Families: A Picture Book for Young Children (Ages 4-8) About Families Around the World

by Ann Morris

Some children live with their mothers and fathers. Others have stepparents or live with just one parent. Still others live with grandparents or foster parents who chose them specially. But all children all around the world, are part of families--big and small, loving, sharing, and caring for one another. This look at all kinds of families from all over the world helps young children begin to think about families they belong to, as it gives them a glimpse into the rich variety of world cultures.

Genres: Picture Books, Family, Childrens, Nonfiction, Storytime, Cultural, Juvenile

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Alon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the book it's about families. (Alon, 6)

[frogfairie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars
A nice introduction to the preschool class about different family dynamics.

[Christian Wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has beautiful photos of families and very little words. I like how the book emphasizes the pictures instead of the words and students are able to identify with either a huge or small family, no sister or no brother, multiple relatives, or adoptive parents. This is a very diverse book, it shows families of all kinds from all around the world like Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Ethiopia, Japan, Vietnam, Brazil, South Korea, Russia, and India. I love how the book captures a wide variety of places and because of it, it showed multiple cultural practices like birthday celebrations, a family creating masks for the Day of the Dead, and a family during a Passover Seder. The language and style of the book is appropriate and not to difficult for young children. The illustrations really are the best part of the book because the children will find it easy to identify with many of the pictures because they might see some of the practices they do at home with their family. This book shows children that families come in many different shapes and sizes from different backgrounds and similar ones.

[Savanah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Level: 1.5 (Lexile 590)
Interest Level: K-2nd grade
Genre: nonfiction, informational
Main Characters: families
Setting: all over the world
Point of View: narrator

This is a nonfiction book in which the author’s purpose is to educate the reader. The story shows realistic pictures of different types of families. The families portrayed in this book come from all over the world. There is also a glossary in the back of the book that shows the picture of the family in the book and the country where that family is from. The countries in which some of the families portrayed in this book are from the United States, India, Ethiopia, Canada, Vietnam, Brazil, South Korea, and Russia. The story goes on to show the different characteristics of a family and how families interact with one another. The book shows how these different families love each other, help each other out, work, play, eat, cook, and celebrate together.

This is a great book to even teach text features such as an index. You could even have your students look at a picture and figure out how to look up where that family is from based on a text feature such as an index. This is a great way to teach students about different families and the diversity and similarities between these families of different culture and origin.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ann Morris has created some wonderful books. Even so, I'm always a little hesitant with books like this that feature lots of different families from lots of different places under broad, simplistic text. It's hard (aka - impossible) to represent everyone and easy to fall into stereotypes. When I use a text like this with young children, they accept the positive message about families but have many (wonderful) questions about the contexts of the families they see in the photographs -- especially those families within social and cultural contexts vastly different than my students' own. To appropriately and adequately put the families in context requires sustained attention and can be done a disservice by a short, passing response. My concern is that by not being able to offer the long answer that I might be contributing to misinformation or continued stereotypes. Even so, books like this are a valuable way to introduce the vast richness of human diversity. It can be a tough balance. The book is perhaps best in a one-on-one situation rather than large group so that you can really take your time to study the beautifully detailed photographs and address comments and questions as they arise.

[Lauma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Recommended for preschool and first graders, this is a picture book expressing the concept that families are the same all around the world because they all love and care for one another. It contains photographs of different families eating, playing, working, and gathering together. They represent people from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Russia, Japan, South Korea, India, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia.

Although this book shares a variety of cultures to express how we can seem different but have the same needs and feelings, it falls short in several areas. Noticeably absent were people from Mexico and any African-American families. All the outdoor photographs represented rural lifestyles, with no representation of urban life. Finally, some of the families seemed to be stereotypes such as Vietnamese living on a boat and Native Americans living in log hogan.

This book could be used in an early unit on family and to offer a glimpse of other world cultures. However, depending on your students, there may be some that don't see themselves represented very well--including, sadly, those that do not have loving families.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This narrative includes a compilation of family photographs from over ten countries worldwide that children are likely to be able to relate to (ex. structure, function, activity). The author, Ann Morris, provides numerous examples of different kinds of family structures (ex. kids who live with two parents, one parent, step-parent, grandparents, adoptive parents, and foster families).The story teaches that although there can be many differences between families (ex. size, race, religion), all families share commonalities-the biggest one being that “all children are part of families.” As a teacher, I would use this text to show students a multicultural perspective of different family structures. “Families” is a text that would be an excellent segue to a social studies lesson (ex. text includes map showing the various countries represented). I especially like that the world traveling author provides an index of the photographs which gives a brief description of each photograph and the location in which it was taken. Morris does a great job of including over forty photographs of families in her book, yet not one family looks like another.

[Allison Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nonfiction and informational book that discusses about ten countries worldwide that children are likely to be able to relate to when it comes to family structures. Ann Morris provides a variety of examples of different kinds of family structures such as kids who live with two parents, one parent, step-parent, grandparents, adoptive parents, and foster families. "Families" teaches children that families can be different sizes and that EVERY child is apart of some family unit. Children seeing the realistic view of how families can look like will allows them to be more opened in knowing that 'hey not everyone has the same family as me but they are all loved'. Ann Morris illustrations demonstrate the diversity of families because every family mentioned has a personal picture of themselves and there is not one family that looks the same allowing children to notice differences.

