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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Ben Has Something to Say: A Story About Stuttering
Laurie Lears
In order to help a neglected dog which he sees at a junkyard, Ben, who stutters, begins to confront his fear of speaking.
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Benji, the Bad Day, and Me
Sally J. Pla
Nothing seems to be going right for Sammy today. At school, he got in trouble for kicking a fence, then the cafeteria ran out of pizza for lunch. After he walks home in the pouring rain, he finds his autistic little brother Benji is having a bad day too. On days like this, Benji has a special play-box where he goes to feel cozy and safe. Sammy doesn't have a special place, and he's convinced no one cares how he feels or even notices him. But somebody is noticing, and may just have an idea on how to help Sammy feel better.
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Benny Doesn't Like to Be Hugged
Zetta Elliott
A little girl uses rhyming verse to describe the unique traits of her autistic friend. Benny likes trains and cupcakes without sprinkles, but he can also be fussy sometimes. The narrator doesn’t mind, however, because “true friends accept each other just the way they are.” A gentle story encouraging children to appreciate and accept our differences.
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Ben's Family (All Kinds of Families)
Elliot Riley
Easy reader introduces a young baseball player and his mother, highlighting their family dynamics and celebrating diversity.
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Be Quiet, Marina!
Kirsten DeBear
A story of how two girls, one with cerebral palsy and one with Down syndrome, become friends.
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Best Best Colors
Eric Hoffman
Nate has trouble deciding what his favorite color is, but his two mammas help him realize that he does not have to have a best, best color.
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Best of the Best: A Baseball Great Novel
Tim Green
Determined to play in the Little League World Series, twelve-year-old Josh struggles to concentrate on his game and be the team's leader while also trying to cope with his parents' impending divorce.
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Better Nate Than Ever
Tim Federle
An eighth-grader who dreams of performing in a Broadway musical concocts a plan to run away to New York and audition for the role of Elliot in the musical version of "E.T."
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Betty Before X
Ilyasah Shabazz and Renée Watson
Raised by her aunt until she is six, Betty, who will later marry Malcolm X, joins her mother and stepfamily in 1940s Detroit, where she learns about the civil rights movement.
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Between Mom and Jo
Julie Anne Peters
Nick has a three-legged dog named Lucky, some pet fish, and two moms who think he's the greatest kid ever. And he happens to think he has the greatest Moms ever, but everything changes when his birth mom and her wife, Jo, start to have marital problems. Suddenly, Nick is in the middle, and instead of having two Moms to turn to for advice, he has no one.
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Between Us Baxters
Bethany Hegedus
The story of twelve-year-old Polly, a poor white Southern girl whose close friendship with Timbre Ann, a middle-class black teen, puts both families in danger. As white supremacists set fire to black businesses, Polly struggles to cope with the implications for her family and to understand the true meaning of friendship. Polly's sense of justice threatens to upset the status quo in her small town.
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Between You & Me
Marisa Calin
Phyre, sixteen, narrates her life as if it were a film, capturing her crush on Mia, a student teacher of theater and film studies, as well as her fast friendship with a classmate referred to only as "you."
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Beverly, Right Here
Kate Dicamillo
Beverly put her foot down on the gas. They went faster still. This was what Beverly wanted — what she always wanted. To get away. To get away as fast as she could. To stay away. Beverly Tapinski has run away from home plenty of times, but that was when she was just a kid. By now, she figures, it’s not running away. It’s leaving. Determined to make it on her own, Beverly finds a job and a place to live and tries to forget about her dog, Buddy, now buried underneath the orange trees back home; her friend Raymie, whom she left without a word; and her mom, Rhonda, who has never cared about anyone but herself. Beverly doesn’t want to depend on anyone, and she definitely doesn’t want anyone to depend on her. But despite her best efforts, she can’t help forming connections with the people around her — and gradually, she learns to see herself through their eyes. In a touching, funny, and fearless conclusion to her sequence of novels about the beloved Three Rancheros,
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Be Who You Are
Jennifer Carr
Nick was born in a boy's body, but has always felt like a girl inside. Nick's family supports him when he says he no longer wants to be called a boy or dress like a boy. "Always remember to be who you are Nick. Remember that we love you, and we are so proud of you." Nick's parents find a group for families like theirs. With their support, Nick expresses a desire to be addressed as "she," and then to be named Hope.
