when molly draws a picture of her family to help decorate her kindergarten classroom for an open night, some of her classmates tell her that what she has drawn can’t be a family, because families don’t have a mummy and a mama.
molly is naturally upset by this. she takes her picture home, and she talks her concerns through with her parents. they explain that one of her mothers gave birth to her, and the other adopted her, so they are both her mothers.
molly takes this information and processes it over the following day, while observing that other kids in her class have a range of different families too.
the next day, molly brings her picture back to school, and the class celebrate their open day. all the different families, including molly’s, come together as a diverse community.
the real strength of this story is in the way molly deals with the confusion she experiences. she takes time to think about what her classmates say, what her parents say, and what she sees around her, then integrates this into a maturer understanding of the concept of family.
the illustrations are warm, detailed, and complement the story beautifully.
this book will come into it’s own with kinder and school aged kids, who are starting to look outward from their own family, and compare their own experience with their peers’.