The Diverse Families bookshelf was created and funded through numerous grants. Due to lack of additional grants and the loss of key personnel, the project has come to an end. We have tremendously enjoyed creating this database and hope that it can help bring readers and books together.

Browse by Family Relationship:

Adoption

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We Are Family

Patricia Hegarty

Explore the differences and similarities of eight families in this gentle, rhyming picture book.
We Belong Together: A Book About Adoption and Families

Todd Parr

The joy of adoption and bringing families together is presented in this tale.
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.
Welcome Home, Forever Child: A Celebration of Children Adopted as Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Beyond

Christine Mitchell

A book that genuinely celebrates a young child joining their forever family past infancy. With its touching message of love and reassurance, and whimsical illustrations, Welcome Home, Forever Child is sure to be cherished by children and parents alike. While best suited to children ages two to eight, this gem will undoubtedly be enjoyed by older children as well. Most children's adoption books reflect infant adoptions, and may not be appropriate for the older child who spent their early years in foster care or an orphanage. Welcome Home, Forever Child is a much needed book that social workers and therapists will want to recommend to families who adopted their child past the age of two. The book helps parents reassure children of their permanent place in the new family, and of how much they are wanted and loved. It will also make a very special and meaningful keepsake gift for a child upon joining his or her new family, upon finalizing the adoption, or upon the anniversary of either event.
Welcome Home Little Baby

Lisa Harper

Based on a poem the author wrote immediately after the arrival of their first adopted child, this story is perfect for anyone who has adopted or is going to adopt.
Welcome to the Family

Mary Hoffman

Introduces different types of households and discusses families with children, adoption, foster parents, same-sex parents, and fertility treatments.
We See the Moon

Carrie A. Kitze

A story written from the children's perspective, asking the questions that dwell in their hearts about their birthparents. It helps children use the moon as a private tool to connect with a family that is always with them in their hearts.
We Wanted You

Liz Rosenberg

Parents tell how they waited and prepared for the child that they wanted so much.
Whale Talk

Chris Crutcher

Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of the school's less popular students.
What are Parents?

Kyme Fox-Lee and Susan Fox-Lee

Playfully rhyming words and beautifully illustrated pictures lead a child through a journey to discovering diversity while learning to accept their unique family.
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?

Kathleen Collins

Now available in Ecco's Art of the Story series: a never-before-published collection of stories from a brilliant yet little known African American artist and filmmaker-a contemporary of revered writers including Toni Cade Bambara, Laurie Colwin, Ann Beattie, Amy Hempel, and Grace Paley-whose prescient work has recently resurfaced to wide acclaim. Humorous, poignant, perceptive, and full of grace, Kathleen Collins's stories masterfully blend the quotidian and the profound in a personal, intimate way, exploring deep, far-reaching issues-race, gender, family, and sexuality-that shape the ordinary moments in our lives. In "The Uncle," a young girl who idolizes her handsome uncle and his beautiful wife makes a haunting discovery about their lives. In "Only Once," a woman reminisces about her charming daredevil of a lover and his ultimate-and final-act of foolishness. Collins's work seamlessly integrates the African-American experience in her characters' lives, creating rich, devastatingly familiar, full-bodied men, women, and children who transcend the symbolic, penetrating both the reader's head and heart. Both contemporary and timeless, Whatever Happened to Interracial Love' is a major addition to the literary canon, and is sure to earn Kathleen Collins the widespread recognition she is long overdue.
What is a Family? A Question & Answer Book

Tamia Sheldon

Featuring Waldorf-style illustrations and depictions of families of all shapes, sizes and colors, this book gets kids talking about their own families while opening their eyes to the fact that even though families don't always look the same, they all share one special thing: love.
When Friendship Followed Me Home

Paul Griffin

Ben Coffin has never felt like he fits in. A former foster kid, he keeps his head down at school to avoid bullies and spends his afternoons reading sci-fi books at the library. But all that changes when he finds a scruffy abandoned dog named Flip and befriends the librarian's daughter, Halley. For the first time, Ben starts to feel like he belongs in his own life. Then everything changes, and suddenly Ben is more alone than ever. But with a little help from Halley's magician father, Ben discovers his place in the world and learns to see his own magic through others' eyes.
When I Grow Up...

Paula Vasquez

All of the children in Miss Ester's class know what they want to be like when they grow up: their families! And each family is special and unique. Readers will be surprised and delighted to find that Johnny the duckling's mom and dad have curly tails, stubby noses, and hooves. Johnny and his classmates make it easy for parents to show their little ones that there are many types of families, and they're all made of love.
When I Met You: A Story of Russian Adoption

Adrienne Ehlert Bashista

A mother describes her daughter's life before and after she was adopted from Russia.
When the Black Girl Sings

Bil Wright

Adopted by white parents and sent to an exclusive Connecticut girls' school where she is the only black student, fourteen-year-old Lahni Schuler feels like an outcast, particularly when her parents separate, but after attending a local church where she hears gospel music for the first time, she finds her voice.
While You Were Sleeping

Stephanie Burks

Describes two women's excitement when they learn that their new baby is born.
Why Am I Different?

Norma Simon

Portrays everyday situations in which children see themselves as "different" in family life, preferences, and aptitudes, and yet feel that being different is all right.
Wolfie the Bunny

Ame Dyckman

When her parents find a baby wolf on their doorstep and decide to raise him as their own, Dot is certain he will eat them all up until a surprising encounter with a bear brings them closer together.
Wonderful You

Lauren McLaughlin

A lyrical adoption story that tenderly addresses a baby's transition from the care of her birth mother to that of her adoptive parents. This lovely poem illuminates the role of an adopted child's birth mother, respecting her choice to give her child to a loving family. We follow a mother's journey as she carries her child, searches for deserving parents, and ultimately creates a new family. The story offers a version of the process that is full of warmth, care, and joy. An adoptive mother herself, author Lauren McLaughlin was glad for an opportunity to memorialize her family's own fairy tale, and Meilo So's ethereal illustrations breathe magic into an already wondrous experience.
Yafi's Family: An Ethiopian Boys Journey of Love, Loss, and Adoption

Linda Pettitt and Sharon Darrow

Yafi's family recalls his adoption from Ethiopia with stories, memories, and photographs.
You're Not My Real Mother

Molly Friedrich

After an adoptive mother tells her daughter all the reasons that she is her "real mother," the young girl realizes that her mother is right, even though they do not look alike.
You Were Always in My Heart: A Shaoey & Dot Adoption Story

Mary Beth Chapman and Steven Curtis Chapman

An abandoned Chinese baby who has been befriended by a ladybug finds her way to an orphanage where she is eventually adopted by an American family.
Zachary's New Home: A Story for Foster and Adopted Children

Geraldine M. Bloomquist and Paul B. Bloomquist

This story for adopted and foster children describes the adventures of Zachary the kitten, who is taken from his mother's house when she is unable to take care of him. It follows Zachary as he goes into foster care, his adoption by a family of geese, and his feelings of shame, anger and hurt.