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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Flying Free
Jennifer C. Gregg
Narrated by a firefly captured by a five-year-old girl named Violet, who plans to use the firefly as her nightlight. Violet's mommies, Mommy Blue and Mama Red, go along with the idea, but the firefly refuses to live in a glass jar. After several attempts, the firefly devises the ultimate escape plan.
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Forgive Me If I’ve Told You This Before
Karelia Stetz-Waters
Shy, intellectual, and living in rural Oregon, Triinu Hoffman just doesn't fit in. She does her best to hide behind her dyed hair and black wardrobe, but it's hard to ignore the bullying of Pip Weston and Principal Pinn. It's even harder to ignore the allure of other girls. As Triinu tumbles headlong into first love and teenage independence, she realizes that the differences that make her a target are also the differences that can set her free. With everyone in town taking sides in the battle for equal rights in Oregon, Triinu must stand up for herself, learn what it is to love and have her heart broken, and become her own woman.
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Freakboy
Kristin Elizabeth Clark
Told from three viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Brendan, a wrestler, struggles to come to terms with his place on the transgender spectrum while Vanessa, the girl he loves, and Angel, a transgender acquaintance, try to help.
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Freaks and Revelations
Davida Wills Hurwin
"You can come back when you're done being gay." Jason is a 13-year-old who comes out to his religious and conservative mother, only to be cast out of their home. Homeless, he learns how to survive, eventually turning to hustling as a way to live. Doug is a 17-year-old with an abusive father and a chip on his shoulder. Energized and empowered by violence, he gets mixed up with a group of Neo-Nazis. The lives of these two flawed teens spiral towards each other, and one fateful night their paths cross at a fast-food restaurant in Los Angeles, and a horrendous hate crime is committed. Freaks and Revelations is a raw and gripping novel based on the haunting true story of Timothy Zaal and Matthew Boger. Told in alternating perspectives by Jason (Matthew Boger) and Doug (Timothy Zaal), author Davida Wills Hurwin creates a fictional narrative that traces the tragic - but ultimately inspirational - journeys of two very polarized teens.
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Freak Show
James St. James
Meet Billy Bloom, new student at the ultra-white, ultra-rich, ultra-conservative Dwight D. Eisenhower Academy and drag queen extraordinaire. Actually, ?drag queen? does not begin to describe Billy and his fabulousness. Any way you slice it, Billy is not a typical seventeen-year-old, and the Bible Belles, Aberzombies, and Football Heroes at the academy have never seen anyone quite like him before. But thanks to the help and support of one good friend, Billy?s able to take a stand for outcasts and underdogs everywhere in his own outrageous, over-thetop, sad, funny, brilliant, and unique way.
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Free to Be...You and Me
Marlo Thomas
This is the book we all know and love by Marlo Thomas and her friends—brought to new life with brand new illustrations to captivate and inspire a new generation of readers on a journey of the heart. Whether you are opening Free to Be . . . You and Me for the first time or the one hundredth time you will be engaged and transformed by this newly beautifully illustrated compilation of inspirational stories, songs, and poems. The sentiments of thirty-five years ago are as relevant today as when this book was published. Celebrating individuality and challenging stereotypes empowers both children and adults with the freedom to be who they want to be and to have compassion and empathy for others who may be different. Working closely with Marlo and co-creator Carole Hart, Peter H. Reynolds, the New York Times Best Selling Children’s Book Author/Illustrator, conjured his whimsical drawings throughout the book bringing a new sense of unity and warmth to the pages. You will find yourself marveling at the illustrations, nodding in agreement with the stories and poems, and singing the words to all the classic songs! It is wonderful that the thoughts, ideas, and emotions the creators envisioned so many years ago can still have a magical effect on children today.
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Friday with Jerome in Jamaica
Phylliss DelGreco, Jaclyn Roth, and Kathryn Silverio
In Friday with Jerome in Jamaica, Jessie spends the day at her nanny Georgia’s house in Jamaica, Queens, where she is warmly welcomed by Georgia’s multigenerational family. Papi, Georgia’s father, brightens up a rainy day by inviting Jessie and his grandson Jerome into his art studio, where he shows them how to unleash their creative juices. With Papi’s encouragement, Jessie is inspired to soar to new heights and express herself in an entirely new way.
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From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun
Jacqueline Woodson
Almost-fourteen-year-old Melanin Sun's comfortable, quiet life is shattered when his mother reveals she has fallen in love with a woman.
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From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea
Kai Cheng Thom
A magical gender variant child brings transformation and change to the world around them thanks to their mother's enduring love. In the magical time between night and day, when both the sun and the moon are in the sky, a child is born in a little blue house on a hill. And Miu Lan is not just any child, but one who can change into any shape they can imagine. The only problem is they can't decide what to be: a boy or a girl? A bird or a fish? A flower or a shooting star? At school, though, they must endure inquisitive looks and difficult questions from the other children, and have trouble finding friends who will accept them for who they are. But they find comfort in the loving arms of their mother, who always offers them the same loving refrain: "whatever you dream of / I believe you can be / from the stars in the sky to the fish in the sea." In this captivating, beautifully imagined picture book about gender, identity, and the acceptance of the differences between us, Miu Lan faces many questions about who they are and who they may be. But one thing's for sure: no matter who this child becomes, their mother will love them just the same.
