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 Diverse Families by Subject:
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10,000 Dresses
Marcus Ewer
Bailey longs to wear the beautiful dresses of her dreams but is ridiculed by her unsympathetic family which rejects her true perception of herself.
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1001 Cranes
Naomi Hirahara
With her parents on the verge of separating, a devastated twelve-year-old Japanese American girl spends the summer in Los Angeles with her grandparents, where she folds paper cranes into wedding displays, becomes involved with a young skateboarder, and learns how complicated relationships can be.
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123 A Family Counting Book
Bobbie Combs
Introduces the numbers one through twenty against a background of impressionistic oil paintings portraying gay and lesbian parents and racial diversity.
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13
Jason Robert Brown and Dan Elish
Almost thirteen-year-old Evan Goldman learns what it means to be a man when his parents separate and he and his mother move from New York City to Appleton, Indiana, right before his bar mitzvah.
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15 Things NOT to do with a Baby
Margaret McAllister
A girl learns what not to do with her new brother, including sending him to play with an elephant or hanging him from the clothesline, and also what to do.
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37 Things I Love (In No Particular Order)
Kekla Magoon
Fifteen-year-old Ellis recalls her favorite things as her mother's desire to turn off the machines that have kept Ellis's father alive for two years fill the last four days of her sophomore year with major changes in herself and her relationships.
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42 Miles
Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
As her thirteenth birthday approaches, JoEllen decides to bring together her two separate lives--one as Joey, who enjoys weekends with her father and other relatives on a farm, and another as Ellen, who lives with her mother in a Cincinnati apartment near her school and friends.
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A Band of Angels
Deborah Hopkinson
The daughter of a slave forms a gospel singing group and goes on tour to raise money to save for Fisk University.
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Abby
Jeannette Franklin Caines
An adopted African American preschooler enjoys hearing about the day she became part of her warm, loving family.
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Abby Spencer Goes To Bollywood
Varsha Bajaj
What thirteen year old Abby wants most is to meet her father. She just never imagined he would be a huge film star, in Bollywood! Now she's traveling to Mumbai to get to know her famous father. Abby is overwhelmed by the culture clash, the pressures of being the daughter of India's most famous celebrity, and the burden of keeping her identity a secret. But as she learns to navigate her new surroundings, she just might discover where she really belongs.
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ABC, Adoption & Me
Gayle H. Swift and Casey Anne Swift
A book about adoption that celebrates the miracle of family and addresses the difficult issues as well. With charming, exuberant illustrations and a diverse representation of families, ABC, Adoption & Me will warm hearts, deepen understanding of what it means to be an adoptive family and provide teaching moments that bring families closer, connected in truth, compassion, and joy.
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ABC: A Family Alphabet Book
Bobbie Combs
Introduces the alphabet with whimsical illustrations portraying gay and lesbian parents and racial diversity.
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A Boy Like Me
Jennie Wood
Born a girl, Peyton Honeycutt meets Tara Parks in the eighth grade bathroom shortly after he gets his first period. It is the best and worst day of his life. Determined to impress Tara, Peyton sets out to win her love by mastering the drums and basketball. He takes on Tara's small-minded mother, the bully at school, and the prejudices within his conservative hometown. In the end, Peyton must accept and stand up for who he is or lose the woman he loves.
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A Boy No More
Harry Mazer
After his father is killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Adam, his mother, and sister are evacuated from Hawaii to California, where he must deal with his feelings about the war, Japanese internment camps, his father, and his own identity.
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A Boy's Best Friend
Joan Alden
Seven-year-old Will, an asthma sufferer and a target for bullies, finally gets the birthday wish of his dreams.
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A Brave Spaceboy: Moving is an Adventure!
Dana Kessimakis Smith
On moving day, a little boy bids farewell to his fears by playing pretend: he turns the scary unknown world into an out-of-this-world adventure by handcrafting his own rocket and astronaut outfit for a visit to Mars.
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A Brief History of Montmaray
Michelle Cooper
Sophie Fitzosborne lives in a crumbling castle in the tiny island kingdom of Montmaray with her eccentric and impoverished royal family. When she receives a journal for her sixteenth birthday, Sophie decides to chronicle day-to-day life on the island. But this is 1936, and the news that trickles in from the mainland reveals a world on the brink of war. The politics of Europe seem far away from their remote island—until two German officers land a boat on Montmaray. And then suddenly politics become very personal indeed.
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Absolutely Almost
Lisa Graff
Ten-year-old Albie has never been the smartest, tallest, best at gym, greatest artist, or most musical in his class, as his parents keep reminding him, but new nanny Calista helps him uncover his strengths and take pride in himself.
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Absolutely, Positively Not
David LaRochelle
Steven's a 16-year-old boy with two obsessions: sex and getting his driving license. The problem is, Steven's not thinking girls when he's thinking sex. Could he be -- don't say it -- gay? Steven sets out to get in touch with his inner he-man with Healthy Heterosexual Strategies such as "Start Hanging Out with the Guys," and "Begin Intensive Dating." But are Steven's tactics going to straighten him out, or leave him all twisted up?
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A Card for My Father
Samantha Thornhill
A Card For My Father by Samantha Thornhill with illustrations by Morgan Clement is the first title in a trilogy of picture books exploring the lasting effects, big and small, of a father’s incarceration on his first-grade daughter, Flora. In A Card For My Father, how can Flora complete her class assignment to write a Father’s Day card when she’s never met her father?
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A Chair for My Mother
Vera B. Williams
A child, her waitress mother, and her grandmother save dimes to buy a comfortable armchair after all their furniture is lost in a fire.
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A Child's Calendar
John Updike
A collection of twelve poems describing the activities in a child's life and the changes in the weather as the year moves from January to December.
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A Church for All
Gayle E. Pitman
Celebrates a diverse community on a Sunday morning at an inclusive church that welcomes all people regardless of age, class, race, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Come to the church for all!
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A Clear Spring
Barbara Sjoholm
While visiting relatives in Seattle, twelve-year-old Willa explores the ethnic diversity of her family and investigates the pollution of a salmon stream.
