"One Big Family" by Marc Harshman, Sara Palacios (Illustrations)

About the book: A lovely celebration of family ties. When you have a big family, reunions can be loud and chaotic. But as this cheerful book demonstrates, they can also be tons of fun! From canoeing down the river to getting chased by bees to telling ghost stories around the campfire, the reunion is filled with adventures for the whole family, even the pets! But when the vacation comes to an end, will everyone be able to keep the memories they've shared? With sunny illustrations by Sara Palacios, Marc Harshman's winsome story evokes all the joys of summer vacation and family togetherness.

My thoughts: This is a warm tale of a family - extended family covering several generations and branches. It is easy to see from the illustrations that they all stem from the same DNA - hence the freckles, red hair, brown hair, and burnt seinna hair. Their faces are all quite similar. Yes, this is a family.

Not only are they linked by their DNA, they are linked by their joy of being together and doing stuff together - eating breakfast, swinging, swimming, picnicking. The story reminds me of a family reunion trip where they all come together from the four corners of their world and reunite as a family bringing opportunities for the young cousins and aunties and uncles to all get to know and fully embrace one another.

The non-rhyming prose (or verse) ends each stanza or thought with a key word in bold print. Opportunities galore for read-aloud sessions with youngsters joining in with the big bold word. I like that contrasts was used some as well... "When the sun stays hot and the water stays cold, little brother says let's swim."

This is a good book to read to youngsters preparing to go to a family reunion or already there with cousins, aunts, and uncles.


DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy from Eeerdman's Publishing Co. to facilitate this review. Opinions are my own. I was not compensated for the review.