Looking for a truly inclusive book about families? Every fabulous family make-up you could wish for is represented here in this bright and beautiful non-fiction book.

‘My Family, Your Family’ can be used on several levels; firstly as a walk-through-the-world with children, picking out different characters, asking questions and focusing purely on Giovana Medeiros’ captivating illustrations; secondly following the speech bubbles in the illustrations to build a narrative; and thirdly using the text itself to create an increasingly detailed and representational information book about families today.

This book doesn’t shy away from showing us that families can be whatever we want them to be and that every family is different. The book includes pages about community groups, family trees and how families change over time. There should be a place in every classroom for this all-encompassing book. The glossary will be particularly useful – check your understanding of terms such as blended families, heritage, kinship, donorship, surrogacy and diblings. It delivers sound advice for adults to enhance conversations with children and can be used as a springboard into work on Families, Belonging and PSHE.

All Kind of Families, written and illustrated by Sophy Henn, is a wonderful book to use across various opportunities in the primary classroom. It is an excellent resource to promote discussion and understanding of family diversity in humans and animals. By making links to animals, children gain a wider experience of different families, all underpinned by the theme of love. The book explores and promotes families with different parents, varying numbers of siblings and family sizes, roles of other individuals and adoption. Each is done sensitively to help children understand and embrace the naturally different shapes of families. The book would be most suitable for KS1 or lower KS2 but could be adapted for any age. Each theme is linked to a different animal and the final pages of the books give more information about each of those animals.

Popular author Phil Earle offers a new picturebook with an authentic representation of a child experiencing parental separation and divorce.

Meet Florrie. Florrie has two of everything…. including two different homes. Her mum’s and her dad’s. When her parents separated, Florrie and her brothers were expected to divide their time between the two homes, and at the beginning of the book, this makes her feel a little uneasy.

This book shows how each parent works separately with her to make her feel comfortable about the situation, giving her coping mechanisms when she misses her other home. The lovely twist at the end is how Florrie is then able to help her father, when she realises that he misses her when she is not with him too.

This uplifting picture book will help children to embrace change, and could be a brilliant starting point for discussion about feelings about separation and divorce as well as about navigating negative thoughts and feelings towards changes outside of own’s own control. Beautifully illustrated by Jess Rose, the details in the pictures really bring the story alive, and provide great talking points when reading this story with your child, whether they have personally experienced separation or not.

Summer lives with her foster family and one day, a sinkhole opens up in their house. She finds a dragon in the sinkhole who is guarding some treasure, a bottle with a witch in it. The witch says she will grant Summer three wishes, but Summer soon learns it’s not a straightforward offer.Summer thinks that people don’t like her, including her foster parents.

‘The house with a dragon in it’ sensitively deals with the relationship between Summer and her foster family as well as the difficult relationship Summer has with other children at school. It shows that what we think other people think of us is not necessarily the reality and Summer learns to let people in.

There are brilliant illustrations from Emily Gravett throughout, including some double-page ones. I enjoyed the ‘granting wishes’ aspect of the story as Summer thought she knew what she wanted to wish for straight away and then this changed as her relationship with other characters developed.An enjoyable story with a lovely message about friendship and family, but also a great read for anyone who loves a bit of magic.

Smugglers Fox is a delicate, emotional coming of age story, which will touch the hearts of any reader, young or old.

The story is told from the point of view of Jonah, older brother to Rio, who faces many challenges, as both boys tragically get separated in foster care. Now alone with a new carer, Rio builds a bond with a red fox, where he seeks companionship and understanding. Eventually, this relationship leads to great adventure in the coves of Whitby. As the tale unwinds, it appears that the fox and Rio have a lot more in common than it seems, and they both need to show bravery in the face of physical and emotional challenges.

The author has an empathetic writing style, which incorporates a child-like perspective of the world, while integrating stunning metaphors and links with nature. Themes such as mental health, abandonment and deep emotional turmoil are told from the young boy’s point of view with great sensitivity; any child who has experienced some of the challenges within this book will be able to identify with the characters personal journeys. Despite the high emotion within Smugglers Fox, the story leads to great optimism and teaches the reader how love and connection are the key to acceptance. It also includes an exciting quest to follow a secret treasure map. I would highly recommend this story to children in Upper Key Stage 2, moving onto Secondary School.

This is the book equivalent of sitting wrapped in a duvet eating chocolate. It is simply delightful and while being an exciting adventure it also looks at finding your feet and the inner courage you need to get through. Author Lee Newbery wrote this story for his son, so that his son could see himself in a story. Newbery wanted a story where the child is adopted (and has two dads) but without the family set-up being the main focus of the story. His aim has been entirely achieved.

Yes, there is peril, a hideous monster and bullies, but it always feels as if it will work out in the end. All the pieces of an exciting adventure are here; two loyal friends, a sprinkling of magic, a very cute animal, a tense denouement. All of this is wrapped up with wonderful illustrations from Laura Catalan, which bring the story to life, topped off with a beautiful cover.

I can see this book becoming a ‘must read’ for lower Key Stage 2, and I for one would love to read it aloud to a group of children.

A moving and compassionately-told story from the author of the The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle. Also told through a dual narrative, this is a story with weighty themes including blended families, life with ADHD and the search for acceptance. Hugely relevant for today’s generation, Victoria Williamson writes with a galloping pace packaged at every turn with extraordinary compassion, delivering an enjoyable and empathy-building reading experience. The narrative offers powerful insights into life with ADHD…

Sonal has chosen ‘family’ as the topic for her school photography project. She thought it would be easy but she’s already regretting it. She can’t get everyone to focus so that she can take a group photo and even the individual snaps feature different members of her family looking at screens of various kinds. Sitting with her grandfather and sadly comparing her photos and family albums from the past shows just how much the digital world has taken over their lives. Egged on by her wise and long-suffering grandpa (who we suspect has thought for a while that a digital detox was in order), Sonal devises a plan for a family camping weekend without any devices at all.

From there, the warmly engaging story follows the innocently well-meaning but accident-prone heroine, whose exploits provide amusement while inviting empathy. Serena Patel captures the rhythms and cadences of modern family life brilliantly, wryly presenting an antidote to the perfect families often seen on social media. I thoroughly enjoyed the realistic perspective on parental and sibling relationships where squabbles and disagreements are normal.

Like the rest of the Barrington Stoke series, it is accessible but well-written and unpatronising, with black and white illustrations that work well with the lighthearted tone of the writing. It would make a great start to discussions of the mismatch between reality and social media profiles within the context of families. The more we expose this in schools the better, and this book does so in a gently unthreatening way.

Recommended as a read for pleasure for children in Year 4 and upwards who are developing reading stamina.