This collection contains materials from the DIVerse Families bibliography organized by Grades PK-1.
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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The Family Book
Todd Parr
Represents a variety of families, some big and some small, some with only one parent and some with two moms or dads, some quiet and some noisy, but all alike in some ways and special no matter what.
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The Flight of a Dove
Alexandra Day
Betsy is a child trapped inside her own body. Her autism keeps her isolated and alone, a world apart from even her mother. After hearing about a school for children with developmental disabilities, Betsy's mother enrolls her with high hopes. But once there, Betsy cries uncontrollably and refuses all attempts to comfort her. She sits with her eyes shut tight and her fists clenched. The head teacher believes that animals sometimes help children overcome problems, so she tries to engage Betsy with the many pets in residence at the school. Betsy shows no interest in any of them -- until the day one special bird manages to catch her attention.
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The Flower Girl Wore Celery
Meryl G. Gordon
When Emma's cousin Hannah gets married, Emma is thrilled to be the flower girl. However, nothing is quite as she expected it to be, from the ring bearer whom she expected to be a bear, to her celery-colored dress, which she expected to be covered in real celery, to the wedding's two brides.
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The Goodbye Book
Todd Parr
Illustrations and brief text relate how a person might feel when they lose someone they love.
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The Great Big Book of Families
Mary Hoffman
Features illustrations and descriptions of different types of families and how their lives are similar and different.
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The Impossible Patriotism Project
Linda Skeers
Caleb has a hard time coming up with a way to symbolize patriotism for Presidents' Day until he realizes that his dad, who is away from home in the military, is what patriotism is all about.
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The Journey
Francesca Sanna
With haunting echoes of the current refugee crisis, this beautifully illustrated book explores the unimaginable decisions made as a family leave their home and everything they know to escape the turmoil and tragedy brought by war. This book will stay with you long after the last page is turned.
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The Knish War on Rivington Street
Joanne Oppenheim
Benny's family owns a knishery and sells delicious round dumplings. Then the Tisch family opens a store across the street-selling square knishes-and Benny's papa worries. So he lowers his prices! But Mr. Tisch does too. As each knishery tries to outdo the other, Benny helps his papa realize there's room on Rivington Street for more than one knishery.
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The Lady in the Box
Ann McGovern
It is wintertime in the city and freezing cold, but not everyone is inside and warm. Ben and his sister Lizzie know that there is a lady who lives outside in a box over a warm air vent. Gently told and powerfully illustrated in rich hues, The Lady in the Box deals candidly with the issue of homelessness.
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The Little Green Goose
Adele Sansone and J. Alison James
Mr. Goose finds an abandoned egg, hatches it, and raises a peculiar green-skinned long-tailed chick, who worries about his identity but comes to recognize that he has a loving parent.
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The Little Lame Prince
Rosemary Wells
Cruel Osvaldo rules El Cordoba - keeping the people poor and unhappy. The true heir to the throne, Francisco, has been banished to a tower. Orphaned and crippled when he was very young, Francisco grows up unaware that he should be king. But one day he discovers his true idenity.
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The Lost Treasures for the Orphans
Carol Blazer
This adventure is about Mason, his two dads & his grandma. The story begins with a young boy realizing how much he has. Through a reporter, the family learns about a local orphanage. These children neither have parents, grandparents, toys, or clothing of their own. Mason has an idea! He wants to share what he has with the orphans. Through this experience he learns the gift of giving.
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The Memory Coat
Elvira Woodruff
In the early 1900s, two cousins leave their Russian shtetl with the rest of their family to come to America, hopeful that they will all pass the dreaded inspection at Ellis Island.
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The Mirror in Mommy's House / The Mirror in Daddy's House
Luis Amavisca, Kim Griffin, and Ben Dawlatly
The child of divorced parents describes the enjoyable things to be found in each parent's house and how both houses share a magical mirror.
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The Newspaper Pirates
J. Wallace Skelton
When Anthony Bartholomew hears his dads grumble that Newspaper Pirates must be stealing their paper, he decides to solve the problem himself. Watching carefully, hunting for clues and laying traps, Anthony Bartholomew keeps at it until the mystery is solved and the newspaper secured.
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The Only Boy in Ballet Class
Denise Gruska
Tucker Dohr loves ballet but is constantly teased by football players his age for being a sissy. However, they see him in a whole new light when circumstances place him in a position to help them win the football championship.
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The Pea That was Me: An Egg Donation Story
Kimberly Kluger-Bell
Explains egg donation through pictures and simple words.
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The Pirate of Kindergarden
Georgle Ella Lyon
Ginny's eyes play tricks on her, making her see everything double, but when she goes to vision screening at school and discovers that not everyone sees this way, she learns that her double vision can be cured.
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The Princess and the Pony
Kate Beaton
Princess Pinecone would like a real war horse for her birthday, instead of which she gets a plump, cute pony--but sometimes cuteness can be a kind of weapon, especially in a fight with dodgeballs and spitballs and hairballs and squareballs.
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The Prince Who Was Just Himself
Silke Schnee
Lacking the athletic and reading skills of his older brothers, Prince Noah uses love and compassion to save the kingdom from the Black Knight.
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There's Only One of Me!
Pat Hutchins
Daughter Sister Half-sister Stepdaughter Stepsister Cousin Niece Granddaughter Great-Granddaughter There are so many things to be when the relatives are coming to your birthday party But sometimes the best thing of all is to be a birthday girl. Oh, happy birthday
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There's Only One You
Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook
Celebrate your individuality with this picture book that honors all the wonderful things that make you . . . you.--.
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The Ring Bearer
Floyd Cooper
Jackson's mom is getting married, and Jackson is nervous about his role and his new family.
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The Secret's Out (Amy Hodgepodge, #5)
Kim Wayans Wayans and Kevin Knotts
Can a secret break up the friendship of five fourth-grade girls and prevent them from finishing an art project?
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The Star: A Story to Help Young Children Understand Foster Care
Cynthia Miller Lovell
The Star: A Story to Help Young Children Understand Foster Care is an easy-to-read, short story with beautiful, watercolor illustrations. The book follows a fictional young girl, Kit, who is taken from her mother to the safety, and different world, of a foster home. On Kit's first night in foster care, she becomes friends with a star outside her bedroom window. The star tells Kit about other foster children it has seen. Through the story, the star is a source of comfort for Kit as she experiences many emotions and adjusts to all the new things in her foster home.