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

The Cook's Family

Laurence Yep

As her parents' arguments become more frequent, Robin looks forward to the visits that she and her grandmother make to Chinatown, where they pretend to be an elderly cook's family, giving Robin new insights into her Chinese heritage.
The Cottage in the Woods

Katherine Coville

Presents the story of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" as told by young Teddy's governess, who came to work at the Vaughn family "cottage" shortly before a golden-haired girl, ragged and dirty, entered the home and soon became a beloved foster child, until evil characters tried to take her away.
The Crazy Man

Pamela Porter

It is 1965, and 12-year-old Emaline, living on a wheat farm, must deal with a family that is falling apart. When her dog, Prince, chases a hare into the path of the tractor, she chases after him, and her father accidentally runs over her leg, leaving her with a long convalescence and a permanent disability. Even worse, from Emaline’s point of view, is that in his grief and guilt, her father shoots Prince and leaves Emaline and her mother on their own. Despite the neighbors’ disapproval, Emaline’s mother hires Angus, a patient from the local mental hospital, to work their fields. Angus is a red-haired giant whom the local children tease and call "the gorilla." Though the small town’s prejudice creates a cloud of suspicion around Angus that nearly results in tragedy, he just may hold the key to Emaline's coming to grips with her injury and the loss of her father.
The Daddy Machine

Johnny Valentine

Two children who have two mothers dream of what it would be like to have a father and pretend to invent a daddy machine.
The Dagger Quick

Brian Eames

Twelve-year-old Christopher "Kitto" Wheale, a clubfooted boy seemingly doomed to follow in the boring footsteps of his father as a cooper in seventeenth-century England, finds himself on a dangerous seafaring adventure with his newly discovered uncle, the infamous pirate William Quick.
The Dangerous Art of Blending In

Angelo Surmelis

Evan Panos's strict immigrant Greek mother sees him as a disappointment. His workaholic father is a staunch believer in avoiding any kind of conflict. And his best friend, Henry, has somehow become distractingly attractive over the summer. His only escape is drawing, in an abandoned monastery that feels as lonely as he is. And Henry makes Evan believe that he deserves more than his mother's harsh words and terrifying abuse. As things escalate, Evan has to decide how to find his voice in a world where he has survived so long by being silent.
The Danish Girl

David Ebershoff

Loosely inspired by a true story, this tender portrait of marriage asks: What do you do when the person you love has to change? It starts with a question, a simple favor asked by a wife of her husband while both are painting in their studio, setting off a transformation neither can anticipate. Uniting fact and fiction into an original romantic vision, The Danish Girl eloquently portrays the unique intimacy that defines every marriage and the remarkable story of Lili Elbe, a pioneer in transgender history, and the woman torn between loyalty to her marriage and her own ambitions and desires. The Danish Girl’s lush prose and generous emotional insight make it, after the last page is turned, a deeply moving first novel about one of the most passionate and unusual love stories of the 20th century.
The Day Joanie Frankenhauser Became a Boy

Francess Lin Lantz

Tired of gender stereotyping at home, in the classroom, and especially on the football field, ten-year-old Joanie pretends to be a boy when her family moves to a new town, but soon finds there are unexpected consequences.
The Days of Summer

Eve Bunting

As summer ends and they get ready to go back to school, two young girls try to deal with the news that the grandparents they love are getting a divorce.
The Day War Came

Nicola Davies

The day war came there were flowers on the windowsill and my father sang my baby brother back to sleep. Imagine if, on an ordinary day, after a morning of studying tadpoles and drawing birds at school, war came to your town and turned it to rubble. Imagine if you lost everything and everyone, and you had to make a dangerous journey all alone. Imagine that there was no welcome at the end, and no room for you to even take a seat at school. And then a child, just like you, gave you something ordinary but so very, very precious. In lyrical, deeply affecting language, Nicola Davies’s text combines with Rebecca Cobb’s expressive illustrations to evoke the experience of a child who sees war take away all that she knows.
The Day We Met You

Phoebe Koehler

Mom and Dad recount the exciting day when they adopted their baby.
The Day You Begin

Jacqueline Woodson

Other students laugh when Rigoberto, an immigrant from Venezuela, introduces himself but later, he meets Angelina and discovers that he is not the only one who feels like an outsider.
The Deaf Musicians

