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.
This collection contains materials from the DIVerse Families bibliography organized by genre.
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 Genre:
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Obama: A Promise of Change
David Mendell and Sarah L. Thomson
A journalist who has covered the senator and presidential candidate since his campaign for the Senate offers a portrait that features his childhood and youth in Hawaii and his embrace of seemingly ruthless campaign tactics.
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Obama: Only in America
Carole Weatherford
From birth to election as the first African-American president of the United States, this biography tells the story of Barack Obama through lyrical prose and primary-source quotes from his speeches throughout.
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Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag
Rob Sanders
In this deeply moving and empowering true story, young readers will trace the life of the Gay Pride Flag, from its beginnings in 1978 with social activist Harvey Milk and designer Gilbert Baker to its spanning of the globe and its role in today's world. Award-winning author Rob Sanders's stirring text, and acclaimed illustrator Steven Salerno's evocative images, combine to tell this remarkable - and undertold - story. A story of love, hope, equality, and pride.
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Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World
Sarah Prager
World history has been made by countless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals?and you?ve never heard of many of them. Queer author and activist Sarah Prager delves deep into the lives of 23 people who fought, created, and loved on their own terms. From high-profile figures like Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt to the trailblazing gender-ambiguous Queen of Sweden and a bisexual blues singer who didn?t make it into your history books, these astonishing true stories uncover a rich queer heritage that encompasses every culture, in every era. By turns hilarious and inspiring, the beautifully illustrated Queer, There, and Everywhere is for anyone who wants the real story of the queer rights movement.
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Rock & Roll Highway: The Robbie Robertson Story
Sebastian Robertson
Canadian guitarist and songwriter Robbie Robertson is known mainly for his central role in the musical group the Band. But how did he become one of Rolling Stone's top 100 guitarists of all time? Written by his son, Sebastian, this is the story of a rock-and-roll legend's journey through music, beginning when he was taught to play guitar at nine years old on a Native American reservation. Rock and Roll Highway is the story of a young person's passion, drive, and determination to follow his dream.
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Rosa Parks: Civil Rights Activist
Chuck Bednar
Profiles the life and career of the civil rights activist Rosa Parks.
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Rough, Tough Charley
Verla Kay
A brief illustrated biography of Charley Parkhurst, a stagecoach driver and pioneer of California who posed for most of her life as a man.
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Sarah Emma Edmonds Was a Great Pretender: The True Story of a Civil War Spy
Carrie Jones
A picture book biography of Sarah Emma Edmonds, a Canadian-born woman who served as a spy in the Union Army during the Civil War.
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Silent Days, Silent Dreams
Allen Say
James Castle was born two months premature on September 25, 1899, on a farm in Garden Valley, Idaho. He was deaf, mute, autistic, and probably dyslexic. He didn't walk until he was four; he would never learn to speak, write, read, or use sign language. Yet, today Castle's artwork hangs in major museums throughout the world. The Philadelphia Museum of Art opened "James Castle: A Retrospective" in 2008. The 2013 Venice Biennale included eleven works by Castle in the feature exhibition "The Encyclopedic Palace." And his reputation continues to grow. Caldecott Medal winner Allen Say, author of the acclaimed memoir Drawing from Memory, takes readers through an imagined look at Castle's childhood, allows them to experience his emergence as an artist despite the overwhelming difficulties he faced, and ultimately reveals the triumphs that he would go on to achieve.
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Soledad O'Brien (Biogrpahies of Biracial Achievers)
David Robson
A brief biography of the television reporter, Soledad O'Brien.
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Stand Straight, Ella Kate: The True Story of a Real Giant
Kate Klise
Ella Kate Ewing was born in 1872. She started out small, but she just kept on growing. Soon she was too tall for her desk at school, too tall for her bed at home, too tall to fit anywhere. Ella Kate was a real-life giant, but she refused to hide herself away. Instead, she used her unusual height to achieve her equally large dreams. The masterful Klise sisters deliver a touching and inspiring true story about a strong-minded girl who finally embraced her differences. It's the perfect book for every child who has ever felt like an outsider.
