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 LGBTQ:
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Best Best Colors
Eric Hoffman
Nate has trouble deciding what his favorite color is, but his two mammas help him realize that he does not have to have a best, best color.
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Better Nate Than Ever
Tim Federle
An eighth-grader who dreams of performing in a Broadway musical concocts a plan to run away to New York and audition for the role of Elliot in the musical version of "E.T."
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Between Mom and Jo
Julie Anne Peters
Nick has a three-legged dog named Lucky, some pet fish, and two moms who think he's the greatest kid ever. And he happens to think he has the greatest Moms ever, but everything changes when his birth mom and her wife, Jo, start to have marital problems. Suddenly, Nick is in the middle, and instead of having two Moms to turn to for advice, he has no one.
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Between You & Me
Marisa Calin
Phyre, sixteen, narrates her life as if it were a film, capturing her crush on Mia, a student teacher of theater and film studies, as well as her fast friendship with a classmate referred to only as "you."
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Be Who You Are
Jennifer Carr
Nick was born in a boy's body, but has always felt like a girl inside. Nick's family supports him when he says he no longer wants to be called a boy or dress like a boy. "Always remember to be who you are Nick. Remember that we love you, and we are so proud of you." Nick's parents find a group for families like theirs. With their support, Nick expresses a desire to be addressed as "she," and then to be named Hope.
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Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out
Susan Kuklin
Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference. Portraits, family photographs, and candid images grace the pages, augmenting the emotional and physical journey each youth has taken. Each honest discussion and disclosure, whether joyful or heartbreaking, is completely different from the other because of family dynamics, living situations, gender, and the transition these teens make in recognition of their true selves.
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Big Big Sky
Kristyn Dunnion
It is the future. ScanMans, an alien race, invades the warring, poverty stricken, and diseased remains of the Earth. They exterminate all human adults. They recruit orphans for military training in their subterranean, experimental training facility. Rustle is a young scout in a tight-knit female warrior group of five. They're trained to be aggressive, quick thinking, obedient--though for what exact purpose they couldn't quite tell you. But somehow the group is falling apart.
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Big Bob, Little Bob
James Howe
Big Bob likes trucks and throwing balls and being loud. Little Bob likes dolls and jingling bracelets and being quiet. No matter what they do, they do not do it the same way. Can they possibly be friends despite these differences?
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Binge
Tyler Oakley
Pop-culture phenomenon, social rights advocate, and the most prominent LGBTQ+ voice on YouTube, Tyler Oakley brings you Binge, his New York Times bestselling collection of witty, personal, and hilarious essays. For someone who made a career out of over-sharing on the Internet, Tyler has a shocking number of personal mishaps and shenanigans to reveal in his first book: experiencing a legitimate rage blackout in a Cheesecake Factory; negotiating a tense standoff with a White House official; crashing a car in front of his entire high school, in an Arby’s uniform; projectile vomiting while bartering with a grandmother; and so much more. In Binge, Tyler delivers his best untold, hilariously side-splitting moments with the trademark flair that made him a star.
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Bingo Love
Tee Franklin
When Hazel Johnson and Mari McCray met at church bingo in 1963, it was love at first sight. Forced apart by their families and society, Hazel and Mari both married young men and had families. Decades later, now in their mid-'60s, Hazel and Mari reunite again at a church bingo hall. Realizing their love for each other is still alive, what these grandmothers do next takes absolute strength and courage.
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Bi-Normal
M. G. Higgins
High school social dynamics and issues of sexual identity combine in this compact yet thoughtful entry in the Gravel Road series. Brett Miller is a high school sophomore who knows exactly who he is. He is the boyfriend of the fantastically hot Jillia. He is popular. He is normal and 100 percent not gay. Then he meets Zach in art class. Brett's attraction is undeniable and suddenly he doesn't know who he is anymore. The first person point of view enables the reader to empathize with Brett's confusion as he struggles to come to terms with his bisexuality.
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Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America
Ibi Zoboi
Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi and featuring some of the most acclaimed best-selling black authors writing for teens today - Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it's like to be young and black in America.
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Blue Boy
Rakesh Satyal
Satyal's lovely coming-of-age debut charts an Indian-American boy's transformation from mere mortal to Krishnaji, the blue-skinned Hindu deity. Twelve-year-old Kiran Sharma's a bit of an outcast: he likes ballet and playing with his mother's makeup. He also reveres his Indian heritage and convinces himself that the reason he's having trouble fitting in is because he's actually the 10th reincarnation of Krishnaji. He plans to come out to the world at the 1992 Martin Van Buren Elementary School talent show, and much of the book revels in his comical preparations as he creates his costume, plays the flute and practices his dance moves to a Whitney Houston song. But as the performance approaches, something strange happens: Kiran's skin begins to turn blue. Satyal writes with a graceful ease, finding new humor in common awkward pre-teen moments and giving readers a delightful and lively young protagonist.
