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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Coat of Many Colors
Dolly Parton
A poor girl delights in her coat of many colors, made by her mother from rags, because despite the ridicule of the other children she knows the coat was made with love.
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Coda
Emma Trevayne
Ever since he was a young boy, music has coursed through the veins of eighteen-year-old Anthem; the Corp has certainly seen to that. By encoding music with addictive and mind-altering elements, the Corp holds control over all citizens, particularly conduits like Anthem, whose life energy feeds the main power in the Grid. Anthem finds hope and comfort in the twin siblings he cares for, even as he watches the life drain slowly and painfully from his father. Escape is found in his underground rock band, where music sounds free, clear, and unencoded deep in an abandoned basement. But when a band member dies suspiciously from a tracking overdose, Anthem knows that his time has suddenly become limited. Revolution all but sings in the air, and Anthem cannot help but answer the call with the chords of choice and free will. But will the girl he loves help or hinder him? Emma Trevayne's dystopian debut novel is a little punk, a little rock, and plenty page-turning.
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Collateral Damage
Patrick Jones and Brent Chartier
Ty is very proud of his father's accomplishments as a U.S. Army sargeant, but when a brain injury and partial paralysis send his father home from Afghanistan in a wheelchair, Ty finds it hard to balance schoolwork, basketball, a girlfriend, and friends with the time and effort required to care for him.
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Colt
Nancy Springer
A young boy with a crippling disease learns, through a horseback riding program, to overcome his own anxieties and to help others in dealing with their own problems.
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Come Rain or Come Shine: A White Parent's Guide to Adopting and Parenting Black Children
Rachel Garlinghouse
Are you prepared to adopt and parent transracially? Transracial adoption can be a daunting and exhilarating journey. At times you feel incredibly isolated and lost. However, with this conversational and practical guide in hand, you will be able to adopt with confidence and parent with education and enthusiasm.
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Coming Home
Greg Ruth
Follows the emotions of a young boy as he waits at an airport for a family member to return home from serving in the military.
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Coming on Home Soon
Jacqueline Woodson
After Mama takes a job in Chicago during World War II, Ada Ruth stays with Grandma but misses her mother who loves her more than rain and snow.
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Compromised
Heidi Ayarbe
With her con-man father in prison, fifteen-year-old Maya sets out from Reno, Nevada, for Boise, Idaho, hoping to stay out of foster care by finding an aunt she never knew existed, but a fellow runaway complicates all of her scientifically-devised plans.
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Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite
Lianne Simon
Jamie was born with a testis, an ovary, and a pixie face. After minor surgery and a few years on testosterone, his parents say he can be a boy, but he sees an elfin princess in the mirror. To become the man his parents expect, Jamie must leave behind a girl's hopes and dreams. At sixteen, the four-foot-eleven soprano moves from a sheltered home school to a boys' dorm at college. The elfin princess can live in the books Jameson reads and nobody has to find out he isn't like other boys. When a medical student tells Jamie he should have been raised female, Jamie sets out on a perilous journey to adulthood. The elfin princess can thrive, but will she risk losing her family and her education for a boy who may desert her, or a toddler she may never be allowed to adopt?
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Cookies and Cake & the Families we Make
Jennifer L. Egan
A book about exposure and acceptance of the diverse families that are part of our society: single parents, multiracial parents, two moms, two dads, one of each or even an unrelated guardian. Those families who may at first seem different are quite similar, because what really matters is the love and care they give to their children. The author uses the metaphor of the different cakes and cookies we can bake to help young readers respect, accept and welcome diversity.
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Coolies
Yin .
A young boy hears the story of his great-great-great-grandfather and his brother who came to the United States to make a better life for themselves helping to build the transcontinental railroad.
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Coping as a Foster Child
Geraldine M. Blomquist and Paul B. Blomquist
A discussion of ways to make living with foster parents and living in a foster home a better experience.
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Coping When a Parent is in Jail
John J. La Valle
This book discusses problems that are common to children who have incarcerated parents.
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Countdown
Deborah Wiles
Franny Chapman just wants some peace. But that's hard to get when her best friend is feuding with her, her sister has disappeared, and her uncle is fighting an old war in his head. Her saintly younger brother is no help, and the cute boy across the street only complicates things. Worst of all, everyone is walking around just waiting for a bomb to fall. It's 1962, and it seems the whole country is living in fear.
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Court of Fives
Kate Elliott
When a scheming lord tears Jess's family apart, she must rely on her unlikely friendship with Kal, a high-ranking Patron boy, and her skill at Fives, an intricate, multi-level athletic competition that offers a chance for glory, to protect her Commoner mother and mixed-race sisters and save her father's reputation.
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Crazy Beautiful
Lauren Baratz-Logsted
In this contemporary retelling of "Beauty and the Beast," a teenaged boy whose hands were amputated in an explosion and a gorgeous girl whose mother has recently died form an instant connection when they meet on their first day as new students.
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Crenshaw
Katherine Applegate
A story about a homeless boy and his imaginary friend that proves in unexpected ways that friends matter, whether real or imaginary.
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Cupcake Cousins, Book 2 Summer Showers
Kate Hannigan
Cousins Willow and Delia return to the kitchen as their family welcomes a new baby in the second book in the illustrated Cupcake Cousins series.
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Cupcake Cousins, Book 3 Winter Wonders
Kate Hannigan
Cousins Willow and Delia must save the day when a blizzard threatens to ruin Cat and Mr. Henry's wedding in the third book in the illustrated Cupcake Cousins series.
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Cursed
Karol Ruth Silverstein
Depicts young teen Ricky Bloom's struggles with her recent juvenile inflammatory disease diagnosis, which comes amid family upheaval and challenges at school.
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Cut Both Ways
Carrie Mesrobian
Senior Will Caynes must face unsettling feelings for his best friend Angus after they share a drunken kiss, while also embarking on his first real relationship with sophomore Brandy--all as the burden of home-life troubles weigh heavily.
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Dad and Pop: An Ode to Fathers and Stepfathers
Kelly Bennett
A little girl celebrates her two fathers, who are very different except in one very important way.
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Dad By My Side
Soosh .
A child celebrates a close connection with her father, from how they play together and teach each other new things to how he protects her and always makes time for her.
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Daddy and Papa's Little Angels: Acceptance of All Kinds of People
Mystique Ann U'Nique
This children's book was inspired by Elton John's concern over his son Zachary having two homosexual dads. This book was written to promote love and compassion for homosexual families, those living with AIDS, and those who choose to have children via surrogacy. The author also wrote to encourage older people who choose to start families and to take away any stigmas.
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Daddy and Pop
Tina Rella
Daddy and Pop is the heartwarming story of Jessie, a little girl with two fathers. Jessie doesn't realize that her family isn't 'typical' until a girl in her class asks about her mom. Jessie's Daddy and Pop tell her about the amazing journey they took to have her, by using an egg donor and a surrogate, in this fun-filled musical book!