Love Makes a Family – A Booklist Celebrating Families
Title: Love Makes a Family
By: Sophie Beer
Published: 2018
Whether you have one parent, two moms, two dads, a mom and a dad, or another wonderful caregiver, there's one thing that makes a family a family ... and that's love.
Ages: 9 months - 3 years
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Title: Bathe the Cat
By: Alice McGinty
Published: 2021
Dad has posted a list of chores for the family to do before grandma comes, including bathing the cat; but the cat does not want a bath, so she mixes up the instructions, and soon the family is mowing the floor, vacuuming the lawn, mopping the baby--and the house is in chaos.
Ages: 3-5 years
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Title: An ABC of families
By: Abbey Williams
Published: 2021
An ABC of Families present big concepts to the youngest of children, and celebrates all kinds of families, no matter what they look like. This is an introduction to families big and small, in all shapes and sizes, for everyone.
Ages: 3-6 years
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Title: A Chair for my Mother
By: Vera B Williams
Published: 1982
A child, her waitress mother, and her grandmother save dimes to buy a comfortable armchair after all their furniture is lost in a fire.
Ages: 4-8 years
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Title: Stella Brings the Family
By: Miriam Schiffer
Published: 2015
Stella brings her two fathers to school to celebrate Mother's Day.
Ages: 5-8 years
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Title: The White Swan Express: A story about adoption
By: Jean Davies Okimoto
Published: 2002
Across North America, people in four different homes prepare for a special trip to China, while four baby girls in China await their new adoptive parents.
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Title: My Maddy
By: Gayle Pitman
Published: 2020
A child celebrates her Maddy, who is neither mommy nor daddy but a little bit of both, like so many things in nature. Includes note to parents.
Ages: 4-8 years
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Title: My Footprints
By: Bao Phi
Published: 2019
Upon realing from the harsh words of bullies, a Vietnamese American girl heads out into the forest in search of inner peace. She connects with the forest creatures and eventually finds a path back home into the loving embrace of her two mothers.
Ages: 4-7 years
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Title: One Family
By: George Shannon
Published: 2015
In this story that introduces numbered groups from one to ten, we realize that families can be many things.
Ages: 4-8
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Title: The Great Big Book of Families
By: Mary Hoffman
Published: 2011
An illustrated overview of families, examining various aspects of families from houses to holidays to schools and pets, and discussing feelings and family.
Ages: 4-7 years
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Title: Heather Has Two Mommies
By: Lesléa Newman
Published: 2015
Heather's favorite number is two. She has two arms, two legs, and two pets. And she also has two mommies. When Heather goes to school for the first time, someone asks her about her daddy, but Heather doesn't have a daddy. Then something interesting happens. When Heather and her classmates all draw pictures of their families, not one drawing is the same. It doesn't matter who makes up a family, the teacher says, because "the most important thing about a family is that all the people in it love one another.
Ages: 3-7 years
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Title: Plenty of Hugs
By: Fran Manushkin
Published: 2020
Illustrations and gently rhyming text follow two mothers and their toddler on a sunny day.
Ages: 2-5 years
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Title: Friday Night Wrestlefest
By: Jennifer Fox
Published: 2020
Ladies and Gentlemen, it's Friday night, and these kids are ready to wrestle! Join Dangerous Daddoo as he dishes out some serious moves to get the kids ready for bed. But what happens when Flying Mom Bomb gets home from work? Are the kids toast?
Ages: 4-8 years
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Title: Tell me again about the night I was born
By: Jamie Lee Curtis
Published: 1958
A young girl asks her parents to tell her again the cherished family story of her birth and adoption.
Ages: 1-6
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Title: Luna Loves Library Day
By: Joseph Coehlo
Published: 2017
Luna loves library day: that's the day she spends with her dad. Exploring the shelves they find magic, mystery and even start to mend their own history.
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Ages: 4-8
Title: Just Like a Mama
By: Alice Faye Duncan
Published: 2020
Carol Olivia Clementine wishes her parents did not live so far away, but Mama Rose provides a home, loves her, and cares for her just like a mother would.
Ages: 4-8 years
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Title: Families, Famlies, Families
By: Suzanne Lang
Published: 2015
A story presented as a series of framed portraits features animals in dozens of combinations that represent and celebrate all kinds of non-traditional families.
Ages: 3-7 years
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Title: Let Me Fix You a Plate: A Tale of Two Kitchens
By: Elizabeth Lilly
Published: 2021
A girl describes her family's annual visit with Mamaw and Papaw in West Virginia, then Abuela and Abuelo in Florida, especially the foods and cultural elements that make each kitchen unique.
Ages: 4-8
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Title: Mi Casa is my Home
By: Laurenne Sala
Published: 2021
Bienvenidos a Lucia's home. Lucia lives in her casa with her big, loud, beautiful familia, and she's going to show you around!
Ages: 3-7 years
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Title: Hairs = Pelitos
By: Sandra Cisneros
Published: 1994
A child describes how each person in the family has hair that looks and acts different, Papa's like a broom, Kiki's like fur, and Mama's with the smell of warm bread.
Ages: 5-8 years
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Title: The Heart of Mi Familia
By: Carrie Lara
Published: 2020
A girl describes her visits to her grandma's house and her abuela's house, and how both sides of the family come together to celebrate her younger brother's birthday.
Ages: 4-8 years
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Title: Love, Penelope
By: Joanne Rocklin
Published: 2018
Fifth-grader Penny writes a series of letters to her future sibling, including facts about their Oakland, California, home, questions about whether their moms will ever marry, and especially that he or she is loved.
Ages: 9-13 years
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Title: The misadventures of the family Fletcher
By: Dana Alison Levy
Published: 2014
Relates the adventures of a family with two fathers, four adopted boys, and a variety of pets as they make their way through a school year, kindergarten through sixth grade, and deal with a grumpy new neighbor.
Ages: 6-11 years
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Title: The unforgettable Logan Foster
By: Shawn Peter
Published: 2021
Logan, an undersized twelve-year-old orphan with a photographic memory and no filter, discovers that his foster parents are superheroes in grave danger and only Logan's highly logical mind can save them.
Ages: 8-12
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Title: The Lotterys Plus One
By: Emma Donoghue
Published: 2017
Once upon a time, two couples with Jamaican, Mohawk, Indian, and Scottish ethnic roots won the lottery and bought a big house where all of them, four adults and seven adopted and biological children, could live together in harmony--but change is inevitable, especially when a disagreeable grandfather comes to stay.
Ages: 4-8
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Title: A bear called Paddington
By: Michael Bond
Published: 2014
A very small bear found by Mr. and Mrs. Brown at Paddington Station becomes one of the family.
Ages: 6-8 years
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