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Be Who You Are
Todd Parr
Picture book encouraging kids to be proud of what makes them unique, where they come from, and how they express themselves and see the world.
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Beyoncé: Singer-Songwriter, Actress, and Record Producer
Chuck Bednar
Presents the life and career of the pop singer, from her childhood and early career with Destiny's Child to her solo career in music and motion pictures.
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Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out
Susan Kuklin
Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference. Portraits, family photographs, and candid images grace the pages, augmenting the emotional and physical journey each youth has taken. Each honest discussion and disclosure, whether joyful or heartbreaking, is completely different from the other because of family dynamics, living situations, gender, and the transition these teens make in recognition of their true selves.
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Big Big Sky
Kristyn Dunnion
It is the future. ScanMans, an alien race, invades the warring, poverty stricken, and diseased remains of the Earth. They exterminate all human adults. They recruit orphans for military training in their subterranean, experimental training facility. Rustle is a young scout in a tight-knit female warrior group of five. They're trained to be aggressive, quick thinking, obedient--though for what exact purpose they couldn't quite tell you. But somehow the group is falling apart.
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Big Bob, Little Bob
James Howe
Big Bob likes trucks and throwing balls and being loud. Little Bob likes dolls and jingling bracelets and being quiet. No matter what they do, they do not do it the same way. Can they possibly be friends despite these differences?
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Bigger Than a Bread Box
Laurel Snyder
Devastated when her parents separate, twelve-year-old Rebecca must move with her mother from Baltimore to Gran's house in Atlanta, where Rebecca discovers an old bread box with the power to grant any wish--so long as the wished-for thing fits in the bread box.
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Big & Little Questions (According to Wren Jo Byrd)
Julie Bowe
Fourth grader Wren Jo Byrd questions lots of things--both little and big--when her parents decide to get a divorce, and learns a lot about the true meaning of family, home, and friendship.
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Billie of Fish House Lane
Meredith Sue Willis
A twelve-year-old girl attempts to understand and accept her affluent, white cousin while living in a multiracial, eccentric family.
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Billy and Belle
Sarah Garland
A newborn baby and the exciting confusion of Pet Day at school combine to make a very special day for Billy and Belle.
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Billy Had to Move: A Foster Care Story
Theresa Ann Fraser
Child Protection Services have been involved with Billy and his mother for some time now. He has been happily settled in a kinship placement with his grandmother and enjoys his pet cat, interacting with neighbors and even taking piano lessons. As the story unfolds, Billy's grandmother has unexpectedly passed away and so the story of Billy Had To Move begins. Unfortunately, Billy's mother cannot be located. Mr. Murphy, Billy's social worker, places him in the foster home of Amy, Tim, and their baby "Colly." Billy experiences great loss resulting not only from his grandmother's death, but also the loss of the life he knew. Billy's inner journey therefore has also begun and with the help of Ms. Woods, a Play Therapist, there is hope.
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Binge
Tyler Oakley
Pop-culture phenomenon, social rights advocate, and the most prominent LGBTQ+ voice on YouTube, Tyler Oakley brings you Binge, his New York Times bestselling collection of witty, personal, and hilarious essays. For someone who made a career out of over-sharing on the Internet, Tyler has a shocking number of personal mishaps and shenanigans to reveal in his first book: experiencing a legitimate rage blackout in a Cheesecake Factory; negotiating a tense standoff with a White House official; crashing a car in front of his entire high school, in an Arby’s uniform; projectile vomiting while bartering with a grandmother; and so much more. In Binge, Tyler delivers his best untold, hilariously side-splitting moments with the trademark flair that made him a star.