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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I Miss My Foster Parents
Stefon Herbert
A little boy who is adopted tells why he misses his foster parents.
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I'm More Than a Foster Child
Ava Suggs and Marlo Suggs
Follows the stress and struggles of a young girl who overcomes the the challenges of being bounced around to numerous foster homes.
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I'm New Here
Anne Sibley O'Brien
Three students are immigrants from Guatemala, Korea, and Somalia and have trouble speaking, writing, and sharing ideas in English in their new American elementary school. Through self-determination and with encouragement from their peers and teachers, the students learn to feel confident and comfortable in their new school without losing a sense of their home country, language, and identity.
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I'm Your Peanut Butter Big Brother
Selina Alko
A child in an interracial family wonders what his yet-to-be-born sibling will look like.
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In a Minute
Tony Bradman
Jo cannot wait to get to the playground and play with her friend Sita and Sita's dog Patch, but her Mum and Dad keep slowing her down.
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I Never
Laura Hopper
Janey King’s priorities used to be clear: track, school, friends, and family. But when seventeen-year-old Janey learns that her seemingly happy parents are getting divorced, her world starts to shift. Back at school, Luke Hallstrom, an adorable senior, pursues Janey, and she realizes that she has two new priorities to consider: love and sex.
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In My Heart
Molly Bang
Parents describe how their child is always in their hearts, no matter where they are or what they are doing.
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In One Person
John Irving
A compelling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love - tormented, funny, and affecting - and an impassioned embrace of our sexual differences. Billy, the bisexual narrator and main character of In One Person, tells the tragicomic story (lasting more than half a century) of his life as a "sexual suspect," a phrase first used by John Irving in 1978 - in his landmark novel of "terminal cases," The World According to Garp. His most political novel since The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving's In One Person is a poignant tribute to Billy's friends and lovers - a theatrical cast of characters who defy category and convention. Not least, In One Person is an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the solitariness of a bisexual man who is dedicated to making himself "worthwhile."
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In Our Mothers' House
Patricia Polacco
Three young children experience the joys and challenges of being raised by two mothers.
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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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Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus
Dusti Bowling
Aven Green loves to tell people that she lost her arms in an alligator wrestling match, or a wildfire in Tanzania, but the truth is she was born without them. And when her parents take a job running Stagecoach Pass, a rundown western theme park in Arizona, Aven moves with them across the country knowing that she’ll have to answer the question over and over again. Her new life takes an unexpected turn when she bonds with Connor, a classmate who also feels isolated because of his own disability, and they discover a room at Stagecoach Pass that holds bigger secrets than Aven ever could have imagined. It’s hard to solve a mystery, help a friend, and face your worst fears. But Aven’s about to discover she can do it all...even without arms.
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Internment
Samira Ahmed
Rebellions are built on hope. Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens. With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the camp's Director and his guards. Heart-racing and emotional, Internment challenges readers to fight complicit silence that exists in our society today.
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Into the Beautiful North
Luis Alberto Urrea
Nineteen-year-old Nayeli works at a taco shop in her Mexican village and dreams about her father, who journeyed to the US when she was young. Recently, it has dawned on her that he isn't the only man who has left town. In fact, there are almost no men in the village--they've all gone north. While watching The Magnificent Seven, Nayeli decides to go north herself and recruit seven men--her own "Siete Magníficos"--to repopulate her hometown and protect it from the bandidos who plan on taking it over.
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Introducing Teddy
Jessica Walton
Errol's best friend and teddy, Thomas, is sad because he wishes he were a girl, not a boy teddy, but what only matters to both of them is that they are friends.
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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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Islandborn
Junot Díaz
Lola was just a baby when her family left the Island, so when she has to draw it for a school assignment, she asks her family, friends, and neighbors about their memories of her homeland ... and in the process, comes up with a new way of understanding her own heritage
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Is That For a Boy or a Girl?
S. Bear Bergman
Meet some awesome kids who have gotten pretty tired of being told that certain things are for girls and others just for boys. See how they mix and match everything they like to get what suits them best!
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Is Your Family Like Mine?
Lois Abramchik
In this book, a 5 year old girl named Armetha has two mothers who raise her. She begins to become curious about other families and asks all of her friends “Who is in your family?” She quickly becomes aware that all of her friends come from different families; some are nuclear while others have a step parent, single parent, or foster parent. Armetha and her friends decide that while their families are different, their common bond is love, and that is what makes a family. This is great to introduce to a group of children from different backgrounds to help them relate to one another.
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It Looks Like This
Rafi Mittlefehldt
Moving to a new city and joining an evangelical church despite his own reluctance, artistic Mike is bullied by a father who wants him to play sports and toughen up, a situation that is complicated by Mike's growing feelings for another newcomer.
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I Totally Funniest: A Middle School Story (I Funny #3)
James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein
Jamie Grimm is back and better than ever. After scoring big on national TV in the semifinals contest, everyone back home is jumping on the Jamie Grimm bandwagon, and all the attention might be going to his head. Not only are his friendships starting to suffer, but the pressure of coming up with his best material ever for the ultimate standup act to snag the final win in Hollywood is pushing Jamie to the brink. Suddenly, life isn't looking very funny anymore. Can Jamie take the grand prize without pushing away his fans, friends and family?
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It’s Not Like It’s a Secret
Misa Sugiura
When her family moves to California, 16 year old Sana Kiyohara falls for the beautiful and smart Jamie Ramirez but struggles with differences between their diverse friend groups, a boy's sweet but unrequited affection, and her father's increasingly obvious affair.
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It's Not the End of the World
Judy Blume
A young girl tries to restore order to her family life by preventing her parents from going through with their divorce.
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It's Not What You Expect
Norma Klein
At loose ends the summer their parents separate, fourteen-year-old twins open and operate a restaurant with the help of their friends
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It's Our Prom (So Deal with It)
Julie Anne Peters
Told in separate voices, Azure, who is a lesbian, and Luke, who is bisexual, help plan an inclusive senior prom. At the same time, Luke is writing and producing a musical about his life, both are working through the crush they have on their friend Radhika, and all three are dealing with problems at home.
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It's So Gay, and It's Okay
Wallace Wong
Jamie is so excited for the first day of school. As he puts on a pink shirt, he thinks about making new friends and learning new things. But when Jamie enters the classroom, everything suddenly changes. When a boy laughs at Jamie's pink shirt and calls him gay, Jamie is mortified. Still, he goes home without telling his parents, determined to never wear that shirt again. The next day, Jamie begins playing with a doll in the classroom. Soon, all the boys are laughing at him again. Jamie knows he should probably tell a teacher, but instead he decides not to play with dolls. Jamie just wants to fit in, but as he tries to change himself to be accepted, he grows more and more unhappy. How will Jamie handle the situation? Can he learn to accept himself and be happy? It's So Gay, and It's Okay is a children's tale that shares an important message: it is okay to be unique and different.