Norma Simon

The story of Passover from the Bible with an aside that ancient Egyptian texts "wrote very little about the Hebrews." I disagree with some of the author's retelling; e.g., the Hebrews built store cities, not temples and pyramids; Moses didn't quite make it to Canaan. I would add that the drops of wine taken from each Seder participant's cup for the plagues is meant to diminish our joy.

All Families Are Special is a story about a teacher who allows her class to one by one share aloud about their family. The students discuss a variety of family structures, interests, living arrangements, celebrations, backgrounds, etc. Each child is able to bring to the plate a unique family. The main message of the book is that all families are special. This book would best be suited for a 2nd grade level reader. In my opinion, I enjoyed this book because of its multicultural perspectives, show more unique structure, and discussion of large topics for children. The multicultural perspective is evident in the title of the book—All Families Are Special. Within the book, several different family set ups are explained from the students themselves. Some students discuss how they have two mothers, if grandparents live with them, if they are adopted, if they live in a foster home, if they have siblings, if they are twins, etc. In addition, the book is able to convey these multicultural topics through a unique story structure. The book is in essence one continuous conversation between a teacher and her class. Each student takes a moment to share about his or her family to the class after the teacher asks “’Would you like to talk about your families?’” And lastly, the book brings to light other topics that typically are not discussed about multiculturalism—the struggles and burdens of different families. The teacher asks the lass if anything bad has ever happened to them and the class begins to share. One student discusses how their mother lost her job; another child discusses how someone close to them became “seriously” sick. show less

While this book was very sad I did enjoy it. I first liked how it showed a non-conventional family. I feel this is beneficially to those children who also have no contact with their father’s that are still alive and the many questions that come with wondering about that parent. I also liked how the author included so many questions throughout the book, showing children that sometimes there are not answers to all these questions they wonder about when they feel neglected. The illustrations show more were drawn realistically instead of cartoon like, which I thought was appropriate due to the serious content the book was presenting. I liked how the author also showed positivity in a tough situation by accepting those people who care and become like a parental figure. Another aspect I liked was how the book pushes readers to think about the saddening truth of when a parent simple abandons a child while they’re young. She does this through questions such as “But if he loves me, how come he doesn’t send me postcards? Or telephone me? Or come to see me?” These are tough questions a child would wonder when they do not have both parents involved. I believe the main idea of this book was to show children that others are like them and that not all families have two parents, but that does not make them any less loved by others. show less

All Kinds of Families is a wonderful book for children to have read. This book contains many differnet family situations that children can relate to. There are divorced families and adopted families among others. This is a great book for children to relate to someone elses situation and not feel so alone.

An extension to this book would be discussions about the different types of families and maybe how you cope with each situation. Another extension would be to let wach child make a book show more about people in their lives that do care for them. show less