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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Rice and Beans
Wiley Blevins
A young girl adopted from China sees that her hair and skin color are different from that of her parents. She finds, however, that there's much more to making a family than sharing red hair and freckles.
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Riding Chance
Christine Kendall
Since his mother died thirteen-year-old Troy has been skipping school and hanging out with the wrong crowd, and now he and his friend Foster have been sentenced to work in the local Philadelphia stables; at first he is apprehensive around the horses, but soon he bonds with a mare named Chance, and discovers the sport of polo--but also makes some new enemies.
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Riding Freedom
Pam Muñoz Ryan
A fictionalized account of Charley (Charlotte) Parkhurst who ran away from an orphanage, posed as a boy, moved to California, and fooled everyone by her appearance.
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Rits
Mariken Jongman and Wanda Boeke
When his father runs off with his girlfriend and his distraught mother is admitted to an institution, thirteen-year-old Rits goes to live with his uncle and tries to make the best of his unusual circumstances.
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Robert Lives with His Grandparents
Martha Hickman Whitmore
Robert is embarrassed to admit to his classmates that he has lived with his grandparents ever since his parents' divorce.
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Robin and Ruby
K.M. Soehnlein
At twenty-years-old, Robin MacKenzie is waiting for his life to start. Then, one hot June weekend, Robin gets dumped by his boyfriend and quickly hits the road with his best friend George to find his teenaged sister, Ruby, who's vanished from a party at the Jersey Shore. As their paths converge, Robin and Ruby confront the sadness of their shared past and rebuild the bonds that still run deep.
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Rock & Roll Highway: The Robbie Robertson Story
Sebastian Robertson
Canadian guitarist and songwriter Robbie Robertson is known mainly for his central role in the musical group the Band. But how did he become one of Rolling Stone's top 100 guitarists of all time? Written by his son, Sebastian, this is the story of a rock-and-roll legend's journey through music, beginning when he was taught to play guitar at nine years old on a Native American reservation. Rock and Roll Highway is the story of a young person's passion, drive, and determination to follow his dream.
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Roland Humphrey is Wearing a What?
Eileen Kiernan-Johnson
Roland Humphrey is a little boy who likes sparkly things and bright colors. He likes both sports and ballet, and doesn't understand why girls can like both but not boys. Will he bow to peer pressure, or follow his heart and be the authentic Roland Humphrey?
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Rolling Along with Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Cindy Meyers
In this updated version of a familiar folktale, baby bear gets around in a wheelchair and has a motorized bed which fascinate Goldilocks when she becomes friends with him after her surprise visit to the three bears' house.
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Romiette and Julio
Sharon M. Draper
Romiette, an African-American girl, and Julio, a Hispanic boy, discover that they attend the same high school after falling in love on the Internet, but are harrassed by a gang whose members object to their interracial dating.
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Rosa Parks: Civil Rights Activist
Chuck Bednar
Profiles the life and career of the civil rights activist Rosa Parks.
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Rose Under Fire
Elizabeth Wein
Rose Justice is a young pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. On her way back from a semi-secret flight in the waning days of the war, Rose is captured by the Germans and ends up in Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi women's concentration camp. There, she meets an unforgettable group of women, including a once glamorous and celebrated French detective novelist whose Jewish husband and three young sons have been killed; a resilient young girl who was a human guinea pig for Nazi doctors trying to learn how to treat German war wounds; and a Nachthexen, or Night Witch, a female fighter pilot and military ace for the Soviet air force. These damaged women must bond together to help each other survive. In this companion volume to the critically acclaimed novel Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein continues to explore themes of friendship and loyalty, right and wrong, and unwavering bravery in the face of indescribable evil.
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Rosie and Skate
Beth Ann Bauman
New Jersey sisters Rosie, aged fifteen, and Skate, aged sixteen, cope differently with their father's alcoholism and incarceration, but manage to stay close to one another as they strive to lead normal lives and find hope for the future.
