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.
This collection contains materials from the DIVerse Families bibliography organized by genre.
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 Genre:
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Hard Love
Ellen Wittlinger
After starting to publish a zine in which he writes his secret feelings about his lonely life and his parents' divorce, sixteen-year-old John meets an unusual girl and begins to develop a healthier personality.
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Hard to Be Six
Arnold Adoff
A six-year-old boy who wants to grow up fast learns a lesson about patience from his grandmother.
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Harriet gets Carried Away
Jessie Sima
While shopping with her two dads for supplies for her birthday party, Harriet, who is wearing a penguin costume, is carried away by a waddle of penguins and must hatch a plan in order to get herself back to the store in the city.
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Harry and Willy and Carrothead
Judith Caseley
Harry was born with no left hand. When he got to school, the kids asked him what was wrong with his arm. "Nothing," said Harry. "That's my prosthesis." Harry's hand didn't keep him from being a good baseball player -- or a good friend. Harry and Willy and Carrothead are three of the most real kids you are apt to meet between book covers, and you will like them as much as they like each other!
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Hatchet
Gary Paulsen
After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the Canadian wilderness, learning to survive initially with only the aid of a hatchet given to him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.
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Head Case
Sarah Aronson
Seventeen-year-old Frank Marder struggles to deal with the aftermath of an accident he had while driving drunk that killed two people, including his girlfriend, and left him paralyzed from the neck down.
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Heart of Mine: A Story of Adoption
Dan Hojer and Lotta Hojer
Offers young readers a story about adoption as two parents explain how their daughter, Tu Thi, came into their lives from a country so very far away.
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Heart Picked: Elizabeth's Adoption Tale
Sara Crutcher
Six-year-old Elizabeth is excited to have her dad visit school today but worries some of her classmates might notice they don't look alike. How will Elizabeth respond when her friend says, "That's your dad? You don't look like him."
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Heather Has Two Mommies
Lesléa Newman
Heather's favorite number is two. She has two arms, two legs, and two pets. And she also has two mommies. When Heather goes to school for the first time, someone asks her about her daddy, but Heather doesn't have a daddy. Then something interesting happens. When Heather and her classmates all draw pictures of their families, not one drawing is the same.
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Heavy Vinyl: Riot on the Radio (#1)
Carly Usdin
Starry-eyed Chris has just started the dream job every outcast kid in town wants: working at Vinyl Mayhem. It's as rad as she imagined; her boss is BOSS, her co-workers spend their time arguing over music, pushing against the patriarchy, and endlessly trying to form a band. When Rosie Riot, the staff's favorite singer, mysteriously vanishes the night before her band's show, Chris discovers her co-workers are doing more than just sorting vinyl...Her local indie record store is also a front for a teen girl vigilante fight club!
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Heidi (Classic Starts)
Johanna Spyri and Lisa Church
When Heidi's Aunt Dete brings the orphaned girl to live with her grandfather, no one can imagine the bitter, solitary old man caring for a child. But, to everyone's surprise, the two grow to love each other - and Heidi blossoms in her new home.
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Hello Goodbye Dog
Maria Gianferrari
Zara's dog, Moose likes nothing more than being with her favorite girl. However, dogs aren't allowed at school, so Moose has to stay home. Moose, though, is determined to always find her way back to Zara by escaping over and over again. Finally with a great idea and a little bit of training the two friends find a way to be together all day long.
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Hello, Groin
Beth Goobie
When Dylan Kowolski agrees to create a display for her high school library, she has no idea of the trouble it's going to cause—for the school principal, her family, her boyfriend Cam and his jock friends, and her best friend Jocelyn. And for Dylan herself. If only her English class had been studying a normal, run-of-the-mill, mundane book like Lord of the Flies instead of Foxfire things wouldn't have gotten so twisted. Then the world wouldn't have gone into such a massive funk. And then Dylan wouldn't have had to face her deepest fear and the way she was letting it run her life.
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Hello, Lulu
Caroline Uff
Simple text and illustrations introduce Lulu and her family, Lulu's pets, best friend, and new shoes.
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Helping Sophia
Anastasia Suen
When Sophia's helper is absent, her fellow third-graders help out by learning how to push her wheelchair.
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Henry the Boy
Molly Felder
This is not a story about a heron or a robot or a chicken but an ordinary boy with daily struggles, triumphs, and an extraordinary imagination.Henry uses forearm crutches decorated with animal stickers. He sometimes feels out of place at school, especially when he gets made fun of, but through his own rich imagination and his friendship with Joel, Henry learns to define himself on his own terms.
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Henry Wants More!
Linda Ashman
Whether spending time with Papa, singing songs with Grandma, playing games with Lucy, or racing with Charlie, toddler Henry wears his family out until bedtime, when Mama is the one who wants more.
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Here I Am
Patti Kim
Newly arrived from their faraway homeland, a boy and his family enter into the lights, noise, and traffic of a busy city in this dazzling wordless picture book. The boy clings tightly to his special keepsake from home and wonders how he will find his way.
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Here's a Penny
Carolyn Haywood
Follows the adventures of six-year-old William, an adopted boy nicknamed Penny for his copper-colored hair, as he attends a Halloween party, adopts kittens, and finds an older brother to join his family.
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Here to Stay
Sara Farizan
When a cyberbully sends the entire high school a picture of basketball hero Bijan Majidi, photo-shopped to look like a terrorist, the school administration promises to find and punish the culprit, but Bijan just wants to pretend the incident never happened and move on.
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Her Name is James
C.J. Heath
At fifteen years old, James Farrow was removed from home by social services for his own safety. Now he is eighteen, he is no longer the responsibility of the welfare state. Returning home to an uncertain reception, James finds his father has mellowed and his brother is delighted to have his hero back. Life could run smoothly for James now he is home again but he has a painful truth to confess; James is transgender. He's always known he wasn't intended to be born a boy but now he wants to begin his transition into the woman he should be.
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Hero
S. L. Rottman
After years of abuse from his mother and neglect from his father, ninth-grader Sean Parker is headed for trouble until he is sent to do community service at a farm owned by an old man who teaches Sean that he can take control of his own life.
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He's My Brother
Joe Lasker
A young boy describes the experiences of his slow learning younger brother at school and at home.
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Hidden
Tomas Mournian
Based on a news article written for the San Francisco Bay Guardian. When 15-year-old Ahmed inadvertently outs himself to his parents, they take him to a residential treatment center in the Nevada desert, Serenity Ridge, where he's tortured, molested, and put through a straight rehabilitation program. After 11 months, Ahmed manages to escape to a safe house for runaway gay teens in San Francisco.
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Hidden Roots
Joseph Bruchac
Although he is uncertain why his father is so angry and what secret his mother is keeping from him, eleven-year-old Sonny knows that he is different from his classmates in their small New York town.