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Stephen Hawking: Extraordinary Theoretical Physicist
Karen Latchana Kenney
Chronicles the life and career of the theoretical physicist, from his battle with ALS to his work on black holes.
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Super Late Bloomer
Julia Kaye
Instead of a traditional written diary, Julia Kaye has always turned to art as a means of self-reflection. So when she began her gender transition in 2016, she decided to use her popular webcomic, Up and Out, to process her journey and help others with similar struggles realize they weren’t alone. Julia’s poignant, relatable comics honestly depict her personal ups and downs while dealing with the various issues involved in transitioning—from struggling with self-acceptance and challenging societal expectations, to moments of self-love and joy. Super Late Bloomer both educates and inspires, as Julia faces her difficulties head-on and commits to being wholly, authentically who she was always meant to be.
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Sweethearts of Rhythm
Marilyn Nelson
A look at a 1940's all-female jazz band, that originated from a boarding school in Mississippi and found its way to the most famous ballrooms in the country, offering solace during the hard years of the war.
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Thank You, Mr. Falker
Patricia Polacco
At first, Trisha loves school, but her difficulty learning to read makes her feel dumb, until, in the fifth grade, a new teacher helps her understand and overcome her problem.
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That's Like Me!: Stories About Amazing People with Learning Disabilities
Jill Lauren
What do a trapeze artist, an Arctic explorer, and a soccer player have in common? Meet the fifteen kids and adults profiled in That s Like Me!, a collection of first-person accounts of successful people who learn differently. Whether it was reading, math, writing, or speech problems, each person shares his or her inspiring story of facing the challenge of school, while pursuing important goals. An invaluable resource list for adults and students included, as well as a place for kids to write their own success stories.
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The Art of Miss Chew
Patricia Polacco
Describes how a teacher named Miss Chew encouraged individuality, and accepted learning differences, and helped a young student with academic difficulties get extra time to take tests and permission to be in advanced art classes. Inspired by the author's memories of her art teacher.
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The Boy with Two Lives
Abbas Kazerooni
From the author of the bestselling memoir On Two Feet and Wings, this is the story of refugee Abbas's double life in England: elite schoolboy by day, homeless by night.
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The Girl Who Thought in Pictures
Julia Mosca
Describes the life and accomplishments of the animal scientist and designer of cruelty-free livestock facilities, from her early life and autism diagnosis through her journey to become a livestock expert.
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The Harvey Milk Story
Kari Krakow
The story of Harvey Milk, San Francisco's first openly gay city official.
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The Homeless
Gail B. Stewart
Presents first-person accounts of individuals and families who are living as homeless persons in America's cities.
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The Hunting Accident: A True Story of Crime and Poetry
David L. Carlson
It was a hunting accident; that much Charlie is sure of. That's how his father, Matt Rizzo--a gentle intellectual who writes epic poems in Braille--had lost his vision. It's not until Charlie's troubled teenage years, when he's facing time for his petty crimes, that he learns the truth. Matt Rizzo was blinded by a shotgun blast to the face, but it was while participating in an armed robbery. Newly blind and without hope, Matt began his bleak new life at Stateville Prison. In this unlikely place, Matt's life and very soul were saved by one of America's most notorious killers, Nathan Leopold Jr., of the infamous Leopold and Loeb.
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The Junkyard Wonders
Patricia Polacco
Inspired by a teacher who believes each of them is a genius, a class of special-needs students invents something that could convince the whole school they are justifiably proud to be "Junkyard Wonders."
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The Story of Ruby Bridges
Robert Coles
For months six-year-old Ruby Bridges must confront the hostility of white parents when she becomes the first African American girl to integrate Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960.
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Trevor's Story: Growing Up Biracial
Bethany Kandel
Ten-year-old Trevor Sage-El describes his life at home and at school, his feelings about being the son of a white mother and a black father, and what he likes and does not like about being biracial.