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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Wait and See
Tony Bradman
It's Saturday, and Jo has some pocket money to spend. So Jo and her mum go shopping, while Dad stays at home to make lunch for them all. But what should she spend her money on? She'll have to wait and see.
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Waiting for Baby
Rachel Fuller
A young child learns what to expect when his new sibling is born and comes into his life. On board pages.
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Waiting for May
Janet Morgan Stoeke
A young boy looks forward to the day when a new sister, who will be adopted from China, joins his family.
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Waiting for Normal
Leslie Connor
Twelve-year-old Addie tries to cope with her mother's erratic behavior and being separated from her beloved stepfather and half-sisters when she and her mother go to live in a small trailer by the railroad tracks on the outskirts of Schenectady, New York.
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Waiting for You
Susane Colasanti
It's sophomore year, and Marisa is ready for a fresh start and, hopefully, her first real boyfriend. But after popular Derek asks her out, things get complicated. Not only do her parents unexpectedly separate, but Marisa has a fight with her best friend, and Derek, the love of her life, delivers a shocking disappointment. The only things keeping Marisa together are the podcasts from the anonymous DJ, who seems to totally understand Marisa. But she doesn't know who he is ... or maybe she does.
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Walk Two Moons
Sharon Creech
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.
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Wandering Son, Vol. 1 (Wandering Son #1)
Takako Shimura
The fifth grade. The threshold to puberty, and the beginning of the end of childhood innocence. Shuichi Nitori and his new friend Yoshino Takatsuki have happy homes, loving families, and are well-liked by their classmates. But they share a secret that further complicates a time of life that is awkward for anyone : Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy.
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Wandering Son, Vol. 2 (Wandering Son #2)
Takako Shimura
In the second volume of Shimura Takako's superb coming-of-age story, our transgendered protagonists, Shuichi and Yoshino, have entered the sixth grade. Shuichi spends a precious gift of cash from his grandmother on a special present for himself, a purchase that triggers a chain of events in which his sister Maho learns his secret, and Shuichi inadvertently steals the heart of a boy Maho in interested in.
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Wandering Son, Vol. 3 (Wandering Son #3)
Takako Shimura
Shuichi and his friend Yoshino have a secret: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy. But one day, abruptly, their secret is exposed, and the two find themselves the target of sixth-grade cruelty. Their friendship is strained, as Yoshino makes a half-hearted effort at being a 'normal girl'-- and their mentor, Yuki, reveals the harder reality of being transgendered. Meanwhile, Shuichi's sister, Maho, realizes her dream of becoming a model, and drags Shuichi along for the ride. Shuichi meets another boy who wants to be a girl, and finds himself on an arranged date with a boy who doesn't know that the girl he has a crush on is actually a boy.
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Wandering Son, Vol. 4 (Wandering Son #4)
Takako Shimura
Two Japanese tweens who find themselves coping with the knotty issue of gender identification, as they slowly realize that maybe they aren't who they were meant to be.
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Wandering Son, Vol. 5 (Wandering Son #5)
Takako Shimura
Shuichi, a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino, a girl who wants to be a boy, become friends in junior high school, where they tackle problems such as gender identity, love, social acceptance, and puberty.
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Wandering Son, Vol. 6 (Wandering Son #6)
Takako Shimura
Faced with unwanted changes to their growing bodies, male-identified Takatsuki-san discovers the wonders of "breast binders," and female-identified Nitori-kun explores the limits of his ability to "pass."
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Wandering Son, Vol. 7 (Wandering Son #7)
Takako Shimura
Nitori-kun gets his first signs of acne. This may well be the end of the world. But when he turns to nationally famous model Anna-chan for help, events take an unexpected turn. Meanwhile, Nitori-kun and Chiba-san are scouted by the theater club after the success of their gender-bending play, The Rose of Versailles. But when Takatsuki-san congratulates Chiba-san, Chiba-san calls her a hypocrite. If Takatsuki-san wanted to join the theater club, she wouldn't congratulate Chiba-san -- she'd be jealous. So says Chiba-san, but what does she know?
