All Families Are Different

Sol Gordon, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist with a special interest in children’s education. He is the author of this book which is written for ages seven and up. This text presents family types in a whole new light. He does not just touch on the types of families and life styles, but he also talks to young readers about how to deal with the emotions that go along with it. For example, he tells readers if they are being teased about have a different family stand up to the person and say, “All families are different. I like my family just the way it is. We love each other and I would not change it for anything” (Gordon 2000). Of course a student would not have to exactly memorize that statement, but is shows how love in family is the most important thing and when you have that nothing else matters. This book even touches on societal economic status within families. It may seem too advanced for a young student, but the author only touches the surface; just to give a student the basic understanding. Also he describes on it is alright if your friends live in a big house, have a swimming pool, many toys, and wears beautiful clothing and you have a simple house with a used car. He just simply states how sometimes parents do not have a lot of money to buy everything you want and need, but you will always have the key part of a family which is love.

The illustrations in the book were black and white. Many might say this is not appealing to the young eye, but I disagree in with this book. The images produce by Viven Cohen speaks through the articulate sketching. The pictures are in so much detail that you are able to reveal the people’s emotion such as sad, happy, a lone or sad. Also the emotion of love, unity, enjoyment, and more comes over you as you read certain pages. All Families Are Different is a high quality book to break the silence of diverse families in literature. The book brings up topics you would have never thought to teach a young student and successfully gets the information across in a child like manner. This is most certainly at the top of books in diverse family literature in the classroom.