Diverse Families

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What is Sign Language?

Deborah Kent

Explains the history of American Sign Language (ASL) and shares the story of Beanca, a girl who was born deaf and uses ASL to communicate.
What Jaime Saw

Carolyn Coman

Having fled to a family friend's hillside trailer after his mother's boyfriend tried to throw his baby sister against a wall, nine-year-old Jamie finds himself living an existence full of uncertainty and fear.
What Momma Left Me

Renée Watson

After the death of their mother, thirteen-year-old Serenity Evans and her younger brother go to live with their grandparents, who try to keep them safe from bad influences and help them come to terms with what has happened to their family. Includes recipe for red velvet cake.
What's a Foster Family, Anyway?

Martine Golden Inlay and Jodi Jensen

This book provides a much needed resource in helping children cope with placement into foster care.
What She Left Behind

Tracy Bilen

Sixteen-year-old Sara's mother goes missing before she and Sara can move to a new town to escape Sara's physically abusive father.
What's In There? All About Before You Were Born

Robie H. Harris

Follows the adventures of young Gus and Nellie, who watch their mother's pregnancy and anticipate the arrival of a new sibling while learning engaging facts about how unborn babies develop.
What's Wrong with Timmy?

Maria Shriver

Making friends with a mentally retarded boy helps Kate learn that the two of them have a lot in common.
What the Night Sings

Vesper Stamper

Liberated from Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in 1945, Gerta has lost her family and everything she knew. Without her Papa, her music, or even her true identity, she must move past the task of surviving and onto living her life. Gerta meets Lev, a fellow teen survivor, and Michah, who helps Jews reach Palestine. With a newfound Jewish identity she never knew she had, and a return to the life of music she thought she lost forever, Gerta must choose how to build a new future.
What to Expect When Your Family Becomes a Foster Family

Cindy Unruh

Foster parenting can change your life, as well as the lives of others. It's a great opportunity for your family to learn about love, sacrifice, and relationships. This book will help younger children begin to understand how their family will change when strangers come to live in their home.
What We Keep is Not Always What Will Stay

Amanda Cockrell

Angie never used to think much about God—until things started getting strange. Like the statue of St. Felix, her secret confidant, suddenly coming off his pedestal and talking to her. And Jesse Francis, sent home from Afghanistan at age nineteen with his leg blown off. Now he's expected to finish high school and fit right back in. Is God even paying attention to this? Against the advice of St. Felix (who knows a thing or two about war), Angie falls for Jesse—who's a lot deeper than most high school guys. But Jesse is battling some major demons. As his behavior starts to become unpredictable, and even dangerous, Angie finds herself losing control of the situation. And she's starting to wonder...can one person ever make things right for someone else?
What Will Happen to Me?

Howard Zehr and Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz

Pairs portraits of children whose parents are incarcerated with the reflections of grandparents who are caring for them and includes resources for caregivers and advice on dealing with the unique emotions of these children.
What Would Joey Do?

Jack Gantos

Joey's dad just roared into town on a motorcycle, his mom is chasing her ex-husband away with a broomstick, and his grandma's camped out on the couch behind a plastic shower curtain. What's more, Joey's chihuahua has been dognapped, and his mom insists that he be homeschooled with a mean blind girl and her super-religious mother. Welcome to Joey's world. With his new self-assumed role as "Mr. Helpful," Joey's on a mission to make everything and everyone better. Can Joey accomplish all this or will his wild, wired behavior spin him out of control all over again?
When Aidan Became a Brother

Kyle Lukoff

When Aidan was born, everyone thought he was a girl. His parents gave him a pretty name, his room looked like a girl's room, and he wore clothes that other girls liked wearing. After he realized he was a trans boy, Aidan and his parents fixed the parts of his life that didn't fit anymore, and he settled happily into his new life. Then Mom and Dad announce that they're going to have another baby, and Aidan wants to do everything he can to make things right for his new sibling from the beginning--from choosing the perfect name to creating a beautiful room to picking out the cutest onesie. But what does "making things right" actually mean? And what happens if he messes up? With a little help, Aidan comes to understand that mistakes can be fixed with honesty and communication, and that he already knows the most important thing about being a big brother: how to love with his whole self.
When Andy's Father Went to Prison

Martha Whitmore Hickman

When Andy's father is sent to prison for robbery and the family moves to be near him, Andy is afraid of what the kids at his new school will think.
When Charley Met Emma

Amy Webb

Five-year-old Charley gets teased for daydreaming and drawing more than his friends, but when he meets Emma, who is physically different, he needs help remembering that being different is okay.
When Christmas Feels Like Home

Gretchen Griffith

When his family moves from a small Mexican village to North Carolina, Eduardo asks how soon he will feel at home, and slowly his Tio Miguel's seemingly impossible replies come true until, at last, he can put out the Nativity scene he carved with his grandfather.
When Dad Killed Mom

Julius Lester

When Jenna and Jeremey's father kills their artistic mother, they struggle to slowly rebuild a functioning family.
When Dad Was Away

Karen Littlewood

When Milly's dad is sent to prison, she feels angry and confused. She can't believe her dad won't be at home to read her stories. But soon Mum takes Milly and her brother Sam to visit Dad in prison, and a week later a special package arrives at home - a CD of Milly's favourite animal stories, read especially for her by Dad.
When Friendship Followed Me Home

Paul Griffin

Ben Coffin has never felt like he fits in. A former foster kid, he keeps his head down at school to avoid bullies and spends his afternoons reading sci-fi books at the library. But all that changes when he finds a scruffy abandoned dog named Flip and befriends the librarian's daughter, Halley. For the first time, Ben starts to feel like he belongs in his own life. Then everything changes, and suddenly Ben is more alone than ever. But with a little help from Halley's magician father, Ben discovers his place in the world and learns to see his own magic through others' eyes.
When Grown-Ups Fall in Love

Barbara Lynn Edmonds

This book is a sweet poem which shows families with mom and dad, two moms, and two dads. The large, colorful illustrations are great for group storytime or for one child sitting on your lap. Suitable for reading to children from newborns to 7-year-olds. The book also includes coloring pages as well as space for children to write their own family stories. Gay-friendly preschool literature is a long overdue resource for parents and teachers, both gay and straight. The author wants children with gay parents to feel included in the world of children's literature, and also wants to help straight parents provide their children with books which promote an appreciation of diversity.
When Heaven Fell

Carolyn Marsden

When her grandmother reveals that the daughter that she had given up for adoption is coming from America to visit her Vietnamese family, nine-year-old Binh is convinced that her newly-discovered aunt is wealthy and will take care of all the family's needs.
When I Grow Up...

Paula Vasquez

All of the children in Miss Ester's class know what they want to be like when they grow up: their families! And each family is special and unique. Readers will be surprised and delighted to find that Johnny the duckling's mom and dad have curly tails, stubby noses, and hooves. Johnny and his classmates make it easy for parents to show their little ones that there are many types of families, and they're all made of love.
When I Met You: A Story of Russian Adoption

Adrienne Ehlert Bashista

A mother describes her daughter's life before and after she was adopted from Russia.
When I Miss You

Cornelia Maude Spelman

A young guinea pig describes situations that make him miss his parents, how it feels to miss them, and what he can do to feel better.
When Jessie Came Across the Sea

Amy Hest

When a young girl from a poor eastern European village learns that she must leave her beloved grandmother for a new life - and a new love - in America, they both feel that their hearts will break. The sure and inspired narrative by award-winning author Amy Hest is paired with paintings by P.J. Lynch that glow with warmth and carefully observed detail, creating an unforgettable tribute to the immigrant experience.