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Wandering Son, Vol. 8 (Wandering Son #8)
Takako Shimura
Nitori-kun, a boy who wants to be a girl, explores kissing with girlfriend Anna-chan; and Yoshino-san, a girl who wants to be a boy, finds the courage to go to school wearing a boy's uniform. Meanwhile, one of their male classmates, Doi-kun, who has caused our protagonists misery in the past, becomes intrigued with their grown-up friend Yuki-san, a transwoman. But Nitori-kun finds himself strangely drawn to Doi-kun.
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Was It the Chocolate Pudding?: A Story for Little Kids About Divorce
Sandra Levins
A little boy learns that he did not cause his parent's divorce because of the mess he made with chocolate pudding, and describes his new life living with his dad and seeing his mom on weekends.
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Watch the Stars Come Out
Riki Levinson
Grandma tells about her mama's journey to America by boat, years ago.
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Water Balloon
Audrey Vernick
A warm debut novel about friendship and first love, from a popular picture-book author. Marley's life is as precarious as an overfull water balloonone false move and everything will burst. Her best friends are pulling away from her, and her parents, newly separated, have decided she should spend the summer with her dad in his new house, with a job she didn't ask for and certainly doesn't want. On the upside is a cute boy who loves dogs as much as Marley does ... but young love has lots of opportunity for humiliation and misinterpreted signals. Luckily Marley is a girl who trusts her instincts and knows the truth when she sees it, making her an immensely appealing character and her story funny, heartfelt, and emotionally true.
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Wave Good-Bye
Francess Lantz
Rae hasn't been her usual self lately, and no one at camp seems to know why. Her crabby attitude is starting to affect everyone, including her best friend, Luna. When Luna catches Rae precariously riding the piers, she decides to confront her friend head-on. Finally Rae admits the truth: her parents have decided to separate, and even worse -- her father's company is relocating him to Chicago. Now Rae feels torn between staying in southern California with her overbearing mother and moving with her father to an unfamiliar city. Though leaving would ease the tension between Rae and her mom, it would mean the end of Rae's surfing, too. Will Luna be able to convince Rae to stick around or will she lose her best friend forever?
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Way to Go
Tom Ryan
Danny thinks he must be the only seventeen-year-old guy in Cape Breton-in Nova Scotia, maybe-who doesn't have his life figured out. His buddy Kierce has a rule for every occasion, and his best friend Jay has bad grades, no plans, and no worries. Danny's dad nags him about his post-high-school plans, his friends bug him about girls and a run-in with the cops means he has to get a summer job. Worst of all, he's keeping a secret that could ruin everything.
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We Adopted You, Benjamin Koo
Linda Walvoord
Nine-year-old Benjamin Koo Andrews, adopted from Korea as an infant, describes what it's like to grow up adopted from another country.
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We are Adopted
Jennifer Moore-Mallinos
An adopted girl welcomes her baby brother whom her parents have also adopted from Russia, and she describes the reasons for adoption, what life is like as an adopted child, and her interactions with other adopted children.
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We Are Family
Patricia Hegarty
Explore the differences and similarities of eight families in this gentle, rhyming picture book.
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We Are Okay
Nina LaCour
Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.
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We Belong Together: A Book About Adoption and Families
Todd Parr
The joy of adoption and bringing families together is presented in this tale.
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Wednesday, A Walk in the Park
Phylliss DelGreco, Jaclyn Roth, and Kathryn Silverio
Jessie spends a glorious day in the park with Grandpa, frolicking, in the falling leaves, swinging on the swings, and encountering a variety of other people. In the ordinary course of walking and talking and playing, Grandpa imparts his wisdom and love of life, and Jessie see in him what she hopes to be. "Wednesday, A Walk in the Park" is the third 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.