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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Mommy Far, Mommy Near: An Adoption Story
Carol Antoinette Peacock
Elizabeth, who was born in China, describes the family who has adopted her and tries to sort out her feelings for her unknown mother.
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Mommy's Heart went Pop: An Adoption Story
Christina Kyllonen and Peter Greer
International adoptions have steadily increased over the past decade, yet there is a surprising lack of resources to introduce the beauty of adoption to children. Adopted children want to know their story. Siblings want to know what to expect. Parents want to know how to convey the deep love they feel. Mommy's Heart Went POP! is a children's book that brings the beauty of international adoption to the entire family through a simple story of love for a child.
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Mommy, Was Your Tummy Big?
Carolina Nadel
With charming illustrations and simple words, the story helps explain the donor egg process to children.
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Monday with Maxim: The Amazing Maltese
Phylliss DelGreco, Jaclyn Roth, and Kathryn Silverio
In "Monday with Maxim, The Amazing Maltese," Jessie is intent on training her neighbor’s dog, Maxim, to sit. She enthusiastically starts off the day using her imagined powers to transform an ordinary handkerchief into a magic scarf. Wrapping the scarf around Maxim’s neck, she begins the challenging—and sometimes futile—task of getting him to sit, with uproarious and surprising results. "Monday with Maxim, The Amazing Maltese" is the first book in The Jessie Books series, which offers an inspiring story for each day of the week, featuring a precocious little girl who lives with her two moms in Queens, New York.
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Money Hungry
Sharon Flake
All thirteen-year-old Raspberry can think of is making money so that she and her mother never have to worry about living on the streets again.
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Monicka's Papa is Tall
Heather Jopling
Monicka's Papa and Daddy are different in many ways. See how their family puzzle fits together! This comparative book of opposites highlights the differences between Monicka's Papa and Daddy while using a puzzle motif to create a picture of families in the new millennium.
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Monkey See, Monkey Do
Barthe DeClements
Jerry's adored father seems unable to stay out of jail, causing the sixth grader anguish at home and in school.
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More Than We Can Tell
Brigid Kemmerer
When Rev Fletcher and Emma Blue meet, they both long to share secrets, his of being abused by his birth father, hers of her parents' failing marriage and an online troll who truly frightens her.
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M or F?
Lisa Papademetriou and Christopher Tebbetts
Gay teen Marcus helps his friend Frannie chat up her crush online, but then becomes convinced that the crush is falling for him instead.
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Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress
Christine Baldacchino
Morris is a little boy who loves using his imagination. But most of all, Morris loves wearing the tangerine dress in his classroom's dress-up center. The children in Morris's class don't understand. Dresses, they say, are for girls. And Morris certainly isn't welcome in the spaceship some of his classmates are building. Astronauts, they say, don't wear dresses. One day when Morris feels all alone and sick from their taunts, his mother lets him stay home from school. Morris dreams of a fantastic space adventure with his cat, Moo. Inspired by his dream, Morris paints the incredible scene he saw and brings it with him to school. He builds his own spaceship, hangs his painting on the front of it and takes two of his classmates on an outer space adventure.
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Moses Goes to a Concert
Isaac Millman
When Moses and his class of hearing-impaired students go on a field trip to a concert, they meet the orchestra's deaf percussionist, in a story that includes signed phrases and the manual alphabet.
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Moses Goes to School
Isaac Millman
A day at a school for the deaf is like a day at any school. Moses goes to a special school, a public school for the deaf. He and all of his classmates are deaf or hard-of-hearing, but that doesn't mean they don't have a lot to say to each other! They communicate in American Sign Language (ASL), using visual signs and facial expressions. Isaac Millman follows Moses through a school day, telling the story in pictures and written English, and in ASL, introducing hearing children to the signs for some of the key words and ideas. At the end is a favorite song -- "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" -- in sign!
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Moses Goes to the Circus
Isaac Millman
Moses, who is deaf, has a good time with his family at the circus, where they communicate using sign language. Includes illustrations of some of the signs they use.
