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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Sweet Moon Baby
Karen Henry Clark
The smiling moon watches over a baby girl in China whose parents love her but cannot take care of her, and guides a childless couple that lives far away to the daughter for whom they yearn.
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Sweet Tooth: A Memoir
Tim Anderson
What's a sweets-loving young boy growing up gay in North Carolina in the eighties supposed to think when he's diagnosed with type 1 diabetes? That God is punishing him, naturally. This was, after all, when gay-hating Jesse Helms was his senator, AIDS was still the boogeyman, and no one was saying, "It gets better." And if stealing a copy of a gay porno magazine from the newsagent was a sin, then surely what the men inside were doing to one another was much worse. Sweet Tooth is Tim Anderson's uproarious memoir of life after his hormones and blood sugar both went berserk at the age of fifteen. With Morrissey and The Smiths as the soundtrack, Anderson self-deprecatingly recalls love affairs with vests and donuts, first crushes, coming out, and inaugural trips to gay bars. What emerges is the story of a young man trying to build a future that won't involve crippling loneliness or losing a foot to his disease--and maybe even one that, no matter how unpredictable, can still be pretty sweet.
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Swimming in the Monsoon Sea
Shyam Selvadurai
Although life for Amrith in 1980 Sri Lanka seems rather uneventful and orderly, things change in a hurry when his male cousin arrives from Canada and Amrith finds himself completely enamored with his new visitor. The setting is Sri Lanka, 1980, and it is the season of monsoons. Fourteen-year-old Amrith is caught up in the life of the cheerful, well-to-do household in which he is being raised by his vibrant Auntie Bundle and kindly Uncle Lucky. He tries not to think of his life before, when his doting mother was still alive. Amrith's holiday plans seem unpromising: he wants to appear in his school's production of Othello and he is learning to type at Uncle Lucky's tropical fish business. Then, like an unexpected monsoon, his cousin arrives from Canada and Amrith's ordered life is storm-tossed. He finds himself falling in love with the Canadian boy. Othello, with its powerful theme of disastrous jealousy, is the backdrop to the drama in which Amrith finds himself immersed.
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Switch
Ingrid Law
Gypsy Beaumont's magical savvy switches to its opposite when she learns that her mean and decidedly non-magical grandma has Alzheimer's and is going to move in with her family.
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Symptoms of Being Human
Jeff Garvin
A gender-fluid teenager who struggles with identity creates a blog on the topic that goes viral, and faces ridicule at the hands of fellow students.
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T4: A Novel in Verse
Ann Clare LeZotte
When the Nazi party takes control of Germany, thirteen-year-old Paula, who is deaf, finds her world-as-she-knows-it turned upside down, as she is taken into hiding to protect her from the new law nicknamed T4.
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Take Me with You
Carolyn Marsden
Raised in an Italian orphanage in the years following World War II, a biracial girl named Susanna and her best friend Pina want to be adopted but fear being separated.
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Taking Action Against Racism
Cath Senker
This book defines different kinds of racism, its causes, and possible solutions.
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Taking Terri Mueller
Norma Fox Mazer
For as long as I can remember, It's just been Daddy and me. I can't remember my mother. I was told she died in an accident when I was four, and that's all I know about her. I don't understand why there isn't even a picture of her. The other thing I don't understand is why we're always moving — different towns — with no explanations. I know something is wrong. It begins with my birth certificate— my only link to my mother. Then I overhear a conversation: Tell terri the truth , Why are we moving all the time? Are we running away from something or someone? What kind of secret is Daddy hiding...and why can't he share it with me.
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Tanny's Meow
Ursula Ferro
This delightful story begins when Rachel's Mama Mariah discovers an orphan kitten which Rachel's family (two moms, Rachel and her brother, Tim) then adopt. This small 51 page chapter book with black and white illustrations continues with tales of the kitten's adventures, through the seasons, culminating with a big surprise for Rachel. Grandparents, school, and holidays are part of the story.
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Tan to Tamarind: Poems About the Color Brown
Malathi Michelle Iyengar
Poems in celebration of brown skin color.
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Taproot
Keezy Young
Blue is having a hard time moving on. He’s in love with his best friend. He’s also dead. Luckily, Hamal can see ghosts, leaving Blue free to haunt him to his heart’s content. But something eerie is happening in town, leaving the local afterlife unsettled, and when Blue realizes Hamal’s strange ability may be putting him in danger, Blue has to find a way to protect him, even if it means…leaving him.
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Tash Hearts Tolstoy
Kathryn Ormsbee
Fame and success come at a cost for Natasha "Tash" Zelenka when she creates the web series "Unhappy Families," a modern adaptation of Anna Karenina--written by Tash's eternal love Leo Tolstoy.
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Teddy's Favorite Toy
Christian Trimmer
Teddy's favorite toy has the best manners, and the sickest fighting skills, and the ability to pull off a number of fierce looks. But when his toy goes missing, it turns out there's another woman around who's pretty fierce--it's Teddy's mom, and she will stop at nothing to reunite Teddy with his favorite toy.
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Teens & Gay Issues
Hal Marcovitz and George Gallup Jr.
Uses data from the Gallup Youth Survey and other sources to examine issues related to teens and same sex relationships.
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Teens with Single Parents: Why Me?
Margaret A. Schultz
Examines the effects of living in a single-parent family, discussing such topics as emotional aspects and economic factors.
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Telling the Truth to Your Adopted or Foster Child: Making Sense of the Past
Betsy Keefer and Jayne Schooler
Provides parents with the knowledge and tools they need to communicate with their adopted or foster child about the circumstances of their past.
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Tell Me
Joan Bauer
Feeling scared and powerless when her father's anger escalates and her parents separate, twelve-year-old Anna spends the summer with her grandmother and decides to make a difference when she sees what seems to be a girl held against her will.
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Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born
Jamie Lee Curtis
A young girl asks her parents to tell her again the cherished family story of her birth and adoption.
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Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel
Sara Farizan
High school junior Leila's Persian heritage already makes her different from her classmates at Armstead Academy, and if word got out that she liked girls, life would be twice as hard. But when new girl, Saskia, shows up, Leila starts to take risks she never thought she would, especially when it looks as if the attraction between them is mutual, so she struggles to sort out her growing feelings by confiding in her old friends.
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Tell Me a Real Adoption Story
Betty Jean Lifton
A parent tells an adopted child about coming to the family.
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Ten Days and Nine Nights: An Adoption Story
Yumi Heo
A young girl eagerly awaits the arrival of her newly-adopted sister from Korea, while her whole family prepares.
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Terror at Bottle Creek
Watt Key
Thirteen-year-old Cort's father is a local expert on hunting and swamp lore in lower Alabama who has been teaching his son everything he knows. But when a deadly Gulf Coast hurricane makes landfall, Cort must unexpectedly put his all skills--and bravery--to the test.
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Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom
Brendan Halpin and Emily Franklin
Feeling humiliated and confused when his best friend Tessa rejects his love and reveals a long-held secret, high school senior Luke must decide if he should stand by Tessa when she invites a female date to the prom, sparking a firestorm of controversy in their small Indiana town.
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Thank You, Mr. Falker
Patricia Polacco
At first, Trisha loves school, but her difficulty learning to read makes her feel dumb, until, in the fifth grade, a new teacher helps her understand and overcome her problem.