Review by New York Times Review
"One" can mean any number of numbers, as in one bunch of bananas (five) or one box of crayons (eight) - and, in this nimble counting book, one clan of any size. Gómez's adorable digital illustrations of friendly, bobble-headed people in moments of homey togetherness include multiracial families and two men holding hands. It's a clever way to show the variety between and within families, and Shannon concludes with an apt reminder: We're all part of "one earth. One world. One family." FAMILIES, FAMILIES, FAMILIES! By Suzanne Lang. Illustrated by Max Lang. 32 pp. Random House. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 2 to 6.) This book assembles and celebrates just about every possible permutation of adults and the children they're raising, using colorful, goofily drawn animals as proxies. Each page is framed like a portrait: Some children "have two dads. Some have one mom." Some are adopted, or live with cousins or stepsisters and -brothers. There are parents who are married and not. "If you love each other, then you are a family," the final pages say. By then the case has been made with wit and verve. HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES By Lesléa Newman. Illustrated by Laura Cornell. 29 pp. Candlewick. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8.) It's hard to fathom now the scorn and fear this mild-mannered tale of a girl and her two moms occasioned when it was published in 1989. With attractive new art by Cornell, life in their "little house with a big apple tree in the front yard" looks pretty idyllic, and the first day of school is fun, too, until a boy asks Heather what her father does. She wonders if she's the only one with no dad. But the teacher has all the kids draw their families, and - news flash! - it turns out none are exactly alike. STELLA BRINGS THE FAMILY By Miriam B. Schiffer. Illustrated by Molly Clifton-Brown. 36 pp. Chronicle. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8.) Meet Stella, a delightful red-haired preschooler who's the Heather of the two-dad set. Recalling the predicament of her once embattled predecessor, she's flummoxed when her class is told to invite a "special guest" for Mother's Day. "Everyone else had a mother," she worries. "Howie had two!" (The times, they are a-changing.) If it's odd that the teacher didn't foresee her discomfort, Stella's solution - to bring every single member of her extended family - makes for a raucous happy ending. MY FAMILY TREE AND ME Written and illustrated by Dusan Petricic. 24 pp. Kids Can Press. $16.95. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8.) A picture book that invites you to read front to back or vice versa is the perfect format for Petricic's beguiling look at his globe-spanning family tree. No nationalities are specified, but his father's kin have an Old World aura, while his mother's ancestors seem Chinese. All are drawn with live-wire lines and witty, humanizing details - charmingly toothy smiles or protruding ears. Both sides lead to the showstopping centerpiece: the extended clan in a group portrait, with a neighbor kid photo-bombing. ONLINE An expanded visual presentation of this week's column at nytimes.com/books.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 12, 2015]
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Imagine a house with many rooms, whose walls each have a different color or wallpaper, accenting a family portrait hanging there. On a rustic wooden wall hangs the first portrait-a large family of ducks posing beside a still pond. The next spread shows three pandas in pink vests, much like the pink oriental wallpaper behind them. Each portrait features a gently rhyming line: "Some children live with their grandparents./and some live with an aunt./Some children have many pets./and some just have a plant." All of these appealing images demonstrate different ways of being a family. "Some children live with their father./ Some children have two mothers./Some children are adopted./Some have stepsisters and-brothers." The cartoon-style critters contrast pleasantly with more realistic elements-a bamboo plant, a slender ceramic dog, a fat ceramic cat. Families of hippos, tigers, lions, ostriches, and whales join the other family groups in the final spread. The loud-and-clear message is that "if you love each other, then you are a family." And imagine the many children who will be reassured because they have found a portrait of a family they will recognize as their own. A solid choice for most libraries.-Mary Jean Smith, formerly at Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Some children live with their grandparents / and some live with an aunt. / Some children have many pets... / ...and some just have a plant!" Todd Parr's The Family Book mined the same all-family-configurations-deserve-respect territory, but the Langs go with rhymes and an all-animal cast. The art is multifaceted, featuring framed family photos with both illustrated and photographic elements. (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
