All Families Are Special

by Norma Simon, Teresa Flavin (Illustrator)

Overview

Winner of a Parent's Guide Children's Media Award

No two families are the same, but every family is special.

When Mrs. Mack says she will soon be a grandmother, her students realize that teachers have families just like they do! Suddenly everyone in the class wants to share information about his or her own unique family. Sarah tells of flying to China with her parents where they adopted her sister, Rachel. Christopher tells about his parents' divorce. They are still a family, but now he and his brother spend a few days every week at their dad's apartment. Nick lives with his parents, five siblings, and his grandparents―they need to order three large pizzas for dinner! And Hannah tells how she loves to garden with her two mommies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807521779
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	09/07/2023
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.75(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Norma Simon wrote more than fifty books for children, including All Kinds of Families, All Kinds of Children, All Families are Special, and I Was So Mad!.

Teresa Flavin was born in New York and studied art in Boston and at Syracuse University. She has illustrated a number of picture books and now lives in Glasgow, Scotland.

Editorial Reviews

Winner of a Parent's Guide Children's Media Award

"The tone throughout is upbeat and positive…This is a good book for introducing nontraditional families to children."—School Library Journal

"Flavin's smiling, multicultural cast reinforces the message of this bluntly purposeful tale designed to spark family or class interchanges while validating a wide variety of family arrangements."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

K-Gr 3-When a teacher asks her students to tell about their families, each child speaks of a different configuration. There are big, small, and extended families. Children live with a mom and dad, grandparents, two same-gender parents, or stepparents. The youngsters mention adoption, divorce, and death of a parent and pets. Then, they discuss the good and bad times that families have together. The tone throughout is upbeat and positive. The bright watercolor illustrations depict smiling, multicultural people living in immaculate middle-class surroundings. This is a good book for introducing nontraditional families to children, but some readers might find the sunny cheerfulness unrealistic. Ann Morris's Families (HarperCollins, 2000) represents a variety of family situations with color photographs of multicultural families and a simple text, but does not include same-gender parents.-Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

In a diversity lesson covered by the thinnest veneer of plot, children in a classroom pipe up to describe their families: large, small, nuclear, and extended; interracial, international, single-parent, divorced parents, same-sex parents; comprised of multiple generations, adoptees, absent members, and even pets. The teacher goes on to lead a quick discussion about "unhappy things that happen in families," then closes on positive notes, and the conclusion that "No families are the same. All families are definitely special!" Flavin's smiling, multicultural cast reinforces the message of this bluntly purposeful tale designed to spark family or class interchanges while validating a wide variety of family arrangements. (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews