Gro Dahle's astute text and Svein Nyhus's bold, evocative art capture the full range of emotions that descend upon a small family as they grapple with "Angryman." With an important message to children who experience the same things as Boj: You are not alone. It's not your fault. You must tell someone you trust. It doesn't have to be this way!
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Anna Day and the O-Ring
Elaine Wickens
Evan and his two mothers try to assemble a tent and find that Anna Day, the dog, has hidden the o-ring.
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A Real Christmas This Year
Karen Lynn Williams
Twelve-year-old Megan's efforts to provide a real Christmas for her multiply handicapped brother and the rest of the family cause problems with her best friend and some other schoolmates. Megan loves her little brother Kevin, but she still wishes for the kind of social and family life she could have if he weren't multi-handicapped. An accident causes her home life to become chaotic and unhappy again, but with determination and ingenuity--and in the true spirit of the season--Megan manages to make her Christmas dream come true.
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Army Brats
Daphne Benedis-Grab
When the Bailey family moves into an army base in Virginia there are a lot of adjustments to make; twelve-year-old Tom runs afoul of the base school bully, ten-year-old Charlotte finds herself trying too hard to make friends with the "cool" girls, and six-year-old Rosie is just being difficult as usual--but they come together to investigate a mysterious building full of weird cages, and uncover Fort Patrick's secrets.
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Aru Shah and the End of Time
Roshani Chokshi
Twelve-year-old Aru stretches the truth to fit in at her private school, but when she is dared to prove an ancient lamp is cursed, she inadvertently frees an ancient demon.
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A Safe Place
Maxine Trottier
To escape her father's abuse, Emily and her mother come to a shelter where they find a safe place to stay with other women and children in similar circumstances. At night, a little girl and her mother seek safety from an abusive daddy by going to a safe place, the white house on the hill.
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A Shelter in Our Car
Monica Gunning
Since she left Jamaica for America after her father died, Zettie lives in a car with her mother while they both go to school and plan for a real home.
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At the Bottom of the World (Jack and the Geniuses Series #1)
Bill Nye and Gregory Mone
Traveling to Antarctica for a prestigious science competition, twelve-year-old Jack and his genius foster siblings, Ava and Matt, become caught up in a mystery involving a missing scientist.
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A Visit to the Big House
Oliver Butterworth
When Willy, Rose, and their mother go to visit Daddy in prison, they are quite anxious. But once Daddy appears and they can talk and ask questions.
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Bat 6
Virginia Euwer Wolff
In small town, post-World War Oregon, twenty-one sixth-grade girls recount the story of an annual softball game, during which one girl's bigotry comes to the surface. Set in a small Oregon town just after World War II, this is the powerful tale of a community shattered by its reaction to two young newcomers, Aki and Shazam. Told from 21 different points of view, "Bat 6" explores the subject of Japanese-American racial prejudice after the war. A Japanese American girl who has just spent 6 years in an internment camp meets a bitter girl whose father was killed in Pearl Harbor, and the two become rivals in baseball in this story narrated by the members of the opposing teams.
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Becoming Naomi León
Pam Muñoz Ryan
Naomi Soledad León Outlaw has had a lot to contend with in her young life, her name for one. Then there are her clothes (sewn in polyester by Gram), her difficulty speaking up, and her status at school as "nobody special." But according to Gram's self-prophecies, most problems can be overcome with positive thinking. Luckily, Naomi also has her carving to strengthen her spirit. And life with Gram and her little brother, Owen, is happy and peaceful. That is, until their mother reappears for the first time in seven years, stirring up all sorts of questions and challenging Naomi to discover who she really is.
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Being Adopted
Maxine Rosenberg
Several young children recount their experiences as adopted members of their families.
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Best of the Best: A Baseball Great Novel
Tim Green
Determined to play in the Little League World Series, twelve-year-old Josh struggles to concentrate on his game and be the team's leader while also trying to cope with his parents' impending divorce.
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Betty Before X
Ilyasah Shabazz and Renée Watson
Raised by her aunt until she is six, Betty, who will later marry Malcolm X, joins her mother and stepfamily in 1940s Detroit, where she learns about the civil rights movement.
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Beverly, Right Here
Kate Dicamillo
Beverly put her foot down on the gas. They went faster still. This was what Beverly wanted — what she always wanted. To get away. To get away as fast as she could. To stay away. Beverly Tapinski has run away from home plenty of times, but that was when she was just a kid. By now, she figures, it’s not running away. It’s leaving. Determined to make it on her own, Beverly finds a job and a place to live and tries to forget about her dog, Buddy, now buried underneath the orange trees back home; her friend Raymie, whom she left without a word; and her mom, Rhonda, who has never cared about anyone but herself. Beverly doesn’t want to depend on anyone, and she definitely doesn’t want anyone to depend on her. But despite her best efforts, she can’t help forming connections with the people around her — and gradually, she learns to see herself through their eyes. In a touching, funny, and fearless conclusion to her sequence of novels about the beloved Three Rancheros,
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Bigger Than a Bread Box
Laurel Snyder
Devastated when her parents separate, twelve-year-old Rebecca must move with her mother from Baltimore to Gran's house in Atlanta, where Rebecca discovers an old bread box with the power to grant any wish--so long as the wished-for thing fits in the bread box.
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Big & Little Questions (According to Wren Jo Byrd)
Julie Bowe
Fourth grader Wren Jo Byrd questions lots of things--both little and big--when her parents decide to get a divorce, and learns a lot about the true meaning of family, home, and friendship.
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Billie of Fish House Lane
Meredith Sue Willis
A twelve-year-old girl attempts to understand and accept her affluent, white cousin while living in a multiracial, eccentric family.
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Billy Had to Move: A Foster Care Story
Theresa Ann Fraser
Child Protection Services have been involved with Billy and his mother for some time now. He has been happily settled in a kinship placement with his grandmother and enjoys his pet cat, interacting with neighbors and even taking piano lessons. As the story unfolds, Billy's grandmother has unexpectedly passed away and so the story of Billy Had To Move begins. Unfortunately, Billy's mother cannot be located. Mr. Murphy, Billy's social worker, places him in the foster home of Amy, Tim, and their baby "Colly." Billy experiences great loss resulting not only from his grandmother's death, but also the loss of the life he knew. Billy's inner journey therefore has also begun and with the help of Ms. Woods, a Play Therapist, there is hope.