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 Race & Culture:
Bicultural/Multicultural
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Just Like Home
Elizabeth I. Miller
A young Hispanic girl chronicles, in both English and Spanish, her move to the United States, as she finds that while some things are different, some things are just like home.
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Lailah's Lunchbox
Reem Faruqi
Now that she is ten, Lailah is delighted that she can fast during the month of Ramadan like her family and her friends in Abu Dhabi, but finding a way to explain to her teacher and classmates in Atlanta is a challenge until she gets some good advice from the librarian, Mrs. Carman.
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Laurie
Elfi Nijssen
Laurie is a little girl who would love to be like other children, but her hearing problems can make that difficult, until she goes to the ear doctor and gets new hearing aids that allow her to hear things around her clearly.
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Liliana's Grandmothers
Leyla Torres
Because one of her grandmothers lives down the street and the other in a far away country, Liliana experiences two very different ways of life when she visits them.
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Listen, Slowly
Thanha Lai
A California girl born and raised, Mai can't wait to spend her vacation at the beach. Instead, though, she has to travel to Vietnam with her grandmother, who is going back to find out what really happened to her husband during the Vietnam War. Mai's parents think this trip will be a great opportunity for their out-of-touch daughter to learn more about her culture. But to Mai, those are their roots, not her own. Vietnam is hot, smelly, and the last place she wants to be. Besides barely speaking the language, she doesn't know the geography, the local customs, or even her distant relatives. To survive her trip, Mai must find a balance between her two completely different worlds.
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Little & Lion
Brandy Colbert
Suzette returns home to Los Angeles from boarding school and grapples with her bisexual identity when she and her [stepbrother] Lionel fall in love with the same girl, pushing Lionel's bipolar disorder to spin out of control and forcing Suzette to confront her own demons.
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Locomotion
Jacqueline Woodson
In a series of poems, eleven-year-old Lonnie writes about his life, after the death of his parents, separated from his younger sister, living in a foster home, and finding his poetic voice at school.
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Lost and Found (Amy Hodgepodge, #3)
Kim Wayans Wayans and Kevin Knotts
When her class goes on a wilderness overnight trip, fourth-grader Amy worries about how she will fare since she has never gone camping.
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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, Hate, and Other Filters
Samira Ahmed
Maya Aziz, seventeen, is caught between her India-born parents' world of college and marrying a suitable Muslim boy and her dream world of film school and dating her classmate, Phil, when a terrorist attack changes her life forever.
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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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Mariama: Different But Just the Same
Jerónimo Cornelles
Everything's new for Mariama after a long journey by car, train, boat, and plane from Africa. She's going to discover a world where the streets, her school, and the food are all different. But what about the people? A beautiful tale about identity, the process of integration, and solidarity. Are you ready to meet Mariama and play with her?
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Mariposa Gown
Rigoberto Gonzalez
Caliente Valley High School senior Maui, a gay Latino, is torn between his growing affection for a wealthy newcomer and his loyalty to the LGBT alliance he helped found, whose members consider making a statement by attending prom in drag.
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Martin De Porres: The Rose in the Desert
Gary D. Schmidt
The story of Saint Martín de Porres--an endearing tale of perseverance, faith, and triumph over racial and economic prejudice.
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Max the Champion
Sean Stockdale and Alexandra Strick
Max spends his day dreaming about competing in world class sporting events, and when he and his classmates--some of whom are disabled--prevail in a soccer match, he imagines they have won the World Cup.
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Me, Frida and the Secret of the Peacock Ring
Angela Cervantes
Paloma Marquez is traveling to Mexico City, birthplace of her deceased father, for the very first time. She's hoping that spending time in Mexico will help her unlock memories of the too-brief time they spent together. While in Mexico, Paloma meets Lizzie and Gael, who present her with an irresistible challenge: The siblings want her to help them find a valuable ring that once belonged to beloved Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Finding the ring means a big reward -- and the thanks of all Mexico. What better way to honor her father than returning a priceless piece of jewelry that once belonged to his favorite artist! But the brother and sister have a secret. Do they really want to return the ring, or are they after something else entirely?
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Mei-Mei's Lucky Birthday Noodles: A Loving Story of Adoption, Chinese Culture and a Special Birthday Treat
Shan-Shan Chen
On her sixth birthday, Mei Mei puts on a special new dress and helps her adoptive mother make a traditional birthday dish from Mei Mei's home country, China, to share with her loving family. Includes recipe for Lucky Birthday Noodles.
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Merrow
Ananda Braxton-Smith
Enduring whispers about her absent mother's alleged merrow origins after her father drowns, twelve-year-old Neen questions her identity as she becomes increasingly torn between the worlds of the sea and her island home.
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Midnight Without a Moon
Linda Williams Jackson
Rose Lee Carter, a thirteen-year-old African-American girl, dreams of life beyond the Mississippi cotton fields during the summer of 1955, but when Emmett Till is murdered and his killers are unjustly acquitted, Rose is torn between seeking her destiny outside of Mississippi or staying and being a part of an important movement.
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Milly and the Macy's Parade
Shana Corey
It's 1924 and the holidays are approaching. Milly lives in NYC with her Polish family and frolics daily in holiday displays at the Macy's store under the watchful eye of Mr. Macy. But Milly's family misses their homeland and traditions. In an effort to cheer people up, Milly convinces Mr. Macy to combine old country traditions with new American heritage in a celebration for all to enjoy. Everyone agrees that the resulting parade will become a wonderful new tradition. This heartwarming story beautifully captures the creation of a uniquely American event.
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Missing in Action
Dean Hughes
While his father is missing in action in the Pacific during World War II, twelve-year-old Jay moves with his mother to small-town Utah, where he sees prejudice from both sides, as a part-Navajo himself and through an unlikely friendship with Japanese American Ken from the nearby internment camp.
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Mixed Heritage: Your Source for Books for Children and Teens About Persons and Families of Mixed Racial, Ethnic, and/or Religious Heritage
Catherine Blakemore
Presents annotated lists of juvenile books on individuals and families with mixed ethnic, religious, and racial identities.
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Mother Number Zero
Marjolijn Hof, Johanna W. Prins, and Johanna Henrica Prins
When Fay meets a fascinating girl named Maud who asks him what it is like to be adopted, he finds himself wondering about his Bosnian birth-mother and why she gave him up, so with the help of his parents he sets out to answer his questions.
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Multiethnic Teens and Cultural Identity
Barbara Cruz
Discusses the many issues facing teens of multiethnic descent, including discrimination and the search for ethnic identity in an unsympathetic culture.
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My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life
Rachel Cohn
On her sixteenth birthday, Elle Zoellner leaves the foster care system to live with the father she never knew in Tokyo, Japan.