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:
Biracial/Multiracial
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In Search of Us
Ava Dellaira
Relates the stories of Marilyn who, at age seventeen, fell in love with James, left her stage-mother, and set out on her own and Angie, her now seventeen-year-old daughter, who returns to Hollywood seeking her father.
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I See Reality: Twelve Short Stories About Real Life
Grace Kendall
Popular young-adult authors weave together questions of identity, loss, and redemption into poignant tales for today's teens.
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It's Not All Black and White: Multiracial Youth Speak Out
St. Stephen's Community House
Biracial and multiracial youth discuss their lives and questions of identity though poems, essays, interviews, and personal reflections.
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It's Not the Stork! A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families, and Friends
Robie H. Harris
Young children are curious about almost everything, especially their bodies. And young children are not afraid to ask questions. What makes me a girl? What makes me a boy? Why are some parts of girls' and boys' bodies the same and why are some parts different? How was I made? Where do babies come from? Is it true that a stork brings babies to mommies and daddies? IT'S NOT THE STORK! helps answer these endless and perfectly normal questions that preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary school children ask about how they began. Through lively, comfortable language and sensitive, engaging artwork, Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley address readers in a reassuring way, mindful of a child's healthy desire for straightforward information. Two irresistible cartoon characters, a curious bird and a squeamish bee, provide comic relief and give voice to the full range of emotions and reactions children may experience while learning about their amazing bodies. Vetted and approved by science, health, and child development experts, the information is up-to-date, age-appropriate, and scientifically accurate, and always aimed at helping kids feel proud, knowledgeable, and comfortable about their own bodies, about how they were born, and about the family they are part of.
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It's Okay To Be Different
Todd Parr
Illustrations and brief text describe all kinds of differences that are "okay," such as "It's Okay to be a different color," "It's Okay to need some help," "It's Okay to be adopted," and "It's Okay to have a Different nose."
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It's Test Day, Tiger Turcotte
Pansie Hart Flood
Already so worried about the big second grade test that his stomach is upset, seven-year-old Tiger Turcotte, whose parents are Black, Meherrin Indian, and Hispanic, gets stuck on the question about race.
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Jalapeño Bagels
Natasha Wing
For International Day at school, Pablo wants to bring something that reflects the cultures of both his parents.
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Janine
Maryann Cocca-Leffler
Janine is one of a kind. She focuses on the positive while navigating life with disabilities. She makes a difference just by being herself
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Janine and the Field Day Finish
Maryann Cocca-Leffler
Today is field day and even though Janine is not good at sports, she is ready to compete. Her body just doesn't work like the other kids'. But no matter what, Janine cheers for everyone and tries her best. During the big race, her classmate Abby trips and falls. Janine is right there to help. But Abby is crushed that she won't win the race. Can Janine teach Abby and her classmates that being a winner is not always about being number one?
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Jimi & Me
Jaime Adolf
After his father's tragic death, twelve-year-old Keith James moves from Brooklyn to a small midwestern town where his mixed race heritage is not accepted, but he finds comfort in the music of Jimi Hendrix and the friendship of a white classmate.
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Jubilee Journey
Carolyn Meyer
Emily Rose has always felt comfortable growing up in Connecticut with her African American mother and her "French American" father, but when they spend some time with her great-grandmother in Texas, Emily Rose learns about her black heritage and uncovers some new and exciting parts of her own identity.
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Knife Edge (Noughts & Crosses, #2)
Malorie Blackman
Following Callum's death, the people who loved him relate how their lives have been changed, especially in reference to his girlfriend, Sephy, and their mixed-race child.
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Laura Dean Keeps Breaking up with me
Mariko Tamaki
Laura Dean, the most popular girl in high school, was Frederica Riley's dream girl, but Freddy is learning she is not the best girlfriend, so she seeks help from a mysterious medium and advice columnists to help her through being a teenager in love.
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Less Than Half, More Than Whole
Kathleen Lacapa and Michael Lapaca
A child who is only part Native American is troubled by his mixed racial heritage.
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Let's Talk About Race
Julius Lester
The author introduces the concept of race as only one component in an individual's or nation's "story."
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Living Violet (The Cambion Chronicles, #1)
Jaime Reed
Samara is intrigued by her flirtatious co-worker, Caleb, but his secrets draw Samara into a world that places her loved ones in danger, forcing her to take a risk that will change her life forever.
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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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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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Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case
Patricia Hruby Powell
Written in blank verse, the story of Mildred Loving, an African American girl, and Richard Loving, a Caucasian boy, who challenge the Viriginia law forbidding interracial marriages in the 1950s.
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Lu
Jason Reynolds
Lu knows he can lead Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and the team to victory at the championships, but it might not be as easy as it seems. Suddenly, there are hurdles in Lu's way--literally and not-so-literally--and Lu needs to figure out, fast, what winning the gold really means--
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Lucky Girl: A Memoir
Mei-Ling Hopgood
In a true story of family ties, journalist Hopgood, one of the first wave of Asian adoptees to arrive in America, comes face to face with her past when her Chinese birth family suddenly requests a reunion after more than two decades.
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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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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 Child: A Novel
Joan Steinau Lester
A novel about deeply entrenched conflicts between a white mother and her biracial daughter.