All Families Are Special Hardcover – Picture Book, January 1, 2003

I really like this book. It begins with a teacher telling her class that she's about to become a grandmother. The kids express surprise that their teacher has a family, and she says, "Everyone is part of a family." She invites them to talk about their families. No two families are alike - there are single-parent families, families with same-sex parents, blended families, multigenerational families, big families, small families, and families with pets. There are Caucasian, Hispanic, African-American, east Asian, and south Asian (Pakistani) families, and it looks like the adoptive and blended families are multiracial. The teacher prompts the children to talk about bad times and also good times with their families. She ends with, "No families are the same. All families are definitely special!"The illustrations are wonderful. They depict families full of warmth, love, joy and affection engaged in everyday activities such as eating dinner, playing outside, watching movies, and celebrating birthdays.I particularly like books that offer glimpses of many different, specific families. This book provides a nice range of different family configurations while making it clear that "no families are the same" - if your family doesn't match one of these configurations, that doesn't mean your family is weird. I also appreciate the diversity of the children in the class (although everyone in the book appears to be able-bodied).

This is one of my favorite books we own. It's great if your family is made up of something other than the traditional mom and dad in the house or for those who have a traditional family, but would like to educate their children about the other possibilities. This book shows various types of families including a divorced family, one with two moms, a small traditional family, a single-parent household, a child living with grandparents, etc. We have a very atypical family situation. This was a great book to help our kids understand that families come in many varieties and they don't have to feel different because they don't have a traditional style family. And the book does it in such a way as to keep children interested throughout the whole story. It even held the attention of a 3 year old.

Great book for helping students to appreciate different family type and each family is unique and special despite its composition.

Very colorful and fun. I loved that it covered most bases and my daughter came home with information on her classmates and who had what family type. It helped her become more understanding. The only thing it didn't have was transgender, but I've covered that with other books since it directly impacts our family.

Our family is the "new normal" and this story is huge in letting the kids read about different types of families. I feel like it helped them understand that while our family may not be the sitcom tradition that ours is still special.Many different types of family structures are pictured here which fortunately covered each set of parents!

I love the fact that this book promotes diversity. I am a Black American mother with a Black daughter and a Black & Latino son. This book informs my children that people and families come in all different shapes and sizes.

Wonderful book--gentle touch on different kinds of families. Not too in depth but opens the doors for discussions and makes a clear point that all families are different and all are ok and special.

I WOULD RECOMMEND

I've bought all the books about separated parents and this one is my favourite one! Its not just like mummy and daddy don't live together, but it actually talks about different families and what they look like ! Ones with absent parents, adopted , 2 mummies, remarried parents, living with grandparents. It took a while to come but was good. Kts hardback but papers inside aren't glossy.

Fantastic book

I bought this as a Christmas gift for my daughter's teacher at school. I never did get to read it, which i am not too happy with that. But the teacher did have very high praise for this book. When my daughter came home from school, she was very happy that the teacher did read this book to the whole class. I think it is a great book about how every family is different. No two family's are going to be that same. And children need to know that it is still OK to be friends with someone who has a different family life than you do.

This book was a nice change for our unconventional family. I am a great aunt who has joint custody with birth parents. Nice to read about a variety of living situations.

Good Buy !