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Author: Floella Benjamin
Illustrator: Margaret Chamberlain
Publisher/Date:
Frances Lincoln, 2010
Genre: Fiction
Awards: N/A
Synopsis:
Aston's Grandad Roy played in a steel band and Grandad Harry played the trumpet in a brass band. Aston always enjoyed going to visit them and listening to them practice. When Aston finds out his school needs a band to play at their carnival, he gets an idea to ask both his grandfathers, but is told they only need one band. He solves this problem by asking his two grandads to come together and play as one band for his school and in the end they decide even though they are from different families, they are different races, and have different taste in music, they can still come together as one family.

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Author: Robie H. Harris
Illustrator:
Nadine Bernard Westcott
Publisher/Date:
Candlewick Press, 2012
Genre: Non-fiction
Awards: N/A
Synopsis:
Nellie and Gus take a family trip with their parents to the zoo! While on the trip, they see all kinds of animal families and people families. The author touches on families with a mom and a dad, two moms or two dads, a family who spends some time with mom, and other days with dad, a family who has a stepparent living with them, mixed race families, etc. all in a child-friendly way. After the trip to the zoo, the family invites friends and relatives over for a big dinner that shows the reader funny moments families can have between siblings, pets, parents etc. The illustrations are humorous and draw the reader in, while showing children all families are wonderfully different and helping young children feel comfortable with whoe their family is!

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Author: Sara O'Leary
Illustrator: Qin Leng
Publisher/Date:
Groundwood Books, House of Anansi Press,  2016
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Awards:
1. Toronto Public Library's First and Best List 2016
2. CBC Best Books of 2016
3. USBBY's Outstanding International Books List 2017
4. OLA Best Bets Top Ten 2016
Synopsis:
A Family is a Family is a Family begins with a teacher asking her students why they think their family is special. One of the students is nervous to share because his family is different from everyone else's, so he decided to go last, but after listening to his classmates he realized a family is a family, no matter what the family is made up of. Some of his classmates had a blended family of kids from different moms and dads, a family with two dads, two moms, grandparents, and parents who share custody. At the end, the little boy shares, one time he was at the park with his foster mom, and someone asked her to point out her real children. His foster mom responded with "Oh, I don't have any imaginary children, All my children are real." He realized not everyone's family is the same, but a family is a family is a family.

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Author: George Shannon
Illustrator: Blanca Gomez
Publisher/Date:
Scholastic, 2016
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Awards: School Library Journal- starred review
Synopsis:
One Family  is a counting, picture book meant for preschool or early elementary that focuses on counting the people in many types of families of all colors, sizes, and combinations. The central message of the story is no matter how many people are in their family, what color skin they have, if they look alike or not, have grandparents raising them, single-parents, part-time parents, it is still one beautiful family.

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Author & Illustrator:
Michael Garland
Publisher/Date:
Tilbury House Publishers, 2017
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Awards: N/A
Synopsis:
Daddy Played The Blues is a realistic-fiction story of a low-income family from a farm in Mississippi moving to Chicago in search of a better life during The Great Migration. The story is told from the daughter's perspective of how her life completely changed, but the one thing that stayed the same was her daddy playing the blues. When they arrived in Chicago, he worked many long hours, so he wasn't home often to spend time with the family, but when he was she felt comfort when he played the blues. This story shows the sense of family and how things like money, location, and change doesn't have to affect the way a child feels about their family. Together they kept their family traditions alive, even through hard times.

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Author: Matt De La Pena
Illustrator: Christian Robinson
Publisher/Date:
Scholastic, 2016
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Awards:
1. Newbery Medal
2. Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor
3. Caldecott Honor
Synopsis:
CJ and his grandma ride the bus into town every Sunday to go to church, but today CJ is looking at the world around him and wondering why they don't have a car, why he doesn't have an iPod like the other boys, and why its so dirty around town. Each time he asked his grandma a question, she responded with a different outlook and in the end, CJ saw the true beauty of his world.

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Author: Selina Alko
Illustrators: Sean Qualls & Selina Alko
Publisher/Date:
Arthur A. Levine Books, 2016
Genre: Non-Fiction Picture Book
Awards:
1. Kirkus Reviews Best Children’s Books of 2015
2. Booklist Best Picture Books of 2015
3. Chicago Public Library Best Books of 2015
Synopsis:
A Case For Loving tells the true story of Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter who fell in love in 1958, in Central Point, Virginia where they were not allowed to marry because he was white and she was African American and Cherokee. The two decided to travel to Washington D.C. to marry, but when they returned to Virginia to start a family, they were taken away and put in jail. After getting out of jail, they decided to move where they could live freely together, but it just didn't feel like home. They decided to fight for their rights and hired lawyers and the case of Loving vs. Virginia began on June 12, 1967. Shortly after, the case ruled interracial marriages to be legal in the state of Virginia, so the Loving family happily returned to their home!
Report on Loving Case:

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Author & llustrator:
Hope Anita Smith
Publisher/Date:
Henry Holt and Company, 2017
Genre: Poetry
Awards:
1. Kirkus Best Book of the Year
2. Arnold Adoff Poetry Award Winner
3.  NCTE Notable Poetry Book
Synopsis:
A picture book of poems that shares the different beautiful relationships between a father and child. Each of the poems share the love and support from the fathers, some of the fathers are involved in teaching them how to read, ride a bike, play an instrument, some are busy at work, and others are deployed over seas. This book celebrates the diverse relationships between fathers and their children.