[Tavia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book that provides information about families. It talks about families and the things they like to do. It includes how families are different sizes and how they are made up of different types of people. It mentions in the in how "all children are apart of families". This book relates to the cultural topic: family, because it provides information to a specific subject which is families. This book is an informational text, and should be able to be understood by children of all ages. The illustrations which are pictures in this book have more meaning than the text and are guaranteed to capture the readers attention. This story also includes a wide range of diverse cultural groups, values, and perspectives. Children are sure to gain some type of understanding about families and how they are different.

[Marissa Twitchell]

Families by Ann Morris is a non-fiction book that describes what a family is and has a variety of pictures of different families doing all kinds of activities throughout the book. I think this book relates to my topic because the book shows all kinds of families that can relate to kids from diverse backgrounds. This book shows realistic pictures of families participating in religious, cooking and working activities. Throughout the book is describes families of all sizes and structures such as adoptive and foster families. This book offers many opportunities for children to question and explore the new families they are familiar and unfamiliar with and the different activities the families are participating in.

[Mary Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the simple text in this book, and the pairing with real photographs. I appreciated the way that so many types of families were represented and talked about. The photographs also include a wide representation of families, different races, ethnic groups, countries. The end notes indicate what countries many of the photographs were taken in, and what's happening in the photographs.

Unfortunately, the quality of the photographs could be better. They come across as a bit dull in colors (not in composition). Wish we had this text with the bright colors of National Geographic magazines.

[Tammie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Familes, by Ann Morris gives, children a glimpse into family structure from all parts of the world. Some children have mothers and fathers, while others have one parent, grand parents, foster parents, are adopted, and more. The book has photos of families from all over the world. This is a great book to teach that families no matter big or small all have love and care for one another.The simple words that go along with the photos amke it a good read aloud book for emerging readers topractice their own skills.This is great for cultural awareness and getting children to think about who they are and where they belong in a family unit. This book is ideal for students of all ages pre-5.

[Kim Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would most likely recommend this book for younger readers. The pictures used in this book are not animated. Using real life pictures impacts inside the book with the details one can observe of the people such as clothing, appearance, etc. The book represents people from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Russia, Japan, South Korea, India, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia. This book could be used in an early unit on family and to offer a glimpse of other world cultures. Again I would use this more for younger kids who are just now understanding family differences, and culture.

[Celeste · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book of photographs not only introduces the reader to various multicultural families, but the various diverese make up of families. The picture book provides the reader with information on the various ways a family is comprised of and offers an index at the end that informs the reader of what part of the world each photograph of a family was taken. It provides as an educational and informative read to use in a classroom to teach children about families and cultures around the world.

[Kylie Syphus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great multicultural book. It talked about different families that come in all sizes, colors, etc. It shows that there are families with two parents, some with only one parent, some children live with their grandparents, while others live in foster or adopted homes. Some families eat different things. Some talk different and some dress different. But no matter how different families are, all families love each other.

[Tyrone Hardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Families” by Ann Morris is much more of picture book that is best suited for Pre-K and Kindergarten students. This book display several cultures and it maintains the simple and powerful theme of family. This would be a great book to have at the beginning of the school year for Pre-K and Kindergarten students. The book uses actual photograph to emphasize the realness of family.

[Gizzard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Standing in for the book Adopting. This book is mainly about older child adoption in Britain. It does seem to focus on the negative, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I do think Adopting is a good book for anyone thinking about older child adoption (or any child from the foster system.) Lots of things to think about.

[Sharmin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book which discusses different families around the world. It also includes pictures of how different families celebrate their holidays. Children will learn a lot about different cultures!

[Kelly Thevenot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Families is a great book to incorporate in a lesson about the different types of families. There could be foster parents, single family, extended families, adopted families, and others. All families are specials and every child should know this.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as diverse as The Great Big Book of Families. Only one of the families in the book was multiracial. And the only non-heterosexual family was only a small picture without any textual commentary. Not a bad book. But if the idea is to show difference, The Great Big Book of Families shows more.

[Megan Burroughs · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story book was kind of broad it did not really talk about anything specifically. The illustrations were good but I probably would not want to read aloud this story just because it is so broad. I feel like some conversation will be brought up which could be good for the classroom.

[Kortney Lyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great nonfiction children's book that teaches about all different types of families. It covers different family structures, backgrounds, and cultures. I would use this book in my classroom to teach just that. Diversity across the board of family structures.

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

multi-cultural view of families in big color photos.

[Colleen]

Families on the Go! unit 3
Nonfiction

3rd grade
Leveld Books - Lexile: 40

5th grade
Family Album unit 1
Leveled Books - Beginner

[Rebecca Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a great book to use with a lesson over family. It shows all different types of family and how they are all very different but similar.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is nonfiction. The pictures in this book is of real families. There are photos of many families all over the world and i love this ideal. This makes the characters convincing and realistic because it is actual pictures of people's family. There is an index in the back of the book that tells you were each photo was taken and their culture. Some of the places listed in the book i did not know where it was located on the map so that could also be a learning time for the students and you. I think because this book is of real families kids can relate to it more and have more of an interest in the story. This book is not only a way for students to learn about different types of families but to also learn about different places and cultures. The book does not go into details about the families different cultural background, that is okay because you can teach kids about the cultural. Even though this story does not have a problem or a rich plot, it makes up for with the illustrations. This book did not talk bad about any other families and there was no negative stereotypes, which is good. Looks at all the pictures the members of the families look genuinely happy and just by looking at them i can tell that the family is loving. There are so many great things to talk about after reading this book such as cultural quilts that we did in another class, each day talk about a different style of families, or even have parents come in and let the students switch parents for awhile to get a different viewpoint on families.