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 Health & Disability:
Developmental Disability
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All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome
Kathy Hoopmann
Pictures of cats in usual and unusual positions help illustrate how the behaviors of people with Asperger's syndrome are similar to those of cats.
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All Kinds of Friends, Even Green!
Ellen B. Senisi
In a school assignment, seven-year-old Moses, who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair, reflects that his neighbor's disabled iguana resembles him because they both have figured out how to get where they want to be in different ways than those around them.
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All My Stripes: A Story for Children with Autism
Shaina Rudolph and Danielle Royer
Zane rushes home to tell his mother about problems he faced during his school day, and she reminds him that while others may only see his "autism stripe," he has stripes for honesty, caring, and much more.
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A Manual for Marco: Living, Learning, and Laughing with an Autistic Sibling
Shaila Abdullah
An eight-year-old girl decides to make a list of all the things she likes and dislikes about dealing with her autistic brother.
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Anything But Typical
Nora Raleigh Baskin
Jason Blake is an autistic twelve-year-old living in a neurotypical world. Most days it's just a matter of time before something goes wrong. But Jason finds a glimmer of understanding when he comes across PhoenixBird, who posts stories to the same online site as he does. Jason can be himself when he writes and he thinks that PhoneixBird-her name is Rebecca-could be his first real friend. But as desperate as Jason is to met her, he's terrified that if they do meet, Rebecca wil only see his autism and not who Jason really is.
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April Witch
Majgull Azelsson and Linda Schenck
Desirée lies in a hospital bed thinking, dreaming. Born severely disabled, she cannot walk or talk, but she has other capabilities. Desirée is an April witch, clairvoyant and omniscient, traveling through time and space into the world denied her. The woman who gave Desirée up at birth subsequently took in three foster daughters, who know nothing of the existence of their fourth “sister.” Sensing that her own time is short, Desirée has decided that one of the others has lived the life she herself deserved. One day, each of the three women receives a mysterious letter that forces her to examine her past and her present—setting in motion a complex fugue of memory, regret, and confrontation that builds to a shattering climax.
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Armond Goes to a Party: A Book about Asperger's and Friendship
Nancy Carlson
Armond doesn't want to go to Felicia's birthday party. Parties are noisy, disorganized, and smelly--all things that are hard for a kid with Asperger's. Worst of all is socializing with other kids. But with the support of Felicia and her mom, good friends who know how to help him, he not only gets through the party, but also has fun. When his mom picks him up, Armond admits the party was not easy, but he feels good that he faced the challenge--and that he's a good friend.
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A Step Toward Falling
Cammie McGovern
When their inaction during an attack on a disabled girl earns them community service at a center for people with disabilities, Emily and Lucas bond while trying to make up for their mistake, and wonder if they can make it right with the girl who suffered because of them.
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Autism and Me: Sibling Stories
Ouisie Shapiro
In these moving essays, children tell their stories of what it is like to live with a sibling who has autism.
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Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability
Jennifer Bartlett, Sheila Black, and Michael Northen
Beauty is a verb is the first of its kind: a high-quality anthology of poetry by American poets with physical disabilities. Poems and essays alike consider how poetry, coupled with the experience of disability, speaks to the poetics of each poet included. The collection explores first the precursors whose poems had a complex (and sometimes absent) relationship with disability, such as Vassar Miller, Larry Eigner, and Josephine Miles. It continues with poets who have generated the Crip Poetics Movement, such as Petra Kuppers, Kenny Fries, and Jim Ferris. Finally, the collection explores the work of poets who don't necessarily subscribe to the identity of "crip-poetics" and have never before been published in this exact context. These poets include Bernadette Mayer, Rusty Morrison, Cynthia Hogue, and C.S. Giscombe. The book crosses poetry movements--from narrative to language poetry--and speaks to and about a number of disabilities including cerebral palsy, deafness, blindness, multiple sclerosis, and aphasia due to stroke, among others.
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Ben Has Something to Say: A Story About Stuttering
Laurie Lears
In order to help a neglected dog which he sees at a junkyard, Ben, who stutters, begins to confront his fear of speaking.
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Benji, the Bad Day, and Me
Sally J. Pla
Nothing seems to be going right for Sammy today. At school, he got in trouble for kicking a fence, then the cafeteria ran out of pizza for lunch. After he walks home in the pouring rain, he finds his autistic little brother Benji is having a bad day too. On days like this, Benji has a special play-box where he goes to feel cozy and safe. Sammy doesn't have a special place, and he's convinced no one cares how he feels or even notices him. But somebody is noticing, and may just have an idea on how to help Sammy feel better.
