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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Dream of Night
Heather Henson
Told from their different points of view, twelve-year-old Shiloh, a troubled foster child, Dream of Night, an abused former racehorse, and Jess, a woman who cares for both, find healing by helping one another through their pain.
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Dream On, Amber
Emma Shevah
As a half-Japanese, half-Italian girl with a ridiculous name, Amber's not feeling molto bene (very good) about making friends at her new school. But the hardest thing about being Amber is that a part of her is missing. Her dad. He left when she was little and he isn't coming back...not for her first day of middle school and not for her little sister's birthday. So Amber will have to dream up a way for the Miyamoto sisters to make it on their own.
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Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
Barack Obama
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father, a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey, first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.
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Dress Codes for Small Towns
Courtney Stevens
As the tomboy daughter of the town’s preacher, Billie McCaffrey has always struggled with fitting the mold of what everyone says she should be. She’d rather wear sweats, build furniture, and get into trouble with her solid group of friends: Woods, Mash, Davey, Fifty, and Janie Lee. But when Janie Lee confesses to Billie that she’s in love with Woods, Billie’s filled with a nagging sadness as she realizes that she is also in love with Woods…and maybe with Janie Lee, too. Always considered “one of the guys,” Billie doesn’t want anyone slapping a label on her sexuality before she can understand it herself. So she keeps her conflicting feelings to herself, for fear of ruining the group dynamic. Except it’s not just about keeping the peace, it’s about understanding love on her terms—this thing that has always been defined as a boy and a girl falling in love and living happily ever after. For Billie—a box-defying dynamo—it’s not that simple. Readers will be drawn to Billie as she comes to terms with the gray areas of love, gender, and friendship, in this John Hughes-esque exploration of sexual fluidity.
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Drita, My Homegirl
Jenny Lombard Lombard
When ten-year-old Drita and her family, refugees from Kosovo, move to New York, Drita is teased about not speaking English well, but after a popular student named Maxine is forced to learn about Kosovo as a punishment for teasing Drita, the two girls soon bond.
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Drowned
Cyn Balog and Nichola Reilly
Coe is one of the few remaining teenagers on the island of Tides. Deformed and weak, she is constantly reminded that in a world where dry land dwindles at every high tide, she is not welcome. The only bright spot in her harsh and difficult life is the strong, capable Tiam-- but love has long ago been forgotten by her society. The only priority is survival. Until the day their King falls ill, leaving no male heir to take his place. Unrest grows, and for reasons Coe cannot comprehend, she is invited into the privileged circle of royal aides. She soon learns that the dying royal is keeping a secret that will change their world forever. Is there an escape from the horrific nightmare that their island home has become? Coe must race to find the answers and save the people she cares about, before their world and everything they know is lost to the waters.
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Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music
Margarita Engle
Girls cannot be drummers. Long ago on an island filled with music, no one questioned that rule-until the drum dream girl. In her city of drumbeats, she dreamed of pounding tall congas and tapping small bongs̤. She had to keep quiet. She had to practice in secret. But when at last her dream-bright music was heard, everyone sang and danced and decided that both girls and boys should be free to drum and dream. Inspired by the childhood of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, a Chinese-African-Cuban girl who broke Cuba's traditional taboo against female drummers, Drum Dream Girl tells an inspiring true story for dreamers everywhere.
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Drum Roll, Please
Lisa Jenn Bigelow
Melissa only joined the school band because her best friend, Olivia, begged her to. But it turns out Melly loves playing the drums. It's the only time she doesn't feel like a quiet mouse. And now she and Olivia get to spend the next two weeks jamming beneath the stars at Camp Rockaway. But this summer will be full of surprises that throw Melly's life out of sync. Her parents just revealed that they're splitting up. She and Olivia seem to be growing apart. And Melly finds herself unexpectedly falling for another girl at camp. To top it off, Melly's not sure she really has what it takes to be a rock 'n' roll drummer. Will she be able to make music from all the noise in her heart?
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Dumbfounded: Big Money. Big Hair. Big Problems. Or Why Having It All Isn't for Sissies.
Matt Rothschild
The author describes growing up under the care of his grandmother after his mother left him for Italy and her fourth husband, and his struggle to fit into the genteel world of Upper East Side Manhattan and his eccentric and dysfunctional family.
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Dumpling Soup
Jama Kim Rattigan
A young Asian American girl living in Hawaii tries to make dumplings for her family's New Year's celebration.
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Dust Girl
Sarah Zettel
On the day in 1935 when her mother vanishes during the worst dust storm ever recorded in Kansas, Callie learns that she is not actually a human being.
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Echo After Echo
Amy Rose Capetta
Zara Evans has come to the Aurelia Theater, home to director Leopold Henneman, to play a dream role in Echo and Ariston, the Greek tragedy that taught her everything she knows about love. When the director asks Zara to promise that she will have no outside commitments, no distractions, it's easy to say yes. But are the deaths at the theater accidents, or murder, or a curse that always comes in threes? When assistant lighting director Eli Vasquez, a girl made of tattoos and abrupt laughs and every form of light, looks at Zara it's hard not to fall in love.