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Full Cicada Moon
Marilyn Hilton
In 1969 twelve-year-old Mimi and her family move to an all-white town in Vermont, where Mimi's mixed-race background and interest in "boyish" topics like astronomy make her feel like an outsider.
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Gal and Noa's Daddies
Shosh Pinkas
Noa and Gal have two fathers, Itai and Yoav. They call them by their nicknames, Daddy-Yo and Daddy-I. Noa and Gal were born to gay parents in a process called surrogacy, with the help of two special women that enabled the arrival of the twins into the world. In this unique book, the writer, Shosh Pinkas, shares the story of many same-sex families around the world.
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Gay in America
Scott Pasfield
A photographic survery of gay men in America. The photographer traveled across all fifty states to document the lives of 140 gay men from all walks of life.
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Gay & Lesbian History for Kids: The Century-Long Struggle for LGBT Rights
Jerome Pohlen
Who transformed George Washington's demoralized troops at Valley Forge into a fighting force that defeated an empire? Who cracked Germany's Enigma code and shortened World War II? Who successfully lobbied the US Congress to outlaw child labor? And who organized the 1963 March on Washington? Ls, Gs, Bs, and Ts, that's who...This up-to-date history includes the landmark Supreme Court decision making marriage equality the law of the land. Twenty-one activities enliven the history and demonstrate the spirited ways the LGBT community has pushed for positive social change.
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Gay Power! The Stonewall Riots and the Gay Rights Movement, 1969
Betsy Kuhn
Explores the decades of discrimination and abuse that gay people endured in earlier eras. Also learn how gay people continue to fight for equal rights and recognition.
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Gemini Bites
Patrick Ryan
When their parents announce they are taking in a fellow student for a month, 16-year-old twins Kyle and Judy sit up and take notice. Kyle has just come out of the closet to his family and fears he'll never know what it is like to date a guy. Judy is pretending to be born-again to attract a boy who heads a Bible study group. And Garret Johnson is new in town-- a mysterious loner who claims to be a vampire. Both twins are intrigued.
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George
Alex Gino
When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl. George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part.
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Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit
Jaye Robin Brown
Joanna Gordon has been out and proud for years, but when her popular radio evangelist father remarries and decides to move all three of them from Atlanta to the more conservative Rome, Georgia, he asks Jo to do the impossible: to lie low for the rest of her senior year. And Jo reluctantly agrees. Although it is (mostly) much easier for Jo to fit in as a straight girl, things get complicated when she meets Mary Carlson, the oh-so-tempting sister of her new friend at school. But Jo couldn't possibly think of breaking her promise to her dad. Even if she's starting to fall for the girl. Even if there's a chance Mary Carlson might be interested in her, too. Right?
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Get It Together, Delilah
Erin Gough
Seventeen-year-old Delilah Green is doing her best to deal with a chaotic life--she is running the family cafe, The Flywheel, by herself because her father is on a vacation trying to get over his wife deserting him; she is getting flack at school because she is a lesbian, and one of the "in-girls" has started to come on to her, and she is hopelessly attracted to a girl named Rosa, who dances the flamingo outside the café every evening.
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Getting It
Alex Sanchez
Hoping to impress a sexy female classmate, fifteen-year-old Carlos secretly hires gay student Sal to give him an image makeover, in exchange for Carlos's help in forming a Gay-Straight Alliance at their Texas high school.
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Giraffe People
Jill Malone
In the 1990s military brat Cole Peters, daughter of a chaplain, must face the obstacles of figuring out her persona while being bounced between religion and military and multiple transitional homes. She meets Meghan, whose ambition is directed toward West Point. Cole's parent's eyes see the relationship as a good influence for their rebellious daughter...until Cole and Meghan become lovers.
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Girl from Mars
Tamara Bach
Miriam dreams of escaping from her boring small-town life and going to the big city to start her own life, especially when she develops romantic feelings for a girl named Laura and forms a new outlook after a weekend in the city.
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Girl in the Shadows
V. C. Andrews
After the death of her parents, April Taylor flees north to take a job looking after Mrs. Westington's deaf granddaughter, Echo, until the arrival of the girl's mother and her drug-dealing boyfriend puts both girls' lives in deadly danger.
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Girl Made of Stars
Ashley Herring Blake
Mara and Owen are as close as twins can get, so when Mara’s friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara doesn't know what to think. Can her brother really be guilty of such a violent act? Torn between her family and her sense of right and wrong, Mara feels lost, and it doesn’t help that things are strained with her ex-girlfriend, Charlie. As Mara, Hannah, and Charlie come together in the aftermath of this terrible crime, Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide where Charlie fits into her future. With sensitivity and openness, this timely novel confronts the difficult questions surrounding consent, victim blaming, and sexual assault.
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Girls are Not Chicks Coloring Book
Jacinta Bunnell and Julie Novak
Truly fun for all ages, this unique coloring book subversively and playfully examines the female gender stereotypes that pervade daily life.
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Girls of Paper and Fire
Natasha Ngan
When Lei, seventeen, is stolen from her home to become one of nine Paper Girls, the Demon King's concubines, she proves to be more fire than paper.