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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Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth
Frank Cottrell Boyce
Prez knows that the best way to keep track of things is to make a list. That's important when you have a grandfather who is constantly forgetting. And it's even more important when your grandfather can't care for you anymore and you have to go live with a foster family out in the country. Prez is still learning to fit in at his new home when he answers the door to meet Sputnik—a kid who is more than a little strange. First, he can hear what Prez is thinking. Second, he looks like a dog to everyone except Prez. Third, he can manipulate the laws of space and time. Sputnik, it turns out is an alien, and he's got a mission that requires Prez's help: the Earth has been marked for destruction, and the only way they can stop it is to come up with ten reasons why the planet should be saved. Thus begins one of the most fun and eventful summers of Prez's life, as he and Sputnik set out on a journey to compile the most important list Prez has ever made—and discover just what makes our world so remarkable.
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Stalker Girl
Rosemary Graham
Carly never meant to become a stalker. She just wanted to find out who Brian started dating after he dumped her. But a little harmless online research turns into a quick glance, and that turns into an afternoon of watching. Soon Carly is putting all of her energy into following Brian's new girlfriend, all of the sadness she feels about her mom's recent breakup, all of the anger she feels over being pushed aside by her dad while he prepares for his new wife's new baby. When Carly's stalking is discovered in the worst possible way by the worst possible person, she is forced to acknowledge her problem and the underlying issues that led to it.
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Stand Beautiful
Chloe Howard
A whimsical and inspiring picture book that encourages children to embrace their own uniqueness and celebrate the differences in others.
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Standing on My Own Two Feet: A Child's Affirmation of Love in the Midst of Divorce
Tamara Schmitz
Addison's parents are divorced and he lives in one house with his mom and another with his dad, but one thing he knows above all is that both his parents love him and they always will.
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Stand Straight, Ella Kate: The True Story of a Real Giant
Kate Klise
Ella Kate Ewing was born in 1872. She started out small, but she just kept on growing. Soon she was too tall for her desk at school, too tall for her bed at home, too tall to fit anywhere. Ella Kate was a real-life giant, but she refused to hide herself away. Instead, she used her unusual height to achieve her equally large dreams. The masterful Klise sisters deliver a touching and inspiring true story about a strong-minded girl who finally embraced her differences. It's the perfect book for every child who has ever felt like an outsider.
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Star-Crossed
Barbara Dee
When Mattie is cast as Romeo in an eighth-grade play, she is confused to find herself increasingly attracted to Gemma, a new classmate who is playing Juliet.
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Starfish
Akemi Dawn Bowman
Kiko Himura yearns to escape the toxic relationship with her mother by getting into her dream art school, but when things do not work out as she hoped Kiko jumps at the opportunity to tour art schools with her childhood friend, learning life-changing truths about herself and her past along the way.
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Star of the Week: A Story of Love, Adoption, and Brownies with Sprinkles
Darlene Friedman
As her turn to be "Star of the Week" in her kindergarten class approaches, Cassidy-Li puts together a poster with pictures of her family, friends, and pets, and wonders about her birthparents in China.
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Starting from Here
Lisa Jenn Jenn
Sixteen-year-old Colby is barely hanging on with her mother dead, her long-haul trucker father often away, her almost-girlfriend dumping her for a boy, and her failing grades, when a stray dog appears and helps her find hope.
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Stay
Katherine Lawrence
Millie is eleven going on twelve, and facing her toughest problems yet as she struggles with changes to her family. Her father moves out of the house and faces a cancer diagnosis, and her mother moves on with a new boyfriend. To cope, Millie distracts herself by speaking to her twin brother, Billy (who died before he was born), and dreams of the day she can convince her family to get a puppy.
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Steggie's Stutter
Jack Hughes
Steggie has a stutter and sometimes it takes her a bit longer than others to get her words out. Her friends are in a hurry to play a game and rush off without listening to her warning into the Deep, Dark and Scary Forest. Before long, the friends get into trouble and it's up to Steggie to rescue them. But will they listen to her advice?
