Molly's Family [Hardcover]

Nancy Garden (Author), Sharon Wooding (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

What makes a family?

The members of Ms. Marston's kindergarten class are cleaning and decorating their room for the upcoming Open School Night. Molly and Tommy work on drawing pictures to put on the walls. Molly draws her family: Mommy, Mama Lu, and her puppy, Sam. But when Tommy looks at her picture, he tells her it's not of a family. "You can't have a mommy and a mama," he says. Molly doesn't know what to think; no one else in her class has two mothers. She isn't sure she wants her picture to be on the wall for Open School Night.

Molly's dilemma, sensitively explored in words and art, shows readers that even if a family is different from others, it can still be happy, loving, and real.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 1-To get ready for kindergarten Open School Night, Molly draws a picture of her family to hang on the wall-herself, Mommy, Mama Lu, and their puppy. After seeing the picture, her classmates tell her, "No one has two mommies." Despite her teacher's efforts to be supportive, the child is still concerned. That night, her parents explain, "we decided we had so much love that we wanted to share it with a baby." Thus, one of them is her birth mother; the other an adoptive parent. Still, Molly leaves her drawing home the next day. With further matter-of-fact reassurance by her teacher and the budding understanding that all families are different, Molly, and indeed the whole class, grows to accept her own family, and she proudly hangs her picture on the wall. While the children in the story are not shy about expressing their feelings, the author diffuses any tension by remaining focused on logic: Molly's family is as she claims. By tying this specific household to the general diversity within all families, Garden manages to celebrate them all. The soft colored-pencil drawings with their many realistic details depict a room full of active kindergartners. There is a squat sweetness to the characters as they work together to make everything look and feel right.
Martha Topol, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

PreS-Gr. 2. When Molly draws a picture of her family for her kindergarten class, Tommy jeers at her that no one has two mommies. At first she is angry and hurt, but with the support of her teacher and her loving parents--Mommy (her birth mother) and Mama Lu (her adoptive mother)--she comes to accept her family. What helps her most is seeing many different kinds of families: Tanya has a mommy, a daddy, a grandma, and two brothers; Stephen has no father; Adam has no mother ("Daddy and me!"); some kids are adopted. Wooding's warm, soft-textured colored-pencil pictures show Molly in her lively classroom and in her happy, nurturing home. Less overtly messagey than Leslea Newman's Heather Has Two Mommies (1989), this will open up discussion in many families. Garden is also the author of Holly's Secret (2000), about an 11-year-old with lesbian mothers. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); First Edition edition (April 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374350027
• ISBN-13: 978-0374350024
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Parenting & Families

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Why are two Moms always a problem?, May 18, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Molly's Family (Hardcover)

Why are two Moms always presented as a problem? I have an 11 year old son and a 6 year old daughter. In Kindergarten neither of them even had the concept that having two Moms was bad or that one or the other of us was or was not their real Mom. I sure don't want to introduce those ideas thru a childrens book. Sure, kids have asked how you can have two Moms or do you have a Dad? But they are not so mean about it as presented in this book. Even though it all turns out well in the end, I wouldn't want to read the first half of the book to my daughter. It's time for a book for kids where there are two Moms, but that fact is just incidental to the story -- not the problem to be dealt with.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True to life story for a two mom family, April 24, 2004

By 

Kaitlyn T. Considine "twomombooks" (New England, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Molly's Family (Hardcover)

I bought this because my daughter will be in Kindergarten this Fall. She has already been in preschool for a year and a half, but Kindergarten will bring new friends at a new school. This story of an Open House and introducing new friends to a two mom family is very realistic and ultimately reassuring. She enjoys hearing the story and I enjoy reading it to her. I think it's a valuable addition for any two mom family or for anyone wishing to share family diversity issues with their kids.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Family Book, March 15, 2004

By 

Little Old Me - See all my reviews

This review is from: Molly's Family (Hardcover)

I was fortunate enough to sneak a peak at an advance review copy of "Molly's Family". Again, Nancy Garden has created another essential piece for children's literature that teaches its readers that all families of all types should be celebrated.

Molly's kindergarten class is preparing for Open School Night and decide to decorate their classroom for the visiting parents. Molly's contribution is a picture of her family, which includes Mommy, Mama Lu and her puppy, Sam. This, of course, is greeted by speculation from some of the other children in her class, who tell her that families cannot have two mothers. This crushes Molly and she is embarrassed to display her picture with the other children's art. One of the greatest parts of this book is that not only does Molly's two mothers explain to her that family's are based on love and commitment, but even her teacher takes time to explain to her students that families are different. The other children respond well to this and began describing their own families, each comparing the differences openly and proudly.

The presentation of this book is fantastic - the art is playful and colorful, very appealing to the target audience but also enjoyable for the mature reader. Molly is simply adorable and her facial expressions are captured beautifully. But its the simplicity and the gentle nature of the storytelling that makes "Molly's Family" so inspirational. Children who are read this book will come away with an important lesson: that all families are families as long as they are based on love. Bless your heart, Nancy Garden!