Families
Susan Kuklin
Published 2006
Book
A photo-essay book in which children describe many forms of family life.
Overview
Families is Susan Kuklin's 2006 photo-essay book about children describing their households in their own terms. Public catalog and author sources identify the book as a nonfiction work made from interviews and photographs, with profiles that include mixed-race, immigrant, religious, divorced, single-parent, adoptive, gay-parent, and lesbian-parent families. Its value in the collection comes from form as well as subject. Same-sex parents appear inside a wider social field rather than as the only reason for the book to exist. The item is therefore useful for comparing documentary portraiture with illustrated concept books about family diversity.[1][2][3][4][5]
Photo-Essay Form
Families differs from many picture books in the collection because its evidence is photographic and interview-based. Kuklin's author page and CCBC's annotation both stress children's words and choices, not simply adult explanation. That method places the item near documentary family books and museum-style portrait projects. The book asks readers to see family structure through children's own descriptions, home settings, keepsakes, and images, which gives it a different texture from allegory or issue-centered fiction.[2][4][3]
Same-Sex-Parent Visibility
The local catalog identifies profiles involving two gay fathers and two lesbian mothers. Kuklin's own page also names gay and lesbian couples within the profiled family range, and CCBC describes families with same-sex parents as part of the book's field. The record should therefore be read as inclusive family nonfiction, not as a single-topic book. Its importance lies in the way same-sex parents are made visible alongside adoption, religion, race, immigration, divorce, and disability.[1][2][4]
Children As Witnesses
Kuklin's process gives children a central role as witnesses to their own households. Public descriptions say the children speak about siblings, parents, religion, adoption, divorce, and racial identity, and that some chose how their family would be photographed. This matters because family-diversity books can easily become adult arguments about children. Families instead records children as observers, narrators, and collaborators, creating a public record of how they describe ordinary domestic life.[2][4][5]
Cluster Role
The item belongs with other many-family books, but it plays a distinct role inside that group. Todd Parr's The Family Book works through graphic declaration, ABC and 123 family books work through concept-book structure, and Everywhere Babies works through repeated scenes of care. Families uses photographs and interviews. That makes it especially useful for showing how inclusive representation moved through different book forms: concept, baby book, classroom resource, and documentary portrait.[2][8][9][10]
Timeline
- 2006PublicationPublic records place Families with Hyperion Books for Children / Disney-Hyperion in 2006.[3][2]
- 2006CCBC selectionCCBC Choices described the book as a photo-essay about fifteen diverse families in New York City.[4]
- 2007Notable listingKuklin's official page lists the book as an American Library Association Notable Book in 2007.[2]
- 2014Adoption review contextAdoptive Families reviewed the book as part of its family-diversity and adoption-resource coverage.[5]
Edition Notes
Bibliographic records preserve both hardcover and paperback ISBN traces.
Explore Connections
Browse direct links, shared themes, and nearby publication dates.
Linked records
The Family Book
Both titles present many forms of family life for children, but Parr uses graphic concept-book language while Kuklin uses photographs and interviews.
Everywhere Babies
Both books include same-sex parents within a broader visual field of family care, though one is photo nonfiction and the other is an illustrated baby book.
ABC: A Family Alphabet Book
The alphabet book gives explicit concept-book structure to family diversity, while Families gives the same broad field a documentary form.
Shared themes
What Matters Most
A self-published many-family picture book about a child learning that family is defined by care rather than structure.
Everywhere Babies
A mainstream baby picture book whose illustrations include same-sex-parent, single-parent, mixed-race, and other caregiver families.
Families, a Coloring Book
A Michael Willhoite coloring book that presents many family structures, including two mothers and two fathers.
All Families Are Different
A nonfiction activity book that explains many family forms, including families with same-sex parents.
Nearby dates
Aitor tiene dos mamas
A Spanish edition of a Basque two-mother family story about school bullying, language, and public recognition.
At My House What Makes a Family is Love
An AuthorHouse picture book presenting many kinds of families, including two-mother and two-father households.
Buster's Sugartime
A Postcards from Buster book tie-in connected to a public broadcasting dispute over two-mother family representation.
Emma and the Magic Moose
A fantasy picture book about a girl, a magic journey, and a return to her two mothers.
Citation
Families. Susan Kuklin. Hyperion Books for Children / Disney-Hyperion, 2006. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-120.
Showing Plain text citation format.
Sources
Cover image from Open Library.
- Local collection catalog record for Families · catalog
- Susan Kuklin official page for Families · creator
- Open Library ISBN record for Families · library
- CCBC Choices 2006 entry for Families · book_organization
- Adoptive Families review of Families · review
- Eric Carle Museum event note on photographers and picture books · institution
- Open Library cover image for Families · image
- Existing v3 record for The Family Book · internal
- Existing v3 record for Everywhere Babies · internal
- Existing v3 record for ABC: A Family Alphabet Book · internal