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Edgar Allan
John Neufeld
When the Fickett family decides to adopt a little black boy, they are faced with threats, angry phone calls, a burning cross on the lawn, and an ultimatum from their oldest daughter.
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Either the Beginning or the End of the World
Terry Farish
For sixteen years, it's been just Sofie and her father, living on the New Hampshire coast. Her Cambodian immigrant mother has floated in and out of her life, leaving Sofie with a fierce bitterness toward her-and a longing she wishes she could outgrow. "To me she is as unreliable as the wind." Then she meets Luke, an army medic back from Afghanistan, and the pull between them is as strong as the current of the rushing Piscataqua River. But Luke is still plagued by the trauma of war, as if he's lost with the ghosts in his past. Sofie's dad orders her to stay away; it may be the first time she has ever disobeyed him. "A ghost can't love you." When Sofie is forced to stay with her mother and grandmother while her dad's away, she is confronted with their memories of the ruthless Khmer Rouge, a war-torn countryside, and deeds of heartbreaking human devotion. "I don't want you for ancestors. I don't want that story." As Sofie and Luke navigate a forbidden landscape, they discover they both have their secrets, their scars, their wars. Together, they are dangerous. Together, they'll discover what extraordinary acts love can demand.
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El Deafo
Cece Bell
Starting at a new school is scary, even more so with a giant hearing aid strapped to your chest! At her old school, everyone in Cece's class was deaf. Here she is different. She is sure the kids are staring at the Phonic Ear, the powerful aid that will help her hear her teacher. Too bad it also seems certain to repel potential friends. Then Cece makes a startling discovery. With the Phonic Ear she can hear her teacher not just in the classroom, but anywhere her teacher is in school — in the hallway... in the teacher's lounge... in the bathroom! This is power. Maybe even superpower! Cece is on her way to becoming El Deafo, Listener for All. But the funny thing about being a superhero is that it's just another way of feeling different... and lonely. Can Cece channel her powers into finding the thing she wants most, a true friend?
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Eleanor & Park
Rainbown Rowell
Two misfits. One extraordinary love. Eleanor -- Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough -- Eleanor. Park -- He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises -- Park. Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds -- smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.
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Eleven and Holding
Mary Penney
Macy Hollinquest is eleven years old, and don't count on her to change that anytime soon. Her birthday is just days away, but she has no intention of turning twelve without her dad by her side. He'd promised to be there for her big day, and yet he's been gone for months -- away after his discharge from the army, doing some kind of top secret, "important work." So Macy's staying eleven, no matter what -- that is, until she meets Ginger, a nice older lady who is searching for her missing dog. Ginger's dog search is the perfect cover for Macy's attempt to locate her dad. But her hunt puts her on a path to a head-on collision with the truth, where she discovers that knowing can sometimes be a heavy burden. And that change, when finally accepted, comes with an unexpected kind of grace.
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Elizabeth Gail and the Holiday Mystery
Hilda Stahl
Christmas time was supposed to be the happiest time of the year, but Libby was miserable. Goosy Poosy is missing! Can Libby find him before he becomes someone's Christmas dinner?
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Ellabug
Gregory Turner-Rahman
Ellabug is a simple story about non-traditional families that follows Ella, a small but strong-willed ladybug, as she begins to question her identity.
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Elliot
Julie Pearson
When Elliot's parents do not know how to take care of him, a social worker takes him to live with a foster family, which begins a series of changes that leave Elliot worried and anxious, until he finds a forever home and a forever family.
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Emily Goldberg Learns to Salsa
Micol Ostow
Forced to stay with her mother in Puerto Rico for weeks after her grandmother's funeral, half-Jewish Emily, who has just graduated from a Westchester, New York, high school, does not find it easy to connect with her Puerto Rican heritage and relatives she had never met.
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Emily in Love
Susan Goldman Rubin
A developmentally-disabled fourteen-year-old faces the challenges of her classes at a "regular" high school, a new job, and a budding romance.
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Emily's Blue Period
Cathleen Daly
After her parents get divorced, Emily finds comfort in making and learning about art.
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Emma and Meesha My Boy: A Two Mom Story
Kaitlyn Considine
Emma lives with her two moms and a chubby housecat. Follow along as Emma gets in trouble while trying to play with Meesha Kitty; and cheer as she learns to treat him with care.
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Emmanuel's Dream
Laurie Ann Thompson
Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah's inspiring true story—which was turned into a film, Emmanuel's Gift, narrated by Oprah Winfrey—is nothing short of remarkable. Born in Ghana, West Africa, with one deformed leg, he was dismissed by most people—but not by his mother, who taught him to reach for his dreams. As a boy, Emmanuel hopped to school more than two miles each way, learned to play soccer, left home at age thirteen to provide for his family, and, eventually, became a cyclist. He rode an astonishing four hundred miles across Ghana in 2001, spreading his powerful message: disability is not inability. Today, Emmanuel continues to work on behalf of the disabled. Thompson's lyrical prose and Qualls's bold collage illustrations offer a powerful celebration of triumphing over adversity.