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Benny Doesn't Like to Be Hugged
Zetta Elliott
A little girl uses rhyming verse to describe the unique traits of her autistic friend. Benny likes trains and cupcakes without sprinkles, but he can also be fussy sometimes. The narrator doesn’t mind, however, because “true friends accept each other just the way they are.” A gentle story encouraging children to appreciate and accept our differences.
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Be Quiet, Marina!
Kirsten DeBear
A story of how two girls, one with cerebral palsy and one with Down syndrome, become friends.
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Boo's Beard
Rose Mannering
New friends and a dog named Boo help an autistic child learn how to read facial expressions.
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Caterpillars Can’t Swim
Liane Shaw
Two boys look to the water for escape, but for very different reasons. For sixteen-year-old Ryan, the water is where he finds his freedom. Ever since childhood, when he realized that he would never walk like other people, he has loved the water where gravity is no longer his enemy. But he never imagined he would become his small town's hero by saving a schoolmate from drowning. Jack is also attracted to the water, but for him it's the promise of permanent escape. Disappearing altogether seems better than living through one more day of high school where he is dogged by rumors about his sexuality. He's terrified that coming out will alienate him from everyone in town - and crush his adoring mother. Ryan saves Jack's life, but he also keeps his secret. Their bond leads to a grudging friendship, and an unexpected road-trip to Comic Con with Ryan's best friend Cody, the captain of the swim team. The unlikely trio ends up subverting preconceptions and prejudices of their own and of those around them.
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Chester and Gus
Cammie McGovern
Chester, a service dog, is adopted into a family where he becomes a companion to Gus, a ten-year-old boy with nonverbal autism, who initially challenges Chester by requiring a different kind of friendship.
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Clara Hale: Mother to Those Who Needed One
Bob Italia
Presents the life of the New York woman whose love of children led her to establish a foster care program to help babies born addicted to drugs.
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Cookie
Linda Kneeland
When four-year-old Molly, who has Down syndrome, learns to talk with her hands, she suffers fewer frustrations by being able to ask for what she wants.
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Disability and Families
Hilary W. Poole
Looks at the many different types of disabilities that exist, and discusses how these situations can be a challenge for families, but also a source of great strength.
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(Don't) Call Me Crazy
Kelly Jensen
A Washington Post Best Children’s Book of 2018Who’s Crazy? What does it mean to be crazy? Is using the word crazy offensive? What happens when a label like that gets attached to your everyday experiences? To understand mental health, we need to talk openly about it. Because there’s no single definition of crazy, there’s no single experience that embodies it, and the word itself means different things—wild? extreme? disturbed? passionate?—to different people. In (Don’t) Call Me Crazy, thirty-three actors, athletes, writers, and artists offer essays, lists, comics, and illustrations that explore a wide range of topics:their personal experiences with mental illness,how we do and don’t talk about mental health,help for better understanding how every person’s brain is wired differently,and what, exactly, might make someone crazy. If you’ve ever struggled with your mental health, or know someone who has, come on in, turn the pages . . . and let’s get talking.
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Emily in Love
Susan Goldman Rubin
A developmentally-disabled fourteen-year-old faces the challenges of her classes at a "regular" high school, a new job, and a budding romance.
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Every Turtle Counts
Sara Hoagland Hunter
When seven-year-old Mimi finds a frozen sea turtle on the beach, she refuses to believe that it will die.
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Extraordinary People with Disabilities
Deborah Kent and Kathryn A. Quinlan
Profiles seven dozen people throughout history with various physiccal or mental disabilities.
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Fade to Us
Julia Day
Brooke's summer is going to be EPIC -- having fun with her friends and a job that lets her buy a car. Then her new stepfather announces his daughter is moving in. Brooke has always longed for a sibling, so she's excited about spending more time with her stepsister. But she worries, too. Natalie has Asperger's--and Brooke's not sure how to be the big sister that Natalie needs. After Natalie joins a musical theater program, Brooke sacrifices her job to volunteer for the backstage crew. She's mostly there for Natalie, but Brooke soon discovers how much she enjoys being part of the show. Especially sweet is the chance to work closely with charming and fascinating Micah--the production's stage manager. When her summer finally comes to an end, will Brooke finally have the family she so desperately wants--and the love she's only dreamed about?