Member Reviews
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.
This book is a little harder to review because the book I received the formatting was off. There were no letter “a”s and the spacing was dramatically off.
The overall message is that families with rainbow people in them can be varied in sexual and gender identities, but no matter what they are a family. I love the diversity of the family members. The illustrations are okay, but the intent comes across clearly.
Not every category of sexuality is covered in the book so if you are pansexual, demisexual, and bigender like me…you won’t find you in the book (chuckle). This is a very basic look at rainbow families. It’s a good beginner’s book for kids to introduce them to what some families look like. I do like the fact that they added poly families.
Pride Families is a good introduction book for kids to what other families look like and how they are made.
A beautiful celebration of queer families in a simple and gorgeous picture book. The perfect way to celebrate pride with young kids.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free review copy! I loved how inclusive that this book was in explaining different types of queer families. Excited to add it to our child’s library one day.
I would love to include this book in my classroom library. It shows great examples of different families that rarely get highlighted in other books and stories. The illustrations are beautiful and really capture the love this book provides for so many families.
I loved the inclusiveness. However, on the version that I got, the letter 'a' was missing in nearly everything. If I could have read it without these interruptions, I would have rated it higher.
Pride Families is really cute and great at explaining different family structures without going into detail about sex and sexuality, perfect for children. The ARC from Netgalley was glitchy, so I had to decipher what was being said at times, but it wasn't terrible to do. It was a really cute book. I really liked all the pictures of different kinds of families.
Thank you to NetGalley and Jessica Kingley Publishers for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Disclaimers out of the way, I can honestly say this little book is an absolute GEM. It is so incredibly informative on all topics related to family makeup, gender, sexuality etc and it didn't stumble or leave anyone out! I was so incredibly thrilled to see they even called out bi erasure and clearly worked to share a great deal of information in a very simple, matter of fact delivery. I even was exposed to a new idea or two! :)
This would be great for children of a variety of ages and the illustrations are lovely as well. I am so grateful to live in an age where books such as this one are getting published and it's OUT NOW so pick up a copy for the little in your life!
This is a very good book for families in the LGBTQ+ community. It is written to be easily understood by children.
I loved the idea behind this book, showing that families can come in all shapes and sizes and not just the typical "Mum and Dad + kids" version of a family. Trying to normalise seeing a variety of parents is a great thing so that kids on the playground are less likely to potentially make rude comments if a kid has two mothers come and pick them up for example.
I thought the book, from the cover and illustrations and the idea of it teaching kids early about pride families, was aimed at younger kids, but I do think some of the content seemed a little like it should have been for older kids? A couple of sentences seemed like they tried to pack in a lot of information and would be a bit too much for the really young kids? There was also a "Notes for adults" section at the back which I was then expecting to maybe be suggestions of things to discuss with their children or ways to make pride family setups even more normalised but it seemed to just be a kind of glossary but mostly words that adults would already be familiar with? A couple like Cisgender are newer terms that maybe not all adults will have heard of but it also explained the terms Adoption and Foster Parent??
I do love what I think this book was aiming for though and the vast representation covered within. So many different sexualities and gender identities as well as different ethnicities and disabilities covered in the illustrations.
I simply couldn’t resist this title and the beautiful cover that evoked high hopes. And those were certainly fulfilled and even surpassed. The picture book with short but sufficient and informative texts offered not only gender and sexual diversity, but furthermore featured different skin colors, body shapes, disabilities and many more representations I appreciated! A model children’s book that is yet unparalleled.
Coming in nicely in advance of Pride season, this book gives a thorough overview of the different ways that a family can be part of the queer community. Or, as the book calls them, “pride families.” It goes into almost exhaustive detail on the permutations of parent gender, sexuality, and relationship status, but it’s all pretty low-detail, so it goes fast. About the most detail the book goes into is describing the process of egg fertilization and who can carry a child, including explanations of pregnant trans men, surrogates, and co-parenting.
This book does an excellent job presenting diverse people. Limb differences, mobility aids, different skin tones, vitiligo, differing body shapes, and even sensory devices, such as a child wearing large headphones. None of this is ever pointed to in the narrative, with the result that each person is just…another person. Right on!
No doubt kids will be able to recognize some of the pride families they know themselves in this book. I really can’t think of anyone they missed!
Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.
Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this e-book in exchange for an honest review.
I'm a bit dumbfounded with this one. I thought it was a no-brainer (being a gay man) that I would love this book about Pride families (families that include members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community). But my biggest challenge with this book was that I couldn't determine the target audience. The picture-book approach about the diversity of queer families lead me to think that this was a book for grade 1-2. But then, as the book ventured into sperm and sperm donors and eggs and pregnant dads and polyamory, I felt like the content was grade 6+ (with a lot of teaching alongside it). In a climate where libraries are targeted for their collections, I feel like this one comes with a large bullseye. And can someone tell me what age level they would use this with??
