There are several reasons I liked the book Meredith Tax wrote about families. The first reason I enjoyed this book was due to the plot. The book was about a 6 year old girl telling a story about what not only makes up her family, but also all of the families she sees around her. "This is a loin's family: one father, one mother, and three cubs. They all live together in a cage at the zoo. My friend George also lives with one father, one mother, and two brothers --but not in a cage." Here you can see her comparing an animal family to her friends family. The second thing I liked about this story was the characters. The characters were realistic, and believable as they resemble how families in our world might be. "This is my cousin Louie. He's adopted. That means he didn't come from my Aunt Julie's belly, but they got him some place else." From this quote kids may understand that not every child has biological parents. The last reason I liked this book was because of the point of view. The point of view for this book was in first person. Angie the girl who told the story says things like, "A woman in our building has four dogs, but I don't think they are brothers because they look so different." In conclusion, I think that the 'big idea' of this book is that every family is different and unique in their own way, and thats alright as long as they love each other. ( )

Summary: "Families" is told from a young girl named Angie's perspective. In the story, she discusses different types of families and family dynamics. In the beginning, she describes her own family, where they live, and activities they do together. Then, she begins introducing and describes her friends, extended family members, and animals' families while discussing what makes their family unique and sometimes comparing them to her own family.

Review: The central message of the story, "Families," is the world is made up of all kinds of families, some may be big or small, but they are still a family because of how much they love each other. I believe this book did a good job of including a large variety of families. For example, the book talked about many types of families such as single-parent families, no children families, families that live other members like grandmothers and godmothers, and even animal families. I loved how the author extended the discussion to animal families because readers can learn how people and animals relate to one another. Additionally, I like how the book described the families. Instead of says who a person lived with, the author described the family dynamic through a child's eyes. For example, the book says "Douglas has two beds! One is at his mother's and the other is downstairs at his grandma's. He stays downstairs during the week because his mother works nights managing a bakery and his grandma brings him to school in the morning." The author introduced this family by saying the child has two beds instead of saying Douglass lives with both his mom and grandmother. ( )

I like how the author extends the notion of families to animals , it shows that diversity is not only found in humans but in all of life. Angie’s friend Marisel is from Puerto Rico and she lives with her mother aunt , grandparents , brothers and one sister. Marisel’s family makes the readers aware of different cultural ideas of family. In European American culture individualism is valued and grandparents typically do not live with their family, each generation lives in separate places, whereas other cultures many generations live together in the same residence. The story goes on to include several other variations of the term family. The final character Susie does not have a father, when the child learn this fact about Susie in school two boys, Frederick and George, say that they want to be Susie’s father. The kids conclude that they can be like families too. I think this brings a positive message of cooperation and unity among classmates. The illustration in the last page includes all the families hugging each other and holding up hearts I thought this was an effective way of bringing together the central theme; we all have differences yet we are all essentially the same. This book was written thirty one years ago yet I still believe that the message is relevant in today’s society ( )

This 1981 publication from the Feminist Press of the City University of New York is yet another "many different kinds of families" book, but it's groundbreaking inasmuch as it's one of the earliest "many family" books to portray a lesbian family. Interestingly, the lesbian family (illustrated on p. 26) is not explicitly named as such; they are referred to as the mother and "godmother" with whom Susie lives, but it's clear from the iconography (two women with short hair), and the very transparent attempt to give the second woman another identity (nobody lives with their godmother!), that they are attempting to portray a lesbian couple raising a child.

From Amazon: This [Spanish language translation] charming book for young readers is a winning introduction to the contemporary variety of families. Realities such as divorce, stepfamilies, adoption, single parenting, and gay and lesbian parenting are explored through the curious and non-judgmental eyes of six-year- old Angie as she introduces readers to her multicultural group of friends. In the end, the book's message is a heartfelt one: As Angie says, "Families are who you live with and who you love".