There's Only One of Me!

by Pat Hutchins

Daughter
Sister
Half-sister
Stepdaughter
Stepsister
Cousin
Niece
Granddaughter
Great-Granddaughter There are so many things to be when the relatives are coming to your birthday party! But sometimes the best thing of all is to be a birthday girl. Oh, happy birthday!

Genres: Picture Books, Family, Childrens

24 pages, Library Binding

First published March 1, 2003

About the author

Pat Hutchins is an English illustrator and writer of children's books.

She won the 1974 Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject. The work was The Wind Blew, a picture book in rhyme which she also wrote. It shows how "a crowd of people anxiously chase their belongings" in the wind.

Reviews

[Ariel Filion · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's Only One of Me is a simplistic novel about being unique. This book highlights the importance of uniqueness through family relations. This book is repetitive, but it just talks about who Pat is in the relation to all of her family members. She is the only one with all those titles and that makes her special.

This book is a part of multicultural children's literature because it does a good job at talking about blended families. Pat is not just a daughter, but also a stepdaughter. As years go on more and more kids have a stepparent that essentially becomes their parent. This book shows Pat's excitement about being a part of a blended family. It normalizes the idea of blended families and having stepbrothers, stepsisters, and stepparents. The book also does a great job with illustrations. All of Pat's family is not just white. The images show interracial marriages and cousins of different races. I would read this book to my little niece at age four who is experiencing being part of a blended family. I think you could read this to very young kids.

[Nancy Roach · Rating 3 out of 5]

By looking at the title this is not what I was expecting from the book. It starts off with the first page having a picture of a table and then as each person comes in she says how she is related to them. It begins with her mother and then more and more relatives. I do like the movement of the pages and how as one enters they go to the other side of the page. They are all coming to celebrate her birthday and each bring a dish for the celebration. Puts an emphasis on how there is only one of her!! This book was okay definitely not one of my favorite books the colors were pretty and the movement of the book was good. But it is a little distracting the relatives before's names were in parenthesis under the new one being introduced. This would be good to show about family and also there is only one of you!

[Michaela Klegseth · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a girl's birthday comes around and it time to invite people it consists of family members. She is her parents daughter.Her aunts and uncles neice.Her cousins cousin and sister to her siblings. She is her grandparents and great grandparents great and great granddaughter. She is many things to her family and she acknowledge with all the things she is to them that she is the only one of herself.I like how the book mentions that even though she has half and step siblings that she is something to her.I like how the book has characters that are not the same skin type as her and that she is still related to them.

[Molly Housdan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a lot of things, but I there is only one me! In this book a family is having a family get together and the little girl is telling the reader that she is her mother's daughter, her sister's sister, so on and so on. Until eventually you get to the end of the book, and she reveals it's her birthday!
This book once again was not quite what I expected but I think there is a message that could be pulled out from it.
For my future classroom, I could use this as an example that we are just one person with a lot of titles. There is only one of us! However, we have family who we can lean on and have support.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfect read for blended families who want to get all the relationships figured out. The birthday girl is having a number of relatives arrive with desserts. Great grandmother, uncle and aunt, step brother, cousin, stepfather, they are all here.

[Shiloah · Rating 3 out of 5]

🤯

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

About a blended family.

[Elissa Genry · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a very simple story, where the words on the first page are also on the second page, and on the second page there are added words, and so on. The girl states how she is related to each of her family members and how this makes her who she is. The pictures illustrate that a family gathering is occurring as all the different family members enter the house, and the last page states it is because it's her birthday.

I didn't really enjoy this book. It was very simple and didn't really have an obvious theme.

This book could be used in a classroom to encourage students to be themselves.

[Carin Atkinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This non-fiction story explains how different members of a family can be related. The story takes place at a family gathering with a young girl narrating. As more guests arrive to the party, she explains how everyone is related to her. At the end of her story, she is surrounded by her large blended family celebrating her birthday.
The text is beneficial if discussing family relations. It could be used as a supplement to visualize different members of a family. It could also be used to discuss divorce and remarriage. The characters are step and half siblings, as well as interracial marriages.
The illustrations do a great job of adding to the depth of the story. The plot is rather non-existent and the simple language makes this story perfect for younger children. The pictures are busy enough to keep children interested, but not too busy to cause a lot of distractions.

[Clairissa D · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book a little girl is exploring her various roles and titles in the family. The story takes place at her house and each time a family member enters she greets them and then addresses what she is to that person,daughter,cousin, granddaughter etc.The main characters consist of the little girl as well as her family members.I would consider this book to be a realistic fiction.I would use this book the in the classroom to help them relate to each other and show them similarities in their positions in the family. It will help them recognize that all though their families may be different in size you and your classmates still share the same title or family member. In regards to my literacy text topic it will help assist in students recognizing their positions and diversity with in a family.

[Alex Wingrove · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a short story about a little girl whose birthday is today, and lots of her family are coming over to her house. As each person walks in the door, she explains her relationship to them (i.e. "I am my mother's daughter"). At the end she says how it's cool to be so many things (mother's daughter, sister's sister, etc.) even though there is only one of her.
I thought this book was alright. I just didn't like how repetitive it was. One thing I did like was the illustrations, specifically the cat. On every spread, the cat is somewhere else to be found, lots of times smelling the food on the table.
This book would be great to teach the importance of uniqueness. Even though every person is related to another person, we are all unique and there is only one of us! I think this is important to teach at a young age because they start comparing themselves to others as they get older.

[Mary Lou Carolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

For children from blended families, this book makes a wonderful gift. For classrooms everywhere, There's Only One of Me, can address "non-traditional" family roles and help take the discomfort out of feeling different and celebrate it. Written and colorfully illustrated for ages 4 and up, Pat Hutchins uses simple text to identify all of the roles a little girl has in her life: daugher, sister, half-sister, stepdaughter, stepsister, cousin, niece, granddaughter and great-granddaughter; and her multicultural family that gathers to celebrate her birthday. A lively classroom discussion could ensue after reading this book as kids can relate their own uniqueness and all the roles they have in the "new normal" family of today.

[Alexa Maring · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would be a good book to use with students to show how we are important to so many different people. The structure of this story is repetitive. It begins with "I'm my mother's daughter." and continues along different relatives. Each time a new relation is introduced the previous relations are written below. I would recommend this book for preschool, maybe Kindergarten, because of the repetitiousness of the text.

[Ashley Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book would be great when talking about families in your classroom, since it is less common that students' parents are still married. This would be a great book to show how important we are to many different people in the world. This book is a great book to celebrate the many different roles your students have in other people's lives.





IUS Library

[Taylor Troncin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little girl explores all of the things that she is on her birthday.

This book could be used to discuss families and family relationships. Other than being read aloud, however, I am not sure of any other use for this book.

This was a cute book about being everyone's something. It really explore a lot of roles without being too deep.

[Erin Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is about a girl describing all the things that she is to her family. It's describing that it's good that there is only one of her, but she is so many things to her family.
I don't think that I will use this book in my classroom, because it's not very well written, and it is extremely repetitive.

[Stacie Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book depicting families and what you are called according to who you are related to! Enjoyable

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

What is a family? Who is in your family? I love that this book addresses the fact that there is not one kind of family. Wonderful book for all children. Was recommended by our text.

[Elanor]

All by herself!

[Zachary Christian]

This book is about girl who is describing everything that she is to her family. She says how its good that there is only one of her yet that one of her is so many things rapped up into one.
I didn't really care for this book a hole lot but it was very repetitive so for struggling readers this might help a lot in a reading intervention.