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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Free to Be...You and Me
Marlo Thomas
This is the book we all know and love by Marlo Thomas and her friends—brought to new life with brand new illustrations to captivate and inspire a new generation of readers on a journey of the heart. Whether you are opening Free to Be . . . You and Me for the first time or the one hundredth time you will be engaged and transformed by this newly beautifully illustrated compilation of inspirational stories, songs, and poems. The sentiments of thirty-five years ago are as relevant today as when this book was published. Celebrating individuality and challenging stereotypes empowers both children and adults with the freedom to be who they want to be and to have compassion and empathy for others who may be different. Working closely with Marlo and co-creator Carole Hart, Peter H. Reynolds, the New York Times Best Selling Children’s Book Author/Illustrator, conjured his whimsical drawings throughout the book bringing a new sense of unity and warmth to the pages. You will find yourself marveling at the illustrations, nodding in agreement with the stories and poems, and singing the words to all the classic songs! It is wonderful that the thoughts, ideas, and emotions the creators envisioned so many years ago can still have a magical effect on children today.
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Friends Everywhere
Donna Jo Napoli
The Little Angel of Friendship watches over Patricia, a nine-year-old deaf girl, as she moves from the family farm to the city and tries to make friends with hearing people.
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Front Desk
Kelly Yang
After emigrating from China, ten-year-old Mia Tang's parents take a job managing a rundown motel, despite the nasty owner, Mr. Yao, who exploits them, while she works the front desk and tries to cope with fitting in at her school.
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Full Cicada Moon
Marilyn Hilton
In 1969 twelve-year-old Mimi and her family move to an all-white town in Vermont, where Mimi's mixed-race background and interest in "boyish" topics like astronomy make her feel like an outsider.
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Gaijin: American Prisoner of War
Matt Faulkner
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, a thirteen-year-old California boy who is half Japanese is sent to an internment camp. Story based on the history of the author's great-aunt.
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Gator on the Loose
Sue Stauffacher
Chaos ensues when Keisha's father brings an escaped alligator home to Carter's Urban Rescue, but it gets out of the bathroom while Grandma is guarding it.
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Gay & Lesbian History for Kids: The Century-Long Struggle for LGBT Rights
Jerome Pohlen
Who transformed George Washington's demoralized troops at Valley Forge into a fighting force that defeated an empire? Who cracked Germany's Enigma code and shortened World War II? Who successfully lobbied the US Congress to outlaw child labor? And who organized the 1963 March on Washington? Ls, Gs, Bs, and Ts, that's who...This up-to-date history includes the landmark Supreme Court decision making marriage equality the law of the land. Twenty-one activities enliven the history and demonstrate the spirited ways the LGBT community has pushed for positive social change.
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Gentle's Holler
Kerry Madden
The sixties may have come to other parts of North Carolina, but with Mama pregnant again, Daddy struggling to find work, and nine siblings underfoot, nobody in the holler has much time for modern-day notions. Especially not twelve-year-old Livy Two, aspiring songwriter and self-appointed guardian of little sister Gentle, whose eyes "don't work so good yet." Even after a doctor confirms her fears, Livy Two is determined to make the best of Gentle's situation and sets out to transform the family's scrappy dachshund into a genuine Seeing-Eye dog. But when tragedy strikes, can Livy Two continue to stay strong for her family?
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George
Alex Gino
When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl. George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part.
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Gertie's Leap to Greatness
Kate Beasley
Gertie is a girl on a mission to be the best fifth grader ever in order to show her estranged mother that Gertie doesn't need her--not one bit!
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Girls are Not Chicks Coloring Book
Jacinta Bunnell and Julie Novak
Truly fun for all ages, this unique coloring book subversively and playfully examines the female gender stereotypes that pervade daily life.
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Glory Be
Augusta Scattergood
In the summer of 1964 as she is about to turn twelve, Glory's town of Hanging Moss, Mississippi, is beset by racial tension when town leaders close her beloved public pool rather than desegregating it.
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Going with the Flow
Claire H. Blatchford
When Mark changes schools in mid-year, he is angry, lonely, and embarrassed by his deafness, but he soon begins to adjust. Includes information about deafness. When he has difficulty adjusting to his new school, where he is the only deaf child, fifth-grader Mark is helped by a friend & by becoming part of the basketball team.
