These days many children grow up in in blended families. Often, in the beginning, many of the adults and children find the new situation confusing or complicated. In today's picture book we meet a blended family that it very unusual indeed and we see how the children in the families concerned figure out how to solve their problems.
No Ordinary Family
Ute Krause
Picture Book
For ages 5 to 7
North South, 2013, 978-0-7358-4149-9
Before all the trouble started they were an ordinary
bandit family. The many children (seven in number) played and roughhoused, Dad
read the paper, and Mom counted their loot. Then, for some reason, Mom and Dad
began to argue. Pots and pans flew through the air, voices were raised, and the
children looked on with wide eyes. Dad
moved out and the children missed him because now their “life was only half the
fun.” The children decided that something needed to be done, so they packed up some
bags and went to visit their father. From that day onwards the children moved back
and forth between the houses of their parents.
Then one day
they got to Dad’s house only to discover that a princess and her children were
in residence. The interlopers were “prim and prissy” and none of the bandit
children like them. There was nothing they could do about the situation though
because the princess was there to stay. Now the bandit children had two
families to live with. Having two Christmases and two birthdays was great, but
they did not like the fact that they never had their father to themselves. Sometimes
Mom was unhappy, or Dad was unhappy, or the princess was unhappy. The little
bandits decided that the only thing to do was to get rid of the princess and
her offspring. They thought that that doing this would solve all their
problems, but it didn’t.
Families come in
all kinds of shapes and sizes, and when families blend there is often a
settling-in period that no one enjoys. No one knows quite what to expect,
tempers gets frayed, feelings get hurt, and often many of the family members
wish they could turn back the clock. Figuring out how to make things work takes
time, creativity, and lots of patience.
This sweetly
funny picture book explores how several families come to terms with change, and
how the young members of these families learn that love is limitless. There is
always plenty to go around.
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