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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Playing a Part
Daria Wilke and Marian Schwartz
Grishka has grown up in the closed world of a puppet theater in Russia, but now that world seems to be falling apart--his best friend needs an operation, financial difficulties are forcing people out, his homosexual friend Sam, the jester, is leaving for Holland and Grishka no longer knows what role he himself is playing.
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Playing Games (Amy Hodgepodge, #4)
Kim Wayans and Kevin Knotts
Amy realizes her dream of playing sports when she joins the basketball league, and secret practices with Rusty improve her skills but her friends, believing she still plays badly, will not pass her the ball.
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Playing Without the Ball
Rich Wallace
Feeling abandoned by his parents, who have gone their separate ways and left him behind in a small Pennsylvania town, seventeen-year-old Jay finds hope for the future in a church-sponsored basketball team and a female friend.
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Portrait of Us
A. Destiny and Rhonda Helms
Looking forward to taking summer classes with a famous artist-in-residence, Corinne struggles beside a fellow student whose style clashes with her own, a view that shifts when she learns that they have more in common than she thought.
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Poz
Christopher Koehler
One Remy Babcock and Mikey Castelreigh are stalwart members of the Capital City Rowing Club's junior crew, pulling their hardest to earn scholarships to rowing powerhouses like California Pacific. Just a couple of all-American boys, they face the usual pressures of life in an academic hothouse and playing a varsity sport. Add to that the stifling confines of the closet, and sometimes life isn't always easy, even in the golden bubble of their accepting community. Because Remy and Mikey have a secret: they're both gay. While Mikey has never hidden it, Remy is a parka and a pair of mittens away from Narnia. Mikey has always been open about wanting more than friendship, but Remy is as uncomfortable in his own skin as he is a demon on the water. After their signals cross, and a man mistakes Remy for a college student, Remy takes the plunge and hooks up with him. After a furious Mikey cuts Remy off, Remy falls to the pressure of teenage life, wanting to be more and needing it now. In his innocence and naivete, Remy makes mistakes that have life-long consequences.
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Pride Colors
Robin Stevenson
Through gentle rhymes and colorful photographs of adorable children, Pride Colors is a celebration of the deep unconditional love of a parent or caregiver for a young child. The profound message of this delightful board book is you are free to be whoever you choose to be; you'll always be loved.
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Princess Puffybottom...and Darryl
Susin Nielsen-Fernlund
Princess Puffybottom has the perfect life -- her subjects serve her delicious meals, clean up her "delicate matters" and wait on her hand and foot. Life is good ...until Darryl arrives. Princess Puffybottom thinks he's disgusting, horrid and a true animal. Though she tries everything in her power to banish him (including hypnosis, trickery and even sabotage), it looks like this puppy is here to stay. Can Princess P. and Darryl find a way to co-exist?
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Prinsesa: The Boy Who Dreamed of Being a Princess
Emmanual Romero and Drew Stephens
In an age of hateful bullying and advances for LGBT and gender nonconforming people, there's no easy way to understand what these struggles mean unless you put a face to them. What better face is there to look at than that of an innocent child who is full of wonder at the world? In the end, the story shows that whatever issues children need to deal with, they'll be okay as long as they have loving and supportive adults in their corner.
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Priscilla Twice
Judith Caseley
When Priscilla's parents divorce, she learns that there are different kinds of families.
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Probably the World's Best Story About a Dog and the Girl Who Loved Me
D. J. Smith
Paolo's plan for August in Orange Grove City is to hire out his little brother to the neighbors. Georgie is six; he needs a manager. But then the family dog, Rufus, is stolen. Overnight, Paolo is trying to manage not just Georgie, but their deaf cousin, Billy, who speaks only with his hands; Henry, a strange vacation visitor whom the boys discover living locked in his aunt's attic; and Butter Schwartz, a lonely, half-wild schemer with a paper route. The last two are definite dognapping suspects...To top it all, a girl with a big-time crush on Paolo won't let him be, day or night, crisis or no crisis. For her, missing Rufus is nothing to snaring Paolo, who has met his match as a manager. The solution to the mystery of Rufus, the threat of Theresa, and the future must rest in Billy's hands.
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Pugdog
Andrea U'Ren
When Mike discovers that his rough-and-tumble new puppy is a female, he tries to make her into a dainty dog.
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Punkzilla
Adam Rapp
"Punkzilla" is on a mission to see his older brother "P", before "P" dies of cancer. Still buzzing from his last hit of meth, he embarks on a days-long trip from Portland, Ore. to Memphis, Tenn., writing letters to his family and friends. Along the way, he sees a sketchier side of America and worries if he will make it to see his brother in time.
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Puppy Fat
Morris Gleitzman
Keith worries about his separated parents and wants to improve their appearance so they will find new partners, but he realizes that he cannot change them into different people.
