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Mechanics' Institute

Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection

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Cover of All Families Are Different.

Cover image from Open Library.

Image source

All Families Are Different

Creator

Sol Gordon; illustrated by Vivien Cohen

Date

Published 2000

Format

Book

A nonfiction activity book that explains many family forms, including families with same-sex parents.

Many kinds of familiesTwo mothersTwo fathersFoster parentsDivorceActivity books
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Overview

All Families Are Different is a 2000 nonfiction book by Sol Gordon, illustrated by Vivien Cohen and published by Prometheus Books. Publisher records describe it as a child-facing explanation of family difference: children may live with two parents, one parent, step-parents, foster parents, relatives, grandparents, or same-sex couples. The collection record adds that the book uses black-and-white illustrations and activities, and notes an illustration of a family with two mothers. Its value in the collection is comparative. Rather than centering a single same-sex-parent household, it shows how adult-guided family-diversity books made gay and lesbian parents one part of a broader social-emotional lesson about home, care, and belonging.[1][2][3][4][5]

A Family-Diversity Resource

The book belongs to the collection as a resource text as much as a picture book. Publisher copy frames it around a question children may ask: what makes a family normal or better than another family? Gordon answers by naming many arrangements and stressing that no family is perfect. That direct, adult-guided approach separates it from trade picture books that normalize a family by telling one child's story.[2][3][4]

Same-Sex Parents In A Larger Taxonomy

Same-sex couples appear as one family form among many. This matters because the book does not isolate gay and lesbian parents as an exception; it folds them into a longer list that includes foster parents, step-parents, single parents, relatives, and grandparents. The collection record's note about a two-mother illustration adds local object value, while the publisher description confirms the broader same-sex-parent category.[1][2]

Family Difference Without Idealization

The book also names difficult parts of family life: separations, divorce, abuse, neglect, and sibling rivalry. That emphasis gives the item a different tone from celebratory many-family books. Its central assurance is not that every family is cheerful, but that children are not responsible for adult conflict and that love and care may take different forms. This makes it useful for comparing family-diversity literature with social-emotional support books.[2][3]

Educator-Resource Circulation

Rethinking Schools includes All Families Are Different in a family-diversity resource list and notes its adult voice. GLSEN's Ready, Set, Respect resource also places the title in an education setting. Those later resource-list appearances show how books like this continued to function as tools for classroom and family conversations, even when the text was less literary than many trade picture books in the collection.[4][7]

Timeline

  1. 1923Sol Gordon BornLibrary authority-style records give 1923 as Gordon's birth year, placing the author in a long twentieth-century history of family and health education.[5]
  2. 2000Prometheus PublicationPublisher and bookseller records date All Families Are Different to February 2000.[2][6]
  3. 2010Later Digital MetadataGoogle Books records later electronic metadata, showing the title's continued bibliographic life beyond the original Prometheus paperback.[3]
  4. 2010s-2020sResource-List UseFamily-diversity and education resources continued to cite the title in classroom and caregiver contexts.[4][7]

Resource Context

The item's strongest comparison is with other broad family-diversity and education resources.

2000

Prometheus paperback

Original publisher record for the collection item.

2010

Digital metadata trail

Later Google Books metadata records continuing access.

2010s-2020s

Education resources

Resource lists kept the title visible for family-diversity teaching.

Explore Connections

Browse direct links, shared themes, and nearby publication dates.

Linked records

Many-family comparison

Families

Both books use broad family diversity to place two-mother and two-father households among many other family forms.

References [2][1]

Mainstream family taxonomy

The Family Book

Both titles present same-sex parents as part of a larger family taxonomy, but Gordon's book uses explanatory nonfiction while Todd Parr uses a bright trade-picture-book format.

References [2][4]

Photographic and nonfiction resource peer

Families: A Celebration of Diversity, Commitment, and Love

The item sits beside documentary and nonfiction family-diversity records as evidence that the collection includes resource forms, not only narrative stories.

References [4][5]

Shared themes

Many kinds of families

Families, a Coloring Book

A Michael Willhoite coloring book that presents many family structures, including two mothers and two fathers.

Two mothers

Who's in a Family?

A Tricycle Press many-family picture book that places same-sex parents inside a wider early-childhood family taxonomy.

Many kinds of families

When Grown-Ups Fall in Love

A numbered and signed preschool picture book about different adult couples and their children.

Many kinds of families

It's Okay to Be Different

A Todd Parr picture book that places two-mother and two-father families inside a broader early-childhood language of acceptance.

Nearby dates

Tenth-anniversary edition, 2000

Heather Has Two Mommies

A revised anniversary edition that marks Heather's movement from contested early title to commemorated landmark.

Published 2000

Holly's Secret

A Nancy Garden novel about a young person hiding her two-mother family in a new social setting.

Published 2000

Lesbian and Gay Voices

An annotated bibliography and guide to LGBTQ literature for children and young adults.

Published 2000

Mama Eat Ant, Yuck!

A limited small-press picture book in which a baby's first repeated words come from an everyday mishap in a two-mother household.

Citation

All Families Are Different. Sol Gordon; illustrated by Vivien Cohen. Prometheus Books, 2000. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-084.

Showing Plain text citation format.

Sources

Cover image from Open Library.

  1. Tarpey-Schwed catalog seed record · catalog
  2. Simon & Schuster official page for All Families Are Different · publisher
  3. Google Books record for All Families Are Different · library metadata
  4. Rethinking Schools resources on family diversity · education resource
  5. Colorado Mountain College library record for All Families Are Different · library catalog
  6. AllBookstores ISBN record for All Families Are Different · bookseller metadata
  7. GLSEN Ready, Set, Respect resource · education resource