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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Odd One out

Nic Stone

High school juniors and best friends Courtney and Jupe, and new sophomore Rae, explore their sexuality and their budding attractions for one another.
Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen

Donna Gephart

After overcoming a number of obstacles, especially in the subject of geography, Olivia is on her way to Hollywood to appear on Jeopardy! and, she hopes, to reunite with her father who left the family two years ago.
One More Step

Sheree Fitch

Fourteen-year-old Julian's parents separated when he was a baby and he is still angry and hurt. His mother has had relationships since -- all of which have ended disastrously -- but this time it seems serious. Jean-Paul looks like he might be the real thing. Julian is wary and critical as he comes to terms with the fact that he and his brother may have to let down their defenses and allow their mother to find happiness. On a road trip with his mother and her new beau, Julian finds that love and happiness come in many guises. In the end, he realizes that it is not blood that determines true family, but the willingness to stand together.
Only the Lonely

Laura Dower

Madison Finn uses her computer journal and the Internet to cope with many changes as she starts seventh grade--her parents' divorce, the arrival of a new girl in town, and separation from her two best friends.
Over You

Amy Reed

A novel about two girls on the run from their problems, their pasts, and themselves. Max and Sadie are escaping to Nebraska, but they'll soon learn they can't escape the truth.
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.
Playing Without the Ball

Rich Wallace

Feeling abandoned by his parents, who have gone their separate ways and left him behind in a small Pennsylvania town, seventeen-year-old Jay finds hope for the future in a church-sponsored basketball team and a female friend.
Priscilla Twice

Judith Caseley

When Priscilla's parents divorce, she learns that there are different kinds of families.
Pulp

Robin Talley

In 1955, eighteen-year-old Janet Jones keeps the love she shares with her best friend Marie a secret. It’s not easy being gay in Washington, DC, in the age of McCarthyism, but when she discovers a series of books about women falling in love with other women, it awakens something in Janet. As she juggles a romance she must keep hidden and a newfound ambition to write and publish her own story, she risks exposing herself—and Marie—to a danger all too real. Sixty-two years later, Abby Zimet can’t stop thinking about her senior project and its subject—classic 1950s lesbian pulp fiction. Between the pages of her favorite book, the stresses of Abby’s own life are lost to the fictional hopes, desires and tragedies of the characters she’s reading about. She feels especially connected to one author, a woman who wrote under the pseudonym “Marian Love,” and becomes determined to track her down and discover her true identity. In this novel told in dual narratives, New York Times bestselling author Robin Talley weaves together the lives of two young women connected across generations through the power of words. A stunning story of bravery, love, how far we’ve come and how much farther we have to go.
Rainbow Boys

Alex Sanchez

Three high school seniors, a jock with a girlfriend and an alcoholic father, a closeted gay, and a flamboyant gay rights advocate, struggle with family issues, gay bashers, first sex, and conflicting feelings about each other.
Ramona Blue

Julie Murphy

Ramona was only five years old when Hurricane Katrina changed her life forever. Since then, it's been Ramona and her family against the world. Standing over six feet tall with unmistakable blue hair, Ramona is sure of three things: she likes girls, she's fiercely devoted to her family, and she knows she's destined for something bigger than the trailer she calls home in Eulogy, Mississippi. But juggling multiple jobs, her flaky mom, and her well-meaning but ineffectual dad forces her to be the adult of the family. Now, with her sister, Hattie, pregnant, responsibility weighs more heavily than ever. The return of her childhood friend Freddie brings a welcome distraction. Ramona's friendship with the former competitive swimmer picks up exactly where it left off, and soon he's talked her into joining him for laps at the pool. But as Ramona falls in love with swimming, her feelings for Freddie begin to shift too, which is the last thing she expected. With her growing affection for Freddie making her question her sexual identity, Ramona begins to wonder if perhaps she likes girls and guys or if this new attraction is just a fluke. Either way, Ramona will discover that, for her, life and love are more fluid than they seem.
Rats Saw God

Rob Thomas

Having failed English, eighteen-year-old Steve York must generate a paper to get credit and chooses to write about his years in high school, during which he experienced his first love and struggled with family relationships.
Robert Lives with His Grandparents

Martha Hickman Whitmore

Robert is embarrassed to admit to his classmates that he has lived with his grandparents ever since his parents' divorce.
Rosa Parks: Civil Rights Activist

Chuck Bednar

Profiles the life and career of the civil rights activist Rosa Parks.
Saints and Misfits

S. K. Ali

Fifteen-year-old Janna Yusuf, a Flannery O'Connor-obsessed book nerd and the daughter of the only divorced mother at their mosque, tries to make sense of the events that follow when her best friend's cousin--a holy star in the Muslim community--attempts to assault her at the end of sophomore year.
Saturday is Pattyday

Lesléa Newman

Although Frankie is hurt and confused when his two mommies separate, he is comforted by knowing that Patty will still be part of his life.
Save the Date

Morgan Matson

When seventeen-year-old Charlie Grant's four older siblings reunite for a wedding, she is determined they will have a perfect weekend before the family home is sold, but last-minute disasters abound.
Saving Baby Doe

Danette Vigilante

Lionel and Anisa are the best of friends and have seen each other through some pretty tough times--Anisa's dad died and Lionel's dad left, which is like a death for Lionel. They stick together no matter what. So when Lionel suggests a detour through a local construction site on their way home, Anisa doesn't say no. And that's where Lionel and Anisa make a startling discovery--a baby abandoned in a port-o-potty. Anisa and Lionel spring into action. And in saving Baby Doe, they end up saving so much more.
Say the Word

Jeannine Garsee

Perfectionist Shawna dates the right boys, gets good grades, and follows her father's every rule. So when her estranged lesbian mother dies, Shawna needs to figure out how to have the perfect reaction. But anger from being abandoned ten years ago, combined with the introduction of her mother's other family, threatens to leave Shawna spinning out of control. A relatable and honest teen voice-and a shocking secret-make this novel a true page-turner.
Scooter

Vera B. Williams

A child's silver blue scooter helps her to adjust to her new home. Elana Rose tells of her event-filled first summer after moving with her mother to a new apartment, as new neighbors and friends become an important part of Elana Rose's life. A treasure of a book--touching, funny, and totally original--with a surprise climax.
Separations

Robert Lehrman

When Kim's parents get a divorce, she must leave her father, her tennis coach, and her suburban home to move into New York City.
Seven Ways We Lie

Riley Redgate

A chance encounter tangles the lives of seven high school students, each resisting the allure of one of the seven deadly sins, and each telling their story from their seven distinct points of view.
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Rachel Stuckey

Presents information about sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as related social issues and ways of dealing with problems that a person may experience due to one's gender and sexual orientation.
She Loves You, She Loves You Not...

Julie Anne Peters

When seventeen-year-old Alyssa is disowned by her father for being a lesbian, she is sent off to a small town in Colorado to live with the mother she has never known, where she is forced to come to terms with herself and her family.
Sibling Split: Party of Nine

M. G. Higgins

It is the first Thanksgiving since their parents split up, and twelve-year-old Arnie has come to the farm to spend the weekend with eleven-year-old Annabelle and their father at the farm--and when it starts to looks like it will just be the three of them, Arnie and Annabelle decide to invite several of their neighbors over for the feast.