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Rosie's Family: An Adoption Story
Lori Rosove
Rosie's family is a story about belonging in a family regardless of differences. Rosie is a beagle who was adopted by schnauzers. She feels different from the rest of the family and sets forth many questions that children who were adopted may have.
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Rough, Tough Charley
Verla Kay
A brief illustrated biography of Charley Parkhurst, a stagecoach driver and pioneer of California who posed for most of her life as a man.
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Round and Round Together: Taking a Merry-Go-Round Ride into the Civil Rights Movement
Amy Nathan
The author tells the story of how individuals in Baltimore integrated one amusement park in their town and offers an overview of the history of segregation and the civil rights movement.
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Roving Pack
Sassafras Lowrey
Click, a straight-edge transgender kid, is searching for hir place within a pack of newly sober gender rebels in the dilapidated punk houses of Portland, Oregon circa 2002. Ze embarks on a dizzying whirlwind of leather, sex, hormones, house parties, and protests until hir gender fluidity takes an unexpected turn and the pack is sent reeling.
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Roxy the Raccoon: A Story to Help Children Learn about Disability and Inclusion
Alice Reeves
Roxy lives in the forest with her three best friends, who she loves to visit and play games with. Roxy is in a wheelchair, so sometimes it is harder for her to go to the same places and play the same games as the other animals. Roxy and her friends realise that by making a few small changes and working together, they can make the forest a better place for everyone. Roxy teaches us that there are bunches of ways to be more inclusive of those who have a disability so that everyone can join in.
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Rubyfruit Jungle
Rita Mae Brown
A landmark coming-of-age novel that launched the career of one of this country’s most distinctive voices, Rubyfruit Jungle remains a transformative work more than forty years after its original publication. In bawdy, moving prose, Rita Mae Brown tells the story of Molly Bolt, the adoptive daughter of a dirt-poor Southern couple who boldly forges her own path in America. With her startling beauty and crackling wit, Molly finds that women are drawn to her wherever she goes—and she refuses to apologize for loving them back. This literary milestone continues to resonate with its message about being true to yourself and, against the odds, living happily ever after.
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Ruby Lu, Empress of Everything
Lenore Look
After Ruby Lu's deaf cousin, Flying Duck, and her parents come from China to live with her, Ruby finds life challenging as she adjusts to her new family, tries to mend her rocky relationship with her friend Emma, and faces various adventures in summer school.
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Ruby on the Outside
Nora Raleigh Baskin
Eleven-year-old Ruby Danes has a real best friend for the first time ever, but agonizes over whether or not to tell her a secret she has never shared with anyone--that her mother has been in prison since Ruby was five--and over whether to express her anger to her mother.
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Ruby, the Red-Hot Witch at Bloomingdale's
Marlene Fanta Shyer
When Ruby, the witch who works at Bloomingdale's, cures her younger brother's nervous hiccups, thirteen-year-old Petra wonders if Ruby's magic can get her separated parents back together.
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Ruin of Stars
Linsey Miller
As one if the Queen's assassins, Sal finally has the power, prestige, and permission to hunt down the lords who killed their family. But Sal still has to figure out who the culprits are and must enlist some old friendsand enemiesto help. Meanwhile, tensions are escalating with the Queen, and the charming Elise is being held prisoner by her father. But there's something terribly wrong in the north. Talk of the return of shadows, missing children, and magic abounds. As Sal takes out the people responsible for their ruined homeland, they learn secrets and truths that can't be forgotten.
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Rules
Cynthia Lord
Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She's spent years trying to teach David the rules from "a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public"--In order to head off David's embarrassing behaviours. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising, new sort-of-friend, and Kristi, the potential next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behaviour that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?
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Rumplepimple
Suzanne DeWitt Hall
Life isn't easy when your big sister is an annoying cat and your moms can't understand a word you say. But that doesn't stop Rumplepimple from saving the day in a most unusual way. Find out how a car ride transforms a naughty terrier into a grocery store hero.