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 Family Relationship:

Divorce

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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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
Bruises

Anke de Vries and Stacey Knecht

While living in Holland, Michael meets Judith, who is frightened, bullied, and beaten by her mother and blames herself for the abuse she is enduring.
Celebrating Families

Rosemarie Hausherr

Presents brief descriptions of many different kinds of families, both traditional and non-traditional.
Chinese Handcuffs

Christ Crutcher

Dillon is living with the painful memory of his brother's suicide-and the role he played in it. To keep his mind and body occupied, he trains intensely for the Ironman triathlon. But outside of practice, his life seems to be falling apart. Then Dillon finds a confidante in Jennifer, a star high school basketball player who's hiding her own set of destructive secrets. Together, they must find the courage to confront their demons-before it's too late.
Cici: A Fairy's Tale #2 A Truth In Sight

Cori Doerrfeld

Cici, a young fairy, is only joking when she uses her powers to play a trick on the popular girl at school. But the changes Cici made to her classmate will last forever if she doesn't learn to see the best in people.
Cursed

Karol Ruth Silverstein

Depicts young teen Ricky Bloom's struggles with her recent juvenile inflammatory disease diagnosis, which comes amid family upheaval and challenges at school.
Dad and Pop: An Ode to Fathers and Stepfathers

Kelly Bennett

A little girl celebrates her two fathers, who are very different except in one very important way.
Daddy Doesn't Live Here Anymore: A Book About Divorce

Betty Boegehold

When her parents decide to get a divorce, Casey is very unhappy, wonders if it is her fault, and tries a plan to get them back together.
Daddy's Roommate

Michael Willhoite

A young boy discusses his divorced father's new living situation, in which the father and his gay roommate share eating, doing chores, playing, loving, and living.
Dark Water

Laura McNeal

Living in a cottage on her uncle's southern California avocado ranch since her parent's messy divorce, fifteen-year-old Pearl Dewitt meets and falls in love with an illegal migrant worker, and is trapped with him when wildfires approach his makeshift forest home.
Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Rachel Cohn

In a story told in the alternating voices of Dash and Lily, two sixteen-year-olds carry on a wintry scavenger hunt at Christmastime in New York, neither knowing quite what--or who--they will find.
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!
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.
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.
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 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.
Double Dog Dare

Lisa Graff

When Kansas Bloom moves to California and joins the Media Club at school, he soon finds himself trying to outdo one of the other fourth-grade students in a "dare war" while vying for the job of on-air video homeroom announcer.
Dream On, Amber

Emma Shevah

As a half-Japanese, half-Italian girl with a ridiculous name, Amber's not feeling molto bene (very good) about making friends at her new school. But the hardest thing about being Amber is that a part of her is missing. Her dad. He left when she was little and he isn't coming back...not for her first day of middle school and not for her little sister's birthday. So Amber will have to dream up a way for the Miyamoto sisters to make it on their own.
Eleanor & Park

Rainbown Rowell

Two misfits. One extraordinary love. Eleanor -- Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough -- Eleanor. Park -- He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises -- Park. Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds -- smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.