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Push Girl
Chelsie Hill and Jessica Love
Kara, a high school junior, is popular with a great group of friends, an amazing boyfriend, and expectations of being Homecoming Queen until she leaves a party angry and wakes up in a hospital bed, paralized from the waist down, but as she is forced to adjust to her new physical reality, she also learns that her friends are not who they seemed to be.
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Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy
Bil Bil Wright
Sixteen-year-old Carlos Duarte is on the verge of realizing his dream of becoming a famous make-up artist, but first he must face his jealous boss at a Macy's cosmetics counter, his sister's abusive boyfriend, and his crush on a punk-rocker classmate.
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Queens of Geek
Jen Wilde
Charlie likes to stand out. She's a vlogger and actress promoting her first movie at SupaCon, and this is her chance to show fans she's over her public breakup with co-star Reese Ryan. When internet-famous cool-girl actress Alyssa Huntington arrives as a surprise guest, it seems Charlie's long-time crush on her isn't as one-sided as she thought. Taylor likes to blend in. Her brain is wired differently, making her fear change. And there's one thing in her life she knows will never change: her friendship with her best guy friend Jamie-no matter how much she may secretly want it to. But when she hears about a fan contest for her favorite fandom, she starts to rethink her rules on playing it safe.
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Quiver
Julia Watts
Libby is the oldest child of six, going on seven, in a family that adheres to the "quiverfull" lifestyle: strict evangelical Christians who believe that they should have as many children as God allows because children are like arrows in the quiver of "God's righteous warriors." Meanwhile, her new neighbor, Zo is a gender fluid teen whose feminist, socialist, vegetarian family recently relocated from the city in search of a less stressful life because her family are as far to the left ideologically as Libby's family is to the right, and yet Libby and Zo, who are the same age, feel a connection that leads them to friendship - a friendship that seems doomed from the start because of their families' differences.
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Radio Silence
Alice Oseman
What if everything you set yourself up to be was wrong? Frances has always been a study machine with one goal, elite university. Nothing will stand in her way; not friends, not a guilty secret -- not even the person she is on the inside. But when Frances meets Aled, the shy genius behind her favourite podcast, she discovers a new freedom. He unlocks the door to Real Frances and for the first time she experiences true friendship, unafraid to be herself. Then the podcast goes viral and the fragile trust between them is broken. Caught between who she was and who she longs to be, Frances' dreams come crashing down. Suffocating with guilt, she knows that she has to confront her past. She has to confess why Carys disappeared. Meanwhile at uni, Aled is alone, fighting even darker secrets. It's only by facing up to your fears that you can overcome them. And it's only by being your true self that you can find happiness. Frances is going to need every bit of courage she has.
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Rage: A Love Story
Julie Anne Peters
At the end of high school, Johanna finally begins dating the girl she has loved from afar, but Reeve is as much trouble as she claims to be as she and her twin brother damage Johanna's self-esteem, friendships, and already precarious relationship with her sister.
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Rainbow Boys
Alex Sanchez
Three high school seniors, a jock with a girlfriend and an alcoholic father, a closeted gay, and a flamboyant gay rights advocate, struggle with family issues, gay bashers, first sex, and conflicting feelings about each other.
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Rainbow Joe and Me
Maria Diaz Strom
Eloise shares her love of colors with her blind friend Rainbow Joe, who makes his own colors when he plays beautiful notes on his saxophone.
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Rainbow Road
Alex Sanchez
While driving across the United States during the summer after high school graduation, three young gay men encounter various bisexual and homosexual people and make some decisions about their own relationships and lives.
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Rain Reign
Ann M. Martin
Struggling with Asperger's, Rose shares a bond with her beloved dog, but when the dog goes missing during a storm, Rose is forced to confront the limits of her comfort levels, even if it means leaving her routines in order to search for her pet.
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Rainy Day
Emma Haughton
Shortly after his parents have separated, Nick visits his father on a gray, rainy day and they take a long walk in the storm.
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Ramona Blue
Julie Murphy
Ramona was only five years old when Hurricane Katrina changed her life forever. Since then, it's been Ramona and her family against the world. Standing over six feet tall with unmistakable blue hair, Ramona is sure of three things: she likes girls, she's fiercely devoted to her family, and she knows she's destined for something bigger than the trailer she calls home in Eulogy, Mississippi. But juggling multiple jobs, her flaky mom, and her well-meaning but ineffectual dad forces her to be the adult of the family. Now, with her sister, Hattie, pregnant, responsibility weighs more heavily than ever. The return of her childhood friend Freddie brings a welcome distraction. Ramona's friendship with the former competitive swimmer picks up exactly where it left off, and soon he's talked her into joining him for laps at the pool. But as Ramona falls in love with swimming, her feelings for Freddie begin to shift too, which is the last thing she expected. With her growing affection for Freddie making her question her sexual identity, Ramona begins to wonder if perhaps she likes girls and guys or if this new attraction is just a fluke. Either way, Ramona will discover that, for her, life and love are more fluid than they seem.