BEGINNINGS

In warmly glowing illustrations and dialogue that exudes familial affection, sketches of six differently composed families. Each begins with a child's question—``Tell me, Mommy, about how I began,'' or, ``Daddy, when I was first born, you were just my Uncle Joe, right?''—leading into what's obviously a comfortable reiteration of a familiar tale: how Ruben ``grew inside, giving me a basketball belly...[and when] you came right out of me...Daddy and I sputtered and sparkled with joy''; how Katherine Grace came from Korea when her birth mother couldn't care for her; how Mark's single mother, before she died, asked her brother to care for her baby; how Olivia's single mom and Habib's parents arranged to adopt babies yet to be born; and how Nicole, who uses a wheelchair, was adopted into a large family at the age of six. Kroll's upbeat, realistic text and Schuett's vibrant acrylic and pastel art combine for a joyous take on the diversity of the contemporary family. (Picture book. 4-9)