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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You and Your Parents' Divorce
Katherine E. Krohn
Provides information for young people about divorce, discussing some of the emotions and situations kids experience when their parents split up, and includes a list of organizations to call for help.
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You are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah!
Fiona Rosenbloom
As her bat mitzvah approaches, Stacy Adelaide Friedman of White Plains, New York, has a lot on her mind: her parents have separated, her mother dresses her like an American Girl doll, her younger brother is embarrassing, and she is totally in love with Andy Goldfarb.
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You Can't See the Elephants
Susan Kreller and Elizabeth Gaffney
When she suspects that her young neighbors are being abused by their father, one brave girl takes a stand to protect them.
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You Don't Know Me
David Klass
Fourteen-year-old John creates alternative realities in his mind as he tries to deal with his mother's abusive boyfriend, his crush on a beautiful but shallow classmate, and other problems at school.
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You Have the Right to Know Your Rights: What Teens Should Know
Maurene J. Hinds
Discusses ways in which the rights of young people have evolved over time; explores the rights of minors in school, the health care system, on the job, and in the courts; and explains ways that teens can protect their rights and what to do if their rights are violated.
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You May Already Be a Winner
Ann Dee Ellis
Twelve-year-old Olivia endeavors to care for her younger sister, possibly make a new friend in the quirky and secretive Bart, and keep hope alive for her, her family, and her community of idiosyncratic neighbors at Sunny Pines Trailer Park.
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You're Not My Real Mother
Molly Friedrich
After an adoptive mother tells her daughter all the reasons that she is her "real mother," the young girl realizes that her mother is right, even though they do not look alike.
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You're Welcome, Universe
Whitney Gardner
When Julia finds a slur about her best friend scrawled across the back of the Kingston School for the Deaf, she covers it up with a beautiful (albeit illegal) graffiti mural. Her supposed best friend snitches, the principal expels her, and her two mothers set Julia up with a one-way ticket to a "mainstream" school in the suburbs, where she's treated like an outcast as the only deaf student. The last thing she has left is her art, and not even Banksy himself could convince her to give that up. Out in the 'burbs, Julia paints anywhere she can, eager to claim some turf of her own. But Julia soon learns that she might not be the only vandal in town. Someone is adding to her tags, making them better, showing off--and showing Julia up in the process. She expected her art might get painted over by cops. But she never imagined getting dragged into a full-blown graffiti war.
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You Were Always in My Heart: A Shaoey & Dot Adoption Story
Mary Beth Chapman and Steven Curtis Chapman
An abandoned Chinese baby who has been befriended by a ladybug finds her way to an orphanage where she is eventually adopted by an American family.
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Yuko-chan and the Daruma Doll: The Adventures of a Blind Japanese Girl Who Saves Her Village
Sunny Seki
After the 1783 eruption of Japan's Mount Asama destroys crops in nearby villages, an orphaned blind girl who lives at the Daruma Temple in Takasaki invents a doll representing a famed Buddhist monk and his teachings about resilience.
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Zachary's New Home: A Story for Foster and Adopted Children
Geraldine M. Bloomquist and Paul B. Bloomquist
This story for adopted and foster children describes the adventures of Zachary the kitten, who is taken from his mother's house when she is unable to take care of him. It follows Zachary as he goes into foster care, his adoption by a family of geese, and his feelings of shame, anger and hurt.
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Zack
William Bell
The son of a Jewish father and black mother, high school senior Zack has never been allowed to meet his mother's family, but after doing a research project on a former slave, he travels from his home in Canada to Natchez, Mississippi to find his grandfather.
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Zack's Story: Growing Up with Same-Sex Parents
Keith Elliot Greenberg
An eleven-year-old boy describes life as part of a family made up of himself, his mother, and her lesbian partner.
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Zak's Safari: A Story About Donor-Conceived Kids of Two-Mom Families
Christy Tyner
Zak's Safari is a book about donor-conceived kids of two-mom families. When the rain spoils Zak's plan for a safari adventure, he invites the reader on a very special tour of his family instead. Zak shows us how his parents met, fell in love, and wanted more than anything to have a baby--so they decided to make one.
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Zayde Comes to Live
Sheri Sinykin
When Rachel's beloved grandfather, Zayde, comes to spend his last days with her family, she worries what will happen when he dies, especially after friends tell her the Christian and Muslim beliefs about the afterlife.
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Zenobia July
Lisa Bunker
Zenobia July is starting a new life. She used to live in Arizona with her father; now she's in Maine with her aunts. She used to spend most of her time behind a computer screen, improving her impressive coding and hacking skills; now she's coming out of her shell and discovering a community of friends at Monarch Middle School. People used to tell her she was a boy; now she's able to live openly as the girl she always knew she was. When someone anonymously posts hateful memes on her school's website, Zenobia knows she's the one with the abilities to solve the mystery, all while wrestling with the challenges of a new school, a new family, and coming to grips with presenting her true gender for the first time. Timely and touching, Zenobia July is, at its heart, a story about finding home.