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:
-
With or Without You
Brian Farrey
When eighteen-year-old best friends Evan and Davis of Madison, Wisconsin, join a community center group called "chasers" to gain acceptance and knowledge of gay history, there may be fatal consequences.
-
Without Words
Beti Rozen and Peter Hays
Luiz has just arrived in the United States from Brazil which he misses terribly. But the immigrant has a talent for drawing. Encouraged at school, Luiz creates many images, but soon he idealizes his former life. Later, he will discover that Brazil wasn't always so wonderful. Through art, he learns to adapt to his new life.
-
With the Wind
Liz Damrell
When a boy who spends most of his time in a wheelchair rides a horse, he finds freedom, power, joy, and strength.
-
Wolfie the Bunny
Ame Dyckman
When her parents find a baby wolf on their doorstep and decide to raise him as their own, Dot is certain he will eat them all up until a surprising encounter with a bear brings them closer together.
-
Wonder
R. J. Palacio
Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.
-
Words on Bathroom Walls
Julia Walton
Adam has just been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He sees and hears people who aren't there: Rebecca, a beautiful girl who understands him; the Mob Boss, who harasses him; and Jason, the naked guy whos unfailingly polite. It should be easy to separate the real from the not real, but Adam can't. Still, theres hope. As Adam starts fresh at a new school, he begins a drug trial that helps him ignore his visions. Suddenly everything seems possible, even love. When he meets Maya, a fiercely intelligent girl, he desperately wants to be the great guy that she thinks he is. But then the miracle drug begins to fail, and Adam will do anything to keep Maya from discovering his secret.
-
Worm Loves Worm
JJ Austrian
When a worm meets a special worm and they fall in love, you know what happens next: They get married! Because worm loves worm.
-
Yafi's Family: An Ethiopian Boys Journey of Love, Loss, and Adoption
Linda Pettitt and Sharon Darrow
Yafi's family recalls his adoption from Ethiopia with stories, memories, and photographs.
-
Yes I Can!: A Girl and Her Wheelchair
Kendra J. Barrett, Jacqueline B. Toner, and Claire A. B. Freeland
Carolyn is in a wheelchair, but she doesn't let that stop her! She can do almost everything the other kids can, even if sometimes she has to do it a little differently.
-
Yes No Maybe So
Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed
Jamie Goldberg, who chokes when speaking to strangers, and Maya Rehrman, who is having the worst Ramadan ever, are paired to knock on doors and ask for votes for the local state senate candidate.
-
Yoko
Rosemary Wells
When Yoko brings sushi to school for lunch, her classmates make fun of what she eats--until one of them tries it for himself.
-
You are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah!
Fiona Rosenbloom
As her bat mitzvah approaches, Stacy Adelaide Friedman of White Plains, New York, has a lot on her mind: her parents have separated, her mother dresses her like an American Girl doll, her younger brother is embarrassing, and she is totally in love with Andy Goldfarb.
-
You Can't See the Elephants
Susan Kreller and Elizabeth Gaffney
When she suspects that her young neighbors are being abused by their father, one brave girl takes a stand to protect them.
-
You Don't Know Me
David Klass
Fourteen-year-old John creates alternative realities in his mind as he tries to deal with his mother's abusive boyfriend, his crush on a beautiful but shallow classmate, and other problems at school.
-
You May Already Be a Winner
Ann Dee Ellis
Twelve-year-old Olivia endeavors to care for her younger sister, possibly make a new friend in the quirky and secretive Bart, and keep hope alive for her, her family, and her community of idiosyncratic neighbors at Sunny Pines Trailer Park.
-
You're Not My Real Mother
Molly Friedrich
After an adoptive mother tells her daughter all the reasons that she is her "real mother," the young girl realizes that her mother is right, even though they do not look alike.
-
You're Welcome, Universe
Whitney Gardner
When Julia finds a slur about her best friend scrawled across the back of the Kingston School for the Deaf, she covers it up with a beautiful (albeit illegal) graffiti mural. Her supposed best friend snitches, the principal expels her, and her two mothers set Julia up with a one-way ticket to a "mainstream" school in the suburbs, where she's treated like an outcast as the only deaf student. The last thing she has left is her art, and not even Banksy himself could convince her to give that up. Out in the 'burbs, Julia paints anywhere she can, eager to claim some turf of her own. But Julia soon learns that she might not be the only vandal in town. Someone is adding to her tags, making them better, showing off--and showing Julia up in the process. She expected her art might get painted over by cops. But she never imagined getting dragged into a full-blown graffiti war.
-
Zack
William Bell
The son of a Jewish father and black mother, high school senior Zack has never been allowed to meet his mother's family, but after doing a research project on a former slave, he travels from his home in Canada to Natchez, Mississippi to find his grandfather.
-
Zak's Safari: A Story About Donor-Conceived Kids of Two-Mom Families
Christy Tyner
Zak's Safari is a book about donor-conceived kids of two-mom families. When the rain spoils Zak's plan for a safari adventure, he invites the reader on a very special tour of his family instead. Zak shows us how his parents met, fell in love, and wanted more than anything to have a baby--so they decided to make one.
-
Zayde Comes to Live
Sheri Sinykin
When Rachel's beloved grandfather, Zayde, comes to spend his last days with her family, she worries what will happen when he dies, especially after friends tell her the Christian and Muslim beliefs about the afterlife.
-
Zenobia July
Lisa Bunker
Zenobia July is starting a new life. She used to live in Arizona with her father; now she's in Maine with her aunts. She used to spend most of her time behind a computer screen, improving her impressive coding and hacking skills; now she's coming out of her shell and discovering a community of friends at Monarch Middle School. People used to tell her she was a boy; now she's able to live openly as the girl she always knew she was. When someone anonymously posts hateful memes on her school's website, Zenobia knows she's the one with the abilities to solve the mystery, all while wrestling with the challenges of a new school, a new family, and coming to grips with presenting her true gender for the first time. Timely and touching, Zenobia July is, at its heart, a story about finding home.
-
Zoom!
Robert Munsch
When Lauretta tries out a 92-speed, silver and gold, dirt-bike wheelchair, she gets a speeding ticket but also helps out her brother.
-
Zora and Nicky
Claudia Mair Burney
Two hearts, one God. Should anything else matter? Zora's daddy may be a preacher, but Zora lost God. And she wants Him back. Nicky's preacher father is a white, racist, Southern Baptist. Will these two lost sheep find Him?