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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Once Upon a Time: An Adoption Story
Ashley Hansen Bigler
A mother and father tell their young adopted daughter how, through the love of her birth mother and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, she came to be part of their family.
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One April Morning: Children Remember the Oklahoma City Bombing
Nancy Lamb
Conversations with children from the Oklahoma City area about their feelings at the time of the bombing of the Federal Building and afterwards.
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One Crazy Summer
Rita Williams-Garcia
In the summer of 1968, after traveling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp.
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One Family
George Shannon
A family can be many things, in this story that introduces numbered groups from one to ten.
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One for the Murphys
Lynda Mullaly Hunt
Follows the experiences of foster kid Carley, who uses humor and street smarts to cope with her unpredictable life until the loving, bustling Murphy family offers her more stability and a greater sense of belonging than she ever thought possible.
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One Green Apple
Eve Bunting
While on a school field trip to an orchard to make cider, a young immigrant named Farah gains self-confidence when the green apple she picks perfectly complements the other students' red apples.
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One Hundred is a Family
Pam Muñoz Ryan
Groups making up many different kinds of "families" introduce the numbers from one to ten and then by tens to one hundred.
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One More Giraffe
Kim Noble
Reading this book to your child will help you begin to introduce the key concepts about babies and egg donation. It is very simple and touches the subject of how some people (in this case giraffes) need help to be able to be a Mommy or a Daddy. The key idea is that the baby is wanted very badly and will be loved and cherished. If you have been searching for a way to introduce your toddler to the concepts of being a baby that was born via egg donation...look no more.
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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.
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One of the Problems of Everett Anderson
Lucille Clifton
Everett Anderson wonders how he can help his friend Greg, who appears to be a victim of child abuse.
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One Potato, Two Potato
Cynthia DeFelice
This retelling of a Chinese folktale pays tribute to the author's Irish heritage, and to the joys of an old marriage, new friendships, and the impulse to share. Using pen and gouache, the artist shows the "simple" characters in all their winning complexity. A very poor, humble couple live so simple a life they share everything, until the husband discovers a pot with magical powers buried under the very last potato in the garden. Mr. and Mrs. O'Grady are so poor they have just one of everything to share - one potato a day, one chair, one blanket full of holes, and one gold coin for a rainy day. After digging up the last potato in their patch, Mr. O'Grady comes upon a big black object. It's a pot - no ordinary pot, for what they soon discover is that whatever goes into it comes out doubled! Suddenly the O'Gradys aren't destitute anymore. But what they really long for is one friend apiece. Can the magic pot give them that?
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One-Third Nerd
Gennifer Choldenko
Fifth grade is not for amateurs, according to Liam. Luckily, he knows that being more than one-third nerd is not cool. Liam lives in the Bay area near San Francisco with his mom and two younger sisters. Dakota is fascinated by science and has a big personality but struggles to make friends; Izzy, a child with Down syndrome, makes friends easily and notices things that go past everyone else. Dad lives across town, but he's over a lot. And then there's Cupcake, their lovable German shepherd, who guards their basement apartment.
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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.
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Opposite of Always
Justin A. Reynolds
After falling for Kate, her unexpected death sends Jack back in time to the moment they first met. He soon learns that his actions have consequences when someone else close to him dies.
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Oranges on Golden Mountain
Elizabeth Partridge
Being sent from China to work with his uncle on Golden Mountain, Jo Lee's mother gives him words of encouragement to see him through the difficult transition to his new life in a new world in late-nineteenth-century California.
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Orbiting Jupiter
Gary D. Schmidt
Jack, 12, tells the gripping story of Joseph, 14, who joins his family as a foster child. Damaged in prison, Joseph wants nothing more than to find his baby daughter, Jupiter, whom he has never seen. When Joseph has begun to believe he'll have a future, he is confronted by demons from his past that force a tragic sacrifice.
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Oskar and the Eight Blessings
Tanya Simon and Richard Simon
A young Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany arrives in New York City on the seventh night of Hanukkah and receives small acts of kindness while exploring the city.
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Our Baby from China: An Adoption Story
Nancy D'Antonio
An American couple goes to China to adopt a baby.
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Our Gracie Aunt
Jacqueline Woodson
When a brother and sister are taken to stay with their mother's sister because their mother neglects them, they wonder if they will see their mother again.
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Our Son, a Stranger: Adoption Breakdown and its Effects on Parents
Marie Adams
In 1973 Marie and Rod Adams, brimming with idealism and keenly aware of the plight of disadvantaged aboriginal children, adopted Tim, a young Cree boy, two and one-half years old. Tim began displaying severe behavioural problems almost immediately, problems that, despite their efforts to find help, only became worse over the years. He left home at the age of twelve and died on the streets when he was twenty-one.
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Out of Darkness
Ashley Hope Perez
Loosely based on a school explosion that took place in New London, Texas in 1937, this is the story of two teenagers: Naomi, who is Mexican, and Wash, who is black, and their dealings with race, segregation, love, and the forces that destroy people.
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Out of the Blue
S. L. Rottman
After moving to Minot, North Dakota, with his mother, the new female base commander, Air Force dependent Stu Ballentyne gradually becomes aware that something terrible is going on in his neighbor's house.
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Over the Moon: An Adoption Tale
Karen Katz
A loving couple dream of a baby born far away and know that this is the baby they have been waiting to adopt.
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Over the River
Sharelle Byars Moranville
In 1947, after the war, Willa Mae's father returns to the Illinois town where she has lived with her maternal grandparents for the last five of her eleven years, and Willa Mae finds herself struggling to understand old family tensions and secrets.
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Over The River and Through the Woods: A Holiday Adventure
Linda Ashman
The classic song gets a fresh new twist! The fun begins when Grandma and Grandpa send invitations to their far-flung, modern, and multiracial family: Come to our house for the holidays! As each family faces an obstacle that delays their trip, they learn that sometimes the most old-fashioned form of transportation works best... neigh!