I will say this: if the assignment was to write a book that was inclusive, this book gets an A+. In addition to including almost every possible family configuration and all people from the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, the book includes characters that are diverse in race, physical ability, and body shape. It even includes one character with vitiligo.
Amie Taylor has done a beautiful job creating an inclusive book for all types of families that are out there besides what is viewed as the "traditional" mom, dad, and a 2-ish-children family. Pride Families explores different Queer families and how they are formed in a variety of ways, using detailed terminology through the writing.
Readers will open this book and understand how queer families are made up with very clear details. This book will be a great classroom/home/library addition as a resource to help young children understand the families that make up the world around them, especially if they differ from their own. This also gives families a chance to be seen, showing readers their own family types on the pages of this book!
While this book is beautiful with its gorgeous illustrations, I felt it over explained itself, reiterating certain points multiple times in a section. While this did not make the content less enjoyable, it felt too long at some points which could lose the interest of a small child. The only reason I am giving this book 4/5 stars is because I'm thinking that the age this book is geared to could be shifted up slightly. The range is 5 to 12-years-old, and I think that it might be better suited for 7 or 8-year-old and up. While the writing itself fits for the younger demographic, the length and detailed explanations seem to align more toward upper elementary. With that being said, it is a book that I would include in my classroom, having taught in upper-elementary, to help teach about what makes us unique in the beginning of the school year.
This was such an important book. Having these relationships explained in simple terms will really help lots of people (not just kids) understand that love comes in many forms. I think this books is wonderful and the art is really cute too!
This book was a very positive and informative read. I think that all kids who are old enough to understand the concept of sexuality should have a read.
The illustrations were amazing in that they not only dealt with sexuality but they showed people with all types of disabilities and health issues as well. Very realistic as to what kids will see in our own world.
My children are all very knowledgeable about the LGBTQIA+ community as my daughter is part of that community. So they didn’t learn a lot from this book as she has educated them quite well on the topic. But definitely a good read for any kid or family who could use the education
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Pride Families by Amie Taylor Is a non-fiction children’s book written and illustrated to explain LGBTQIA+. The book is very detailed and inclusive. The author explains the many varied families that can exist. She goe on to explain how they might become families. I found the book to be very accurate and inclusive, in that she may have covered every possible combination of people who could become a family and every way they could add children. However, I think that it was way too bogged down and detailed for a children’s book. The illustrations suggest the book is geared toward elementary aged children, but the amount of detail would be more appropriate for a middle or high school student. For example, Elementary school students may know where babies “come from” but aren’t necessarily interested that a lesbian couple has a uterus and lots of eggs but no sperm. They aren’t going to understand the concept of sperm donors. They also wouldn’t understand the concept of who we are attracted to. If the word love or who they want to marry was used it would be more understandable for children. All in all, I would not recommend this book for children below fifth grade. It is a great source for children above that age who want the facts on what LGBTQIA+ is about or for middle to high school level health class. I was disappointed by this book because there is a real need for books on this topic for younger children, so that the idea that there more types of families than the Cleavers can be introduced, but the text needs to be much simpler. I am voluntarily leaving this honest review after reading an advanced complementary copy of this book thanks to Netgalley and Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Addendum. I saw that book is geared to 5-12 year olds. I have added a star because it is very appropriate for a 12 year old, but is still way too much for a 5 year old. I would rate the book much higher if it was targeted just to older children as it is very inclusive and informative. I would really like to see books of this type that are geared toward younger children, since the earlier that they learn to accept many types of families and people the more our society moves away from bigotry.
This is a lovely little book. The illustrations are gorgeous and inclusive beyond gender and sexuality (e.g., skin color and disability). It’s good for parents to read to their young children, with a helpful glossary in the back that’s aimed for adults but could also make the book interesting for older children. And for the eponymous “Pride Families”, it’s a nice keepsake. I got a free ARC for a review from NetGalley but I’m going to buy it for my Little Free Library.
I really wanted to like this book, I think multiple options explaining non-cis het families to kids is definitely a good thing.
But, I couldn't work out who this was for... It read like it was for younger kids, but then the explainers were more teen-aged. I suspect you'd need to explain ever page to younger readers and there wouldn't be enough there for older ones
I received an advance copy for free from NetGalley, on the expectation that I would provide an honest review.
Pride Families is a lovely rundown of the may ways LGBTQIA+ families exist in society. It explains terminology while being accessible for kids to understand. It recognizes that no families are wrong, and all family expressions are valid and important. A great message for kids.