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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How to Keep Rolling After a Fall
Karole Cozzo
Mean girl Nikki Baylor, accused of a cyberbullying incident that nearly resulted in a classmate's suicide, is expelled from school, abandoned by her friends, and distrusted by her parents but she gets a second chance after meeting Pax, a spirited wheelchair rugby player.
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How to Save a Life
Sara Zarr
Told from their own viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Jill, in grief over the loss of her father, and Mandy, nearly nineteen, are thrown together when Jill's mother agrees to adopt Mandy's unborn child but nothing turns out as they had anticipated.
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How to Survive a Summer
Nick White
A debut novel centering around a gay conversion camp in Mississippi and a man's reckoning with the trauma he faced there as a teen.
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How Would You Feel If Your Dad Was Gay?
Ann Heron
Jasmine thinks she's lucky to have three dads--a stepfather, her natural father, and his lover. However, her schoolmates and even teachers find this hard to accept. Jasmine's brother is subjected to name-calling and almost ends up in a fight over his father's lifestyle. At home, the two dads are supportive and understanding, and the children's natural father contacts the principal about it. A special assembly is the result, with a children's counselor discussing different kinds of families. A subplot, featuring a lesbian and her son, speaks nonjudgmentally to the issue of the sexual preferences among the offspring of homosexual parents. This book with a purpose does a good job of raising the issues sensitively and answering the questions reasonably. Scratchy ink drawings depict an African-American family living in an average neighborhood, with the children attending a racially balanced school.
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Hudson Hates School
Ella Hudson
Hudson, who loves to make things but hates going to school, fails a spelling test and meets with a special teacher, who discovers Hudson has a very different way of learning things.
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Huntress
Malinda Lo
Seventeen-year-olds Kaede and Taisin are called to go on a dangerous and unprecedented journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen, in an effort to restore the balance of nature in the human world.
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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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Hurricane Heat
Steve Barwin
Years after Travis's parents die in a car crash and he and his younger sister, Amanda, are separated, Travis sets out to search for her at the risk of losing an opportunity for a future baseball career.
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Hurt Go Happy
Ginny Rorby
When thirteen-year-old Joey Willis, deaf since the age of six, meets Dr. Charles Mansell and his chimpanzee Sukari, who use sign language, her world blooms with possibilities but that of the chimp begins to narrow.
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Hush Puppy
Lisa Cresswell
Intelligent Corrine, abandoned by her mother, and artsy Jamie, forced to play football by a redneck father, both dream of leaving their podunk town and never looking back. Their shared love of literature and a dream of a better life bring them together and a romance blossoms between them in a secret place of their own in the steamy North Carolina woods. When Jamie is involved in the accidental death of a white girl, he's terrified of his abusive father. Corrine takes the blame to protect Jaime, with dire consequences for herself and her dreams of the future. Her life in danger, Corrine's left wondering if Jamie ever cared about her at all.
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I Am a Ballerina
Valerie Coulman
The endearing story of young Molly's dream to fly through the air like a real dancer, from her first shaky lessons to her dazzling Christmas recital.
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I Am a Bear
Jean-Francois Dumont
A homeless bear living in a city has a hard time getting by, but when a little girl makes friends with him, his life becomes brighter.
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I am Flippish!
Leslie V. Ryan
Sean's mom usually helps out at school, but not today. Today it's dad's turn! But when his classmates start asking some awkward questions, Sean wonders why he's so different. Together, and with the help of their teacher, the students learn a few things about diversity and Sean teaches his friends just how wonderful it is to be different.
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I am Hapa!
Crystal Smith
Hapa, a term that originates in Hawaii, is used to describe a person of partial Asian or Pacific Islander descent. Today, the multiracial population in the United States is growing faster than at any other time in history. As many as 17 million Americans identify themselves as of more than one race. Many children are confronted with their identities, especially when questioned about being different . With delightful photographs, I am Hapa encourages children to look within themselves and appreciate the diverse cultures and ethnicities that make each person special.
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I am J
Cris Beam
J, who feels like a boy mistakenly born as a girl, runs away from his best friend who has rejected him and the parents he thinks do not understand him when he finally decides that it is time to be who he really is.
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I Am Jazz
Jessice Herthel and Jazz Jennings
From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl's brain in a boy's body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn't feel like herself in boys' clothing. This confused her family, until they took her to a doctor who said that Jazz was transgender and that she was born that way.
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I Am Living in 2 Homes (I Am Book)
Garcelle Beauvais and Sebastian A. Jones
Twins Jay and Nia are children of two worlds and two homes. Readers can follow the siblings as they both address the difficulties of having parents who are no longer together and discover the benefits of having two very different homes to explore and enjoy.
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I Am Mixed (I Am Book)
Garcelle Beauvais and Sebastian A. Jones
Jay and Nia are the children of two worlds, and as they'll discover, they can enjoy the best of both. From Mommy's jazz beats to Daddy's classical piano, we will dance with the twins through a book that explores what it is to be of mixed ancestry, proving that a child is more than the sum of their parents.
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I Am Not a Number
Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer
A picture book based on a true story about a young First Nations girl who was sent to a residential school. When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from despite the efforts of the nuns to force her to do otherwise. Based on the life of Jenny Kay Dupuis.
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I Am Nuchu
Brenda Stanley
Upon his parents' 1981 divorce, Cal Burton goes from being a popular, comfortable Spokane basketball all-star to a resident of a Ute Indian reservation in Utah, where apathy, poor living conditions, racism, and bitterness over a decades-old family tragedy change his life.
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I Am Special: I Have Two Dads
Rachel S. Huey
"I Am Special" shows your child how special they are to have two dads.
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I Am Very Happy To Be The Incredible Hue of Me!
Kim Branch
Huey the multicolored dot is not allowed to play with dots of single colors, until they learn to accept him as he is and learn that the color if his skin does not prevent him from doing anything he wants to do.
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I and I: Bob Marley
Tony Medina
A biography in verse about the Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley, offering an overview of key events and themes in his life, including his biracial heritage, Rastafarian beliefs, and love of music. End notes on poems provide further biographical information.
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Ian's Walk: A Story about Autism
Laurie Lears
Julie can't wait to go to the park and feed the ducks with her big sister, Tara. There's only one problem. Her little brother, Ian, who has autism, wants to go, too. Ian doesn't have the same reactions to all the sights and sounds that his sisters have, and Julie thinks he looks silly. But when he wanders off on his own, she must try to see the world through his eyes in order to find him.
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I Believe in a Thing Called Love
Maureen Goo
Desi Lee never had a B in her entire life.But-- she's a disaster in romance, and her botched attempts at flirting have become legendary with her friends. So when the hottest human specimen to have ever lived walks into her life one day, Desi decides to tackle her flirting failures with the same zest she's applied to everything else in her life.