6-8 Books | University of Central Florida

This collection contains materials from the DIVerse Families bibliography organized by Grades 6-8.

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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Miles Morales: Spider-Man

Jason Reynolds

Miles Morales is just your average teenager. Dinner every Sunday with his parents, chilling out playing old-school video games with his best friend, Ganke, crushing on brainy, beautiful poet Alicia. He's even got a scholarship spot at the prestigious Brooklyn Visions Academy. Oh yeah, and he's Spider Man. But lately, Miles's spidey-sense has been on the fritz. When a misunderstanding leads to his suspension from school, Miles begins to question his abilities. After all, his dad and uncle were Brooklyn jack-boys with criminal records. Maybe kids like Miles aren't meant to be superheroes. Maybe Miles should take his dad's advice and focus on saving himself. As Miles tries to get his school life back on track, he can't shake the vivid nightmares that continue to haunt him. Nor can he avoid the relentless buzz of his spidey-sense every day in history class, amidst his teacher's lectures on the historical benefits of slavery and the modern-day prison system. But after his scholarship is threatened, Miles uncovers a chilling plot, one that puts his friends, his neighborhood, and himself at risk. It's time for Miles to suit up.
Milk: A Pictorial History of Harvey Milk

Dustin Lance Black

Profiles Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay people to be elected to public office, partially in the words of the people who knew him, and describes the making of the biographical film about him, "Milk."
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: The Diary of Bess Brennan

Barry Denenberg

In 1932, a twelve-year-old girl who lost her sight in an accident keeps a diary, recorded by her twin sister, in which she describes life at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Missing in Action

Dean Hughes

While his father is missing in action in the Pacific during World War II, twelve-year-old Jay moves with his mother to small-town Utah, where he sees prejudice from both sides, as a part-Navajo himself and through an unlikely friendship with Japanese American Ken from the nearby internment camp.
Money Hungry

Sharon Flake

All thirteen-year-old Raspberry can think of is making money so that she and her mother never have to worry about living on the streets again.
Monkey See, Monkey Do

Barthe DeClements

Jerry's adored father seems unable to stay out of jail, causing the sixth grader anguish at home and in school.
More Than This

Patrick Ness

A boy named Seth drowns, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. What's going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, trapped in a crumbling, abandoned world.
Mother Number Zero

Marjolijn Hof, Johanna W. Prins, and Johanna Henrica Prins

When Fay meets a fascinating girl named Maud who asks him what it is like to be adopted, he finds himself wondering about his Bosnian birth-mother and why she gave him up, so with the help of his parents he sets out to answer his questions.
Mountain Dog

Margarita Engle

When Tony's mother is sent to jail, he is sent to stay with a great uncle he has never met in Sierra Nevada. It is a daunting move―Tony's new world bears no semblance to his previous one. But slowly, against a remote and remarkable backdrop, the scars from Tony's troubled past begin to heal.With his Tió and a search-and-rescue dog named Gabe by his side, he learns how to track wild animals, is welcomed to the Cowboy Church, and makes new friends at the Mountain School. Most importantly though, it is through Gabe that Tony discovers unconditional love for the first time.
Multiethnic Teens and Cultural Identity

Barbara Cruz

Discusses the many issues facing teens of multiethnic descent, including discrimination and the search for ethnic identity in an unsympathetic culture.
Multiracial Families

Julianna Fields

Describes the benefits and challenges multiracial families face in today's society, including cultural and religious differences, societal views on intermarriage, and multiracial adoption.
Multiracial Families (Families Today)

Hilary W. Poole

Explores the benefits and challenges multiracial families face in today's society.
My Father's Son

Terri Fields

Kevin's life of high school classes, crushes, basketball, and shuttling between his parents' homes falls apart when his father is arrested as a suspected serial killer, leading Kevin to a new understanding of his family and himself.
My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer

