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.

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Divorce

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Jason Robert Brown and Dan Elish

Almost thirteen-year-old Evan Goldman learns what it means to be a man when his parents separate and he and his mother move from New York City to Appleton, Indiana, right before his bar mitzvah.
42 Miles

Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

As her thirteenth birthday approaches, JoEllen decides to bring together her two separate lives--one as Joey, who enjoys weekends with her father and other relatives on a farm, and another as Ellen, who lives with her mother in a Cincinnati apartment near her school and friends.
A Clear Spring

Barbara Sjoholm

While visiting relatives in Seattle, twelve-year-old Willa explores the ethnic diversity of her family and investigates the pollution of a salmon stream.
A Family is a Family is a Family

Sara O'Leary

When a teacher asks the children in her class to think about what makes their families special, the answers are all different in many ways -- but the same in the one way that matters most of all. One child is worried that her family is just too different to explain, but listens as her classmates talk about what makes their families special. One is raised by a grandmother, and another has two dads. One is full of stepsiblings, and another has a new baby.
A Friendship for Today

Patrick C. McKissack

In 1954, when desegregation comes to Kirkland, Missouri, ten-year-old Rosemary faces many changes and challenges at school and at home as her parents separate.
A Little Friendly Advice

Siobhan Vivian

Ruby is on the verge of turning sixteen. Her friends have been planning her party for weeks. They all have gathered at her house for a pre-party. Her mom has made her favorite dinner - ziti. All is perfect, down to the vintage Polaroid camera her mother has given her. Then it turns horribly wrong. With the ring of the doorbell, her father, who has been gone for years, has come back into her life.
All Families are Different

Sol Gordon and Vivien Cohen

Discusses differences in families in today's society, as well as what makes each family special.
All Families are Special

Norma Simon

Students in Mrs. Mack's class describe their families--big or small, living together or apart, with two moms or none--and learn why every family is special and important.
Along for the ride : a novel

Sarah Dessen

It's been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents' divorce - or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live. A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac who becomes her guide to the nocturnal world of the town.
Amber Brown Goes Fourth

Paula Danziger

Entering fourth grade, Amber faces some changes in her life as her best friend moves away and her parents divorce.
Amber Brown Horses Around

Paula Danziger, Bruce Coville, and Elizabeth Levy

Amber's excited to be spending the summer after fourth grade with her friends at Camp Cushetunk, but things start getting complicated when she learns that her worst enemy, Hannah Burton, is one of her bunkmates.
Amber Brown is Feeling Blue

Paula Danziger

Nine-year-old Amber Brown faces further complications because of her parents' divorce when her father plans to move back from Paris and she must decide which parent she will be with on Thanksgiving.
Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit

Paula Danziger

Amber Brown is in deep trouble. Lately, no matter what she does, it isn't enough. She straightens up her room, sort of. She does her homework, well most of it. And she agrees to meet Max, her mother's new boyfriend, but she doesn't agree to like him. Now her mother is angry, her teacher wants all of her homework, and Max keeps trying to make her laugh. What's Amber to do? All she wants is a little extra credit. She really tries ... But how will she succeed?
And Then There Were Four

Nancy Werlin

When five high school students are brought together under mysterious circumstances, they begin to piece together a theory that their parents are working together to kill them all.
Angry Management

Chris Crutcher

Every kid in this group wants to fly. Every kid in this group has too much ballast. Mr. Nak's Angry Management group is a place for misfits. A place for stories. And, man, does this crew have stories. There's Angus Bethune and Sarah Byrnes, who can hide from everyone but each other. Together, they will embark on a road trip full of haunting endings and glimmering beginnings. And Montana West, who doesn't step down from a challenge. Not even when the challenge comes from her adoptive dad, who's leading the school board to censor the article she wrote for the school paper. And straightlaced Matt Miller, who had never been friends with outspoken genius Marcus James. Until one tragic week—a week they'd do anything to change—brings them closer than Matt could have ever imagined.
Another Way to Dance

Martha Southgate

While spending the summer at the School of American Ballet in New York City, fourteen-year-old Vicki Harris must come to terms with the reality of her parents' divorce, her crush on Mikhail Baryshnikov, and the impact of being an African American on her future as a dancer.
A Place in the World

Malcolm Frierson

Set in Baltimore, Ghana, and rural Georgia, a novel of love, marriage, betrayal, divorce, discovery, African heritage, international adoption, racism, and tragedy unfolds. Kwame and Evelyn adopt Kofi whom they adore. After divorce and remarriage, their nationalistic and interracial families clash. Caught between households, Kofi strives to find himself and battles dangerous anxiety attacks.
A Solitary Blue

Cynthia Voigt

Jeff's mother, who deserted the family years before, reenters his life and widens the gap between Jeff and his father, a gap that only truth, love, and friendship can heal.
Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope

Nikki Grimes

When David asks his mother about the man on television, she tells him the story of Barack Obama, discussing his childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia, his parents' divorce, and his desire to help others.
Best of the Best: A Baseball Great Novel

Tim Green

Determined to play in the Little League World Series, twelve-year-old Josh struggles to concentrate on his game and be the team's leader while also trying to cope with his parents' impending divorce.
Big & Little Questions (According to Wren Jo Byrd)

Julie Bowe

Fourth grader Wren Jo Byrd questions lots of things--both little and big--when her parents decide to get a divorce, and learns a lot about the true meaning of family, home, and friendship.
Binge

Tyler Oakley

Pop-culture phenomenon, social rights advocate, and the most prominent LGBTQ+ voice on YouTube, Tyler Oakley brings you Binge, his New York Times bestselling collection of witty, personal, and hilarious essays. For someone who made a career out of over-sharing on the Internet, Tyler has a shocking number of personal mishaps and shenanigans to reveal in his first book: experiencing a legitimate rage blackout in a Cheesecake Factory; negotiating a tense standoff with a White House official; crashing a car in front of his entire high school, in an Arby’s uniform; projectile vomiting while bartering with a grandmother; and so much more. In Binge, Tyler delivers his best untold, hilariously side-splitting moments with the trademark flair that made him a star.
Bird Lake Moon

Kevin Henkes

Twelve-year-old Mitch and his mother are spending the summer with his grandparents at Bird Lake after his parents separate, and ten-year-old Spencer and his family have returned to the lake where Spencer's little brother drowned long ago, and as the boys become friends and spend time together, each of them begins to heal.
Bitter Rose: Color Me Crushed

Melody Carlson

A Mexican-American high school senior deals with the separation and divorce of her parents and their effects on her relationship with them and with God.
Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

Ibi Zoboi

Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi and featuring some of the most acclaimed best-selling black authors writing for teens today - Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it's like to be young and black in America.