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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Solace of the Road
Siobhan Dowd
While running away from a London foster home just before her fifteenth birthday, Holly has ample time to consider her years of residential care and her early life with her Irish mother, whom she is now trying to reach.
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Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You
Peter Cameron
Eighteen-year-old James living in New York City with his older sister and divorced mother struggles to find a direction for his life.
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Some Kids Just Can't Sit Still
Sam Goldstein
Rhyming text describes how difficult life can be for a child with Attention deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and how parents, teachers, and doctors can help.
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Someone Like Summer
M.E. Kerr
An upper-middle-class white girl from Long Island and an immigrant worker from Colombia fall in love despite objections from both their families and their community.
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Some People Have Two Dads
Luca Panzini and Fabri Kramer
This first book from the Some Families series is about Daisy, a happy little girl with two dads. We follow her through the story of her birthday and learn how fathers were helped by a surrogate to bring Daisy into their lives. An increasing number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) couples are having children through surrogacy, co-parenting, donor, and adoption.
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Some People Have Two Mums
Fabri Framer and Luca Panzini
This second book from the Some Families series is about Milo, a happy little boy with two mums. We follow him through his bedtime routine and learn how his mothers were helped by a donor to bring Milo into their lives. An increasing number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) couples are having children through surrogacy, co-parenting, donor, and adoption.
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Sometimes it's Grandmas and Grandpas, Not Mommies and Daddies
Gayle Byrne
A young girl who lives with her grandparents experiences warmth, love, and closeness, even when she wonders why her parents are not raising her.
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Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry
Bebe Moore Campbell
A little girl learns coping skills with the help of her grandmother, neighbors and school friends, when her mother's mental illness disrupts her daily routine.
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Sometimes Noise is Big: Life with Autism
Angela Coelho
Sometimes noise is too big for my ears. Sometimes the light is too loud for my eyes. I have autism and this means that sometimes the world around me is just too much! This book will help you to see the world through my eyes and to understand why I react to things the way I do. Flipping the perspective for neurotypicals, this book explains in simple terms some of the sensory issues experienced by children with autism. It shows situations which can be overwhelming and the ways that somebody with autism might react when there is too much going on. This picture book raises awareness of autism and helps young children of all abilities to better understand these issues.
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Sometimes We Were Brave
Pat Brisson
Jerome's mother is a sailor in the United States Navy, and when she is away at sea he tries to be brave even though misses her and has some bad days.
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Somos como las nubes / We Are Like the Clouds
Jorge Argueta
Poems describe the experiences of young Central Americans as they leave the dangers of their own countries to undertake the risky journey north to seek relative safety in the United States.
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So Much Closer
Susane Colasanti
When Brooke discovers that the love of her life, Scott Abrams, is moving from their New Jersey suburb to New York City for senior year, she decides to follow hime there. Living with her estranged father and adjusting to a whole new school are challenging--and things get even worse when she finds out that Scott already has a girlfriend. But as she learns to navigate the big city, she starts to discover a whole new side of herself, and realizes that sometimes love can find you even when you're not looking for it.
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Sonya's Family (All Kinds of Families)
Elliot Riley
There are many types of families. Meet Sonya's family. Her parents are divorced so she spends time with each of them separately.
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Sosu's Call
Meshack Asare
When a great storm threatens, Sosu, an African boy who is unable to walk, joins his dog Fusa in helping save their village.
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So Totally Emily Ebers
Lisa Yee
In a series of letters to her absent father, twelve-year-old Emily Ebers deals with moving cross-country, her parents' divorce, a new friendship, and her first serious crush.
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Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie
Norton Juster
A little girl spends time with her Poppy and Nana and answers to two very different nicknames.
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Sparkle Boy
Leslea Newman
Three-year-old Casey wants what his older sister, Jessie, has--a shimmery skirt, glittery painted nails, and a sparkly bracelet--but Jessie does not approve until an encounter with two bullies helps her evolve to a place of acceptance of her gender creative younger brother.
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Sparks: The Epic, Completely True Blue, (Almost) Holy Quest of Debbie
S.J. Adams
A sixteen-year-old lesbian tries to get over a crush on her religious best friend by embarking on a "holy quest" with a couple of misfits who have invented a wacky, made-up faith called the Church of Blue.
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Speaking Out
Steve Berman
Speaking Out features stories for and about LGBT and Q teens by fresh voices and noted authors in the field of young adult literature. These are inspiring stories of overcoming adversity (against intolerance and homophobia) and experiencing life after "coming out." Queer teens need tales of what might happen next in their lives, and editor Steve Berman showcases a diversity of events, challenges, and, especially, triumphs.
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Special People, Special Ways
Arlene H. Maguire
A poem about the ways in which people with many differences in physical and mental ability share the same human needs for love and understanding.
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Speranza's Sweater
Marcy Pusey
Speranza wears her sweater everywhere, hanging onto the last memories of her birth home, until it's threadbare. Like her unraveled sweater, Speranza must weave together a new story, brining threads from her past and strands from her present, into a future of love, family and the true meaning of home.
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Splash, Anna Hibiscus
Atinuke .
Anna Hibiscus goes to the beach with her family and has trouble finding someone to splash in the water with her.
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Splish, Splat!
Alexis Domney
When Colin asks to have his bedroom painted, his mother hires two deaf professionals to do the job, but when the two painters Betty and Molly get too chatty on the job, they produce an unintended effect on the walls.
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Split
Swati Avasthi
A teenaged boy thrown out of his house by his abusive father goes to live with his older brother, who ran away from home years ago to escape the abuse.
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Spork
Kyo Maclear
His mum is a spoon, his dad is a fork, and he's a bit of both: he's Spork, a utensil who just doesn't seem to fit into the regimented world of the cutlery drawer, and this is his "multi-cutlery" tale, a humorous commentary on individuality and tolerance, that capture the experience and emotions of all who have ever wondered about their place in the world.