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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Sprout
Dale Peck
When Sprout and his father move from Long Island to Kansas after the death of his mother, he is sure he will find no friends, no love, no beauty. But friends find him, the strangeness of the landscape fascinates him, and when love shows up in an unexpected place, it proves impossible to hold. An incredible, literary story of a boy who knows he's gay, and the town that seems to have no place for him to hide.
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Stalker Girl
Rosemary Graham
Carly never meant to become a stalker. She just wanted to find out who Brian started dating after he dumped her. But a little harmless online research turns into a quick glance, and that turns into an afternoon of watching. Soon Carly is putting all of her energy into following Brian's new girlfriend, all of the sadness she feels about her mom's recent breakup, all of the anger she feels over being pushed aside by her dad while he prepares for his new wife's new baby. When Carly's stalking is discovered in the worst possible way by the worst possible person, she is forced to acknowledge her problem and the underlying issues that led to it.
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Stand Beautiful
Chloe Howard
A whimsical and inspiring picture book that encourages children to embrace their own uniqueness and celebrate the differences in others.
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Standing on My Own Two Feet: A Child's Affirmation of Love in the Midst of Divorce
Tamara Schmitz
Addison's parents are divorced and he lives in one house with his mom and another with his dad, but one thing he knows above all is that both his parents love him and they always will.
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Star-Crossed
Barbara Dee
When Mattie is cast as Romeo in an eighth-grade play, she is confused to find herself increasingly attracted to Gemma, a new classmate who is playing Juliet.
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Starfish
Akemi Dawn Bowman
Kiko Himura yearns to escape the toxic relationship with her mother by getting into her dream art school, but when things do not work out as she hoped Kiko jumps at the opportunity to tour art schools with her childhood friend, learning life-changing truths about herself and her past along the way.
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Star of the Week: A Story of Love, Adoption, and Brownies with Sprinkles
Darlene Friedman
As her turn to be "Star of the Week" in her kindergarten class approaches, Cassidy-Li puts together a poster with pictures of her family, friends, and pets, and wonders about her birthparents in China.
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Starting from Here
Lisa Jenn Jenn
Sixteen-year-old Colby is barely hanging on with her mother dead, her long-haul trucker father often away, her almost-girlfriend dumping her for a boy, and her failing grades, when a stray dog appears and helps her find hope.
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Stay
Katherine Lawrence
Millie is eleven going on twelve, and facing her toughest problems yet as she struggles with changes to her family. Her father moves out of the house and faces a cancer diagnosis, and her mother moves on with a new boyfriend. To cope, Millie distracts herself by speaking to her twin brother, Billy (who died before he was born), and dreams of the day she can convince her family to get a puppy.
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Stella Brings the Family
Miriam B. Schiffer
Stella brings her two fathers to school to celebrate Mother's Day.
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Stellaluna
Janell Cannon
After she falls headfirst into a bird's nest, a baby bat is raised like a bird until she is reunited with her mother.
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Stewie BOOM! and Princess Penelope: Handprints, Snowflakes and Playdates
Christine Bronstein
At school, Penelope’s teacher encourages the class to play with someone new at recess so that they can see that minds, like handprints and snowflakes, are one of a kind. Penelope chooses Eric and they have so much fun she invites him over for a play-date. Before he arrives, Penelope’s Mom tells her that Eric’s mind is called “on the spectrum,” and so his unique preferences might be different from the ones she’s used to. To prepare, they practice using quiet voices, listening with their eyes, and being flexible. As their play-date unfolds, Penelope and Eric show readers the many ways that families can embrace neuro-diversity.
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Stick Boy
Joan T. Zeier
When a seven-inch growth spurt in the sixth grade makes skinny, self-conscious Eric a school misfit and the victim of the class bully, he is led to befriend Cynthia, a proud and spirited black girl who is disabled.
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Sticky Beak
Morris Gleitzman
When she rescues a mistreated cockatoo, mute Rowena finds herself in more trouble than usual, but her actions finally reveal her true concern, that her new mother's impending baby is a replacement for her because she isn't perfect.
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Still a Family
Brenda Reeves Sturgis
A little girl and her parents have lost their home and must live in a homeless shelter. Even worse, due to a common shelter policy, her dad must live in a men's shelter, separated from her and her mom. Despite these circumstances, the family still finds time to be together. They meet at the park to play hide-and-seek, slide on slides, and pet puppies. While the young girl wishes for better days when her family is together again under a roof of their very own, she continues to remind herself that they're still a family even in times of separation.
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Still Life with Tornado
A. S. King
A talented 16-year-old artist slowly discovers the history of domestic violence behind why her brother left the family years earlier and why she suddenly cannot make art.
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Still Waters
Ash Parsons Parsons
High-schooler Jason, who lives with a drunk, abusive father at home, hopes to earn enough money to escape with his younger sister, Janie, by being tough at school, but the stakes grow ever more dangerous and soon even his fists and ability to think on his feet are not enough to keep his head above water.
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Stinky
Ted Staunton
Janice, who really wants to be know as Greer, is a little overweight and more than a little bossy when it comes to struggling to be heard at school. The fact that her parents are separated and she spends half her life living in a trailer at the edge of town visited by skunks that don't hesitate to spray if they hear a sudden noise does not help her self-confidence. Janice wants to get her parents back together in time for her birthday, but this proves harder than she realizes.
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Stoner & Spaz
Ronald Koertge
A troubled youth with cerebral palsy struggles toward self-acceptance with the help of a drug-addicted young woman.
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Stranded
Ben Mikaelsen
Twelve-year-old Koby, who has lost a foot in an accident, sees a chance to prove her self-reliance to her parents when she tries to rescue two stranded pilot whales near her home in the Florida Keys.
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Stranded in Boringsville
Catherine Bateson
Following her parents' separation, twelve-year-old Rain moves with her mother to the country, where she befriends the unpopular boy who lives next door and also seeks a way to cope with her feelings toward her father and his new girlfriend.
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Strawberry Moon
Karen English
While driving to Auntie Dot's house, Junie tells her children about spending fifth grade there during her parent's separation many years earlier, when finding a best friend seemed almost as important as seeing her mother again.
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Street Dreams
Tama Wise
Tyson Rua has more than his fair share of problems growing up in South Auckland. Working a night job to support his mother and helping bring up his two younger brothers is just the half of it. His best friend Rawiri is falling afoul of a broken home, and now Tyson's fallen in love at first sight. Only thing is, it's another guy. Living life on the sidelines of the local hip-hop scene, Tyson finds that to succeed in becoming a local graffiti artist or in getting the man of his dreams, he's going to have to get a whole lot more involved. And that means more problems. The least of which is the leader of the local rap crew he's found himself running with. Love, life, and hip-hop never do things by half.
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Strider
Beverly Cleary
Strider has a new habit. Whenever we stop, he places his paw on my foot. It isn't an accident because he always does it. I like to think he doesn't want to leave me. Can a stray dog change the life of a teenage boy? It looks as if Strider can. He's a dog that loves to run; because of Strider, Leigh Botts finds himself running -- well enough to join the school track team. Strider changes Leigh on the inside, too, as he finally begins to accept his parents' divorce and gets to know a redheaded girl he's been admiring. With Strider's help, Leigh finds that the future he once hated to be asked about now holds something he never expected: hope
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Stuck in Neutral
Terry Trueman
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function physically in any way, not even to show his intelligence and awareness of his life, his family, and his condition. How does he cope with the suspicion that his father is planning to kill him?