About this item
No matter your size, shape, or pedigree--if you love each other, you are a family!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.From School Library Journal 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
About the Author
Suzanne Lang is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Grumpy Monkey series which she makes with her husband, illustrator Max Lang. Their other titles include All Kinds of Families and Hooray For Kids. When she's not working on books, Suzanne writes and produces animated television series. Suzanne loves animals (especially cats and monkeys) and chocolate (especially with praline filling) .
