This collection contains materials from the DIVerse Families bibliography organized by format.
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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Jo Makes a Friend
Susan Beth Pfeffer
At the request of her great-aunt, ten-year-old Jo tries to befriend a sad and lonely blind girl who is visiting the neighborhood. Exuberant Jo March never sits still. Whether she's racing against boys or scribbling and acting in her latest play, Jo is always active and creative. So when Aunt March asks her to befriend Pauline Wheeler, Jo can't believe that the girl spends every day cooped up in her bedroom. True, Pauline is blind and utterly dependent on her governess, but her fear of life exhausts Jo's patience. The two girls simply have nothing in common--until they're caught in a snow squall that changes their lives.
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Journey
Patricia MacLachlan
Left by their mother with their grandparents, two children feel as if their past has been erased until Grandfather finds a way to restore it to them.
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Joy of Apex
Napatsi Folger
Joy is ten years old, living in Apex, Nunavut - a suburb of Iqaluit. Her perfect life is shattered by her parent's separation.
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Jubilee
Patricia Reilly Giff
Judith stopped talking long ago when Mom left her in the care of beloved Aunt Cora. Going back into a regular fifth-grade classroom won't be easy, but she has her Dog and new friend who will help her through.
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Leading Ladies
Marlee Matlin and Doug Cooney
A deaf fourth-grader finds her true calling when she is cast as Dorothy in a school production of "The Wizard of Oz."
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LGBTQ+ Athletes Claim the Field: Striving for Equality
Kirstin Cronn-Mills
In 2015, the world watched as soccer star Abby Wambach kissed her wife after the US women's World Cup victory. Milwaukee Brewers' minor league first baseman David Denson came out as gay. And Caitlyn (born Bruce) Jenner, an Olympic decathlete, came out as transgender. It hasn't always been this way. Many great athletes have stayed in the closet their whole lives, or at least until retirement. Social attitudes, institutional policies, and laws are slow to change, but they are catching up. Together, athletes, families, educators, allies, and fans are pushing for competitive equity so that every athlete, regardless of identity, can have the opportunity to play at their very best.
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Losers Bracket
Chris Crutcher
When it comes to family, Annie is in the losers bracket. While her foster parents are great (mostly), her birth family would not have been her first pick. And no matter how many times Annie tries to write them out of her life, she always gets sucked back into their drama. Love is like that. But when a family argument breaks out at Annie's swim meet and her nephew goes missing, Annie might be the only one who can get him back. With help from her friends, her foster brother, and her social service worker, Annie puts the pieces of the puzzle together, determined to find her nephew and finally get him into a safe home.
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Lost!: A Dog Called Bear
Wendy Orr
When Logan's dog runs away as he and his mother are moving to a new home after his parents separate, a girl named Hannah, who longs for a dog of her own, finds him.
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Lost and Found (Amy Hodgepodge, #3)
Kim Wayans Wayans and Kevin Knotts
When her class goes on a wilderness overnight trip, fourth-grader Amy worries about how she will fare since she has never gone camping.
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Loving V. Virginia: Interracial Marriage
Karen Alonso
Explores the Supreme Court case that challenged and eventually overturned Virginia's law forbidding interracial marriages.
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Lucy Rose, Here's the Thing About Me
Kelly Katy
Eight-year-old Lucy Rose keeps a diary of her first year in Washington, D.C., her home since her parents' separation, where she spends time with her grandparents, makes new friends, and longs to convince her teacher to let her take care of the class pet during a holiday.
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McKenna (American Girl)
Mary Casanova
Seattle fourth-grader McKenna Brooks, who lives for gymnastics, struggles with school work until Josie, a tutor confined to a wheelchair, helps her with reading comprehension and much more.
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Me, Frida and the Secret of the Peacock Ring
Angela Cervantes
Paloma Marquez is traveling to Mexico City, birthplace of her deceased father, for the very first time. She's hoping that spending time in Mexico will help her unlock memories of the too-brief time they spent together. While in Mexico, Paloma meets Lizzie and Gael, who present her with an irresistible challenge: The siblings want her to help them find a valuable ring that once belonged to beloved Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Finding the ring means a big reward -- and the thanks of all Mexico. What better way to honor her father than returning a priceless piece of jewelry that once belonged to his favorite artist! But the brother and sister have a secret. Do they really want to return the ring, or are they after something else entirely?
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Missing Sisters
Gregory Maguire
Twelve-year-old Alice, an orphan who has never been adopted because of her physical handicap and difficult personality, is shocked to discover she has an identical twin sister living nearby.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Multiracial Families (Families Today)
Hilary W. Poole
Explores the benefits and challenges multiracial families face in today's society.
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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.
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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.
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No Tildes on Tuesday
Cherrye S. Vasquez
Isabella never wanted to learn to speak Spanish. But when her parents announce that they are moving the family to a predominantly Mexican-American neighborhood, Isabella becomes desperately afraid that she won't be able to fit in and grudgingly agrees to start Spanish lessons with her abuela. But the lessons aren't as easy as she thought they would be. Abuela is a strict teacher and the words are a lot more difficult to memorize than Isabella thought they would be, so at the goading of her best friend she decides to put a stop to them. Through a runaway adventure, a visit to her father in the hospital, and an introduction to a new kind of friend, Isabella comes to realize that Spanish may not be as bad as she thought, and that being able to communicate with people who share her heritage could be invaluable. Follow Isabella and author Cherrye Vasquez on a challenging journey of culture, family, and communication that just might change your mind about having No Tildes on Tuesday.
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On Being Sarah
Elizabeth S. Helfman
Twelve-year-old Sarah Bennett, a young victim of cerebral palsy, yearns to become a part of the "normal" world, and she gets her chance when she is mainstreamed into a regular school, makes a new best friend, and learns to come to terms with her special challenge.
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Only the Lonely
Laura Dower
Madison Finn uses her computer journal and the Internet to cope with many changes as she starts seventh grade--her parents' divorce, the arrival of a new girl in town, and separation from her two best friends.
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Peace, Locomotion
Jacqueline Woodson
Through letters to his little sister, who is living in a different foster home, sixth-grader Lonnie, also known as "Locomotion," keeps a record of their lives while they are apart, describing his own foster family, including his foster brother who returns home after losing a leg in the Iraq War.
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Pictures of Hollis Woods
Patricia Reilly Giff
A troublesome twelve-year-old orphan, staying with an elderly artist who needs her, remembers the only other time she was happy in a foster home, with a family that truly seemed to care about her.