Direct Diversity | University of Central Florida

This collection contains materials filtered by Direct Diversity Impact from the DIVerse Families bibliography.

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 Diversity Impact:

Printing is not supported at the primary Gallery Thumbnail page. Please first navigate to a specific Image before printing.

Switch View to Grid View Slideshow

Dark Silence

Maureen Crane Wartski

Randy wanted things to be the way they used to be, but her mother is dead, her father has remarried, they've moved to a new neighborhood and her first friend in it cuts her off for no reason that Randy can figure out.
Days with Dad

Nari Hong

A young girl and her wheelchair-bound father share many special moments because she treasures all they can do together, although he apologizes for not being able to do more.
Dear Herculine

Aaron Apps

A book- length epistolary collection of hybrid-, trans-, and inter-genre prose, DEAR HERCULINE is an intertextual project that recalls portions of the 19th-century French hermaphrodite Herculine Barbin's memoirs, discovered and re- published by Michel Foucault. The medical reassignment of Herculine's gender eventually led to his/her death in February of 1868. Herculine's experiences are set against and interwoven into the author's experiences as an intersexed body through the epistolary form.
Dear Martin

Nic Stone

Writing letters to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., seventeen-year-old college-bound Justyce McAllister struggles to face the reality of race relations today and how they are shaping him.
Dear Mr. Henshaw

Beverly Cleary

In his letters to his favorite author, ten-year-old Leigh reveals his problems in coping with his parents' divorce, being the new boy in school, and generally finding his own place in the world.
Dear Rachel Maddow

Adrienne Kisner

Brianna gets the lead in the Thanksgiving school play. She'll 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!
Dear Santa, Please Come to the 19th Floor

Yin .

Willy and Carlos, who is in a wheelchair, receive a visit from Santa on Christmas Eve, even though they live on the nineteenth floor of their building.
Dear Yvette (Throwback Diaries)

Ni-Ni Simone

After a street fights ends with a jail sentence, Yvette is forced to live far from anything and anyone she's ever known, but starting her life over again may show her what it means to have a real family.
Death by Toilet Paper

Donna Gephart

Contest-crazed twelve-year-old Ben uses his wits and way with words in hopes of winning a prize that will keep his family from being evicted until his mother can pass her final CPA examination.
Death Coming Up the Hill

Chris Crowe Crowe

Douglas Ashe keeps a weekly record of historical and personal events in 1968, the year he turns seventeen, including the escalating war in Vietnam, assassinations, rampant racism, and rioting; his first girlfriend, his parents' separation, and a longed-for sister.
Debbie Harry Sings in French

Meagan Brothers

When Johnny completes an alcohol rehabilitation program and his mother sends him to live with his uncle in North Carolina, he meets Maria, who seems to understand his fascination with the new wave band Blondie, and he learns about his deceased father's youthful forays into "glam rock," which gives him perspective on himself, his past, and his current life.
December

Eve Bunting

A homeless family's luck changes after they help an old woman who has even less than they do at Christmas.
Deena Misses Her Mom

Jonae Haynesworth, Jesse Holmes, Layonnie Jones, and Kahliya Ruffin

Lately, Deena has been getting angry. A lot. She acts out in school and keeps getting in trouble. Everyone is surprised because she used to be very calm, but that was before her mother went to jail. Her dad, her grandma, and her best friend Josey all do their best to help her out, but Deena doesn’t want to talk about it. Will a day at the carnival with her Dad help her open up?
Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division

Jon Ginoli

Set against the changing decades of music, we follow the band from their inception in San Francisco, to their search for a music label and a permanent drummer to their current status as indie rock icons. We see the highs―touring with Green Day―and the lows―homophobic fans―of striving for acceptance and success in the world of rock.
Devils Within

S.F. Henson

Killing isn't supposed to be easy. But it is. It's the after that's hard to deal with. Nate was eight the first time he stabbed someone; he was eleven when he earned his red laces--a prize for spilling blood for "the cause." And he was fourteen when he murdered his father (and the leader of The Fort, a notorious white supremacist compound) in self-defense, landing in a treatment center while the state searched for his next of kin. Now, in the custody of an uncle he never knew existed, who wants nothing to do with him, Nate just wants to disappear. Enrolled in a new school under a false name, so no one from The Fort can find him, he struggles to forge a new life, trying to learn how to navigate a world where people of different races interact without enmity. But he can't stop awful thoughts from popping into his head, or help the way he shivers with a desire to commit violence. He wants to be different--he just doesn't know where to start. Then he meets Brandon, a person The Fort conditioned Nate to despise on sight. But Brandon's also the first person to treat him like a human instead of a monster. Brandon could never understand Nate's dark past, so Nate keeps quiet. And it works for a while. But all too soon, Nate's worlds crash together, and he must decide between his own survival and standing for what's right, even if it isn't easy. Even if society will never be able to forgive him for his sins.
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."
Different Kind of Life

Katie Leone

Michael Davis is a nine year old boy who struggles with living up to the expectations of his father. In order to toughen up, he agrees to sign up for Pee-wee football to learn how to be the man he is suppose to be. During the routine sports physical the doctor discovers a serious condition that turns Michael's world upside down and inside out. Without warning, he is presented with a decision that he never dreamed possible. With his best friend by his side and the support of his mother, the child tries to make a decision beyond his years and discovers his true self in the process.
Dinosaurs Divorce: A Guide for Changing Families

Marc Brown and Laurene Krasny Brown

Text and illustrations of dinosaur characters introduce aspects of divorce such as its causes and effects, living with a single parent, spending holidays in two separate households, and adjusting to a stepparent.
Dirt

Denise Orenstein

Eleven-year-old Yonder stopped talking when her mother died, and she stopped going to school because of the bullies, knowing that her father would never even notice (although the social worker did); indeed the only creature that seems to care about her is the one-eyed Shetland pony called Dirt who lives on the neighboring farm--so when she discovers that Dirt is about to be sold for horsemeat she is determined to find a way to save him.
Dirty One

Michael Graves

Set in the 1980s, Dirty one follows a pack of adolescent characters coming of age in a the suburban town of Leominster, Massachussetts.
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.
Divorce and Children

Maria L. Howell

Explores the issues surrounding divorce and children. Presents diversity of opinion on the topic, including both conservative and liberal points of view in an even balance.
Divorce is the Worst

Anastasia Higginbotham

This book provides, thorough honest language and evocative imagery, a uniquely realistic view of how children experience divorce. While neither softening nor white-washing this difficult topic, Higginbotham offers an ultimately comforting message to parents and children experiencing separation and divorce.
Do I Have a Daddy?: A Story About a Single-Parent Child with a Special Section for Single Mothers and Fathers

Jeanne Warren Lindsay

A single mother explains to her son that his daddy left soon after he was born. Includes a section with suggestions for answering the question, "Do I have a daddy?"
Do Not Pass Go

Kirkpatrick Hill

When Deet's father is jailed for using drugs, Deet learns that prison is not what he expected, nor are other people necessarily the way he thought they were.