This collection contains materials on the topic of step-parent from the DIVerse Families bibliography. Step parent stories discuss the family dynamic when a parent remarries and brings a step parent into the family or when a step parent is already a part of the family. These stories often highlight how children and teenagers react in these situations and how they adjust to the new family norms.
Family relationships grow through the connections we create with the people in our lives. Your family can be made of blood or non-blood relatives, friends, or pets, or a combination of these. Diverse families and their relationships are slowly becoming the new norm and will only continue to grow as the world progresses.
Browse by Family Relationship:
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Say the Word
Jeannine Garsee
Perfectionist Shawna dates the right boys, gets good grades, and follows her father's every rule. So when her estranged lesbian mother dies, Shawna needs to figure out how to have the perfect reaction. But anger from being abandoned ten years ago, combined with the introduction of her mother's other family, threatens to leave Shawna spinning out of control. A relatable and honest teen voice-and a shocking secret-make this novel a true page-turner.
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Search for Safety
John Langan
Ben McKee, a new student at Bluford High School, tries to hide the bruises covering his body from his teachers and his new friends.
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She Loves You, She Loves You Not...
Julie Anne Peters
When seventeen-year-old Alyssa is disowned by her father for being a lesbian, she is sent off to a small town in Colorado to live with the mother she has never known, where she is forced to come to terms with herself and her family.
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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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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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The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus, #5)
Rick Riordan
Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen -- all of them -- and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood -- the blood of Olympus -- in order to wake. The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it "might" be able to stop a war between the two camps. The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea's army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.
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The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
James McBride
Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve children. James McBride, journalist, musician and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful memoir.
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The Color Purple
Alice Walker
This feminist novel about an abused and uneducated black woman's struggle for empowerment was praised for the depth of its female characters and for its eloquent use of black English vernacular.
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The Cruel Prince
Holly Black
Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him--and face the consequences. In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. As civil war threatens, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
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The Dagger Quick
Brian Eames
Twelve-year-old Christopher "Kitto" Wheale, a clubfooted boy seemingly doomed to follow in the boring footsteps of his father as a cooper in seventeenth-century England, finds himself on a dangerous seafaring adventure with his newly discovered uncle, the infamous pirate William Quick.
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The Family Book
Todd Parr
Represents a variety of families, some big and some small, some with only one parent and some with two moms or dads, some quiet and some noisy, but all alike in some ways and special no matter what.
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The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus, #4)
Rick Riordan
Greek and Roman demigods from the Prophecy of Seven must work together to seal the Doors of Death--and help Percy and Annabeth escape the Underworld in the process
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The Last Exit to Normal
Michael B. Harmon
After moving from Spokane, Washington, to a small Montana town with his father and his father's boyfriend, Ben notices that something is not quite right with the little boy next door and determines to do something about it.
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The Lines We Cross
Randa Abdel-Fattah
Michael's parents are leaders of a new anti-immigrant political party called Aussie Values which is trying to halt the flood of refugees from the Middle East; Mina fled Afghanistan with her family ten years ago, and just wants to concentrate on fitting in and getting into college--but the mutual attraction they feel demands that they come to terms with their family's concerns and decide where they stand in the ugly anti-Muslim politics of the time.
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The Man from the Other Side
Uri Orlev
Living on the outskirts of the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II, fourteen-year-old Marek and his grandparents shelter a Jewish man in the days before the Jewish uprising.
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The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus, #3)
Rick Riordan
Uniting with Jason, Piper, and Leo after the dangerous quest in "The Son of Neptune," Percy, Hazel, and Frank wonder who will be chosen to fulfill the Prophecy of Seven, completing their group's number, and sail with them to an ancient land to find the mysterious Doors of Death.
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The One Where the Kid Nearly Jumps to His Death and Lands in California
Mary Hershey
Alastair, a thirteen-year-old who calls himself "Stump" because of his amputated leg, must face a summer at his wealthy but estranged father's beach house in Los Angeles, where he meets his stepmother, falls in love with a teenaged soap opera star, and decides to train for a race with a former Olympic swim coach.
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The Other Side of Dark
Sarah Smith
Since losing both of her parents, fifteen-year-old Katie can see and talk to ghosts, which makes her a loner until fellow student Law sees her drawing of a historic house and together they seek a treasure rumored to be hidden there by illegal slave-traders.
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The Possibility of Somewhere
Julia Day
Although on opposite sides of every social hierarchy their friends and families can imagine, including race, class, and social status, popular Ash Gupta, the son of wealthy, immigrant Asian-Indian parents, and anti-social Eden Moore, whose biggest goal is to escape her family's poverty and trailer-park existence, grow close as they compete to become class valedictorian.
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The Ring Bearer
Floyd Cooper
Jackson's mom is getting married, and Jackson is nervous about his role and his new family.
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The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus, #2)
Rick Riordan
Demigod Percy Jackson, still with no memory, and his new friends from Camp Jupiter, Hazel and Frank, go on a quest to free Death, but their bigger task is to unite the Greek and Roman camps so that the Prophecy of Seven can be fulfilled.
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The Trouble with Babies
Martha Freeman
Nine-year-old Holly tries to adjust to a new home with a neighbor who has just invented a de-yukkification device.
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The Trouble with Cats
Martha Freeman
After a difficult first week of third grade, Holly begins to adjust to her new school and living in her new stepfather's tiny apartment with his four cats.
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The Truth or Something
Jeanne Willis
Growing up poor and neglected in post-World War II England, young Mick, longing to be part of a loving family as he is shuttled from home to home, must harden himself against disappointment and cruelty--and, finally, against the abusive father he only recently met.
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The Wall
William Sutcliffe
In an isolated town that closely resembles the West Bank, thirteen-year-old Joshua discovers that his world may not be as it seems; that his people may be aggressors rather than victims; and that he must stand up to his stepfather and forge his own sense of right and wrong.