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.

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Out of the Blue

S. L. Rottman

After moving to Minot, North Dakota, with his mother, the new female base commander, Air Force dependent Stu Ballentyne gradually becomes aware that something terrible is going on in his neighbor's house.
Out of the Ordinary: Essays on Growing Up with Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Parents

Noelle Howey and Ellen Jean Samuels

"Out of the Ordinary" is a groundbreaking collection of essays by teen and adult children of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender parents. The essays range from humorous to poignant and provide insight into numerous topics on dealing with a parent's sexuality while figuring out one's own.
Over the Moon: An Adoption Tale

Karen Katz

A loving couple dream of a baby born far away and know that this is the baby they have been waiting to adopt.
Over the River

Sharelle Byars Moranville

In 1947, after the war, Willa Mae's father returns to the Illinois town where she has lived with her maternal grandparents for the last five of her eleven years, and Willa Mae finds herself struggling to understand old family tensions and secrets.
Owen Has Burgers and Drum: Helping to Understand and Befriend Kids with Asperger's Syndrome

Christine M. Shiels and Frank R. Pane

Cal befriends the new boy at school, Owen, and learns how Owen's behavior is affected by Asperger's syndrome, a part of the autism spectrum characterized by difficulties in social interaction.
Owen's Family (All Kinds of Families)

Elliot Riley

Meet Owen's family. His mom died when he was young. His dad raises him and his brothers with the help of his grandparents. It is a special kind of family.
Owning It: Stories About Teens with Disabilities

Donald R. Gallo

Presents ten stories of teenagers facing all of the usual challenges of school, parents, boyfriends and girlfriends, plus the additional complications that come with having a physical or psychological disability.
Pablo Finds a Treasure

Andrée Poulin

Pablo and his sister spend every day at "Treasure Mountain," the local dump. There, they rummage through the mounds of garbage looking for items that their mother can sell in order to provide food for the family. Occasionally, they find a "real" treasure like some still-edible food, or a picture book, which Pablo delights in, even though he can't read. The work is exhausting, and sometimes not very lucrative, but the worst thing they have to contend with is Filthy-Face, a brutish bully who steals the finds of all the children. But one day, Pablo discovers a real treasure. Will he be able to keep it from falling into the hands of Filthy-Face?
Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant's Tale

Duncan Tonatiuh

When Papa Rabbit does not return home as expected from many seasons of working in the great carrot and lettuce fields of El Norte, his son Pancho sets out on a dangerous trek to find him, guided by a coyote. Includes glossary and author's note about illegal immigration and undocumented workers
Papa's Backpack

James Christopher Carroll

Illustrations and rhyming text portray a bear cub who understands that because Papa is a soldier, he sometimes must go, but imagines what it would be like to stay near by riding in Papa's backpack.
Paper Wishes

Lois Sepahban

Ten-year-old Manami did not realize how peaceful her family's life on Bainbridge Island was until the day it all changed. It's 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Manami and her family are Japanese American, which means that the government says they must leave their home by the sea and join other Japanese Americans at a prison camp in the desert. Manami is sad to go, but even worse is that they are going to have to give her and her grandfather's dog, Yujiin, to a neighbor to take care of. Manami decides to sneak Yujiin under her coat and gets as far as the mainland before she is caught and forced to abandon Yujiin. She and her grandfather are devastated, but Manami clings to the hope that somehow Yujiin will find his way to the camp and make her family whole again. It isn't until she finds a way to let go of her guilt that Manami can reclaim the piece of herself that she left behind and accept all that has happened to her family.
Parrotfish

Ellen Wittlinger

Grady, a transgendered high school student, yearns for acceptance by his classmates and family as he struggles to adjust to his new identity as a male.
Pashmina

Nidhi Chanani

Priyanka Das has so many unanswered questions: Why did her mother abandon her home in India years ago? What was it like there? And most importantly, who is her father, and why did her mom leave him behind? But Pri's mom avoids these questions and the topic of India is permanently closed. For Pri, her mother's homeland can only exist in her imagination. That is, until she find a mysterious pashmina tucked away in a forgotten suitcase. When she wraps herself in it, she is transported to a place more vivid and colorful than any guidebook or Bollywood film.
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.
People with Disabilities

Hayley Mitchell Haugen

This volume provides an overview of people with disabilities in the United States, a chronology of important events, an annotated bibliography, and other resources for conducting further research. The author illuminates this often-neglected human side of these problems by presenting a collection of personal narratives of people who have had personal experience with physical and mental disabilities as participants, witnesses, or involved professionals.
People with Disabilities (What Do You Know About It)

Pete Sanders and Steve Myers

Discusses what it means to have a physical impairment or learning disability and the effects of such challenges on the disabled person and those around him.
Peppe the Lamplighter

Elisa Bartone

Peppe becomes a lamplighter to help support his immigrant family in turn-of-the-century New York City, despite his papa's disapproval. But when Peppe's job helps save his little sister, he earns the respect of his entire family.
Perfect Peace

Daniel Black

After Perfect Peace's mother reveals that Perfect was born a boy, made into a girl and now must learn to be a boy again, his life goes out of control and his family is forced to question everything they thought they knew.
Personal Effects

E. M. Kokie

Matt has been sleepwalking through life while seeking answers about his brother T.J.'s death in Iraq, but after discovering that he may not have known his brother as well as he thought he did, Matt is able to stand up to his father, honor T.J.'s memory, and take charge of his own life.
Petey

Ben Mikaelsen

In 1922, at the age of two, Petey's distraught parents commit him to the state's insane asylum, unaware that their son is actually suffering from severe cerebral palsy. Bound by his wheelchair and struggling to communicate with the people around him, Petey finds a way to remain kind and generous despite the horrific conditions in his new "home." Through the decades, he befriends several caretakers but is heartbroken when each eventually leaves him. Determined not to be hurt again, he vows to no longer let hope of lifelong friends and family torment him. That changes after he is moved into a nursing home and meets a young teen named Trevor Ladd; he sees something in the boy and decides to risk friendship one last time. Trevor, new to town and a bit of a loner, is at first weary of the old man in the wheelchair. But after hearing more of his story, Trevor learns that there is much more to Petey than meets the eye.
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.
Picture Us In The Light

Kelly Loy Gilbert

Daniel, a Chinese-American teen, must grapple with his plans for the future, his feelings for his best friend Harry, and his discovery of a family secret that could shatter everything.
Pieces of Why

K.L. Going

Tia lives with her mom in a high-risk neighborhood in New Orleans and loves singing gospel in the Rainbow Choir with Keisha, her boisterous and assertive best friend. Tia's dream is to change the world with her voice; and by all accounts, she might be talented enough. But when a shooting happens in her neighborhood and she learns the truth about the crime that sent her father to prison years ago, Tia finds she can't sing anymore.
Pink is for Boys

Robb Pearlman

A celebration of how colors are for everyone depicts characters engaging in their favorite activities.
Pink Smog: Becoming Weetzie Bat

Francesa Lia Block

After her family loses their cottage in the Los Angeles hills, junior high school outcast Weetzie Bat's father leaves her mother and Weetzie learns how to stand up for herself and to find beauty in even the most difficult situations.