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Stella Brings the Family
Miriam B. Schiffer
Stella brings her two fathers to school to celebrate Mother's Day.
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Stella by Starlight
Sharon M. Draper
When a burning cross set by the Klan causes panic and fear in 1932 Bumblebee, North Carolina, fifth-grader Stella must face prejudice and find the strength to demand change in her segregated town.
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Stellaluna
Janell Cannon
After she falls headfirst into a bird's nest, a baby bat is raised like a bird until she is reunited with her mother.
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Stephen Hawking: Extraordinary Theoretical Physicist
Karen Latchana Kenney
Chronicles the life and career of the theoretical physicist, from his battle with ALS to his work on black holes.
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Stewie BOOM! and Princess Penelope: Handprints, Snowflakes and Playdates
Christine Bronstein
At school, Penelope’s teacher encourages the class to play with someone new at recess so that they can see that minds, like handprints and snowflakes, are one of a kind. Penelope chooses Eric and they have so much fun she invites him over for a play-date. Before he arrives, Penelope’s Mom tells her that Eric’s mind is called “on the spectrum,” and so his unique preferences might be different from the ones she’s used to. To prepare, they practice using quiet voices, listening with their eyes, and being flexible. As their play-date unfolds, Penelope and Eric show readers the many ways that families can embrace neuro-diversity.
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Stick Boy
Joan T. Zeier
When a seven-inch growth spurt in the sixth grade makes skinny, self-conscious Eric a school misfit and the victim of the class bully, he is led to befriend Cynthia, a proud and spirited black girl who is disabled.
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Sticky Beak
Morris Gleitzman
When she rescues a mistreated cockatoo, mute Rowena finds herself in more trouble than usual, but her actions finally reveal her true concern, that her new mother's impending baby is a replacement for her because she isn't perfect.
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Still a Family
Brenda Reeves Sturgis
A little girl and her parents have lost their home and must live in a homeless shelter. Even worse, due to a common shelter policy, her dad must live in a men's shelter, separated from her and her mom. Despite these circumstances, the family still finds time to be together. They meet at the park to play hide-and-seek, slide on slides, and pet puppies. While the young girl wishes for better days when her family is together again under a roof of their very own, she continues to remind herself that they're still a family even in times of separation.
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Still Life with Tornado
A. S. King
A talented 16-year-old artist slowly discovers the history of domestic violence behind why her brother left the family years earlier and why she suddenly cannot make art.
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Still Waters
Ash Parsons Parsons
High-schooler Jason, who lives with a drunk, abusive father at home, hopes to earn enough money to escape with his younger sister, Janie, by being tough at school, but the stakes grow ever more dangerous and soon even his fists and ability to think on his feet are not enough to keep his head above water.
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Stinky
Ted Staunton
Janice, who really wants to be know as Greer, is a little overweight and more than a little bossy when it comes to struggling to be heard at school. The fact that her parents are separated and she spends half her life living in a trailer at the edge of town visited by skunks that don't hesitate to spray if they hear a sudden noise does not help her self-confidence. Janice wants to get her parents back together in time for her birthday, but this proves harder than she realizes.
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Stitches
David Small
One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had cancer and was expected to die. Believing that they were trying to do their best, David’s parents did just the reverse. Edward Small, a Detroit physician, who vented his own anger by hitting a punching bag, was convinced that he could cure his young son’s respiratory problems with heavy doses of radiation, possibly causing David’s cancer. Elizabeth, David’s mother, tyrannically stingy and excessively scolding, ran the Small household under a cone of silence where emotions, especially her own, were hidden.
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Stoner & Spaz
Ronald Koertge
A troubled youth with cerebral palsy struggles toward self-acceptance with the help of a drug-addicted young woman.
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Stork
Wendy Delsol
After her parents' divorce, Katla and her mother move from Los Angeles to Norse Falls, Minnesota, where Kat immediately alienates two boys at her high school and, improbably, discovers a kinship with a mysterious group of elderly women--the Icelandic Stork Society--who "deliver souls."