2000 CBC/NCSS Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies Norma Simon uses both the neighborhood and the international stage to celebrate children. Each carefully chosen example and comparison will help to forge a connection to friends and neighbors, other cultures, and faraway lands. As children enjoy this book, the world will grow a little smaller while understanding and acceptance will grow larger.

Rookie Reader, Level A.

The beloved, bestselling Nancy Tillman returns with a picture book celebrating what makes every child special in their own way.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • This joyful rhyming book encourages children to value the “different” in all people, leading the way to a kinder world in which the differences in all of us are celebrated and embraced. Macy is a girl who’s a lot like you and me, but she's also quite different, which is a great thing to be. With kindness, grace, and bravery, Macy finds her place in the world, bringing beauty and laughter wherever she goes and leading others to find delight in the unique design of every person. Children are naturally aware of the differences they encounter at school, in their neighborhood, and in other everyday relationships. They just need to be given tools to understand and appreciate what makes us “different,” permission to ask questions about it, and eyes to see and celebrate it in themselves as well as in those around them.

No matter your size, shape, or pedigree--if you love each other, you are a family! Moms, dads, sisters, brothers — and even Great Aunt Sue — appear in dozens of combinations, demonstrating all kinds of nontraditional families! Silly animals are cleverly depicted in framed portraits, and offer a warm celebration of family love. From School Library Journal PreS-Gr 1—Imagine a house with many rooms, whose walls each have a different color or wallpaper, accenting a family portrait hanging there. On a rustic wooden wall hangs the first portrait—a large family of ducks posing beside a still pond. The next spread shows three pandas in pink vests, much like the pink oriental wallpaper behind them. Each portrait features a gently rhyming line: "Some children live with their grandparents…/and some live with an aunt./Some children have many pets…/and some just have a plant." All of these appealing images demonstrate different ways of being a family. "Some children live with their father./ Some children have two mothers./Some children are adopted./Some have stepsisters and—brothers." The cartoon-style critters contrast pleasantly with more realistic elements—a bamboo plant, a slender ceramic dog, a fat ceramic cat. Families of hippos, tigers, lions, ostriches, and whales join the other family groups in the final spread. The loud-and-clear message is that "if you love each other, then you are a family." And imagine the many children who will be reassured because they have found a portrait of a family they will recognize as their own. A solid choice for most libraries.—Mary Jean Smith, formerly at Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN

Perfect for the youngest readers, this board book adaptation of the acclaimed Shades of People celebrates the diversity of everyday life. Cocoa, tan, rose, and almond--people come in lots of shades, even in the same family. Skin color is one of our most noticeable physical traits, and this beautiful board book, with its vibrant photographs and very simple text, provides a perfect starting point to talk about race and diversity with very young readers. At school, at the beach, and in the city, diverse and joyful groups of children invite young readers both to take notice and to look beyond the obvious. Combining lively action shots and candid portraits, Shelley Rotner's photographs showcase a wide variety of kids and families--many shades, and many bright smiles.

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.