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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Petey
Ben Mikaelsen
In 1922, at the age of two, Petey's distraught parents commit him to the state's insane asylum, unaware that their son is actually suffering from severe cerebral palsy. Bound by his wheelchair and struggling to communicate with the people around him, Petey finds a way to remain kind and generous despite the horrific conditions in his new "home." Through the decades, he befriends several caretakers but is heartbroken when each eventually leaves him. Determined not to be hurt again, he vows to no longer let hope of lifelong friends and family torment him. That changes after he is moved into a nursing home and meets a young teen named Trevor Ladd; he sees something in the boy and decides to risk friendship one last time. Trevor, new to town and a bit of a loner, is at first weary of the old man in the wheelchair. But after hearing more of his story, Trevor learns that there is much more to Petey than meets the eye.
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Picnic in the Park
Joe Griffiths and Tony Pilgrim
A charming picture book for children which shows that families are diverse and come in all shapes and sizes.
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Pictures of Hollis Woods
Patricia Reilly Giff
A troublesome twelve-year-old orphan, staying with an elderly artist who needs her, remembers the only other time she was happy in a foster home, with a family that truly seemed to care about her.
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Picture Us In The Light
Kelly Loy Gilbert
Daniel, a Chinese-American teen, must grapple with his plans for the future, his feelings for his best friend Harry, and his discovery of a family secret that could shatter everything.
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Pieces of Why
K.L. Going
Tia lives with her mom in a high-risk neighborhood in New Orleans and loves singing gospel in the Rainbow Choir with Keisha, her boisterous and assertive best friend. Tia's dream is to change the world with her voice; and by all accounts, she might be talented enough. But when a shooting happens in her neighborhood and she learns the truth about the crime that sent her father to prison years ago, Tia finds she can't sing anymore.
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Pink
Lili Wilkinson
Ava is tired of her ultracool attitude, ultraradical politics, and ultrablack clothing. She's ready to try something new—she's even ready to be someone new. Someone who fits in, someone with a gorgeous boyfriend, someone who wears pink. But Ava soon finds that changing herself is more complicated than changing her wardrobe. Even getting involved in the school musical raises issues she never imagined. As she faces surprising choices and unforeseen consequences, Ava wonders if she will ever figure out who she really wants to be.
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Pink!
Lynne Rickards
Teased in school for being pink, Patrick the penguin leaves the South Pole to live with the flamingos in Africa.
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Pink Chameleon
Fiona Dunbar
Rorie and Elsie live happily with their slightly eccentric parents, until one day their parents disappear. Rorie and Elsie are put in the guardianship of their sour uncle and aunt in their boarding school. When they can take no more the girls run away in search of their parents and discover that their adventure has only just begun.
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Pink is for Boys
Robb Pearlman
A celebration of how colors are for everyone depicts characters engaging in their favorite activities.
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Pink Smog: Becoming Weetzie Bat
Francesa Lia Block
After her family loses their cottage in the Los Angeles hills, junior high school outcast Weetzie Bat's father leaves her mother and Weetzie learns how to stand up for herself and to find beauty in even the most difficult situations.
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Pinky and Rex and the Bully
James Howe
Pinky learns the importance of identity as he defends his favorite color, pink, and his friendship with a girl, Rex, from the neighborhood bully.
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Playground: The Mostly True Story of a Former Bully
Curtis 50 Cent Jackson and Laura Moser
After beating up Maurice on the playground, Butterball is forced to see the school therapist.
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Playing a Part
Daria Wilke and Marian Schwartz
Grishka has grown up in the closed world of a puppet theater in Russia, but now that world seems to be falling apart--his best friend needs an operation, financial difficulties are forcing people out, his homosexual friend Sam, the jester, is leaving for Holland and Grishka no longer knows what role he himself is playing.
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Playing Games (Amy Hodgepodge, #4)
Kim Wayans and Kevin Knotts
Amy realizes her dream of playing sports when she joins the basketball league, and secret practices with Rusty improve her skills but her friends, believing she still plays badly, will not pass her the ball.
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Playing Without the Ball
Rich Wallace
Feeling abandoned by his parents, who have gone their separate ways and left him behind in a small Pennsylvania town, seventeen-year-old Jay finds hope for the future in a church-sponsored basketball team and a female friend.
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Portrait of Us
A. Destiny and Rhonda Helms
Looking forward to taking summer classes with a famous artist-in-residence, Corinne struggles beside a fellow student whose style clashes with her own, a view that shifts when she learns that they have more in common than she thought.
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Postcards to Father Abraham
Catherine Lewis
When sixteen-year-old Meghan loses her leg to cancer and her brother to Vietnam, she expresses intense anger in postcards which she writes to her idol, Abraham Lincoln.
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Poz
Christopher Koehler
One Remy Babcock and Mikey Castelreigh are stalwart members of the Capital City Rowing Club's junior crew, pulling their hardest to earn scholarships to rowing powerhouses like California Pacific. Just a couple of all-American boys, they face the usual pressures of life in an academic hothouse and playing a varsity sport. Add to that the stifling confines of the closet, and sometimes life isn't always easy, even in the golden bubble of their accepting community. Because Remy and Mikey have a secret: they're both gay. While Mikey has never hidden it, Remy is a parka and a pair of mittens away from Narnia. Mikey has always been open about wanting more than friendship, but Remy is as uncomfortable in his own skin as he is a demon on the water. After their signals cross, and a man mistakes Remy for a college student, Remy takes the plunge and hooks up with him. After a furious Mikey cuts Remy off, Remy falls to the pressure of teenage life, wanting to be more and needing it now. In his innocence and naivete, Remy makes mistakes that have life-long consequences.
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Pride Colors
Robin Stevenson
Through gentle rhymes and colorful photographs of adorable children, Pride Colors is a celebration of the deep unconditional love of a parent or caregiver for a young child. The profound message of this delightful board book is you are free to be whoever you choose to be; you'll always be loved.
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Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag
Rob Sanders
In this deeply moving and empowering true story, young readers will trace the life of the Gay Pride Flag, from its beginnings in 1978 with social activist Harvey Milk and designer Gilbert Baker to its spanning of the globe and its role in today's world. Award-winning author Rob Sanders's stirring text, and acclaimed illustrator Steven Salerno's evocative images, combine to tell this remarkable - and undertold - story. A story of love, hope, equality, and pride.
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Prince and Knight
Daniel Haack
A prince and a knight in shining armor find true love in each other's embrace after fighting a dragon together.
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Prince: Singer-Songwriter, Musician, and Record Producer
David Robson
Readers learn about the life and achievements of singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer, Prince. Includes photos, chronology, accomplishments and awards, glossary, further resources, and index.
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Princess Knight, Part 1
Osamu Tezuka
Set in a medieval fairy-tale backdrop, Princess Knight is the tale of a young princess named Sapphire who must pretend to be a male prince so she can inherit the throne. Women have long been prevented from taking the throne, but Sapphire is not discouraged and instead she fully accepts the role, becoming a dashing hero(ine) that the populous is proud of.
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Princess Knight, Part 2
Osamu Tezuka
A young princess must pretend to be a boy so she can inherit her father's throne. At night she fights crime, disguised as the Phantom Knight. Always she must avoid the efforts of an evil duke who would unmask her.
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Princess Princess Ever After
Katie O’Neill
When the heroic princess Amira rescues the kind-hearted princess Sadie from her tower prison, the two band together to defeat a jealous sorceress with a dire grudge against Sadie.