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:
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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.
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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.
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Dad's in Prison
Sandra Cain and Margaret Speed
Tells the story of two brothers whose father is sent to prison. Narrated by the elder brother, the book describes the boys' experiences and emotions during and after their father's arrest and throughout their first visit to see him in prison.
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Damsel Distressed
Kelsey Macke
A teen girl struggles with obesity, self-harm, and the infuriatingly perfect stepsister in her journey to overcome the stigmas put on her life, on her friendships, and on her future.
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Dara Palmer's Major Drama
Emma Shevah
Dara Palmer dreams of being an actress, but when she does not get a part in the school play, she wonders if it is because of her different looks as an adopted girl from Cambodia, so Dara becomes determined not to let prejudice stop her from being in the spotlight.
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Dark Silence
Maureen Crane Wartski
Randy wanted things to be the way they used to be, but her mother is dead, her father has remarried, they've moved to a new neighborhood and her first friend in it cuts her off for no reason that Randy can figure out.
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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.
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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.
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Daughter of the Burning City
Amanda Foody
Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years. This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel, and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the festival's freak show. But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that--illusions, and not truly real. Or so she has always believed--until one of them is murdered. Sorina must find the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn't exist. Her search leads her to the gossip-worker Luca, and their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance into sinister corners of the festival. But as the killer continues to murder Sorina's illusions, she must get to the horrifying truth before all her loved ones disappear.
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Dear Child
John Farrell
Simple text and illustrations of diverse families show how children affect their loved ones for the better.
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Dear Martin
Nic Stone
Writing letters to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., seventeen-year-old college-bound Justyce McAllister struggles to face the reality of race relations today and how they are shaping him.
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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.
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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!
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Dear Santa, Please Come to the 19th Floor
Yin .
Willy and Carlos, who is in a wheelchair, receive a visit from Santa on Christmas Eve, even though they live on the nineteenth floor of their building.
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Dear Yvette (Throwback Diaries)
Ni-Ni Simone
After a street fights ends with a jail sentence, Yvette is forced to live far from anything and anyone she's ever known, but starting her life over again may show her what it means to have a real family.
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Death by Toilet Paper
Donna Gephart
Contest-crazed twelve-year-old Ben uses his wits and way with words in hopes of winning a prize that will keep his family from being evicted until his mother can pass her final CPA examination.
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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.
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Debbie Harry Sings in French
Meagan Brothers
When Johnny completes an alcohol rehabilitation program and his mother sends him to live with his uncle in North Carolina, he meets Maria, who seems to understand his fascination with the new wave band Blondie, and he learns about his deceased father's youthful forays into "glam rock," which gives him perspective on himself, his past, and his current life.
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December
Eve Bunting
A homeless family's luck changes after they help an old woman who has even less than they do at Christmas.
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Deena Misses Her Mom
Jonae Haynesworth, Jesse Holmes, Layonnie Jones, and Kahliya Ruffin
Lately, Deena has been getting angry. A lot. She acts out in school and keeps getting in trouble. Everyone is surprised because she used to be very calm, but that was before her mother went to jail. Her dad, her grandma, and her best friend Josey all do their best to help her out, but Deena doesn’t want to talk about it. Will a day at the carnival with her Dad help her open up?
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Devils Within
S.F. Henson
Killing isn't supposed to be easy. But it is. It's the after that's hard to deal with. Nate was eight the first time he stabbed someone; he was eleven when he earned his red laces--a prize for spilling blood for "the cause." And he was fourteen when he murdered his father (and the leader of The Fort, a notorious white supremacist compound) in self-defense, landing in a treatment center while the state searched for his next of kin. Now, in the custody of an uncle he never knew existed, who wants nothing to do with him, Nate just wants to disappear. Enrolled in a new school under a false name, so no one from The Fort can find him, he struggles to forge a new life, trying to learn how to navigate a world where people of different races interact without enmity. But he can't stop awful thoughts from popping into his head, or help the way he shivers with a desire to commit violence. He wants to be different--he just doesn't know where to start. Then he meets Brandon, a person The Fort conditioned Nate to despise on sight. But Brandon's also the first person to treat him like a human instead of a monster. Brandon could never understand Nate's dark past, so Nate keeps quiet. And it works for a while. But all too soon, Nate's worlds crash together, and he must decide between his own survival and standing for what's right, even if it isn't easy. Even if society will never be able to forgive him for his sins.
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Did My First Mother Love me?: A Story for an Adopted Child
Kathryn Ann Miller
Morgan's adoptive mother reassures her that she is loved by reading a letter written by her birthmother. Includes a section: "Talking with your child about adoption."
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Die for Me
Amy Plum
After their parents are killed in a car accident, sixteen-year-old Kate Mercier and her older sister Georgia, each grieving in her own way, move to Paris to live with their grandparents and Kate finds herself powerfully drawn to the handsome but elusive Vincent who seems to harbor a mysterious and dangerous secret.
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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.
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Dirt
Denise Orenstein
Eleven-year-old Yonder stopped talking when her mother died, and she stopped going to school because of the bullies, knowing that her father would never even notice (although the social worker did); indeed the only creature that seems to care about her is the one-eyed Shetland pony called Dirt who lives on the neighboring farm--so when she discovers that Dirt is about to be sold for horsemeat she is determined to find a way to save him.