Are you looking for a new book to read with your children this month? Read parents’ reviews for All About Families by Usborne Books.
Our new series, kid’s books reviewed and recommended by our panel of parents is a great resource. Each month, our panel of three families will read and review a kid’s book from a leading publisher. So you can decide which kid’s book to buy next. Find out more about Usborne Books’ All About Families.
Read what our panel thought of All About Families, published by Usborne
Tidy Books’ parent panel reviews All About Families Usborne Book
It was nice to see a lot of diversity in this book, All About Families by Usborne, as we are a very small, mixed race family where parents are bilingual in different languages. Our son could identify which family was similar to ours and learning about people speaking different languages in families (he hadn’t heard us speak another language rather than English until then) and it aroused his interest in languages and he made efforts to learn words in my (dad’s) language.
The illustrations are interesting and related to the facts. It helped us make concepts easier to introduce (i.e. patchwork family). Although we were appreciative that the audience of this Usborne All About Families book are young people, it would be really nice to see words such as ‘gay’ / ‘same sex relationships’ during the parts where it explained ‘What is family?’
Having mentioned that, I am also aware of the fact that some parts are left open-ended (like above) for parents to build onto and provide further details as they wish – which may have been the purpose after all.
As a family, we have thoroughly enjoyed sharing this book with our son during our bedtime and weekend reads. Sedo (Teacher) and Korai Charlie, age 5
There are some nice positive comments about what families are and some useful illustrations which encourage acceptance and understanding of difference in this All About Families Book by Usborne. I wonder if the book would be useful when teaching speakers of English as a Second Language, for example, in a pre-school classroom, about English culture. It would suit a pre-school age group for dipping in and out of, in order to introduce families as a topic. It could also support a nursery or pre-school project on family trees, or possibly even in a Reception classroom for EAL pupils.
Unlike the Usborne ‘look inside’ books that have larger more complex illustrations and smaller flaps to lift, which make the reading more interactive, this book is very plain and each page looks very similar to the last. I would like to have seen more depth and detail about family life, and humour to provoke more interest or questions. Amy (Teacher, 40), Isaac, age 5 and Cassius, age 3.
Inside All About Families, Usborne Books
We particularly enjoyed the feeling page. It really sparked a long conversation. Parts of it could be made more playful to appeal to a younger age. This book is more for dipping in and out of over a few days as it has loads of information and parents have to make it exciting for child to actually stay still and read. I personally loved the family tree and I will use it when my son is 6 or 7 to make our own family tree.
My child’s favourite part was ”What do families do?” He really enjoyed identifying different families and said; ‘I want to do that.’
The All About Families book by Usborne gave us lovely ideas for this summer activities also.”Family talk”, ”Family food” and “Celebrations” were very educational. The babies talking in different languages is a great way to introduce foreign words. Images about different customs is a great way of knowing about how other religions and countries celebrate important dates. Crina and Sebastian age 3
Thank you to our panel of reviewers; Sedo and Korai Charlie, Amy, Isaac and Cassius and Crina and Sebastian for reviewing All About Families book by Usborne. Thank you to Usborne for supplying our panel with great kid’s books to review. You can find All About Families on sale on the Usborne Children’s Books website to add to your kid’s bookshelf!
