15+ Books That Celebrate Families of All Sizes and Shapes

Celebrate the love families share with relatable books featuring families of all shapes and sizes.  

It's natural that children might be curious about families other than their own. While each family is unique, in many ways, they also share so much in common. Families are there for one another, offering love, care, and security. 

Use the children’s books on this list to start positive conversations about loving families. Through these books, your child will gain an understanding of the world around them, along with developing empathy and kindness. While reading these titles, your child will encounter characters in many types of family structures, including single-parent families, kids raised by extended family members (like a grandparent or uncle), families with two dads or two moms, adoptive families, and more. 

Spotlight What Makes Families Special

Discovering different types of family life allows your child to reflect on their experiences within their own family, and see how to relate to their friends, classmates, and others around them. 

For example, children between ages 3-5 will adore My Moms Love Me. Filled with a cheerful message of devotion and closeness, this beautiful picture book follows a new baby spending the day together with their two moms, from time spent singing a song in the car to visiting a farm to snuggling before bedtime. This story offers an inclusive look into families with two moms.

Discover more ways to bond as a family through great reads!

Younger readers will also love Peppa Pig: We Love Our Families.

When Peppa and her class are assigned to draw their families, they learn about all types of families, including single-parent families — like Suzy Sheep, who has her mom, and Freddy Fox, who has his dad. Meanwhile, Penny Polar Bear has two moms. This illustrated title explores diverse family structures using popular characters in a way that preschoolers can understand and relate to.

Older readers will get lost in the pages of Raina Telgemeier’s popular Sisters, which is based on the author’s own life. Raina can’t wait to be an older sister, but when her little sister Amara is born, things don’t quite go as planned. Her sister is a cranky baby and prefers to play by herself.

Things don’t get much better as the sisters grow older, but when a little brother suddenly enters the picture and their parents begin arguing more often, Raina and Amara must work together to strengthen their bond — they are sisters, after all.

Share more books about sibling relationships. 

Squished is a relatable graphic novel about 11-year-old Avery Lee, who loves growing up in her hometown in Maryland, but finds that living with six siblings makes her feel squished. All she wants is her own space to make art and have some peace and quiet.

So when her older brother gets his own room and her little brother moves into the room she’s already sharing with her sister, Avery hatches a plan to get her own space.