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.
Browse by Family Relationship:
Separation
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Hurricane Child
Kheryn Callender
Born on Water Island in the Virgin Islands during a hurricane, which is considered bad luck, twelve-year-old Caroline falls in love with another girl--and together they set out in a hurricane to find Caroline's missing mother.
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If You Come Softly
Jacqueline Woodson
After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with people's reactions.
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I’ll Give You the Sun
Jandy Nelson
A story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal told from different points in time, and in separate voices, by artists Jude and her twin brother Noah.
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In Real Life: My Journey to a Pixelated World
Joey Graceffa
A confessional, uplifting memoir from the beloved YouTube personality. It's not where you begin that matters. It's where you end up. Twenty-three year old Joey Graceffa has captured the hearts of millions of teens and young adults through his playful, sweet, and inspirational YouTube presence (not to mention his sparkling eyes and perfect hair). Yet, Joey wasn't always comfortable in his skin, and in this candid memoir, he thoughtfully looks back on his journey from pain to pride, self-doubt to self-acceptance. To his fans, Joey is that best friend who always captures the brighter side of life but also isn't afraid to get real. In the pages of his first book, he opens up about his years of struggling with family hardships and troubles at school, with cruel bullying and the sting of rejection. He tells of first loves and losses, embarrassing moments and surprising discoveries, loneliness, laughter, and life-changing forks in the road, showing us the incalculable value of finally finding and following your true passion in this world. Funny, warm-hearted, and inspiring, Joey Graceffa's story is a welcome reminder that it's not where you begin that matters, but where you end up.
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In the Country We Love: My Family Divided
Diane Guerrero
The star of Orange is the New Black and Jane the Virgin presents her personal story of the real plight of undocumented immigrants in this country.
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It's Not the End of the World
Judy Blume
A young girl tries to restore order to her family life by preventing her parents from going through with their divorce.
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It's Not What You Expect
Norma Klein
At loose ends the summer their parents separate, fourteen-year-old twins open and operate a restaurant with the help of their friends
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It's So Amazing!: A Book About Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families
Robbie H. Harris
Uses bird and bee cartoon characters to present straightforward explanations of topics related to sexual development, love, reproduction, adoption, sexually transmitted diseases, and more.
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Joy of Apex
Napatsi Folger
Joy is ten years old, living in Apex, Nunavut - a suburb of Iqaluit. Her perfect life is shattered by her parent's separation.
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Kyle's Island
Sally Derby
For as far back as Kyle can remember, he spent summers at Gram's cottage on the lake—fishing all day, and hanging out with the whole family. But this year is different. His father has moved out, his grandmother has died, and his mother is selling the cottage because they can't afford the upkeep. Sally Derby takes readers to a small lake in 1970s Michigan, where thirteen-year-old Kyle comes to understand that loss isn't forever, and that people are more complicated than they seem.
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Let's Talk About Living with a Single Parent
Elizabeth Weitzman
Examines potential problems and issues that might arise in several different kinds of single-parent homes.
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Letters from the Heart
Annie Bryant
A family history project for school is giving the Beacon Street Girls a lot to think about -- especially Avery. She's got three families: her mother and brothers at home, her father in Colorado, and the birth mother she never really knew. But family is an uncomfortable subject for Maeve. Her parents have just separated, and she doesn't want to talk about it to anyone, not even her best friends in the world, the BSG. Can a bundle of old letters make Maeve see her family in a new light and give her something to share with the Beacon Street Girls?
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Life Happens Next
Terry Trueman
Shawn's got a new perspective on life. But no one has a clue. That's because they can see only his wheelchair, his limp body, his drool. What they don't see? His brain, with perfect auditory memory. And his heart, which is in love with a girl. And his fierce belief that someday someone will realize there's way more to him than his appearance.
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Living with Mom and Living with Dad
Melanie Walsh
Her parents don't live together anymore, so sometimes the child in this book lives with her mom and cat, and sometimes with Dad. Her bedroom looks a little different in each house, and she keeps some toys in one place and some in another. But her favorite toys she takes with her wherever she goes.
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Love and Other Four Letter Words
Carolyn Mackler
Sammie never expected sweet sixteen to be perfect, but she didn't expect her parents to separate or to have to move to a tiny apartment in New York. As the hot, hummid summer progresses, she finds new depths to the word "love," and comes to understand other words such as "gain," "loss," and "grow."
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Love in the Corner Pocket
Marlene Perez
Chloe, a Laguna Beach, California, high school student, sorts out questions about her parents' separation and her own friendships and love life as she gets ready to compete in a pool tournament.
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Lucy Rose, Here's the Thing About Me
Kelly Katy
Eight-year-old Lucy Rose keeps a diary of her first year in Washington, D.C., her home since her parents' separation, where she spends time with her grandparents, makes new friends, and longs to convince her teacher to let her take care of the class pet during a holiday.
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Made of Stars
Kelley York
When eighteen-year-old Hunter Jackson and his half sister, Ashlin, return to their dad's for the first winter in years, they expect everything to be just like the warmer months they'd spent there as kids. And it is, at first. But Chance, the charismatic and adventurous boy who made their summers epic, is harboring deep secrets. Secrets that are quickly spiraling into something else entirely. The reason they've never met Chance's parents or seen his home is becoming clearer. And what the siblings used to think of as Chance's quirks-the outrageous stories, his clinginess, his dangerous impulsiveness-are now warning signs that something is seriously off. Then someone turns up with a bullet to the head, and all eyes shift to Chance's family. Hunter and Ashlin know Chance is innocent ... they just have to prove it. But how can they protect the boy they both love when they can't trust a word Chance says?
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Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation
Edwidge Danticat
When Saya's mother is sent to jail as an illegal immigrant, she sends her daughter a cassette tape with a song and a bedtime story, which inspires Saya to write a story of her own -- one that just might bring her mother home.
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Marianthe's Story: Painted Words and Spoken Memories
Aliki .
Two separate stories, the first telling of Mari's starting school in a new land, and the second describing village life in her country before she and her family left in search of a better life.
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Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
Art Spiegelman
An autobiographical and biographical cartoon in which the author explores his strained relationship with his father, an Auschwitz survivor, while also relating the story of his parent's experiences as Jews in wartime Poland, as told to him by his dad during a series of conversations they had years later in New York and Vermont.
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Megan's Book of Divorce: A Kid's Book for Adults: As Told to Erica Jong
Erica Jong
Irrepressible, four-year-old Megan gives her own views on divorce.
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Midnight Without a Moon
Linda Williams Jackson
Rose Lee Carter, a thirteen-year-old African-American girl, dreams of life beyond the Mississippi cotton fields during the summer of 1955, but when Emmett Till is murdered and his killers are unjustly acquitted, Rose is torn between seeking her destiny outside of Mississippi or staying and being a part of an important movement.
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Migrant
Jose Manuel Mateo
A Mexican boy tells of his journey to the U.S. with his family. They must face many dangers to cross the border, only to experience the uncertainty felt by all illegal immigrants. The narrative is accompanied by one long, beautifully vivid illustration reminiscent of pre-Hispanic codices, packaged as an accordion-style foldout frieze.
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My Chinatown: One Year in Poems
Kam Mak
My Chinatown explores a boy's first year in the United States—after emigrating from China—as he grows to love his new home in Chinatown through food, games, and the people surrounding him.