FAMILIES

Sticking to her tried and true formula (i.e., eye-catching photographs of people from all over the world accompanied by brief snippets of text), the author celebrates the concept of family. She includes many of the different forms a family can take—large or small, traditional or single-parent, foster, or biological. All are represented in this book. The text clearly and simply explains that what makes a family a special unit is that its members love each other, have fun together, and are there to help each one another. The presentation of family is certainly idealized here (perhaps the book should be called “Happy Families”). It would have been nice to see a few photos of angry, fighting families, just so the child listening to this story wouldn’t feel that something is wrong with his or her own family if its members aren’t always smiling and cheerful. While much of this ground has already been covered in Morris’s own Loving (1990) as well as in many other books, teachers and librarians will be happy to have this attractive and useful book in their collections. (Picture book. 4-7)