Direct Diversity

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  Black, White & Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self

  Rebecca Walker

  In a memoir about the power of race to share one's personal identity, the daughter of Jewish father and African-American mother recalls her confusing but ultimately rewarding life lived between two conflicting ethnic identities. When Mel Leventhal married Alice Walker during the civil rights movement in the late 1960s, his mother declared him dead and did not reconcile until after the birth of her first grandchild.

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  Black, White, Just Right!

  Marguerite W. Davol

  A girl explains how her parents differ in color, tastes in art and food, and pet preferences, and how she herself is different too but just right.

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  Blended

  Sharon M. Draper

  Piano-prodigy Isabella, eleven, whose black father and white mother struggle to share custody, never feels whole, especially as racial tensions affect her school, her parents both become engaged, and she and her stepbrother are stopped by police.

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  Blood Family

  Anne Fine

  A boy with an abusive father grows up and fears that he has the same potential for violence as his father has.

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  Bloodline

  Joe Jimenez

  Seventeen-year-old Abraham is in love, but his girlfriend and the grandmother who raised him are worried about his fighting, and things only get worse when his uncle introduces him to boxing.

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  Blue Boy

  Rakesh Satyal

  Satyal's lovely coming-of-age debut charts an Indian-American boy's transformation from mere mortal to Krishnaji, the blue-skinned Hindu deity. Twelve-year-old Kiran Sharma's a bit of an outcast: he likes ballet and playing with his mother's makeup. He also reveres his Indian heritage and convinces himself that the reason he's having trouble fitting in is because he's actually the 10th reincarnation of Krishnaji. He plans to come out to the world at the 1992 Martin Van Buren Elementary School talent show, and much of the book revels in his comical preparations as he creates his costume, plays the flute and practices his dance moves to a Whitney Houston song. But as the performance approaches, something strange happens: Kiran's skin begins to turn blue. Satyal writes with a graceful ease, finding new humor in common awkward pre-teen moments and giving readers a delightful and lively young protagonist.

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  Blue is the Warmest Color

  Julie Maroh

  Blue is the Warmest Color is a graphic novel about growing up, falling in love, and coming out. Clementine, a high school student, has an average life: she has friends, family, and the romantic attention of the boys in her school. When her openly gay best friend takes her out on the town, she wanders into a lesbian bar where she encounters Emma: a punkish, confident girl with blue hair. Their attraction is instant and electric, and Clementine finds herself in a relationship that will test her friends, parents, and her own ideas about herself and her identity.

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  Bo at Ballard Creek

  Kirkpatrick Hill

  It's the 1920s, and Bo was headed for an Alaska orphanage when she won the hearts of two tough gold miners who set out to raise her, enthusiastically helped by all the kind people of the nearby Eskimo village.

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  Bonjour, Lonnie

  Faith Ringgold

  An African-American Jewish boy traces his ancestry with the help of the Love Bird of Paris.

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  Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

  Trevor Noah

  Noah's path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at the time such a union was punishable by five years in prison. As he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist, his mother is determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life....

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  Born Both: An Intersex Life

  Hida Viloria

  From Hida Viloria, writer and intersex activist, a candid, provocative, and eye-opening memoir of life, love, and gender identity as an intact intersex person, as well as a call to action for justice for intersex people. Hida Viloria was raised as a girl but discovered early on that he/r body was different. Unlike most people who are born intersex in the first world--meaning they have genitals, reproductive organs, hormones, and/or chromosomal patterns that do not fit standard definitions of male or female--Hida had the freedom to explore the person s/he was born to be because he/r parents did not agree to have he/r sex characteristics surgically altered at birth. It wasn't until s/he was 26 and encountered the term "intersex" in a San Francisco newspaper that s/he finally had a name for he/r difference. That's when s/he began to explore what it means to live in the space between genders--to be both and neither. As s/he began to reach out to others like he/r, however, Hida discovered that most intersex people had been scarred, both physically and psychologically, by infant surgeries and hormone treatments meant to "correct" their bodies. Eager to help end this practice, Hida came out as intersex at a national and then international level. By answering the question "Are you a boy or a girl?" with "I'm both," Hida's helped blaze a trail for people--particularly intersex and genderqueer/non-binary people--to celebrate the middle space where male and female are not separate and opposite but entwined. Born Both is an intimate and powerful account of Hida's search for authentic identity and love in a world that insists on categorizing people into either/or.

