This collection contains materials from the DIVerse Families bibliography organized by Grades K-3.
DIVerse Families is a comprehensive bibliography that demonstrates the growing diversity of families in the United States. This type of bibliography provides teachers, librarians, counselors, adoption agencies, children/young adults, and especially parents and grandparents needing to empower their children with materials that reflect their families.
Browse by Grade Level:
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Look Up!
Jin-Ho Jung and Mi Hyun Kim
When a girl in a wheelchair calls to people far below to look up and see her, one finds a way to brighten her day.
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Lorraine
Ketch Secor
Pa Paw and Lorraine always lift their spirits by playing music together, but their instruments are missing when a fearsome storm hits the Tennessee hills.
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Lost!: A Dog Called Bear
Wendy Orr
When Logan's dog runs away as he and his mother are moving to a new home after his parents separate, a girl named Hannah, who longs for a dog of her own, finds him.
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Lots of Grandparents
Shelly Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly
Color photographs show grandparents of different ages, ethnic groups, shapes, and sizes sharing happy times with grandchildren.
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Lou Caribou: Weekdays with Mom, Weekends with Dad
Marie-Sabine Roger and David Wilson
A young reindeer lives with his mother and visits his father on weekends. The story of Lou Caribou will help small children come to terms with their own parents' separation. This book shows that parents who live apart still lovingly care for their child, and that their separation has not diminished their love for him.
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Love
Stacy McAnulty
A sweet and simple story about what love is really all about invites children to find love in everyday moments, from baking cookies with a grandparent to receiving notes in a lunchbox.
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Love Is a Family
Roma Downey
Lily is worried that she and her mother will be the strangest family at the Family Fun Night.
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Love is Love
Michael Genhart
A boy becomes upset when he is teased for having two dads, but viewing his friend's family (with a mom and a dad) as not all that different from his own, he realizes the best way to counter the ridicule is to be proud of who his fathers are and know that it is love that makes a family.
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Lovely
Jess Hong
Big, small, curly, straight, loud, quiet, smooth, wrinkly. Lovely explores a world of differences that all add up to the same thing: we are all lovely!
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Lubna and Pebble
Wendy Meddour
Lubna's best friend is a pebble. Pebble always listens to her stories. Pebble always smiles when she feels scared. But when a lost little boy arrives in the World of Tents, Lubna realizes that he needs Pebble even more than she does. This emotionally stirring and stunningly illustrated picture book explores one girl's powerful act of friendship in the midst of an unknown situation.
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Lucky Beans
Becky Birtha
During the Great Depression, Marshall, an African American boy, uses lessons learned in arithmetic class and guidance from his mother to figure out how many beans are in a jar in order to win her a new sewing machine in a contest.
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Lucy Goes to the Country
Joseph Kennedy
Madcap adventures ensue when a gay couple and their cat spend the weekend in the country.
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Lucy Rose, Here's the Thing About Me
Kelly Katy
Eight-year-old Lucy Rose keeps a diary of her first year in Washington, D.C., her home since her parents' separation, where she spends time with her grandparents, makes new friends, and longs to convince her teacher to let her take care of the class pet during a holiday.
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Maddi's Fridge
Lois Brandt
Maddi's fridge is almost empty, while Sophia's fridge is full of food. How can Sophia help her friend Maddi without breaking her promise not to tell anyone?
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Made in China: A Story of Adoption
Vanita Oelschlager
Made in China tells the story of a girl adopted into an American family and the problems she encounters with her older sister. With help from her father, the adopted sister learns the value of her Chinese beginnings. Later the girls accept their differences and embrace the joy that comes from a loving family.
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Maiden and Princess
Daniel Haack and Isabel Galupo
In this modern fairy tale, a strong, brave maiden is invited to attend the prince's royal ball, but at the dance, she ends up finding true love in a most surprising place.
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Maisie's Scrapbook
Samuel Narh
As the seasons turn, Maisie rides her bull in and out of Dada's tall tales. Her Mama wears linen and plays the viola. Her Dada wears kente cloth and plays the marimba.They come from different places, but they hug her in the same way. And most of all, they love her just the same. A joyful celebration of a mixed-race family and the love that binds us all together.
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Making My Family
Naomi Stern
Much awaited read-it-to-me book about a child adopted by two Dads. What makes a family? Lots of love, no matter what the mix! This story applies to any family, but is particularly powerful for families of gay parents.
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Mama, Across the Sea
Alex Godard
Although she loves the sunny island where she lives with her grandparents, Cecile longs to see her mother again.
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Mama Eat Ant, Yuck!
Barbara Lynn Edmonds
Baby Emma says her first words when Mama accidently eats some ants that are in the raisins. Emma lives with her lesbian parents, Mama and Mommy, and Mama envisions Emma's verbal future up until she has her own baby Kate who says, "Grandmama eat ant, yuck!"
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Mama, I'll Give You the World
Roni Schotter Schotter
At Walter's World of Beauty, Luisa's secret plans are underway to create a very special birthday celebration for her hard-working, single mother who is employed there as a stylist.
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Mama Loves Me from Away
Pat Brisson
When a mother and daughter are separated by the mother's incarceration, they find a special way to keep their loving relationship alive.
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Mama & Papa Have a Store
Amelia Lau Carling
A little girl describes what a day is like in her Chinese parents' dry-goods store in Guatemala City.
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Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation
Edwidge Danticat
When Saya's mother is sent to jail as an illegal immigrant, she sends her daughter a cassette tape with a song and a bedtime story, which inspires Saya to write a story of her own -- one that just might bring her mother home.
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Mama's Way
Helen Ketteman
Wynona longs for a beautiful new dress to wear to her graduation from sixth grade, even though she knows that her mama cannot afford to buy one for her.