Families

Me and My Family Tree
$6.99
This book is the perfect addition to a classroom library for a unit on family. As a Kindergarten teacher, I had trouble getting the children excited about working on a family tree with their parents. This was not true after I introduced this book. I had previously used "Me and My Place in Space" and the children seem to identify with the somewhat androgenous child in both books.

All Families Are Different
$13.98
I would have given it more stars if it weren't for the focus on families with both a mom and a dad. Being a lesbian who is raising her 3 children without a dad present, I appreciated the one picture showing 2 moms, however, the rest of the book, instead of using the word "family", or "parents", continued to use the words "mom and dad". This was disappointing since it seemed to exclude single parents and families like mine.

All Kinds of Families!
$16.99
Reviewed by Cayden (age 5) and Max (age 3) Aures and Mom for Reader Views (10/09)


"All Kinds of Families!" explores many different kinds of "families" like eggs in a carton and chalk for a blackboard.

Cayden: "I think everything has a family but I didn't know that before! Everything that is the same in a group is a family like all of the pencils, or the sticks, or silverware. I liked the pictures in the book. There were a lot of different things to look at. My favorite part was when all of the things were on shelves and I found all of the families."

Max: "I liked the page with the moon and the stars. They are a family the book said. I liked the tree house picture. I wish we had one of those!"

Parent's comments:

"All Kinds of Families!" by Mary Ann Hoberman is a creative book showing the relationships among different items and of actual human families. The illustrations were fun and complemented the text nicely. I like books that make my children think and this was definitely one of them!

Who's in a Family?
$7.99
This book will not be for everyone. It introduces all kinds of families, human and animal, including those with same gender parents. It's a gentle way to open up a conversation about diversity with children.