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Author: Jairo Buitrago
Illustrator: Rafael Yockteng
Publisher/Date:
Groundwood Books, House of Anansi Press, 2015
Genre: Fiction
Awards:
1. Kirkus Best Picture Books of the Year 2015
2. School Library Journal Best Picture Books of the Year 2015
3. NCTE Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children
4. Notable Books for a Global Society 2016
5. USBBY Outstanding International Books 2016
Synopsis:
Two White Rabbits is the story of a young migrant girl and her father's trip to the US border in search of a better life away from violence, war, and danger. They travel together with the help from others who at the time are like her family, while her father stops to work when they run out of money. Sometimes she feels lonely, but she finds comfort in counting the animals she sees and in the end she brings two white rabbits into her family on their long journey.

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Author: Marta Zafrilla
Illustrator: Nora Hilb
Publisher/Date:
Cuento De Luz, 2012
Genre: Fiction
Awards:
Winner at the 2012 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards
Synopsis:
Little Chick and Mommy Cat explores adoption in a fun way and tells the story of a baby chick who is raised by a beautiful mommy cat because she couldn't have kittens and the chick's birth mom couldn't feed all her chicks. When little chick goes to school, her friends and teacher ask her questions like "Is that your mom, she has whiskers?" but little chick knows that some families are different, where the kids don't look just like their parents and shes okay with that. In the end, little chick loves her family just the way it is!

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Alko, Selina. (2015). A Case for Loving. Malaysia: Arthur A. Levine Books.

Benjamin, Floella. (2010). My Two Grandads. Great Britian: Frances Lincoln.

Buitrago, Jairo. (2015). Two White Rabbits. Ontario: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press.

Garland, Michael. (2017) Daddy Played the Blues. Maine: Tilbury House Publishers.

Harris, Robie, H. (2012). Who's in my Family. China: Candlewick Press.

Leland, C.H., Lewison, M., & Harste, J.C., (2018). Teaching Children’s Literature It’s Critical! (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge

O'leary, Sara. (2016). A Family is a Family is a Family. Malaysia: Groundwood Books House of Anansi Press.

Pena, Matt De La. (2016) Last Stop on Market Street. New York: Scholastic.

Shannon, George. (2015). One Family. New York: Scholastic.

Short, K.G., Day, D., & Schroeder, J. (2016). Teaching globally: Reading the world through literature. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Smith, Hope Anita (2017). My Daddy Rules the World. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Zafrilla, Marta. (2012). Little Chick and Mommy Cat. Spain: Shanghai Chenxi Printing Co.

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Exposing students to literature that represents all kinds of families allows each student to see themselves in a mirror. As Leland, Lewison, & Harste (2018) share " In the words of Rudine Sims Bishop (2017 Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award Recipient for Lifetime Achievement), "if literature is a mirror that reflects human life, then all children who read or are read to need to see themselves reflected as part of humanity." in a positive way (1992, p. 114)." (p.74). In sharing authentic literature with students, they are able to see characters like them solving problems, as leaders, and as kids spending time with their families in different ways. The books I have chosen for this inquiry represent children in all kinds of families, with a mom and a dad, two moms or two dads, a single parent, interracial parents, foster parents, adoptive parents, grandparents, immigrant families, and low-income families. The books A Family is a Family, is a Family, One Family, and Who's in my Family all focus on sharing multiple kinds of families but show that they all have love for each other and each is special in its own way. These books would be a good introduction to sharing family books with my classroom. They would allow all my students to see themselves as the character in one part of the books. Daddy Plays the Blues would allow a few of my students to see their family who just recently moved to the area, to a new school, but still kept their family traditions alive and their love together.  Two White Rabbits would be relatable for my refugee students from Nepal.I chose Last Stop on Market Street for my students who come from a low-income family and who may not have all the same things as other students in our classroom, but still show them to appreciate the beautiful things in life. The Case for Loving is an excellent example of fighting for what you believe in and taking action "Once we have readers who love to read and know how to read critically, the third step is that they use what they learn to get things done in life, advocate for equality, and make the world a better place." (Leland, Lewison, & Harste, 2018, p. 2). It also shows students an example of a beautiful interracial family who took action for what they believed in. I chose My Daddy Rules because it uses poetry from a child's eyes to show students the different types of relationships and things fathers can have and do with their child. I chose My Two Grandads to show students two interracial families coming together to create one family. Little Chick and Mommy Cat would allow students who have been adopted to see themselves in a mirror, but also other children to realize that not all families look exactly the same. All of these books together will make a positive impact on their view of families in the world and hopefully their own family. Short, Day, & Schroeder (2016) share ""As children read stories, they live through new experiences. Their unique "personality traits, memories of past events, present needs and preoccupations, particular mood of the moment, and particular physical condition." (Rosenblatt, 1978, 30)." (p. 45).