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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Dara Palmer's Major Drama
Emma Shevah
Dara Palmer dreams of being an actress, but when she does not get a part in the school play, she wonders if it is because of her different looks as an adopted girl from Cambodia, so Dara becomes determined not to let prejudice stop her from being in the spotlight.
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Daughter of the Burning City
Amanda Foody
Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel, and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the festival's freak show. But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that--illusions, and not truly real. Or so she has always believed--until one of them is murdered. Sorina must find the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn't exist. Her search leads her to the gossip-worker Luca, and their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance into sinister corners of the festival. But as the killer continues to murder Sorina's illusions, she must get to the horrifying truth before all her loved ones disappear.
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Dear Child
John Farrell
Simple text and illustrations of diverse families show how children affect their loved ones for the better.
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Did My First Mother Love me?: A Story for an Adopted Child
Kathryn Ann Miller
Morgan's adoptive mother reassures her that she is loved by reading a letter written by her birthmother. Includes a section: "Talking with your child about adoption."
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Dragon's Extraordinary Egg
Debi Gliori
A dragon finds an abandoned egg and lovingly raises the hatchling as her own, although Little One is very different from the baby dragons, and when disaster strikes it is the small, feathered hatchling that saves the day.
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Edgar Allan
John Neufeld
When the Fickett family decides to adopt a little black boy, they are faced with threats, angry phone calls, a burning cross on the lawn, and an ultimatum from their oldest daughter.
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Elizabeth Gail and the Holiday Mystery
Hilda Stahl
Christmas time was supposed to be the happiest time of the year, but Libby was miserable. Goosy Poosy is missing! Can Libby find him before he becomes someone's Christmas dinner?
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Ellabug
Gregory Turner-Rahman
Ellabug is a simple story about non-traditional families that follows Ella, a small but strong-willed ladybug, as she begins to question her identity.
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Elliot
Julie Pearson
When Elliot's parents do not know how to take care of him, a social worker takes him to live with a foster family, which begins a series of changes that leave Elliot worried and anxious, until he finds a forever home and a forever family.
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Emma's Story
Deborah Hodge
When Emma sets out to make a cookie family with Grandma and Sam, the happy afternoon suddenly turns sad. The cookies are meant to look like her family, but Emma's is the only one with dark hair and eyes. She doesn't look like the others; does that mean she doesn't belong? In this tender story, Emma learns that there are many ways to come together and form a family.
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Emma's Yucky Brother
Jean Little
Emma finds out how hard it is to be a big sister when her family adopts a four-year-old boy named Max.
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Escape from Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Became an American Boy
Andrea Warren
Chronicles the experiences of an orphaned Amerasian boy from his birth and early childhood in Saigon through his departure from Vietnam in the 1975 Operation Babylift and his subsequent life as the adopted son of an American family in Ohio.
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Every Year on Your Birthday
Rose A. Lewis
Each year on the birthday of her adopted Chinese daughter, a mother recalls the moments they have shared, from the first toy to the friends left behind in China.
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Exclusively Chloe
J. A. Yang
In the public eye since she was adopted as a baby from China by her Hollywood celebrity parents, sixteen-year-old Chloe-Grace, longing for a "normal" life," undergoes a transformation with the help of her mother's stylist and finds not only the life she wanted but an important key to her past.
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Extra Innings
Robert Newton Peck
After a tragic airplane crash that claims the lives of most of his family, sixteen-year-old Tate goes to live with his wealthy great-grandfather and his adopted black great-aunt Vidalia and he finds unexpected solace in the stories of her childhood spent travelling with a Depression-era Negro baseball team.
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Families
Susan Kuklin
In frank interviews, children from fifteen different types of families talk about the ups and downs of their home lives and offer a look at diversity in American society
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Families
Ann Morris
A simple explanation of families, how they function, how they are different, and how they are alike.
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Families
Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly
Big or small, similar or different-looking, there are all kinds of families. Some have one parent, some have two, and many include extended family. This inclusive look at many varieties of families will help young readers see beyond their own immediate experiences.
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Families
Meredith Tax
Realities such as divorce, stepfamilies, adoption, single parenting, and gay and lesbian parenting are explored through the curious, affectionate, and nonjudgemental eyes of six-year-old Angie as she introduces readers to her multicultural groups of friends, who are loved and cared for within many different types of families.
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Families: A Celebration of Diversity, Commitment, and Love
Aylette Jenness
Photographs and text depict the lives of seventeen families from around the country, some with step relationships, divorce, gay parents, foster siblings, and other diverse components. The material was originally a traveling exhibition, begun at the Children's Museum in Boston.
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Families: A Coloring Book
Michael Willhoite
A coloring book depicting traditional and nontraditional families.
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Families are Different
Nina Pellegrini
An adopted Korean girl discovers that her classmates have different types of families
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Families are Forever
Craig Shemin
Rain meets Bo and her new "forever" Mom and they become a brand new family. Families are Forever is a heartwarming tale about family love and beginnings. The story introduces Rain, a nearly six year old Chinese-American adopted girl, and tells how she found her 'forever family,' a single mother in America.
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Families Change: A Book for Children Experiencing Termination of Parental Rights
Julie Nelson
Written to help children understand why some kids get new foster parents or new adopted moms and dads, with resources for adults.
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Families, Families, Families!
Suzanne Lang
A host of animals portrays all kinds of non-traditional families.