Jennifer Gennari

Twelve-year-old June Farrell spends the summer at her Vermont home getting used to the woman her mother is planning to marry and practicing her pie-baking skills, as she hopes to win the blue ribbon at the fair.
My Most Excellent Year

Steve Kluger

Three teenagers in Boston narrate their experiences of a year of new friendships, first loves, and coming into their own.
My Parents are Getting Divorced: How to Keep It Together When Your Mom and Dad are Splitting Up

Florence Cadier and Melissa Day

Explains the feelings and questions shared by young adults whose parents are getting divorced, the changes that could occur, and how to deal with them. Includes hotline numbers.
My Time as Caz Hazard

Tanya Lloyd Kyi

Caz thinks she has a pretty good reason when she punches her boyfriend in the face, but she gets expelled anyway. Moving to a new school, she is told she is dyslexic and sent to special education classes. Caz tries to fit in and get by while suffering the taunts and abuse that others throw at the students in her class. Her friendship with Amanda leads her into new territory--shoplifting and skipping school. Coupled with her parents' impending separation, her life is spiraling out of control.
My Two Uncles

Judith Vigna

Plans for Elly's grandparents' fiftieth wedding anniversary party are upset when Grampy refuses to invite Elly's Uncle Phil and his friend, Ned, who are gay.
My Year in the Middle

Lila Quintero Weaver

Sixth-grader Lu Olivera just wants to keep her head down and get along with everyone in her class. The trouble is, Lu’s old friends have been changing lately — acting boy crazy and making snide remarks about Lu’s newfound talent for running track. Lu’s secret hope for a new friend is fellow runner Belinda Gresham. But in 1970 in Red Grove, Alabama, blacks and whites don’t mix. As segregationist ex-governor George Wallace ramps up his campaign against the current governor, Albert Brewer, growing tensions in the state — and in the classroom — mean that Lu can’t stay neutral about the racial divide at school. Will she find the gumption to stand up for what’s right and to choose friends who do the same?
Nate Expectations (Better Nate Than Ever #3)

Tim Federle

Desperate to turn his life from flop to fabulous, Nate takes on a huge freshman English project with his BFF, Libby: he's going to make a musical out of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. But when Nate's New York crush ghosts him, and his grades start to slip, he finds the only thing harder than being on Broadway is being a freshman.
Nellie's Promise (American Girls)

Valerie Tripp

Nellie O'Malley finally has a home again. She and her little sisters, Bridget and Jenny, are happily settling in with Samantha's family in New York City.
New Boy

Julian Houston

Fifteen-year-old Rob Garrett wants nothing more than to escape the segregated South and prove himself. But in late 1950s Virginia, opportunity doesn’t come easily to an African American. So Rob’s parents take the unusual step of enrolling their son in a Connecticut boarding school, where he will have the best education available. He will also be the first student of color in the school’s history. No matter—Rob Garrett is on his way. But times are changing. While Rob is experiencing the privilege and isolation of private school, a movement is rising back home. Men and women are organizing, demanding an end to segregation, and in Rob’s hometown, his friends are on the verge of taking action. There is even talk about sitting in at a lunch counter that refuses to serve black people. How can Rob hope to make a difference when he’s a world away?
New Hands, New Life: Robots, Prostheses, and Innovation

Alex Mihailidis and Jan Andrysek

This book covers how advances in science and technology have made it possible for people with physical disabilities to overcome challenges.
Newsgirl

Liza Ketchum

In the spring of 1851, San Francisco is booming. 12-year-old Amelia Forrester has just arrived with her family and they are eager to make a new life in Phoenix City. But the mostly male town is not that hospitable to females and Amelia decides she will earn more money as a boy. Cutting her hair and donning a cap, she joins a gang of newsboys, selling Eastern newspapers for a fortune.
Night Hoops

Carl Deuker

While trying to prove that he is good enough to be on his high school's varsity basketball team, Nick must also deal with his parents' divorce and the erratic behavior of a troubled classmate who lives across the street.