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Moses Sees a Play
Isaac Millman
Moses and his classmates, who are deaf or hard of hearing, attend a play at their school, and Moses makes a new friend from another class.
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Most Likely to Succeed
Jennifer Echols
In this sexy conclusion to The Superlatives trilogy from Endless Summer author Jennifer Echols, Sawyer and Kaye might just be perfect for each other—if only they could admit it. As vice president of Student Council, Kaye knows the importance of keeping order. Not only in school, but in her personal life. Which is why she and her boyfriend, Aidan, already have their lives mapped out: attend Columbia University together, pursue banking careers, and eventually get married. Everything Kaye has accomplished in high school—student government, cheerleading, stellar grades—has been in preparation for that future. To his entire class, Sawyer is an irreverent bad boy. His antics on the field as school mascot and his love of partying have earned him total slacker status. But while he and Kaye appear to be opposites on every level, fate—and their friends—keep conspiring to throw them together. Perhaps the seniors see the simmering attraction Kaye and Sawyer are unwilling to acknowledge to themselves…As the year unfolds, Kaye begins to realize her ideal life is not what she thought. And Sawyer decides it’s finally time to let down the facade and show everyone who he really is. Is a relationship between them most likely to succeed—or will it be their favorite mistake?
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Motherbridge of Love
Xinran .
Featured in Time Magazine's Top Ten Children's Books of 2007, this beautiful poem celebrates the bond between parent and adopted child in a special way. Through the exchanges, between a little girl born in China and her adoptive parent, this title offers a poignant and inspiring message to adoptive parents and children all over the world.
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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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Mountain Dog
Margarita Engle
When Tony's mother is sent to jail, he is sent to stay with a great uncle he has never met in Sierra Nevada. It is a daunting move―Tony's new world bears no semblance to his previous one. But slowly, against a remote and remarkable backdrop, the scars from Tony's troubled past begin to heal.With his Tió and a search-and-rescue dog named Gabe by his side, he learns how to track wild animals, is welcomed to the Cowboy Church, and makes new friends at the Mountain School. Most importantly though, it is through Gabe that Tony discovers unconditional love for the first time.
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Mountains to Climb
Richard M. Wainwright
Roberto spends two years in the U.S. with his one-eyed llama and overcomes prejudice against him and two physically disabled students.
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Muktar and the Camels
Janet Graber
Muktar lives in an orphanage on the border of Kenya and Somalia. He daydreams about his old life with his family and especially tending to camels. One day, visitors arrive bearing books, and Muktar's friend Ismail is excited; so is Muktar, but for a different reason—the visitors are riding on camels. Muktar quickly discovers that one of the animals is injured and realizes this is his chance to prove himself. If there is anything Muktar knows, it is camels. Through the eyes of an endearing protagonist whose love and respect for animals shines, this beautifully told story introduces young readers to another part of the world and way of life.
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Mummy and Mumma Get Married
Roz Hopkins and Natalie Winter
Phoebe wonders why her mummies aren't married. With her trusty sidekick, Biscuit the cat, she plans a big surprise wedding. Soon, the whole town is in on it and they are all coming along! But what about You-Know-Who? This gorgeous children's picture book tells a timeless tale about a little girl planning a big surprise - a wedding - for her parents, but with a contemporary twist as her parents are both women. With a child's innocence, the little girl, Phoebe, doesn't understand the obstacles and can't see prejudice. She soon has everyone on her side.
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Murphy's Three Homes: A Story for Children in Foster Care
Jan Levinson Gilman
A dog describes the emotional ups and downs of being in multiple foster homes and living in unfamiliar surroundings. Includes note to parents.
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Mustafa
Marie-Loise Gay
After leaving his war-torn country with his family, Mustafa visits a park near his new home and finds beautiful flowers, lady bugs, fall leaves, and finally, a friend.
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My Adopted Child, There's No One like You
Kevin Leman and Kevin Leman II
When Panda has to make a family tree for school, his mother explains how he came to be adopted, and how very special that makes him.