Learning About Who Makes Up a Family and Fairness

Family Diversity. For 6 – 9-year-olds. The children at school each describe their very different families (single parent, two moms, many children, grandparents, two home-joint custody, etc.) The illustrations are lively, joyful and funny and transmit a sense of love and belonging.

Adoptive, multi-racial family. A social worker brings baby J.J. home to his new, active, loud, multi-racial family who are delighted to welcome him in. He is content and sleeps though all the noise of the busy family while the parents keep trying to shush the children. But when his new siblings all go off on their own activities – J.J. cries and cries! Sleep comes back only when the noisy older kids come home.

Gay, multi-racial family. Two Dads try frantically (and oh so funnily) to get their three children to help clean the house for Grandma. Silliness and confused directions just keep making the mess even messier! It’s such a relief when Grandma comes in!

Three families: Single dad, two moms, adoptive biracial family. “Dear child, I never knew, clouds were so beautiful, the sky so blue”. So begins this lovely book in which three families celebrate the joy their child bring to their lives. Gorgeous artwork shows the families at home, at the beach, in the city, and finally, dropping their children off at a pre-school saying, “So wherever you go, and whatever you do, remember dear child, my love goes with you.”

Family Diversity. This is a gorgeous photo book about family diversity Families are big, small, have different numbers of parents and/or grandparents, all look alike or very different, live together or in different places. Simply written, filled with respect and delight.

Co-custody family. “Sometimes I live with my Mom. Sometimes I live my Dad. My dog, Fred, stays with me”. A spunky little girl describes her life with delight – and when her parents get mad at Fred, she stand up for her beloved companion. A terrific book about empowerment, fairness, and conflict resolution. Visibility for the reality of children who live in two loving homes.

Family diversity. A glorious celebration of highly diverse families doing all the many things that families do, Each two-page spread is filled with detailed illustrations of families living in multiple ways in all their varied splendor (gay, straight, two parent, grandparent, single parent, with few or many cousins, with plenty of money or very little money, working at home or away…). The book ends with the important statement and even more important question; “So families can be big, small, happy, sad, rich, poor, loud, quiet, mad, good-tempered, worried, or happy-go-lucky. Most families are all these things some of the time. What’s yours like today”?

Single dad. In this almost wordless book, a Dad & a young child get up early, drive to the mountains, and spend the day hiking through rain and sun to the top of a mountain where they plant a tiny tree. Then it’s the long trip home & time to snuggle before bed. Both Dad & child are brown skinned – maybe Latinx, maybe Mid-Eastern. A gorgeous book that little ones can “read” to us by searching the illustrations.

Foster Care family. The best, most beautifully written book about foster care that we’ve seen. Simple, clear, and non-judgmental, it touches on all the key issues for children in foster care. It gives permission for children to miss, love, and feel anger for their original family and opens the way for children to feel safe and protected in their foster family. In the process, it erases many of the stereotypes children have about foster families.

Incarcerated parent, Grandparent with custody. Sugar’s best memory of her Mama is the stories that she told. When her Mama is incarcerated Sugar misses those stories. Even though they only see each other on visiting days, Mama has created the perfect gift to give Sugar for her birthday.

Single mom, Latinx family. Esteban & Mama have a goodbye ritual at nursery school, but this morning Mama drops her gloves and leaves them behind. Esteban worries all day about his Mama’s cold hands, and with help from teacher Walter he keeps her gloves safe. A loving realistic story by an experienced ECE classroom teacher.

Asian-American cross-generational family. A grandfather carefully plans for his day with his granddaughter, buying art supplies, picking up Chinese dumplings at the restaurant, and flowers for the table. Together they share a meal and make beautiful things out of paper, including a kite to fly on a hill.

Adoptive, cross-generational family. Each year on his birthday, Pablo, a young Mexican American boy, looks forward to visiting his abuelito to see how he has decorated Pablo’s birthday tree – the very special tree Abuelito planted on the day Pablo was adopted.

Blended family. Jackson’s mama is getting married and Jackson will have a new daddy and a new sister in his family. And now, he is going to be the ring bearer at the wedding! But what if he loses the ring? What if he walks too fast or too slow? A charming story about two loving African American single parents and a young boy’s competence and kindness in a blended “new” family.