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 Booklist Review
This counting book celebrates authentic and engaging diversity, featuring families of many sizes, ethnicities, gender orientations, and even ages. Gomez's appealing flat cartoon people all infectiously cheerful and composed of blocky shapes, round heads, and minimal, yet expressive, faces appear at home, in a variety of urban landscapes, or in more exotic tableaux, such as a winter seaside outing. Shannon's gentle counting rhythms subtly illustrate the idea that families come in all shapes and sizes, and little ones will easily catch on to the repeated refrain of One family. The warm full-color page spreads include visual clues to help with counting and plenty of engaging background details. The breadth of diversity on display is refreshing: families include multigenerational homes, interracial marriage, neighboring households, children who identically resemble their parents and those who don't. With a sweet, timeless message and a contemporary setting with which many kids might identify, this is a nice addition to titles like Patricia Polacco's Chicken Sunday (1992) and Mary Ann Hoberman's All Kinds of Families (2009).--Goldsmith, Francisca Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Shannon's (Hands Say Love) message is clear: no matter how many people there are in a family, what color they are, or what ages they are, they're still a family. An Asian mother and child romp on hobby horses before bedtime: "One is two./ One pair of shoes. One team of horses./ One family." Gomez's (Besos for Baby) combinations of families from one to 10 present lots of possibilities-grandparents and children, fathers in turbans, single-parent families, families whose members don't look alike at all. Linking them to ways of counting groups of familiar things ("One is five./ One bunch of bananas. One hand of cards./ One family"), Shannon's blank verse brings home the idea of unity in multiplicity. Gomez's figures have a pleasing, doll-like look, with round heads whose features convey friendliness. Her scenes of city life are imbued with warmth, comfort, and a kind of universality-there's little obvious luxury or poverty. It's a quiet vision of a world in which every family is accepted. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Mary Cummings, Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises. Illustrator's agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-This deceptively simple concept book celebrates family and community, while also offering young readers a chance to practice counting. Each spread features an increasing number of people who form a family. From babies in buggies to white-haired elders holding hands, families stretch across generations and races. Young listeners will recognize familiar activities such as strolling through the zoo, doing laundry, or baking cookies. The brief text mentions objects to be counted, and children can practice again with a spread that features all the items from 1 to 10. A final view of the city streets brings together many of the people featured in earlier pages to celebrate "One is one and everyone./ One earth. One world./ One family." Gomez's rich colors and clean design make the book a good choice for small group sharing, but she also includes many details to be appreciated in solo rereadings. Even the fly leaves are carefully designed. In the front, individual portraits of people and animals gaze ahead as they hang on the wall. In the back, the characters lean from their frames to converse with one another, while some of the pets escape entirely. VERDICT Thoughtful text and great design make this counting book a top choice for most libraries.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University Library, Mankato (c) Copyright 2015. 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
Round-faced, rosy-cheeked characters representing a broad array of races, cultures, and familial make-up populate this loving concept book about the multitudes contained in the number one: One is five. One bunch of bananas. One hand of cards. One family. Depicting families ranging from one member (and a cat: One lamp. One clock. One book to share) to ten (One batch of cookies. One shelf of books), Gomezs geometric, digitally inflected illustrations use warm color, clean lines, and subtle collage textures to meld abstract and concrete imagery. Each featured family is given a particular identity but all are situated within an urban landscape of apartment buildings, food carts, parks, storefronts, and homey indoor detritus. Pages brim with domestic details for children to identify, count, and describe. Imaginative play, outdoor activity, and shared reading recur across family lines, leading to a final spread that brings the many-numbered families together on their shared city block, their interactions underlined by the conclusion that one is one and everyone. One earth. One world. One family. In Shannons simple, lyrical text, well-chosen, child-accessible details suggest larger concepts of unity and collectivity, differences and commonalities, while still bolstering the fundamentals of enumeration. Young readers will want to add their own family portraits to the endpaper gallery. claire e. gross(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.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A playful counting book also acts as a celebration of family and human diversity.Shannon's text is delivered in spare, rhythmic, lilting verse that begins with one and counts up to 10 as it presents different groupings of things and people in individual families, always emphasizing the unitary nature of each combination. "One is six. One line of laundry. One butterfly's legs. One family." Gomez's richly colored pictures clarify and expand on all that the text lists: For "six," a picture showing six members of a multigenerational family of color includes a line of laundry with six items hanging from it outside of their windows, as well as the painting of a six-legged butterfly that a child in the family is creating. While text never directs the art to depict diverse individuals and family constellations, Gomez does just this in her illustrations. Interracial families are included, as are depictions of men with their arms around each other, and a Sikh man wearing a turban. This inclusive spirit supports the text's culminating assertion that "One is one and everyone. One earth. One world. One family." A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