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Goldie Vance, Volume Four
Hope Larson and Jackie Ball
Sixteen-year-old Marigold “Goldie” Vance has an insatiable curiosity and dreams of one day becoming a detective. Luckily for Goldie, with the St. Pascal Rockin’ the Beach Music Festival coming to town, there’s plenty of inexplicable shenanigans keeping her gumshoe brain busy, from mysterious power outages, to missing musicians, to Russian spies hiding in the shadows.
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Goldie Vance, Volume One
Hope Larson
Sixteen-year-old Marigold “Goldie” Vance lives at a Florida resort with her dad, who manages the place. Her mom, who divorced her dad years ago, works as a live mermaid at a club downtown. Goldie has an insatiable curiosity, which explains her dream to one day become the hotel’s in-house detective. When Charles, the current detective, encounters a case he can’t crack, he agrees to mentor Goldie in exchange for her help solving the mystery.
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Goldie Vance, Volume Three
Hope Larson and Jackie Ball
Sixteen-year-old Marigold "Goldie" Vance has an insatiable curiosity. She lives at a Florida resort with her dad, who manages the place, and it's her dream to one day become the hotel's in-house detective. When Sugar, the spoiled daughter of the crossed Palm's owner, come to Goldie with a mystery of her own, Goldie dives headfirst into the world of Prescription 1 racing, jealousy, and sabotage. There may be more to Sugar and her family than meets the eye...even an eye as keen as Goldie's!
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Goldie Vance, Volume Two
Hope Larson
Sixteen-year-old Marigold “Goldie” Vance lives at a Florida resort with her dad, who manages the place. Her mom, who divorced her dad years ago, works as a live mermaid at a club downtown. Goldie has an insatiable curiosity, which explains her dream to one day become the hotel’s in-house detective. For now she has to settle for helping out the current hotel detective, Walter. When a mysterious astronaut washes up on the beach, Goldie and her best friend Cheryl are on the case! Where did she come from? Where was she going? And what does she want with...Cheryl?
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Goodbye Stranger
Rebecca Stead
As Bridge makes her way through seventh grade on Manhattan's Upper West Side with her best friends, curvacious Em, crusader Tab, and a curious new friend--or more than friend--Sherm, she finds the answer she has been seeking since she barely survived an accident at age eight: "What is my purpose?"
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Gossamer
Lois Lowry
While learning to bestow dreams, a young dream giver tries to save an eight-year-old boy from the effects of both his abusive past and the nightmares inflicted on him by the frightening Sinisteeds.
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Grandfather's Journey
Allen Say
A Japanese American man recounts his grandfather's journey to America, which he later also undertakes, and describes the feelings of being torn by a love for two different countries.
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Guy Time
Sarah Weeks
A humorous account of thirteen-year-old Guy's dealing with the separation, and possible divorce, of his eccentric parents and with his own new-found interest in girls.
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Half a Man
Michael Morpurgo
From a young age, Michael was both fascinated by and afraid of his grandfather. Grandpa’s ship was torpedoed during the Second World War, leaving him with terrible burns. Every time he came to stay, Michael was warned by his mother that he must not stare, he must not make too much noise, he must not ask Grandpa any questions about his past. As he grows older, Michael stays with his grandfather during the summer holidays and learns the story behind Grandpa’s injuries, finally getting to know the real man behind the solemn figure from his childhood. Michael can see beyond the burns, and this gives him the power to begin healing scars that have divided his family for so long.
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Half and Half
Lensey Namioka
At Seattle's annual Folk Fest, twelve-year-old Fiona and her older brother are torn between trying to please their Chinese grandmother and making their Scottish grandparents happy.
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Happy Birthday to Me (Amy Hodgepodge, #2)
Kim Wayans and Kevin Knotts
Amy is very excited about the special sleepover she has planned for her tenth birthday until her friends get the chance to go to a concert the same night, and meanwhile, she worries that her family will be moving again.
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Harbor Me
Jacquline Woodson
It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chat--by themselves, with no adults to listen in. There, in the room they soon dub the ARTT Room (short for "A Room to Talk"), they discover it's safe to talk about what's bothering them--everything from Esteban's father's deportation and Haley's father's incarceration to Amari's fears of racial profiling and Ashton's adjustment to his changing family fortunes. When the six are together, they can express the feelings and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world. And together, they can grow braver and more ready for the rest of their lives.