All Kinds of Families: 40th Anniversary Edition

by Norma Simon, Sarah S. Brannen (Illustrator)

Overview

Explores in words and pictures what a family is and how families vary in makeup and styles.

In a book far ahead of its time, All Kinds of Families celebrated the broad diversity of American families when it was first published in 1976. Now Norma Simon and Sarah S. Brannen have updated this classic for the modern age. Multicultural and multigenerational people demonstrate what being in a family means and how all families offer each other support and love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807502860
Publisher:	Whitman, Albert & Company
Publication date:	05/01/2016
Edition description:	Anniversary Edition
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	162,522
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	AD590L (what's this?)
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!.

Sarah S. Brannen is the author-illustrator of Madame Martine, Madame Martine Breaks the Rules, and Uncle Bobby's Wedding. She lives in Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

"Simon's revised text strives toward inclusiveness in describing diverse family constellations, and Brannen’s soft-engaging illustrations augment its efforts."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2016-02-17
An updated version of a family-diversity book from the 1970s. Simon's revised text strives toward inclusiveness in describing diverse family constellations, and Brannen's soft, engaging illustrations augment its efforts. Single parents, same-sex parents, multiracial families, and families of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds are included. And yet while stepfamilies are mentioned, divorce isn't, and the text is both choppy and redundant as it suggests who might be in a family. For example, one passage reads: "Do you have any stepsisters or stepbrothers? You can be a stepbrother or a stepsister to other people in your family. Did you know that?" And although the text acknowledges family rifts with a line about not getting together frequently ("maybe it's because the family argues with one another"), a general idealization of family negates the experiences of the most vulnerable children. The lines "From when you were a baby to when you're a kid, and from when you're a grown-up and for as long as you live, YOU are always part of your family" exclude children who are adopted at older ages or who are among the 400,000-plus American children without permanent homes. Adoption itself is acknowledged as a way a family grows, but birth families are excluded from consideration. Many, but not all, kinds of families. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews