Families, Families, Families!

No matter your size, shape, or pedigree--if you love each other, you are a family!<br><br><br>Moms, dads, sisters, brothers - and even Great Aunt Sue - appear in dozens of combinations, demonstrating all kinds of nontraditional families! Silly animals are cleverly depicted in framed portraits, and offer a warm celebration of family love.<br><br>From School Library Journal <br>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: &quot;Some children live with their grandparents ... /and some live with an aunt./Some children have many pets ... /and some just have a plant.&quot; All of these appealing images demonstrate different ways of being a family. &quot;Some children live with their father./ Some children have two mothers./Some children are adopted./Some have stepsisters and - brothers.&quot; 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 &quot;if you love each other, then you are a family.&quot; 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