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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Bruises
Anke de Vries and Stacey Knecht
While living in Holland, Michael meets Judith, who is frightened, bullied, and beaten by her mother and blames herself for the abuse she is enduring.
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Burning City
Ariel Dorfman and Joaquin Dorfman
Sixteen-year-old Heller Highland, who is living with his grandparents while his parents are away, burns rubber across Manhattan delivering bad news by bicycle, and as a summer heat wave melts the city, he is struck by first love.
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By the Dawn's Early Light
Karen Ackerman
A young girl and her brother stay with their grandmother while their mother works at night.
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Calling the Water Drum
LaTisha Redding
A young boy loses both parents as they attempt to flee Haiti for a better life, and afterward is only able to process his grief and communicate with the outside world through playing the drums.
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Camo Girl
Kekla Magoon
Ella, a biracial girl with a patchy and uneven skin tone, and her friend Z, a boy who is very different, have been on the bottom of the social order at Caldera Junior High School in Las Vegas, but when the only other African-American student enters their sixth grade class, Ella longs to be friends with him and join the popular group, but does not want to leave Z all alone.
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Camp Confidential: Jenna's Dilemma
Melissa J. Morgan
Eleven-year-old Jenna, contending with the separation of her parents and the unwanted presence of her twin brother and older sister at Camp Lakeview, is determined to make a name for herself by pulling the ultimate prank.
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Can We Get Along? Dealing with Differences
John Burstein
Learning to tolerate different opinions, perspectives, and beliefs is vital to a healthy society. Slim Goodbody's Can't We Get Along? helps students understand the need and importance for tolerance, and the steps they can take to increase peace in their lives and in the world.
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Caraval
Stephanie Garber
Welcome, welcome to Caraval--Stephanie Garber's sweeping tale of two sisters who escape their ruthless father when they enter the dangerous intrigue of a legendary game. Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister Tella live with their powerful and cruel, father. Now Scarlett's father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the far-away, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over. But this year, Scarlett's long-dreamt of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval's mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season's Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner. Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But she nevertheless becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic with the other players in the game. And whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, a dangerous domino effect of consequences is set off, and her sister disappears forever.
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Carmen Learns English
Judy Cox
Newly-arrived in the United States from Mexico, Carmen is apprehensive about going to school and learning English.
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Caterpillar Summer
Gillian McDunn
Since her father's death, Cat has taken care of her brother, Chicken, for their hardworking mother but while spending time with grandparents they never knew, Cat has the chance to be a child again.
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Cathy Williams, Buffalo Soldier
Sharon K. Solomon
Cathy Williams was the first documented woman to enlist in the United States Army. By disguising herself as a man after the Civil War, she joined the Buffalo Soldiers in protecting the expanding Western states. Cathy's efforts as a soldier earned her an adequate salary and a small place in history.
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Celebrating Families
Rosemarie Hausherr
Presents brief descriptions of many different kinds of families, both traditional and non-traditional.
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Cemetery Boys
Aiden Thomas
Yadriel, a trans boy, summons the angry spirit of his high school's bad boy, and agrees to help him learn how he died, thereby proving himself a brujo, not a bruja, to his conservative family.
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Changing Places: A Kid's View of Shelter Living
Judy Wallace, Glen Finland, and Margie Chalofsky
Eight children briefly tell about their experiences living with their mothers in a homeless shelter.
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Charles Dickens and the Street Children of London
Andrea Warren
Warren takes you on a journey into the workhouses, slums, factories, and schools of Victorian England, and into the world of Dickens. She shows how he used his pen to do battle on behalf of the poor, becoming one of the great reformers of his or any age.
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Charlie's Run
Valerie Hobbs
Hoping to stop his parents' impending separation and keep them from getting a divorce, eleven-year-old Charlie runs away from their home in inland California and finds a ride to the coast.
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Chester and Gus
Cammie McGovern
Chester, a service dog, is adopted into a family where he becomes a companion to Gus, a ten-year-old boy with nonverbal autism, who initially challenges Chester by requiring a different kind of friendship.
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Children of Blood and Bone
Tomi Adeyemi
Seventeen-year-old Zélie, her older brother Tzain, and rogue princess Amari fight to restore magic to the land and activate a new generation of magi, but they are ruthlessly pursued by the crown prince, who believes the return of magic will mean the end of the monarchy.
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Child Soldier: When Boys and Girls are Used in War
Jessica Dee Humphreys and Michel Chikawanine
Michel Chikwanine was only five-years-old when he was abducted from outside his school by rebel soldiers in The Democratic Republic of Congo. 'Child Soldier' tells the story of his happy life before the abduction, his time with the rebel militia, his escape from their clutches and finally the worsening situation and growing unrest for Michel and his family and his eventual immigration to Canada with his mother.
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Chinese Handcuffs
Christ Crutcher
Dillon is living with the painful memory of his brother's suicide-and the role he played in it. To keep his mind and body occupied, he trains intensely for the Ironman triathlon. But outside of practice, his life seems to be falling apart. Then Dillon finds a confidante in Jennifer, a star high school basketball player who's hiding her own set of destructive secrets. Together, they must find the courage to confront their demons-before it's too late.
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Cici: A Fairy's Tale #1 Believe Your Eyes
Cori Doerrfeld
When Cici's parents separate, her abuela moves in. On her tenth birthday, Cici wakes up with fairy wings and the ability to see who's a real friend and who's not. Will she keep her wings, when the truth is hard to face?
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Cici: A Fairy's Tale #2 A Truth In Sight
Cori Doerrfeld
Cici, a young fairy, is only joking when she uses her powers to play a trick on the popular girl at school. But the changes Cici made to her classmate will last forever if she doesn't learn to see the best in people.
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Cinder
Marissa Meyer
As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story.
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Clara Hale: Mother to Those Who Needed One
Bob Italia
Presents the life of the New York woman whose love of children led her to establish a foster care program to help babies born addicted to drugs.
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Cleo Edison Oliver, Playground Millionaire
Sundee T. Frazier
Fifth-grader Cleo Edison Oliver is full of money-making ideas, and her fifth-grade Passion Project is no different--but things get more complicated when she has to keep her business running, be a good listener when her best friend needs her, and deal with the bully teasing her about being adopted at the same time.