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  Box Girl

  Sarah Withrow

  Gwen, confident her mother who ran away five years earlier is going to return soon and take her to live in France, decides not to make any friends, but her plans fall through when Clara, a new eighth-grader, insists on being friends, and together the two sort out their place with friends, school, and family.

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  Boy Erased

  Garrard Conley

  A poignant account by a survivor of a church-supported sexual orientation conversion therapy facility that claimed to 'cure' homosexuality describes its intense Bible study program and the daily threats of his abandonment by family, friends and God, an experience that transformed the author's relationships and self-understandings.

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  Boyfriends with Girlfriends

  Alex Sanchez

  When Lance begins to date Sergio, who's bisexual, he's not sure that it'll work out, and when his best friend Allie, who has a boyfriend, meets Sergio's lesbian friend, she has unexpected feelings which she struggles to understand.

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  Boy Meets Boy

  David Levithan

  Love is never easy. Especially if you're Paul. He's a sophomore at a high school like no other, and these are his friends: Infinite Darlene, the homecoming queen and star quarterback; Joni, Paul's best friend who may not be his best friend anymore; Tony, his other best friend, who can't leave the house unless his parents think he's going on a date...with a girl; Kyle, the ex-boyfriend who won't go away; Rip, the school bookie, who sets the odds...and Noah, the boy. The one who changes everything.

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  Branded by the Pink Triangle

  Ken Setterington

  Before the rise of the Nazi party, Germany, especially Berlin, was one of the most tolerant places for homosexuals in the world. But that all changed when the Nazis came to power. The pink triangle sewn onto prison uniforms became the symbol of the persecution of homosexuals, a persecution that would continue for many years after the war. A mix of historical research, first-person accounts and individual stories bring this time to life for readers.

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  Brave Like Me

  Barbara Kerley

  When someone is serving our country, far from home, everyone in their family has to be brave. Including -- and sometimes especially -- the kids. This book speaks to all kids in this situation in telling the story of a boy and a girl with parents away on duty. It captures the children's worries, fears, trials, and triumphs while waiting for their parents to return from service. Although the narrative tells one universal tale, the photographs depict multiple perspectives so that every reader has someone they can relate to. In the end, each child finds the strength and patience to endure the wait, showing admirable bravery and inspiring us all. An afterword looks further at the meaning of bravery and offers resources for helping kids deal with transition, deployment, and separation.

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  Bread Song

  Frederick Lipp

  Hoping to make Chamnan, a seven-year-old immigrant from Thailand, feel more at home, the owner of a Portland, Maine, bakery invites him and his grandfather to hear her bread sing.

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  Breakfast for Dinner

  Cynthia DiLaura and M. D. Devore

  Meg's world is turned upside-down when her parents separate but she comes to realize that they are divorcing each other, not her. Includes discussion questions.

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  Breaking Out

  Barthe DeClements

  As thirteen-year-old Jerry enters junior high school, he continues to adjust to the fact that his father is in prison for theft. Sequel to "Five Finger Discount" and "Monkey See Monkey Do."

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  Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It

  Sundee Tucker Frazier

  Brendan Buckley, a biracial ten-year-old, applies his scientific problem-solving ability and newfound interest in rocks and minerals to connect with his white grandfather, the president of Puyallup Rock Club, and to learn why he and Brendan's mother are estranged.

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  Brianna Breathes Easy: A story about Asthma

  Virginia L. Kroll

  Brianna gets the lead in the Thanksgiving school playshell be Hero the Hen! She almost forgets about the coughing and breathing trouble she's been having.Brianna loves practicing her leaping and flapping. But at the dress rehearsal, she has a bad coughing attack and feels a tightness in her chest. The teacher calls 911 and the paramedics take Brianna to the hospital. There, Dr. Anderson diagnoses Brianna with asthma. Brianna begins to learn about her disease and how to manage it. Things are soon under control, and she's back on stage for her debut!

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  Brian's Bird

  Patricia Anne Davis and Layne Johnson

  Eight-year-old Brian, who is blind, learns how to take care of his new parakeet and comes to realize that his older brother, while sometimes careless, is not so bad after all.

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  Bright April

  Marguerite De Angeli

  Bright April is set in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. The story addresses the problem of racial prejudice and how children are able to gain understanding and tolerance through their own natural devices.

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  Bright Lights, Dark Nights

  Stephen Edmond

  Walter Wilcox's first love, Naomi, happens to be African American, so when Walter's policeman father is caught in a racial profiling scandal, the teens' bond and mutual love of the Foo Fighters may not be enough to keep them together through the pressures they face at school, at home, and online.