All Different Families

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 preschool or 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 of all shapes and sizes, including those with different parents and varying numbers of siblings as well as roles of other individuals and adoption. Each is done sensitively to help children understand and embrace the naturally different shapes of families, using animals as a way of showing natural differences.

The book would be most suitable for EYFS and KS1 but could be adapted for older age groups too. Each theme is linked to different animal families and the final pages of the books give more information about each of those animals.

Me, in the Middle is a brilliant and inclusive picture book that touches upon the different family trees that we all have and how this makes us different, unique and wonderful.

Initially started as work in school, Georgie is worried about creating her family tree, as she isn’t sure where she belongs. Working with her parents and looking at pictures of her family, she soon realises that her family tree stretches far and wide, across different continents, representing her mixed heritage. The comparison to tree branches runs throughout the story and is symbolic of the different family trees: not one looks the same as the other and that is okay. Some trees, like families, spread far and wide, whilst others are tall and narrow. In particular, the reference to all tree roots digging down into the same rich earth is a pivotal message about the importance of inclusion and sense of belonging, as well as being proud of your roots.

Various family trees are explored including one with adoption and two mums. The illustrations used throughout the book are engaging and beautiful. Readers will enjoy studying the different trees and may even spot one that symbolises their own family tree. The vocabulary used make the story easy to follow and could be used as part of a PSHE lesson to support with learning about families.Overall, this was a very enjoyable read, which leaves a lasting impression on the reader about the importance of celebrating difference.

Maisie’s Scrapbook is a beautiful picture book for younger readers, reflecting the deep richness of belonging to a multiracial family. Maisie is exceptionally well-loved by both her mother and her father and they bring different cultural experiences to her life because of their different heritages. Maisie does not just get to eat risotto; she gets to eat jollof rice too. She does not just hear the marimba, but also the violin. She enjoys a childhood richly interspersed with imagination, affection and story-telling

Any young child will enjoy this warm portrayal of family life. For many children in multiracial families, it can be a rarer experience to see their lives reflected in the books available to them. There is an underlying theme of what unites us – mama and dada may have different backgrounds but they both hug, praise, nag and love Maisie. What an important lesson for our children to understand that whatever our background, we are loving, feeling, caring humans and our families are important to us.

This book would be lovely to use in schools at any time, but perhaps especially while working on any unit about families. Children may also enjoy recognising the instruments mentioned if they are working on instruments or sounds (and it would be a lucky school indeed that had access to a marimba and a violin to show them!).

The illustrations are rich, bright, clear and appealing. The drawings which are done as though they are Maisie’s own on the endpapers add a warm and quirky touch.

I would recommend this book for young families and lower primary school classrooms.

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.

Jen Carney writes with love and humour. A brilliantly funny, family-friendly story perfect for fans of dogs, pranks and adventures. Cleverly illustrated with comic strips and cartoons this is both easily accessible and inclusive, with representation of families of different shapes and sizes.

Ferris Foster’s neighbour Destiny boasts about videos of her dog going viral. So in retaliation, Ferris claims that his dog Aldo can become an even bigger internet star. However, despite being his best friend, Aldo is not big or clever or talented. He is a dog! So when Aldo is filmed doing what looks like an amazing trick Ferris believes he is onto a winner. . . will Aldo give Ferris the break he needs and live up to his comic book alter-ego? Or will this be FAILURE with a capital F? Who doesn’t want to be famous these days?

This is a funny, feel-good, laugh-out-loud adventure to prove that family and friends are everything.

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 young girl visits the local food bank with her mother. An emptied penny-jar at home indicates that today is a no-money day and despite the mother’s hard work and measured frugality, the duo must make a trip to the food bank in order to stock their bare kitchen cupboards.

Mum is ashamed but politely makes the best of the situation. The girl, on the other hand, sees no stigma in the experience and enjoys meeting the kind food bank workers and eating their biscuits. Could she have her favourite cereal this time?, she asks, only to be scolded by her humiliated mother. This child is a wonderful example of finding joy in life as it is; the food bank visit is a normal experience for her and she will easily see the good in it. Under the loving wing of her mother she finds other simple pleasures too, like borrowing library books, trying on clothes in the charity shops and having fun dreaming out loud of what life might offer her one day.

It’s a beautiful and poignantly-told story that deserves a place in every classroom, providing a much-needed insight for many children into life on the breadline, while offering others a rare reflection of a familiar situation and a reassuring message that they are not alone. This is a book that is suitable to use across the whole primary age range and one that will be sure to encourage empathy and discussion around a very important topic.

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.