by Mary Hoffman & illustrated by Ros Asquith ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2011
A primer on families in words and pictures. "Once upon a time," Hoffman begins, "most families in books looked like this." Asquith's illustration shows Caucasian daddy, mommy, son, daughter, dog and cat, all smiling and standing in a line. In the background is a neat little house with an apple tree, flowers and a white picket fence in front of it. "But in real life, families come in all sorts of shapes and sizes." Hoffman breaks it down with two-page spreads covering various topics: Who's in Your Family, Homes, School, Jobs, Holidays, Food ("Some moms and dads are great cooks...Others prefer to buy ready-made meals. Most families get their food from shops or markets. But some people grow their own") and more. Each spread is bordered by dozens of small illustrations; the spread on School, for example, features school books, varieties of writing utensils, paper and other items. The book ends with a challenge to try and make a family tree and a gallery of more than a dozen families, in framed pictures. "What's yours like today?" Hoffman asks. The text is packed with examples, and the same goes for Asquith's energetic watercolors. They celebrate diversity, not by proselytizing but by simply presenting it. For the very young, it will seem like a colorful reference book. A sublimely simple idea, brilliantly executed. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3516-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
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by Mary Hoffman ; illustrated by Ros Asquith
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by George Shannon ; illustrated by Blanca Gómez ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 26, 2015
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts.
A playful counting book also acts as a celebration of family and human diversity.
Shannon’s text is delivered in spare, rhythmic, lilting verse that begins with one and counts up to 10 as it presents different groupings of things and people in individual families, always emphasizing the unitary nature of each combination. “One is six. One line of laundry. One butterfly’s legs. One family.” Gomez’s richly colored pictures clarify and expand on all that the text lists: For “six,” a picture showing six members of a multigenerational family of color includes a line of laundry with six items hanging from it outside of their windows, as well as the painting of a six-legged butterfly that a child in the family is creating. While text never directs the art to depict diverse individuals and family constellations, Gomez does just this in her illustrations. Interracial families are included, as are depictions of men with their arms around each other, and a Sikh man wearing a turban. This inclusive spirit supports the text’s culminating assertion that “One is one and everyone. One earth. One world. One family.”
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-30003-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
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by George Shannon ; illustrated by Jennifer K. Mann
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by Lesléa Newman & illustrated by Mike Dutton ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 26, 2011
It may be his mothers’ wedding day, but it’s Donovan’s big day in Newman’s (Heather Has Two Mommies, 1989, etc.) latest picture book about queer family life. Centered on the child’s experience and refreshingly eschewing reference to controversy, the book emerges as a celebration of not only Mommy’s and Mama’s mutual love but progress toward equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. Readers, however, don't know immediately know why it is “a very BIG day” for Donovan or what the “very BIG job” is that he has to do. In his affectionate, humorous gouache paintings with digital finish, Dutton cleverly includes clues in the form of family pictures in an earlier spread set inside their home, and then a later spread shows Donovan in a suit and placing a “little white satin box that Aunt Jennifer gave him” into his pocket, hinting toward his role as ring bearer. But it’s not until the third-to-last spread that he stands with his parents and hands “one shiny gold ring to Mommy [and] one shiny gold ring to Mama.” He, of course, gets to kiss the brides on the last page, lending a happily-ever-after sensibility to the end of this story about a family's new beginning. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: April 26, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58246-332-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tricycle
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
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by Lesléa Newman ; illustrated by Tata Bobokhidze & Tika Bobokhidze
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by Lesléa Newman ; illustrated by Joshua Heinsz
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by Lesléa Newman ; illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez
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