Pete Seeger and Paul Dubois Jacobs

Lee, a jazz pianist, has to leave his band when he begins losing his hearing, but he meets a deaf saxophone player in a sign language class and together they form a snazzy new band.
The Difference Between You and Me

Madeleine George

School outsider Jesse, a lesbian, is having secret trysts with Emily, the popular student council vice president, but when they find themselves on opposite sides of a major issue and Jesse becomes more involved with a student activist, they are forced to make a difficult decision.
The Distance of Hope

Sid Hite

Fifteen-year-old Yeshe Anjur, the nearly-blind heir to the throne of Padma, undertakes a dangerous journey to far-off Tigristan to find the legendary White Bean Lama who may be able to restore his sight.
The Dream Jar

Bonnie Pryor

Valentina's family has come from Russia with a wonderful dream--to own a store. Valentina wants to help, but everyone says she's too little to contribute to the glass jar where the dream money is kept. The family becomes discouraged when little money comes in, but Valentina has discovered how she can help make their dream come true.
The Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans: And Other Stories

Johnny Valentine

A collection of five fairy tales about children with gay parents.
The Edification of Sonya Crane

J. D. Guilford

Transferred to a predominantly black high school in Atlanta, Sonya Crane, passing as biracial, hides her real identity when she is accepted into a clique of friends she never had before until Tandy Herman, the most popular girl in school, threatens to expose her.
The Education of Little Tree

Forrest Carter

Little Tree is an 8-year-old Cherokee boy, who, during the time of the depression, loses his parents and goes to live with his mountain dwelling grandparents and learns the wisdom of the Cherokee way of life.
The Evolution of Ethan Poe

Robin Reardon

Ethan Poe, sixteen and gay, struggles for balance while his life conspires to pull him in many different directions. His parents are divorcing; his older brother Kyle is damaging his right hand in the name of purity; his best friend is a Jesus freak who prays for him to be straight; he's desperate to get his driver's license, but he can't seem to get enough supervised driving time. He's just starting to see light in the form of Max Modine, a boy he wants to know much better than he does, when his rural Maine town begins to explode around him. Against his intentions he gets pulled into a pitched and sometimes violent conflict about whether to introduce Intelligent Design into science classrooms. Friendships end, families are torn apart, and the school becomes a battleground. Always seeking elusive balance, Ethan finds his way through a maze of lost friends, new love, and the mysteries of tattoos and power animals, with help from quarters where he never expected to find it. And he gains something better than balance.
The Face at the Window

Regina Hanson

When Dora goes to take a mango from Miss Nella's tree, she is frightened by the woman's strange behavior.
The Fairies of Nutfolk Wood

Barb Bentler Ullman

After her parents divorce and she moves to the country with her mother, fourth-grader Willa Jane, anxious and unhappy with the changes in her life, discovers a world of little people called Nutfolk living in the woods around her new home.
The Fall of Rome

Martha Southgate

Latin instructor Jerome Washington is a man out of place. The lone African-American teacher at the Chelsea School, an elite all-boys boarding school in Connecticut, he has spent nearly two decades trying not to appear too "racial." So he is unnerved when Rashid Bryson, a promising black inner-city student who is new to the school, seeks Washington as a potential ally against Chelsea's citadel of white privilege. Preferring not to align himself with Bryson, Washington rejects the boy's friendship. Surprised and dismayed by Washington's response, Bryson turns instead to Jana Hansen, a middle-aged white divorcée who is also new to the school -- and who has her own reasons for becoming involved in the lives of both Bryson and Washington. Southgate makes her debut as a writer to watch in this compelling, provocative tale of how race and class ensnare Hansen, Washington, and Bryson as they journey toward an inevitable and ultimately tragic confrontation.
The Family Book

Todd Parr

Represents a variety of families, some big and some small, some with only one parent and some with two moms or dads, some quiet and some noisy, but all alike in some ways and special no matter what.
The Family Fletcher Takes Rock Island

Dana Alison Levy

Summertime brings the Fletcher Family back to Rock Island where the good times never end, but this summer the boys' favorite lighthouse is all boarded up and with the help from their new neighbors, the Garcia girls, the boys are determined to find out what is really happening with their lighthouse and saving it, no matter what the cost.