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Blue is the Warmest Color
Julie Maroh
Blue is the Warmest Color is a graphic novel about growing up, falling in love, and coming out. Clementine, a high school student, has an average life: she has friends, family, and the romantic attention of the boys in her school. When her openly gay best friend takes her out on the town, she wanders into a lesbian bar where she encounters Emma: a punkish, confident girl with blue hair. Their attraction is instant and electric, and Clementine finds herself in a relationship that will test her friends, parents, and her own ideas about herself and her identity.
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Born Both: An Intersex Life
Hida Viloria
From Hida Viloria, writer and intersex activist, a candid, provocative, and eye-opening memoir of life, love, and gender identity as an intact intersex person, as well as a call to action for justice for intersex people. Hida Viloria was raised as a girl but discovered early on that he/r body was different. Unlike most people who are born intersex in the first world--meaning they have genitals, reproductive organs, hormones, and/or chromosomal patterns that do not fit standard definitions of male or female--Hida had the freedom to explore the person s/he was born to be because he/r parents did not agree to have he/r sex characteristics surgically altered at birth. It wasn't until s/he was 26 and encountered the term "intersex" in a San Francisco newspaper that s/he finally had a name for he/r difference. That's when s/he began to explore what it means to live in the space between genders--to be both and neither. As s/he began to reach out to others like he/r, however, Hida discovered that most intersex people had been scarred, both physically and psychologically, by infant surgeries and hormone treatments meant to "correct" their bodies. Eager to help end this practice, Hida came out as intersex at a national and then international level. By answering the question "Are you a boy or a girl?" with "I'm both," Hida's helped blaze a trail for people--particularly intersex and genderqueer/non-binary people--to celebrate the middle space where male and female are not separate and opposite but entwined. Born Both is an intimate and powerful account of Hida's search for authentic identity and love in a world that insists on categorizing people into either/or.
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Box Girl
Sarah Withrow
Gwen, confident her mother who ran away five years earlier is going to return soon and take her to live in France, decides not to make any friends, but her plans fall through when Clara, a new eighth-grader, insists on being friends, and together the two sort out their place with friends, school, and family.
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Boy Erased
Garrard Conley
A poignant account by a survivor of a church-supported sexual orientation conversion therapy facility that claimed to 'cure' homosexuality describes its intense Bible study program and the daily threats of his abandonment by family, friends and God, an experience that transformed the author's relationships and self-understandings.
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Boyfriends with Girlfriends
Alex Sanchez
When Lance begins to date Sergio, who's bisexual, he's not sure that it'll work out, and when his best friend Allie, who has a boyfriend, meets Sergio's lesbian friend, she has unexpected feelings which she struggles to understand.
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Boy Meets Boy
David Levithan
Love is never easy. Especially if you're Paul. He's a sophomore at a high school like no other, and these are his friends: Infinite Darlene, the homecoming queen and star quarterback; Joni, Paul's best friend who may not be his best friend anymore; Tony, his other best friend, who can't leave the house unless his parents think he's going on a date...with a girl; Kyle, the ex-boyfriend who won't go away; Rip, the school bookie, who sets the odds...and Noah, the boy. The one who changes everything.
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Branded by the Pink Triangle
Ken Setterington
Before the rise of the Nazi party, Germany, especially Berlin, was one of the most tolerant places for homosexuals in the world. But that all changed when the Nazis came to power. The pink triangle sewn onto prison uniforms became the symbol of the persecution of homosexuals, a persecution that would continue for many years after the war. A mix of historical research, first-person accounts and individual stories bring this time to life for readers.
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Brooklyn Burning
Steve Brezenoff
When you're sixteen and no one understands who you are, sometimes the only choice left is to run. If you're lucky, you find a place that accepts you, no questions asked. And if you're really lucky, that place has a drum set, a place to practice, and a place to sleep. For Kid, the streets of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, are that place. Over the course of two scorching summers, Kid falls hopelessly in love and then loses nearly everything and everyone worth caring about. But as summer draws to a close, Kid finally finds someone who can last beyond the sunset.
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Bunnybear
Andrea J. Loney
Although Bunnybear was born a bear, he feels more like a bunny. He loves to bounce through the forest, wiggle his nose, and munch on strawberries. The other bears don't understand him, and neither do the bunnies. Will Bunnybear ever find a friend who likes him just the way he is?
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Buster's Sugartime
Marc Brown
When his father takes him to visit Vermont, Buster sends postcards to his friends back home telling them what he is learning about maple syrup and the "mud season."
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But, I'm Not a Boy
Katie Leone
David has a big problem; she is really a girl named Sarah. But nobody knows and everyone assumes she is a boy. When her parents ask why she is so sad, is she brave enough to tell them the truth?
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Carly: She is Still My Daddy
Mary Boenke
Tommy tells the story of his father's transition from Carl to Carly. He learns about other trans persons -- female to male, intersex, crossdressers, and those who live in the middle. The reactions of playmates, grandparents, and the child's mother are represented. Benchmarks of Carly's full transition are built into the story.