ALWAYS MOM, FOREVER DAD

Straight-up bibliotherapy delivered by a composite narrator whose parents live apart.

Leaving out overt mention of same-sex parents but otherwise trying to be inclusive, Weber pairs eight smiling young children on adjacent spreads with similarly smiling adults of diverse mixed-and-matched skin color and facial markers. Seasons and settings differ, but in each case, the adults (who all live alone, from the evidence) are depicted sharing parallel activities with their child—baking or eating together, planning to call or send a drawing to the other parent, reading or telling stories—as the narrator delivers platitudes: “[Dad] says sometimes things fall apart so you can build something stronger than before”; “[M]om says changes can be hard but they can be exciting too.” In the opening and closing scenes, the only two showing both parents (their hands, anyway) in the same frame, the child expresses a statement of belief in parental affirmations that he or she is and will always be loved.

It covers the basics but far too simplistically to be as persuasive as, for instance, Claire Masurel and Kady MacDonald Denton’s Two Homes (2001) or Tamara Schmitz’s Standing on My Own Two Feet (2008). (Picture book. 5-9)