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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Heart Picked: Elizabeth's Adoption Tale
Sara Crutcher
Six-year-old Elizabeth is excited to have her dad visit school today but worries some of her classmates might notice they don't look alike. How will Elizabeth respond when her friend says, "That's your dad? You don't look like him."
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Heidi (Classic Starts)
Johanna Spyri and Lisa Church
When Heidi's Aunt Dete brings the orphaned girl to live with her grandfather, no one can imagine the bitter, solitary old man caring for a child. But, to everyone's surprise, the two grow to love each other - and Heidi blossoms in her new home.
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Here I Am
Patti Kim
Newly arrived from their faraway homeland, a boy and his family enter into the lights, noise, and traffic of a busy city in this dazzling wordless picture book. The boy clings tightly to his special keepsake from home and wonders how he will find his way.
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Here's a Penny
Carolyn Haywood
Follows the adventures of six-year-old William, an adopted boy nicknamed Penny for his copper-colored hair, as he attends a Halloween party, adopts kittens, and finds an older brother to join his family.
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Here to Stay
Sara Farizan
When a cyberbully sends the entire high school a picture of basketball hero Bijan Majidi, photo-shopped to look like a terrorist, the school administration promises to find and punish the culprit, but Bijan just wants to pretend the incident never happened and move on.
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Her Name is James
C.J. Heath
At fifteen years old, James Farrow was removed from home by social services for his own safety. Now he is eighteen, he is no longer the responsibility of the welfare state. Returning home to an uncertain reception, James finds his father has mellowed and his brother is delighted to have his hero back. Life could run smoothly for James now he is home again but he has a painful truth to confess; James is transgender. He's always known he wasn't intended to be born a boy but now he wants to begin his transition into the woman he should be.
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Hero
S. L. Rottman
After years of abuse from his mother and neglect from his father, ninth-grader Sean Parker is headed for trouble until he is sent to do community service at a farm owned by an old man who teaches Sean that he can take control of his own life.
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Heroes
Robert Cormier
After serving in the United States Army in World War II and having his face blown off by a grenade, Francis, a young soldier, returns home hoping to find--and kill--the former childhood hero he feels betrayed him.
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Hey, Kiddo
Jarrett J. Krosoczka
A National Book Award Finalist! Hey, Kiddo is a profoundly important memoir about growing up in a family grappling with addiction, and finding the art that helps you survive.
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Hidden
Tomas Mournian
Based on a news article written for the San Francisco Bay Guardian. When 15-year-old Ahmed inadvertently outs himself to his parents, they take him to a residential treatment center in the Nevada desert, Serenity Ridge, where he's tortured, molested, and put through a straight rehabilitation program. After 11 months, Ahmed manages to escape to a safe house for runaway gay teens in San Francisco.
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Hidden Roots
Joseph Bruchac
Although he is uncertain why his father is so angry and what secret his mother is keeping from him, eleven-year-old Sonny knows that he is different from his classmates in their small New York town.
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Hide and Seek
Katy Grant
In the remote mountains of Arizona where he lives with his mother, stepfather, and two sisters, fourteen-year-old Chase discovers two kidnapped boys and gets caught up in a dangerous adventure when he comes up with a plan to get them to safety.
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Highly Illogical Behavior
John Corey Whaley
Agoraphobic sixteen-year-old Solomon has not left his house in three years, but Lisa is determined to change that--and to write a scholarship-winning essay based on the results.
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Hold Fast
Blue Balliett
On a cold winter day in Chicago, Early's father disappeared, and now she, her mother and her brother have been forced to flee their apartment and join the ranks of the homeless--and it is up to Early to hold her family together and solve the mystery surrounding her father.
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Hold Tight, Don't Let Go: A Novel of Haiti
Laura Rose Wagner
In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Nadine goes to live with her father in Miami while her cousin Magdalie, raised as her sister, remains behind in a refugee camp, dreaming of joining Nadine but wondering if she must accept that her life and future are in Port-au-Prince.
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Holes in the Sky
Patricia Polacco
Soon after her beloved grandmother's death, Trisha's family moves to a diverse California neighborhood where she meets Stewart and his grandmother, Miss Eula, who brings people together to help a grieving neighbor.
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Holly's Secret
Nancy Garden
When she starts middle school, eleven-year-old Holly decides to become sophisticated and feminine, change her name to Yvette, and hide the fact that her two moms are lesbians.
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Home: A Collaboration of Thirty Distinguised Authors and Illustrators of Children's Books to Aid the Homeless
Michael J. Rosen and Franz Brandenberg
Thirteen authors and seventeen illustrators celebrate the places and things that make up the home, in support of Share Our Strength's (SOS) fight against homelessness.
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Home After Dark
David Small
A savage portrayal of male adolescence gone awry, like no other work of recent fiction or film. Wildly kaleidoscopic and furiously cinematic, Home After Dark is a literary tour-de-force that renders the brutality of adolescence in the so-called nostalgic 1950s, evoking classics such as The Lord of the Flies. Thirteen-year-old Russell Pruitt, abandoned by his mother, follows his father to California in search of a dream. Forced to fend for himself, Russell struggles to survive in Marshfield, a dilapidated town haunted by a sadistic animal killer and a ring of malicious boys who bully Russell for being "queer." Rescued from his booze-swilling father by Wen and Jian Mah, a Chinese immigrant couple who long for a child, Russell betrays them by running away with their restaurant's proceeds.
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Home Again
Dorinda Silver Williams
Mommies and daddies are coming home after military service. Different children react in different ways.
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Home At Last
Vera B. Williams
After Lester is adopted from his foster home by Daddy Albert and Daddy Rich, he can't fall asleep in his new bed. What will it take to make Lester feel home at last?
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Homelessness in America Today
Jennifer Bringle
Discusses homelessness in the United States, including a brief history, the effects of the recent economic recession on the homelessness rates in the nation, and what can be done to end homelessness.
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Homesick
Kate Klise
Benny's parents are getting divorced, his mom left and his father has become a hoarder, and to make matters worse his hometown has been entered into a contest, and now the pressure is on to get the house cleaned up.
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Honor Among Thieves
Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre
A savvy young criminal with antisocial behavior is recruited to attend the Honors space program and joins a team on a sentient spaceship destined for the far reaches of the galaxy only to discover dangerous secrets hidden among the stars.
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Hoods
Angela Betzien
Each night two hoods ride a train to a wrecking yard on the outskirts of the city. Here, in this cemetery of stories, they are storytellers with the power to fast forward, pause and rewind. Tonight, they tell the story of three kids left in a car. Rewind. It’s Friday, KFC night and the last day of school before Christmas. Kyle, Jessie and baby brother Troy are waiting in the car for their mum. As night approaches the car park takes on a dark and sinister aspect filled with strange and familiar characters. The shopping centre closes, Mum still hasn’t returned and the baby won’t stop crying. Exploring issues of poverty and family violence, Hoods is a suburban tale of survival and solidarity against the odds.